THE SPACE APPLICATION ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE CHINESE UNMANNED SPACECRAFT "SZ-3"

During the 3rd mission of Chinese Unmanned Spacecraft the application sys tem of "SZ-3" (Shenzhou, a divine ship) gets a great success, all its goals are achieved. Many areas of science and breakthrough technology, including earth observation, earth environment monitoring, space material, space life science etc., are carried out in the mission. There are 44 payload instruments totally.All the instruments are working well during the orbit flight and a lot of good results are obtained. Many areas, for example the moderate resolution imag ing spectroradiometer, the solar ultraviolet spectral irradiance monitor and the space protein crystallization facility perform better than required and expected.A brief introduction of the experiments and the achievements of the mission is given in this paper.     

螺栓室温应力松驰试验研究

提出了一种改进的应力松弛试验方法，并用改进的装置测量了法兰接头紧固螺栓的室温应力松弛值，拟合了松弛方程曲线。根据螺栓应力松弛模型无温度变量的特点，利用Ｌ－Ｍ方法把温度引入了松弛模型，据此可推算在一定范围内革本温度和时间下的应务松弛指标。     

航空直流发电机用轴承的受力分析

对航空直流发电机所选用的轴承进行了受力分析、寿命计算和强度审核。此方法同样适合于航空直流起动发电机和交流发电机轴承的受力分析。     

Experimental study of an aircraft fuel tank inerting system

In this work, a simulated aircraft fuel tank inerting system has been successfully established based on a model tank. Experiments were conducted to investigate the influences of different operating parameters on the inerting effectiveness of the system, including flow rate of the inert gas(nitrogen-enriched air), inert gas concentration, fuel load of the tank and different inerting approaches. The experimental results show that under the same operating conditions, the time span of a complete inerting process decreased as the flow rate of inert gas was increased; the time span using the inert gas with 5% oxygen concentration was much longer than that using pure nitrogen;when the fuel tank was inerted using the ullage washing approach, the time span increased as the fuel load was decreased; the ullage washing approach showed the best inerting performance when the time span of a complete inerting process was the evaluation criterion, but when the decrease of dissolved oxygen concentration in the fuel was also considered to characterize the inerting effectiveness, the approach of ullage washing and fuel scrubbing at the same time was the most effective.     

最大熵准则识别材料疲劳寿命分布

疲劳寿命具有很大的分散性,是工程结构设计中必须考虑的因素。为了降低主观不确定性的引入,得到更合理的疲劳寿命分布类型,提出一种用于识别疲劳寿命概率分布类型的一般计算方法。该方法首先根据疲劳试验样本信息确定疲劳寿命的前四阶统计矩;基于统计矩信息,利用最大熵准则确定疲劳寿命的概率分布类型。在基于最大熵准则识别疲劳寿命分布时,利用Lagrange乘子法求解最大熵分布。采用已有的航空铝合金2024-T351板件疲劳裂纹扩展试验数据验证所提计算方法的合理性和有效性。结果表明:所提方法能够高效地识别材料疲劳寿命分布类型,并且不局限于单峰标准分布类型。     

某型行波管寿命评估与试验

根据MIL-HDBK-217F和GJB/Z 299C-2006电子设备可靠性预计手册所提供的失效率数学模型及其使用数据对某型行波管的寿命进行了评估,并按照GJB3312A-2011《微波电子管通用规范》对该型行波管进行了寿命试验。结果显示,该型行波管的实际使用寿命可由1000小时延长至2000小时。     

Developing strategies for automated remote plant production systems: Environmental control and monitoring of the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse in the Canadian High Arctic

The Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse is a unique research facility dedicated to the study of greenhouse engineering and autonomous functionality under extreme operational conditions, in preparation for extraterrestrial biologically-based life support systems. The Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse is located at the Haughton Mars Project Research Station on Devon Island in the Canadian High Arctic. The greenhouse has been operational since 2002. Over recent years the greenhouse has served as a controlled environment facility for conducting scientific and operationally relevant plant growth investigations in an extreme environment. Since 2005 the greenhouse has seen the deployment of a refined nutrient control system, an improved imaging system capable of remote assessment of basic plant health parameters, more robust communication and power systems as well as the implementation of a distributed data acquisition system. Though several other Arctic greenhouses exist, the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse is distinct in that the focus is on autonomous operation as opposed to strictly plant production. Remote control and autonomous operational experience has applications both terrestrially in production greenhouses and extraterrestrially where future long duration Moon/Mars missions will utilize biological life support systems to close the air, food and water loops. Minimizing crew time is an important goal for any space-based system. The experience gained through the remote operation of the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse is providing the experience necessary to optimize future plant production systems and minimize crew time requirements. Internal greenhouse environmental data shows that the fall growth season (July–September) provides an average photosynthetic photon flux of 161.09 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ (August) and 76.76 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ (September) with approximately a 24 h photoperiod. The spring growth season provides an average of 327.51 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ (May) and 339.32 μmol m⁻² s⁻¹ (June) demonstrating that even at high latitudes adequate light is available for crop growth during 4–5 months of the year. The Canadian Space Agency Development Greenhouse [now operational] serves as a test-bed for evaluating new systems prior to deployment in the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse. This greenhouse is also used as a venue for public outreach relating to biological life support research and its corresponding terrestrial spin-offs.     

Hypothetical flora and fauna of Venus

Hypothetical habitability of some of extrasolar planets is a fundamental question of science. Some of exoplanets possess physical conditions close to those of Venus. Therefore, the planet Venus, with its dense and hot (735 K) oxygen-free atmosphere of CO₂, having a high pressure of 9.2 MPa at the surface, can be a natural laboratory for this kind of studies. The only existing data on the planet׳s surface are still the results obtained by the Soviet VENERA landers in the 1970s and 1980s. The TV experiments of Venera-9 and 10 (October, 1975) and Venera-13 and 14 (March, 1982) delivered 41 panoramas of Venus surface (or their fragments). There have not been any similar missions to Venus in the subsequent 39 and 32 years. In the absence of new landing missions to Venus, the VENERA panoramas have been re-processed. The results of these missions are studied anew. A dozen of relatively large objects, from a decimeter to half a meter in size, with an unusual morphology have been found which moved very slowly or changed slightly their shape. Their emergence by chance could hardly be explained by noise. Certain unusual findings that have similar structure were found in different areas of the planet. This paper presents the last results obtained of a search for hypothetical flora and fauna of Venus.     

Use of sunlight for plant lighting in a bioregenerative life support system – Equivalent system mass calculations

Plant lighting is a critical issue for cost effectiveness of bioregenerative systems. A plant lighting system using sunlight has been investigated and compared to systems using electrical lighting. Co-generation of electricity and use of in situ resource utilization (ISRU) were also considered. The fixed part of equivalent system mass was found to be reduced by factors of from 3.1 to 3.9, according to the mission assumptions. The time-dependent part of equivalent system mass was reduced by a smaller value, of about 1.05. Cost effectiveness of bioregeneration has been compared to the cost of shipping food. Break-even times for different Lunar and Mars missions were generally in the order of 2–10 years, and were quite sensitive to the assumptions. There is significant scope for future refinement of these values, and work is ongoing.