Dynamics and Composition of Rings

Planetary rings are found around all four giant planets of our solar system. These collisional and highly flattened disks exhibit a whole wealth of physical processes involving dust grains up to meter-sized boulders. These processes, together with ring composition, can help understand better the formation and evolution of proto-satellite and proto-planetary disks in the early solar system. The present chapter reviews some fundamental aspects of ring dynamics and composition. The forthcoming exploration of the Saturn system by the Cassini mission will bring both high resolution and time-dependent information on Saturn’s rings.     

Radar Imaging of Mercury

Earth-based radar has been one of the few, and one of the most important, sources of new information about Mercury during the three decades since the Mariner 10 encounters. The emphasis during the past 15 years has been on full-disk, dual-polarization imaging of the planet, an effort that has been facilitated by the development of novel radar techniques and by improvements in radar systems. Probably the most important result of the imaging work has been the discovery and mapping of radar-bright features at the poles. The radar scattering properties of these features, and their confinement to permanently shaded crater floors, is consistent with volume backscatter from a low-loss volatile such as clean water ice. Questions remain, however, regarding the source and long-term stability of the putative ice, which underscores the need for independent confirmation by other observational methods. Radar images of the non-polar regions have also revealed a plethora of bright features, most of which are associated with fresh craters and their ejecta. Several very large impact features, with rays and other bright ejecta spreading over distances of 1,000 km or more, have been traced to source craters with diameters of 80–125 km. Among these large rayed features are some whose relative faintness suggests that they are being observed in an intermediate stage of degradation. Less extended ray/ejecta features have been found for some of the freshest medium-size craters such as Kuiper and Degas. Much more common are smaller (<40 km diameter) fresh craters showing bright rim-rings but little or no ray structure. These smaller radar-bright craters are particularly common over the H-7 quadrangle. Diffuse areas of enhanced depolarized brightness have been found in the smooth plains, including the circum-Caloris planitiae and Tolstoj Basin. This is an interesting finding, as it is the reverse of the albedo contrast seen between the radar-dark maria and the radar-bright cratered highlands on the Moon.     

Analysis of the data processing strategies of spherical harmonic expansion model on global ionosphere mapping for moderate solar activity

Spherical harmonic (SH) expansion is widely used to model the global ionosphere map (GIM) of vertical total electron content (VTEC). According to the impact of different data processing methods of the SH expansion model on the VTEC maps, we specifically performed comprehensive analysis in terms of the data sampling rate, the time resolution, the spherical harmonic degree, and the relative constraint. One month of GPS data (January in 2016) from the International GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Service (IGS) network in a moderate ionospheric activity period at the descending phase of Solar Cycle 24 was processed. To improve the computational efficiency of the daily GIM generation, the data sampling rate of 5?min was recommended allowing the GIM precision loss within 0.10 TECU (total electron content unit). The global VTEC map could be better represented in temporal and spatial domains with higher time resolution and higher spherical harmonic degree, especially at low latitude bands and in the southern hemisphere. The GIM precision improvement was about 10.91% for 1-h and about 15.15% for 0.5-h compared with the commonly used 2-h time resolution. The use of spherical harmonic degree 17 or 20 instead of 15 could improve the precision by 3.19% or 6.06%. We also found that an optimal relative constraint had to be found experimentally considering both the GIM precision and the GIM root mean square (RMS) map.     

A comparative study of ionospheric IRIEup and ISP assimilative models during some intense and severe geomagnetic storms

Three-dimensional (3-D) electron density matrices, computed in the Mediterranean area by the IRI climatological model and IRIEup and ISP nowcasting models, during some intense and severe geomagnetic-ionospheric storms, were ingested by the ray tracing software tool IONORT, to synthesize quasi-vertical ionograms. IRIEup model was run in different operational modes: (1) assimilating validated autoscaled electron density profiles only from a limited area which, in our case, is the Mediterranean sector (IRIEup_re(V) mode); (2) assimilating electron density profiles from a larger region including several stations spread across Europe: (a) without taking care of validating the autoscaled data in the assimilation process (IRIEup(NV)); (b) validating carefully the autoscaled electron density profiles before their assimilation (IRIEup(V)).The comparative analysis was carried out comparing IRI, IRIEup_re(V), ISP, IRIEup(NV), and IRIEup(V) foF2 synthesized values, with corresponding foF2 measurements autoscaled by ARTIST, and then validated, at the truth sites of Roquetes (40.80°N, 0.50°E, Spain), San Vito (40.60°N, 17.80°E, Italy), Athens (38.00°N, 23.50°E, Greece), and Nicosia, (35.03°N, 33.16°E, Cyprus). The outcomes demonstrate that: (1) IRIEup_re(V), performs better than ISP in the western Mediterranean (around Roquetes); (2) ISP performs slightly better than IRIEup_re(V) in the central part of Mediterranean (around Athens and San Vito); (3) ISP performance is better than the IRIEup_re(V) one in the eastern Mediterranean (around Nicosia); (4) IRIEup(NV) performance is worse than the IRIEup(V) one; (5) in the central Mediterranean area, IRIEup(V) performance is better than the IRIEup_re(V) one, and it is practically the same for the western and eastern sectors.Concerning the overall performance, nowcasting models proved to be considerably more reliable than the climatological IRI model to represent the ionosphere behaviour during geomagnetic-ionospheric storm conditions; ISP and IRIEup(V) provided the best performance, but neither of them has clearly prevailed over the other one.     

