LARES successfully launched in orbit: Satellite and mission description

On February 13th 2012, the LARES satellite of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) was launched into orbit with the qualification flight of the new VEGA launcher of the European Space Agency (ESA). The payload was released very accurately in the nominal orbit. The name LARES means LAser RElativity Satellite and summarises the objective of the mission and some characteristics of the satellite. It is, in fact, a mission designed to test Einstein's General Relativity Theory (specifically ‘frame-dragging' and Lense-Thirring effect). The satellite is passive and covered with optical retroreflectors that send back laser pulses to the emitting ground station. This allows accurate positioning of the satellite, which is important for measuring the very small deviations from Galilei–Newton's laws. In 2008, ASI selected the prime industrial contractor for the LARES system with a heavy involvement of the universities in all phases of the programme, from the design to the construction and testing of the satellite and separation system. The data exploitation phase started immediately after the launch under a new contract between ASI and those universities. Tracking of the satellite is provided by the International Laser Ranging Service. Due to its particular design, LARES is the orbiting object with the highest known mean density in the solar system. In this paper, it is shown that this peculiarity makes it the best proof particle ever manufactured. Design aspects, mission objectives and preliminary data analysis will be also presented.     

坚持科学发展观推进思想政治理论课教学改革

思想政治理论课教学，必须坚持科学发展观，以学生为本，充分发挥学生的主体作用，注重学生的自我教育和能力的提高，一切为了学生的成长成才，一切着眼于调动和依靠学生内在的积极性，使学生德、智、体、美全面协调发展。     

SAX overview

Information is given concerning the satellite for X-Ray Astronomy SAX, a project of the Italian Space Agency in collaboration with the Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programs, due for launch at end 1993.

The scientific objectives and the payload are described, together with the ground system structure and organization.     

中国返回式卫星的进展

从１９７５年至１９９４年中国研制成功了ＦＳＷ－Ｏ、ＦＳＷ－１和ＦＳＷ－２三种型号的返回式卫星。ＦＳＷ－０卫星９颗发射和返回均获成功;ＦＳＷ－１卫星５颗除ＦＳＷ－１－５卫星返回失败外其余均获成功;ＦＳＷ－２卫星２颗发射和返回均获成功。卫星的起飞质量从ＦＳＷ－０－１的１７９０ｋｇ增加到ＦＳＷ－２－２的２７６０ｋｇ,轨道运行时间从ＦＳＷ－０－１的３天增加到ＦＳＷ－２－１的６天。卫星的服务业务不断扩大,ＦＳＷ－２已发展成为一种兼有应用、空间科学试验和技术试验功能的多用途卫星。     

论科学技术是第一生产力与教育的关系

本文以马克思主义政活经济学原理为基础,以“科学技术是生产力”为基本出发点,论证了“科学技术是第一生产力”这一论断的正确性。同时,笔者从马克思教育思想出发,对教育与劳动力再生产以及教育与科学技术再生产之间的关系进行了详尽的论述,并论证了科学技术对教育的反作用。     

Progress of super-pressure balloon development: A new “tawara” concept with improved stability

The super-pressure balloon (SPB) has been expected to be a flight vehicle that can provide a long flight duration to science. Since 1997, we have developed the SPB. Now we are at the phase of developing an SPB of a practical size. In 2009, we carried out a test flight of a pumpkin-shaped SPB with a 60,000 m³ volume. The undesirable result of this flight aroused us to resolve the deployment instability of the pumpkin-shaped SPB, which has been known as one of the most challenging issues confronting SPB development. To explore this deployment issue, in 2010, we carried out a series of ground tests. From results of these tests, we found that an SPB design modified from pumpkin, named “tawara”, can be a good candidate to greatly improve the deployment stability of the lobed SPB.     

On Stabilizing Role of Parallel Inhomogeneous Flow on Low-frequency Space Fluctuations

A fundamental reality throughout the space plasma is the existence of magnetic field-aligned flows. It is usually believed that the spatial transverse shear in the parallel flow destabilizes many low frequency oscillations and this may be the origin of low frequency oscillations in the ionosphere (V. V. Gavrishchaka et al., 1998, Phys. Rev. Lett., 80, 728 and Phys. Rev. Lett.: 2000, 85, 4285). Here we show that this notion of destabilizing influence of the shear in the parallel flow can be changed altogether if one takes the effect of the flow curvature (second spatial derivative) into account. The transverse curvature in the parallel flow can overcome the destabilizing influence of the shear and can render the low frequency modes stable. It is shown that unlike flow shear the effect of flow curvature is sign- and mode-dependent. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A detailed FLUKA-2005 Monte-Carlo simulation for the ATIC detector

We have performed a detailed Monte-Carlo (MC) simulation for the Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter (ATIC) detector using the MC code FLUKA-2005 which is capable of simulating particles up to 10 PeV. The ATIC detector has completed two successful balloon flights from McMurdo, Antarctica lasting a total of more than 35 days. ATIC is designed as a multiple, long duration balloon flight, investigation of the cosmic ray spectra from below 50 GeV to near 100 TeV total energy; using a fully active Bismuth Germanate (BGO) calorimeter. It is equipped with a large mosaic of silicon detector pixels capable of charge identification, and, for particle tracking, three projective layers of x–y scintillator hodoscopes, located above, in the middle and below a 0.75 nuclear interaction length graphite target. Our simulations are part of an analysis package of both nuclear (A) and energy dependences for different nuclei interacting in the ATIC detector. The MC simulates the response of different components of the detector such as the Si-matrix, the scintillator hodoscopes and the BGO calorimeter to various nuclei. We present comparisons of the FLUKA-2005 MC calculations with GEANT calculations and with the ATIC CERN data.