Characteristics of solar particle events at Mars relative to Earth

While not specifically designed to detect solar energetic particle radiation, the Electron Reflectometer onboard Mars Global Surveyor (MGS/ER) collected such data from January 1999 through October 2006. Energetic protons (?25 MeV) and other ions penetrated the MGS/ER shielding and registered counts within the instrument’s electronics. During solar particle events (SPE’s), prolonged enhancements in the particle background were observed at Mars with time intensity profiles similar to Earth based SPE observations. Throughout the lifespan of MGS/ER, 85 distinct SPE’s were observed. Basic characteristics of Mars based SPE observations and the frequency of SPE occurrences at Mars are compared to corresponding Earth based observations. Approximately 22% of SPE’s that occurred during MGS/ER operation were observed at Earth but not Mars. Similarly, 19% of SPE’s were observed at Mars but not Earth. Time intensity profiles at Earth and Mars match predictions provided in the literature, based on the physical location of the detector with respect to the motion of the interplanetary shock wave. Note: The work described herein was largely conducted as part of a doctoral dissertation produced by the author.     

Automatic detection of typical dust devils from Mars landscape images

This paper presents an improved algorithm for automatic detection of Martian dust devils that successfully extracts tiny bright dust devils and obscured large dust devils from two subtracted landscape images. These dust devils are frequently observed using visible cameras onboard landers or rovers. Nevertheless, previous research on automated detection of dust devils has not focused on these common types of dust devils, but on dust devils that appear on images to be irregularly bright and large. In this study, we detect these common dust devils automatically using two kinds of parameter sets for thresholding when binarizing subtracted images. We automatically extract dust devils from 266 images taken by the Spirit rover to evaluate our algorithm. Taking dust devils detected by visual inspection to be ground truth, the precision, recall and F-measure values are 0.77, 0.86, and 0.81, respectively.     

Deep reinforcement learning for six degree-of-freedom planetary landing

This work develops a deep reinforcement learning based approach for Six Degree-of-Freedom (DOF) planetary powered descent and landing. Future Mars missions will require advanced guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for the powered descent phase to target specific surface locations and achieve pinpoint accuracy (landing error ellipse <5 m radius). This requires both a navigation system capable of estimating the lander’s state in real-time and a guidance and control system that can map the estimated lander state to a commanded thrust for each lander engine. In this paper, we present a novel integrated guidance and control algorithm designed by applying the principles of reinforcement learning theory. The latter is used to learn a policy mapping the lander’s estimated state directly to a commanded thrust for each engine, resulting in accurate and almost fuel-optimal trajectories over a realistic deployment ellipse. Specifically, we use proximal policy optimization, a policy gradient method, to learn the policy. Another contribution of this paper is the use of different discount rates for terminal and shaping rewards, which significantly enhances optimization performance. We present simulation results demonstrating the guidance and control system’s performance in a 6-DOF simulation environment and demonstrate robustness to noise and system parameter uncertainty.     

基于改进鸽群算法的气动捕获轨道优化

针对火星探测器的气动捕获轨道，提出了一种改进的鸽群算法对气动捕获轨道进行优化。首先，考虑成功进行气动捕获所要求的终端约束和过程约束，根据从捕获轨道进行轨道转移进入目标轨道所需的速度增量，提出了进行捕获轨道优化的最优性能指标。然后，针对原始鸽群算法存在的一些不足，提出一种改进算法，并对改进算法的参数取值进行了分析。最后，基于大气内飞行的动力学方程，将气动捕获轨道优化问题转化为多参数优化问题，利用所提出的改进鸽群算法对气动捕获轨道进行优化，并通过仿真实例验证该算法的有效性。     

Advances in Researches on the Middle and Upper Atmosphere in 2008-2010

This paper summarizes the results of the researches on the middle and upper atmosphere obtained by Chinese scientists in 2008-2010. The focuses are specifically placed on the researches being associated with ground-based observation capability development, dynamical processes, the property of atmospheric circulation and the chemistry-climate coupling of the middle atmospheric layers.     

Exploration life support technology challenges for the Crew Exploration Vehicle and future human missions

As NASA implements the U.S. Space Exploration Policy, life support systems must be provided for an expanding sequence of exploration missions. NASA has implemented effective life support for Apollo, the Space Shuttle, and the International Space Station (ISS) and continues to develop advanced systems. This paper provides an overview of life support requirements, previously implemented systems, and new technologies being developed by the Exploration Life Support Project for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and Lunar Outpost and future Mars missions. The two contrasting practical approaches to providing space life support are (1) open loop direct supply of atmosphere, water, and food, and (2) physicochemical regeneration of air and water with direct supply of food. Open loop direct supply of air and water is cost effective for short missions, but recycling oxygen and water saves costly launch mass on longer missions. Because of the short CEV mission durations, the CEV life support system will be open loop as in Apollo and Space Shuttle. New life support technologies for CEV that address identified shortcomings of existing systems are discussed. Because both ISS and Lunar Outpost have a planned 10-year operational life, the Lunar Outpost life support system should be regenerative like that for ISS and it could utilize technologies similar to ISS. The Lunar Outpost life support system, however, should be extensively redesigned to reduce mass, power, and volume, to improve reliability and incorporate lessons learned, and to take advantage of technology advances over the last 20 years. The Lunar Outpost design could also take advantage of partial gravity and lunar resources.     

星际探测借力飞行轨道的混合设计方法研究

以金星借力探测火星为背景,针对传统借力飞行轨道设计方法中存在的问题,提出了 一种星际探测借力飞行轨道的混合设计方法。该方法在分析借力天体特性的基础上,采用等 高线图给出可能出现借力参数匹配的区域,提出“软匹配”策略进行轨道拼接,采用混合优 化设计方法得到轨道优化设计参数,有效地解决了传统方法对一些满足约束条件转移轨道方 案的遗漏问题。本文以2017-2018年金星借力探测火星为例给出了设计结果,设计参数与 M.Okutsu给出的一致,同时还得到了该参数区域一个新的借力轨道转移方案。此外,本文还 对2010-2018年采用金星借力探测火星的转移轨道进行了研究,给出了金星借力探测火星 较好的设计参数区域,这些研究对于未来可能的火星探测任务的设计与规划具有重要的参考 意义。
     

火星探测转移轨道中途修正分析

中途修正分析是深空探测任务设计的关键步骤。首先讨论火星探测中途修正速度增量的求解方法,并由此对多次修正问题进行了Monte Carlo仿真分析。为满足不同的计算需求,针对速度增量的求解问题,给出了精确算法和快速算法两种思路,并对二者的解算精度进行了对比。以2018年某火星探测轨道为例,根据设定误差,计算得出了各次修正速度增量和残余误差随修正时间变化的数据曲线,进而对修正时机的选择问题进行了讨论,并对5次修正策略进行了仿真分析。实验表明,Monte Carlo仿真数据能够直观地反映多次修正的基本规律,讨论结果可以为修正策略的制定提供一种思路和数据参考。
     

火星着陆器降落相机参数设计

分析了降落相机的功能及其功能扩展的必要性、工作过程,并根据这些功能变化和工作过程的变化设计了火星降落相机的帧频、积分时间等参数。文章对降落相机的功能分析、扩展以及工作过程分析和部分参数设计对于中国降落相机的研制有着一定的借鉴和促进作用。