End-to-end trajectory design for a solar-sail-only pole-sitter at Venus,Earth, and Mars

The concept of a pole-sitter has been under investigation for many years, showing the capability of a low-thrust propulsion system to maintain a spacecraft at a static position along a planet’s polar axis. From such a position, the spacecraft has a view of the planet’s polar regions equivalent to that of the low- and mid-latitudes from geostationary orbit. Previous work has hinted at the existence of pole-sitters that would only require a solar sail to provide the necessary propulsive thrust if a slight deviation from a position exactly along the polar axis is allowed, without compromising on the continuous view of the planet’s polar region (a so-called quasi-pole-sitter). This paper conducts a further in-depth analysis of these high-potential solar-sail-only quasi-pole-sitters and presents a full end-to-end trajectory design: from launch and transfer to orbit design and orbit control. The results are the next steppingstone towards strengthening the feasibility and utility of these orbits for continuous planetary polar observation.     

Improving orbit prediction accuracy through supervised machine learning

Due to the lack of information such as the space environment condition and resident space objects’ (RSOs’) body characteristics, current orbit predictions that are solely grounded on physics-based models may fail to achieve required accuracy for collision avoidance and have led to satellite collisions already. This paper presents a methodology to predict RSOs’ trajectories with higher accuracy than that of the current methods. Inspired by the machine learning (ML) theory through which the models are learned based on large amounts of observed data and the prediction is conducted without explicitly modeling space objects and space environment, the proposed ML approach integrates physics-based orbit prediction algorithms with a learning-based process that focuses on reducing the prediction errors. Using a simulation-based space catalog environment as the test bed, the paper demonstrates three types of generalization capability for the proposed ML approach: (1) the ML model can be used to improve the same RSO’s orbit information that is not available during the learning process but shares the same time interval as the training data; (2) the ML model can be used to improve predictions of the same RSO at future epochs; and (3) the ML model based on a RSO can be applied to other RSOs that share some common features.     

Astrometric positioning and orbit determination of geostationary satellites

In the project titled “Astrometric Positioning of Geostationary Satellite” (PASAGE), carried out by the Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada (ROA), optical observation techniques were developed to allow satellites to be located in the geostationary ring with angular accuracies of up to a few tenths of an arcsec. These techniques do not necessarily require the use of large telescopes or especially dark areas, and furthermore, because optical observation is a passive method, they could be directly applicable to the detection and monitoring of passive objects such as space debris in the geostationary ring.     

基于仿真分析的压铆力预测模型

铆接是飞机结构机械连接的主要方式,压铆力作为影响铆接质量的重要因素,传统的计算方法通常是建立在体积不变的假设之上,且不考虑钉杆材料被压入钉孔部分的体积,导致模型误差较大。为此,依据仿真分析结果和铆钉材料的流动趋势,引入体积缩减系数来描述钉杆被压入钉孔部分的体积,建立压铆力预测模型,并与已有的试验数据进行对比,结果表明计算值与试验值的一致性较好,该模型可以用来预测铆接过程中压铆力的大小。     

Estimation of Galactic Cosmic Ray exposure inside and outside the Earth’s magnetosphere during the recent solar minimum between solar cycles 23 and 24

The evidently low solar activity observed between solar cycles 23 and 24 during the years 2008–2010 led to a substantial increase in the Galactic Cosmic Ray (GCR) intensity in comparison with preceding solar minima. As the GCRs consist of highly-ionizing charged particles having the potential to cause biological damage, they are a subject of concern for manned missions to space. With the enhanced particle fluxes observed between 2008 and 2010, it is reasonable to assume that the radiation exposure from GCR must have also increased to unusually high levels. In this paper, the GCR exposure outside and inside the Earth’s magnetosphere is numerically calculated for time periods starting from 1970 to the end of 2011 in order to investigate the increase in dose levels during the years 2008–2010 in comparison with the last three solar minima. The dose rates were calculated in a water sphere, used as a surrogate for the human body, either unshielded or surrounded by aluminium shielding of 0.3, 10 or 40 g/cm².     

固体火箭发动机燃烧不稳定性预估

本文以Culick线性理论为基础,提出预估固体火箭发动机燃烧不稳定性的方法,并给出一个算例.讨论了提高微粒阻尼预估精度和考虑平均流动影响的问题.首次提出用统计方法评定燃烧不稳定性、给出发生燃烧不稳定概率的方法,并讨论了这种统计方法的合理性和可行性.     

双星定位系统及其备份星在近地卫星联合定轨建模中的应用

建立了基于双星定位系统距离和观测数据的近地卫星联合定轨模型,设计了相应的数值融合联合定轨算法;为进一步提高近地卫星定轨精度,考虑融合双星及备份星距离和观测数据,建立了基于双星和备份星的近地卫星联合定轨模型及实现算法,并针对不同仿真条件进行了联合定轨仿真实验。仿真计算结果表明,联合定轨方式较传统近地卫星精密定轨方式可以更好地抑制双星星历误差对近地卫星定轨精度的影响,近地卫星和双星的定轨精度均得到了一定程度的提高;同时,融合备份星观测数据的近地卫星联合定轨精度得到进一步改善,达到5.17m。     

全方位旋转分离式激光推力器概念设计

为了更好的研究激光推进,提出了全方位360°可旋转的分离式激光推进发动机概念及其构型设计,其结构主要特点是:光学系统和推力系统彻底分离,光学系统只经过2次反射聚焦,结构简单;光学系统可以360°改变激光接收方向,以适应各种轨道条件;采用双光束、单/双发动机构型,可以降低单台激光器的功率,较平稳的实现激光器接力。对激光飞行器入轨轨道编制程序并进行数值计算。计算结果显示,为了更好的将飞行器推入近地轨道,则需采用较大冲量耦合系数的材料作为烧蚀工质,且比冲不宜过大。     

GPS/GLONASS/GALILEO实时服务（RTS）产品性能评估分析

目前,不同机构提供的GNSS实时服务产品性能存在差异。为了全面揭示实时服务产品的性能，为系统服务和用户应用提供参考，统计了各实时服务产品的历元完整率及卫星数量，基于实时轨道和钟差恢复方法，比较分析了产品精度，并评估了产品定位性能。研究结果表明：正常情况下，实时服务产品的历元完整率较高，基本可保持在95%以上，所提供系统的卫星数量保持稳定且充足。对于GPS，各机构卫星实时轨道平均精度基本一致，约为3cm，实时钟差精度略有差别。对于其他GNSS，不同机构产品精度存在差别。利用实时服务产品进行GPS实时精密单点定位的平面精度优于10cm，高程精度优于20cm。相对于GPS单系统，多系统联合定位精度基本一致，但收敛速度明显提升。