The present status of the Japanese Penetrator Mission: LUNAR-A

The scientific objective of the LUNAR-A Japanese Penetrator Mission is to explore the lunar interior by seismic and heat-flow experiments. Two penetrators containing two-component seismometer and heat-flow probes will be deployed from a spacecraft onto the lunar surface, one on the nearside and the other on the farside of the moon. The data obtained by the penetrators will be transmitted to the ground station by way of the LUNAR-A mother spacecraft orbiting at an altitude of about 200 km. The seismic observations are expected to provide key data on the size of the lunar core, as well as data on the deep mantle structure. The heat-flow measurements at two different sites will also provide important data on the thermal structure and bulk concentrations of heat-generating elements in the Moon. These data will provide much stronger geophysical constraints on the origin and evolution of the Moon than has ever been obtained. The LUNAR-A mission was supposed to be launched in 2004. However, a malfunction of spacecraft subsystem and technical issues for penetrator system occurred during the course of the qualification level test. Therefore, further improvements and some modifications were considered to be required for reliability and robustness. The development of the mother spacecraft was temporarily suspended, while we have put a three-year program into effect to solve the penetrator technology issues.     

考虑月球扁率修正的月球卫星自主导航

针对月球扁率对月球紫外敏感器的月心方向矢量确定的不利影响,研究了月球紫外敏感器的测量原理和敏感到月平边缘时满足的几何约束,提出了一种考虑月球扁率的月心矢量确定方法。并进一步的结合地球敏感器和太阳敏感器的测量信息,研究了基于日地月方位信息的月球卫星自主轨道算法,并评估了月球方位确定算法对导航精度的影响。仿真结果表明,在太阳敏感器、地球敏感器和月球敏感器的精度分别为0.02°(3σ)、 0.05°(3σ) 和0.1°(3σ)的假设下,考虑月球扁率修正的月球卫星的自主导航位置精度能达到300m(3σ),导航速度误差能达到0.6m/s(3σ), 从而保证了环月卫星的导航精度。     

空间重力环境对稠密气固两相流动特性影响的数值模拟

文章基于稠密气体分子运动论和颗粒动理学,建立气固流化反应器的稠密气固两相流动的欧拉-欧拉双流体数学模型,考虑了颗粒与颗粒之间离散介质特性,大涡模拟求解气相湍流流动,数值模拟反应器内稠密气固两相流体流动行为,得到了不同重力条件下的颗粒浓度、气相和颗粒相速度等计算结果。结果表明：空间重力环境是影响稠密气固两相流体动力特性的重要因素,颗粒脉动强度将随着重力条件的减小而增大。     

Impact of a novel hybrid accelerometer on satellite gravimetry performance

The state-of-the-art electrostatic accelerometers (EA) used for the retrieval of non-gravitational forces acting on a satellite constitute a core component of every dedicated gravity field mission. However, due to their difficult-to-control thermal drift in the low observation frequencies, they are also one of the most limiting factors of the achievable performance of gravity recovery. Recently, a hybrid accelerometer consisting of a regular EA and a novel cold atom interferometer (CAI) that features a time-invariant observation stability and constantly recalibrates the EA has been developed in order to remedy this major drawback. In this paper we aim to assess the value of the hybrid accelerometer for gravity field retrieval in the context of GRACE-type and Bender-type missions by means of numerical closed-loop simulations where possible noise specifications of the novel instrument are considered and different components of the Earth’s gravity field signal are added subsequently. It is shown that the quality of the gravity field solutions is mainly dependent on the CAI’s measurement accuracy. While a low CAI performance (10^?8 to 10^?9?m/s²/Hz^1/2) does not lead to any gains compared to a stand-alone EA, a sufficiently high one (10^?11?m/s²/Hz^1/2) may improve the retrieval performance by over one order of magnitude. We also show that improvements which are limited to low-frequency observations may even propagate into high spherical harmonic degrees. Further, the accelerometer performance seems to play a less prominent role if the overall observation geometry is improved as it is the case for a Bender-type mission. The impact of the accelerometer measurements diminishes further when temporal variations of the gravity field are introduced, pointing out the need for proper de-aliasing techniques. An additional study reveals that the hybrid accelerometer is – contrary to a stand-alone EA – widely unaffected by scale factor instabilities.     