机载系统NANDFlash存储技术

为了发挥NANDFlash在机载环境中非易失性、体积小、固态性、重量轻、低功耗、抗震动等特点,介绍了NANDFlash的存储特性,对NANDFlash存储的关键技术进行了改进,提出了基于域机制的地址映射方式和基于阈值的损耗均衡方法,为机载系统能够更加可靠、实时和安全地进行数据存储提供了选择。     

一种航天测控系统可靠性定量化计算方法

航天测控系统具有动态性、复杂性、可维修性、阶段间相关性等显著特征,作为航天器安全在轨运行的重要保障,其可靠性至关重要。针对航天测控系统可靠性精确计算的难点,提出了综合马尔可夫（Markov）模型和全概率思想的复杂、动态系统可靠性定量化计算方法,给出了计算流程。按照系统的动态组成特性,将任务进程划分为多个阶段,阶段内参试状态不变,不同阶段之间参试状态不同。借鉴Markov模型描述阶段内状态转移过程,通过求解Kolmogorov后向方程得到本阶段结束时的状态概率,利用全概率思想实现阶段间状态映射,体现阶段间的依赖性,依次对各阶段求解获取整个任务可靠性,具有求解准确度高、结果可信度高等特点。最后给出算例,通过与蒙特卡洛仿真结果的比对校验Markov方法的准确性。     

基于高分卫星姿态监测的姿态参数算法优化

目前航天测绘相机几何参数的在轨标定通常经由地面检校场数据处理完成。然而,由于一次摄影中难以保证获取的地面检校场影像完整,使得在轨标定周期较长,进而导致实时监测与标定非常困难。“高分十四号”卫星搭载了一种新的姿态测定系统,利用高精度的相机光轴监测实现对相机几何参数的在轨实时标定。文章在此基础上对高分卫星星地相机间夹角在轨解算方案进行了优化,并基于数值仿真和在轨实测数据进行了分析,结果显示优化算法可以进一步提高影像内定向稳定度和最终的定位精度,未来有望在高精度立体测绘应用中发挥重要作用。     

Manifold dynamics in the Earth–Moon system via isomorphic mapping with application to spacecraft end-of-life strategies

Recently, manifold dynamics has assumed an increasing relevance for analysis and design of low-energy missions, both in the Earth–Moon system and in alternative multibody environments. With regard to lunar missions, exterior and interior transfers, based on the transit through the regions where the collinear libration points L₁ and L₂ are located, have been studied for a long time and some space missions have already taken advantage of the results of these studies. This paper is focused on the definition and use of a special isomorphic mapping for low-energy mission analysis. A convenient set of cylindrical coordinates is employed to describe the spacecraft dynamics (i.e. position and velocity), in the context of the circular restricted three-body problem, used to model the spacecraft motion in the Earth–Moon system. This isomorphic mapping of trajectories allows the identification and intuitive representation of periodic orbits and of the related invariant manifolds, which correspond to tubes that emanate from the curve associated with the periodic orbit. Heteroclinic connections, i.e. the trajectories that belong to both the stable and the unstable manifolds of two distinct periodic orbits, can be easily detected by means of this representation. This paper illustrates the use of isomorphic mapping for finding (a) periodic orbits, (b) heteroclinic connections between trajectories emanating from two Lyapunov orbits, the first at L₁, and the second at L₂, and (c) heteroclinic connections between trajectories emanating from the Lyapunov orbit at L₁ and from a particular unstable lunar orbit. Heteroclinic trajectories are asymptotic trajectories that travels at zero-propellant cost. In practical situations, a modest delta-v budget is required to perform transfers along the manifolds. This circumstance implies the possibility of performing complex missions, by combining different types of trajectory arcs belonging to the manifolds. This work studies also the possible application of manifold dynamics to defining suitable, convenient end-of-life strategies for spacecraft orbiting the Earth. Seven distinct options are identified, and lead to placing the spacecraft into the final disposal orbit, which is either (a) a lunar capture orbit, (b) a lunar impact trajectory, (c) a stable lunar periodic orbit, or (d) an outer orbit, never approaching the Earth or the Moon. Two remarkable properties that relate the velocity variations with the spacecraft energy are employed for the purpose of identifying the optimal locations, magnitudes, and directions of the velocity impulses needed to perform the seven transfer trajectories. The overall performance of each end-of-life strategy is evaluated in terms of time of flight and propellant budget.     

行星齿轮非线性振动系统参数稳定域的计算方法

研究了行星齿轮非线性传动系统参数稳定域计算的一般方法.该方法通过选取合理的失稳阀值,根据考查参数域内系统的运动状态选取合适的数值积分时间段,以循环套嵌的手段计算考查参数在各自范围内不同组合下的系统位移响应最大值,比较失稳阀值以判稳,参数稳定域的图形输出等5个步骤完成对行星轮系参数稳定域的计算.最后,以四自由度行星轮系纯扭转非线性振动模型为例,以行星轮输入转速、系统的齿侧间隙以及齿轮副的啮合阻尼系数为考查参数,分别计算得到了系统的单参数稳定域、双参数稳定域以及三参数稳定域,为行星轮系的设计取值提供了重要参考.