High energy-density propulsion—reducing the risk to humans in planetary exploration

The potential benefits to humankind of space exploration are tremendous. Space is not only the final frontier but is also the next marketplace. The orbital space above Earth offers tremendous opportunities for both strategic assets and commercial development. The critical obstacle retarding the use of the space around the Earth is the lack of low cost access to orbit. Further out, the next giant leap for mankind will be the human exploration of Mars. Almost certainly within the next 30 years, a human crew will brave the isolation, the radiation, and the lack of gravity to walk on and explore the Red planet. Both of these missions will change the outlook and perspective of every human being on the planet. However, these missions are expensive and extremely difficult. Chemical propulsion has demonstrated an inability to achieve orbit cheaply and is a very high-risk option to accomplish the Mars mission. An alternative solution is to develop a high performance propulsion system. Nuclear propulsion has the potential to be such a system. The question will be whether humanity is willing to take on the challenge.     

EUROPEAN NETWORK FOR THE NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SPACE PLASMAS

The Cluster mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) will allow, for the first time three-dimensional measurements in key regions of the Earth's magnetosphere to be carried out. The European Numerical Simulation Network (ENSN) aims at providing a theoretical support to the mission. We describe the achievements of the ENSN during its first period of activity 1991–1994, during which the network was funded by the European Union. In particular, the ENSN has set up (i) thematic Working Groups on the prime scientific goals of the mission, (ii) a code development Working Group to develop numerical simulation codes specifically adapted to studying magnetospheric boundaries and the corresponding scale mixing, and (iii) software models of Cluster instruments to test in a numerical simulation what the set of four instruments will measure.     

Scientific Planning and Commanding of the Rosetta Payload

ESA’s Rosetta mission was launched in March 2004 and is on its way to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it is scheduled to arrive in summer 2014. It comprises a payload of 12 scientific instruments and a Lander. All instruments are provided by Principal Investigators, which are responsible for their operations. As for most ESA science missions, the ground segment of the mission consists of a Mission Operations Centre (MOC) and a Science Operations Centre (SOC). While the MOC is responsible for all spacecraft-related aspects and the final uplink of all command timelines to the spacecraft, the scientific operations of the instruments and the collection of the data and ingestion into the Planetary Science Archive are coordinated by the SOC. This paper focuses on the tasks of the SOC and in particular on the methodology and constraints to convert the scientific goals of the Rosetta mission to operational timelines.     

飞机空中加油任务剖面优化设计

介绍了某型飞机执行作战任务途中何时进行空中加油，并按照最大航程截击对飞机各个飞行任务段的飞行性能进行了计算，得出了最佳巡航速度，确定了最优的加油时机和加油量。计算过程中采用了遗传算法，考虑了爬升过程和巡航过程中飞机变质量的难点问题，提高了计算结果的可信度。     

有序递推滤波修正系统误差方法

本文将推广卡尔曼滤波的原理拓展到对测量元素逐个进行滤波的处理。从理论上证明它可以提高状态向量滤波结果的估值精度，而且它可以减少求逆公式的计算量。本文应用该方法导出了轨道测量数据处理的有序递推自校准系统误差的方法及公式。     

A cost driven predictive maintenance policy for structural airframe maintenance

Airframe maintenance is traditionally performed at scheduled maintenance stops.The decision to repair a fuselage panel is based on a fixed crack size threshold,which allows to ensure the aircraft safety until the next scheduled maintenance stop.With progress in sensor technology and data processing techniques,structural health monitoring (SHM) systems are increasingly being considered in the aviation industry.SHM systems track the aircraft health state continuously,lead ing to the possibility of planning maintenance based on an actual state of aircraft rather than on a fixed schedule.This paper builds upon a model-based prognostics framework that the authors developed in their previous work,which couples the Extended Kalman filter (EKF) with a first order perturbation (FOP) method.By using the information given by this prognostics method,a novel cost driven predictive maintenance (CDPM) policy is proposed,which ensures the aircraft safety while minimizing the maintenance cost.The proposed policy is formally derived based on the trade-off between probabilities of occurrence of scheduled and unscheduled maintenance.A numerical case study simulating the maintenance process of an entire fleet of aircrafts is imple mented.Under the condition of assuring the same safety level,the CDPM is compared in terms of cost with two other maintenance policies:scheduled maintenance and threshold based SHM maintenance.The comparison results show CDPM could lead to significant cost savings.     

基于DSPN的航天测控系统任务可靠性仿真建模

提出了基于确定与随机Petri网（deterministic and stochastic Petri nets,DSPN）的航天测控系统（tracking,telemetry and command,TT&C）任务可靠性定量分析方法,旨在对相关航天测控方案进行可靠性预计.通过对TT&C系统任务剖面进行时序弧段划分,考虑实际系统中测控单元阶段依赖、单元故障可修以及各单元参与任务起止时间不同等其他建模方法难以处理的复杂因素,建立了“单元层-系统逻辑层-阶段层”3层相互关联的TT&C系统任务可靠性DSPN模型.通过对模型仿真运行,实现了对给定测控方案下TT&C系统任务可靠性定量化评估.分析表明:仿真结果随着仿真次数增加逐渐收敛,与Markov解析方法求得的精确值对比误差控制在1%以内.      

美国加速任务试车技术在军用航空发动机上的应用

加速任务试车(AMT)是目前国外研究军用航空发动机耐久性的标准试验,是发动机寿命管理的重要方法。本文以美国F404-GE-402发动机、F110-GE-100发动机为例,介绍了AMT技术在发动机设计验证、部件改进、寿命管理、维修计划等方面的具体做法,对有效提高我国发动机型号研制的风险管理与控制能力和实现发动机的高可靠性具有重要的研究与借鉴价值。     

实时精确定轨的自校准方法

实时精确定轨的迫切性越来越成为航天技术任务发展所关注的问题。本文将轨道约束“EMBET”自校准技术^[1,2]推广到实时轨道确定处理；在不断地获取对航天器轨道测量数据的过程中，递推地估算和修正观测数据的系统误差，又实时地为用户提供精确的轨道状态参数或轨道根数。     

扩展企业合作产品定义过程的工作流互操作技术

利用面向对象方法和工作流技术对合作产品定义过程中的分布式工作流管理技术进行研究。建立了合作产品定义过程的动态规划模型和面向对象工作流模型及实现互操作的方法。