月球探测器LP精密定轨及月球重力场模型解算

对美国1998年发射的月球探测器LP任务阶段共19个月的双程测距测速轨道跟踪数据进行了精密定轨,对定轨结果通过轨道残差及重复弧段差异进行了精度评价。利用LP正常任务阶段三个月的轨道跟踪数据进行了月球重力场模型解算,通过重力场功率谱、轨道残差和月球自由空气重力异常对解算模型进行了精度评价。结果表明精密定轨及月球重力场模型解算合理。对进一步融合嫦娥一号轨道跟踪数据和LP数据解算自主的高精度月球重力场模型具有参考意义。
　
     

Building components for an outpost on the Lunar soil by means of a novel 3D printing technology

3D-printing technologies are receiving an always increasing attention in architecture, due to their potential use for direct construction of buildings and other complex structures, also of considerable dimensions, with virtually any shape. Some of these technologies rely on an agglomeration process of inert materials, e.g. sand, through a special binding liquid and this capability is of interest for the space community for its potential application to space exploration. In fact, it opens the possibility for exploiting in-situ resources for the construction of buildings in harsh spatial environments. The paper presents the results of a study aimed at assessing the concept of 3D printing technology for building habitats on the Moon using lunar soil, also called regolith. A particular patented 3D-printing technology – D-shape – has been applied, which is, among the existing rapid prototyping systems, the closest to achieving full scale construction of buildings and the physical and chemical characteristics of lunar regolith and terrestrial regolith simulants have been assessed with respect to the working principles of such technology. A novel lunar regolith simulant has also been developed, which almost exactly reproduces the characteristics of the JSC-1A simulant produced in the US. Moreover, tests in air and in vacuum have been performed to demonstrate the occurrence of the reticulation reaction with the regolith simulant. The vacuum tests also showed that evaporation or freezing of the binding liquid can be prevented through a proper injection method. The general requirements of a Moon outpost have been specified, and a preliminary design of the habitat has been developed. Based on such design, a section of the outpost wall has been selected and manufactured at full scale using the D-shape printer and regolith simulant. Test pieces have also been manufactured and their mechanical properties have been assessed.     

Observation of the lunar topography by the laser altimeter LALT on board Japanese lunar explorer SELENE

The SELENE Laser Altimeter (LALT) is designed to map the Moon’s topography and will be launched in summer 2007. LALT incorporates Q-switched Cr doped Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm) with an output energy of 100 mJ and 1 Hz repetition frequency for about one year mission period. The laser pulse travels to the Moon’s surface and reflections from the surface are detected by a silicon avalanche photo-diode. The ranging distance is 50–150 km with about 5 m accuracy. Several corrections for accurate ranging data are investigated. The flight hardware has been qualified and passed all the integration tests. A principal goal of the LALT instrument is to obtain a much more detailed lunar topographic map which is superior in global coverage, measurement accuracy and number of data points to previous observations and models. The overall science objectives of LALT are (1) determination of lunar global figure, (2) internal structure and surface processes, (3) exploration of the lunar pole regions, and (4) reduction of lunar occultation data.     

Estimating low resolution gravity fields at short time intervals to reduce temporal aliasing errors

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission has been estimating temporal changes in the Earth’s gravitational field since its launch in 2002. While it is not yet fully resolved what the limiting source of error is for GRACE, studies on future missions have shown that temporal aliasing errors due to undersampling signals of interest (such as hydrological variations) and errors in atmospheric, ocean, and tide models will be a limiting source of error for missions taking advantage of improved technologies (flying drag-free with a laser interferometer). This paper explores the option of reducing the effects of temporal aliasing errors by directly estimating low degree and order gravity fields at short time intervals, ultimately resulting in data products with improved spatial resolution. Three potential architectures are considered: a single pair of polar orbiting satellites, two pairs of polar orbiting satellites, and a polar orbiting pair of satellites coupled with a lower inclined pair of satellites. Results show that improvements in spatial resolution are obtained when one estimates a low resolution gravity field every two days for the case of a single pair of satellites, and every day for the case of two polar pairs of satellites. However, the spatial resolution for these cases is still lower than that provided by simply destriping and smoothing the solutions via standard GRACE post-processing techniques. Alternately, estimating daily gravity fields for the case of a polar pair of satellites coupled with a lower inclined pair results in solutions with superior spatial resolution than that offered by simply destriping and smoothing the solutions.     

月球探测器软着陆机构

综述了月球探测器软着陆机构的应用与发展现状。介绍了软着陆机构的性能要求和组成,并根据着陆腿结构和缓冲器种类对软着陆机构进行了分类。讨论了着陆器主体设计、着陆腿结构和缓冲器的模块化设计。阐述了着陆器发射、在轨飞行、着陆和着陆后阶段的动力学研究内容。分析了缓冲器设计、着陆机构基本构型设计,以及缓冲器与基本构型主要参数配置等关键技术,对月球探测器软着陆机构设计有一定的参考意义。     

火星及其环境

火星环境类似于地球,而探索其生命存在是重大的科学任务。在火星探测中,对火星及其环境的了解与研究是重要的任务目标,事关探测任务的成功实施。文章对国外火星探测已发布的成果进行收集和整理,其中包含大量的相关数据。这些知识和数据是火星探测任务设计的输入条件,可为我国火星探测计划的制定提供参考依据。