Towards a cooperation between the arts,space science research and the European Space Agency – Preliminary findings of the ESA Topical Team Arts and Sciences (ETTAS)

The arts offer alternative insights into reality, which are explored by science in general, and broadened by the activities conducted by the European Space Agency [4] and other space agencies. Similar to the way the members of ESA are ambassadors for spaceflight and science, artists and cultural professionals are ambassadors for human expression, experimentation, and exploration. In June 2011, the ESA Topical Team Arts and Sciences (ETTAS) held a three-day workshop at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. During this workshop, topics and ideas were discussed to develop initiatives between the arts, sciences and ESA. The aim was to foster and expand the human and cultural aspects of space exploration, and at the same time offer a means of communication that aims to reach audiences beyond the scope of traditional space-related channels. The consensus of the team was that establishing and sustaining a transdisciplinary professional community consisting of ESA representatives, scientists and artists would fuel knowledge transfer, and mutual inspiration. Potential ways to provide a sustainable cooperation within and between the various groups were discussed. We present the preliminary findings including a number of measures and mechanisms to initiate and conduct such an initiative. Plausible organisational measures, procedures and consequences, as well as a proposition on how to proceed are also discussed. Overall, the involvement and cooperation between the arts, space science research and ESA will enhance in the citizens of the ESA member states the sense of public ownership of ESA results, and participation in ESA?s research.     

ICAN: A novel laser architecture for space debris removal

The development of a fiber based laser architecture will enable novel applications in environments which have hitherto been impossible due to size, efficiency and power of traditional systems. Such a new architecture has been developed by the International Coherent Amplification Network (ICAN) project. Here we present an analysis of utilizing an ICAN laser for the purpose of tracking and de-orbiting hyper-velocity space debris. With an increasing number of new debris from collisions of active, derelict and new payloads in orbit, there is a growing danger of runaway debris impacts. Due to its compactness and efficiency, it is shown that space-based operation would be possible. For different design parameters such as fiber array size, it is shown that the kHz repetition rate and kW average power of ICAN would be sufficient to de-orbit small 1–10 cm debris within a single instance via laser ablation.     

What role for Europe within a future global space exploration approach?

Europe is present in robotic exploration though the European Space Agency?s mandatory space science program and the optional Aurora program. In addition some member states are also involved in projects of non-European space faring countries through bilateral co-operations. Europe is also present in human exploration through the ISS utilization program. ESA and some of its member states participate in the activities of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG), a club of 14 space agencies working for the elaboration of a global exploration roadmap. Finally, ESA and the European Union have initiated a political approach with the setting up of an international forum so as to elaborate a commonly agreed vision on space exploration at political level.     

Life-sciences research opportunities in commercial suborbital space flight

Commercial suborbital space flights will reach altitudes above 100 km, with 3–5 min of weightlessness bracketed by high-g launch and landing phases. The proposed frequency of these flights, and the large passenger population, present interesting opportunities for researchers in the life sciences. The characteristics of suborbital flight are between those of parabolic and orbital flights, opening up new scientific possibilities and easing the burden for obtaining access to 0g.     

Monitoring of the space system

We have performed monitoring of the space system that includes the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, and the GPS satellite group. We have discovered semi-diurnal and diurnal periodicities in the number of satellites detected as well as in the altitude, latitude and longitude by a GPS receiver. We have revealed tidal deformations related to changes in the Earth?s orientation with respect to the Moon and the Sun.     

On Lambert’s problem and the elliptic time of flight equation: A simple semi-analytical inversion method

In the two-body model, time of flight between two positions can be expressed as a single-variable function and a variety of formulations exist. Lambert’s problem can be solved by inverting such a function. In this article, a method which inverts Lagrange’s flight time equation and supports the problematic 180°$180°$ transfer is proposed. This method relies on a Householder algorithm of variable order. However, unlike other iterative methods, it is semi-analytical in the sense that flight time functions are derived analytically to second order vs. first order finite differences. The author investigated the profile of Lagrange’s elliptic flight time equation and its derivatives with a special focus on their significance to the behaviour of the proposed method and the stated goal of guaranteed convergence. Possible numerical deficiencies were identified and dealt with. As a test, 28 scenarios of variable difficulty were designed to cover a wide variety of geometries. The context of this research being the orbit determination of artificial satellites and debris, the scenarios are representative of typical such objects in Low-Earth, Geostationary and Geostationary Transfer Orbits. An analysis of the computational impact of the quality of the initial guess vs. that of the order of the method was also done, providing clues for further research and optimisations (e.g. asteroids, long period comets, multi-revolution cases). The results indicate fast to very fast convergence in all test cases, they validate the numerical safeguards and also give a quantitative assessment of the importance of the initial guess.     

基于核部分非负矩阵分解的亚像元级地物光谱分析

为了进一步提高亚像元级地物的光谱分析精度,提出了一种基于核部分非负矩阵分解(Kernel Protection Non-negative Matrix Factorization,KPNMF)的非线性解混算法.首先通过基于凸面几何理论的端元提取方法提取纯像元端元候选像素集合,然后根据候选像素的空间纯度指数判断纯像元端元.在纯像元端元信息已知的条件下,利用核方法对部分非负矩阵分解(Protection Non-negative Matrix Factorization,PNMF)进行推广,构造相应的目标函数,推导迭代求解过程,分解求得亚像元端元光谱和所有端元的丰度.试验结果表明,提出的解混算法具有良好的非线性分解能力,解混结果优于线性解混算法.     

无反作用力矩空间机器人轨迹跟踪控制

针对目前关节驱动方式的不足,提出一种采用无反作用力矩驱动方式的空间机器人设计概念。系统平台与各节机械臂上均安装一组金字塔构型的控制力矩陀螺（CMGs）作为力矩执行机构,各臂间由自由球铰连接。采用Rodriguez参数描述平台姿态和机械臂角位移,利用Kane方程建立系统动力学模型。在此基础上,设计了渐近稳定的轨迹跟踪控制律,使得平台姿态和机械臂角位移跟踪期望运动轨迹;并设计了CMGs操纵律,使之准确输出期望控制力矩。此外,研究了机械臂工作空间到关节空间的轨迹规划算法,使得所设计的控制律也可应用于工作空间的轨迹跟踪控制。由三关节系统的仿真结果,验证了无反作用力矩设计概念的可行性和轨迹规划算法的有效性。     

基于HLA的航天飞行任务联合仿真系统设计

简要说明了HLA的基本特点,描述了一个已经实现的航天测控仿真系统,并将其结构思想与HLA进行了对照。在此基础上,提出了一个依据HLA标准,对航天员座舱仿真、火箭和飞船仿真、测控网仿真等进行集成的航天飞行任务联合仿真系统框架,分析了各个仿真联邦成员的功能需求和信息接口,并着重介绍了针对任务要求的时间管理、数据通信等关键RTI机制的设计和实现方法,以及参照FEDEP模型和借助商业成品软件工具的系统开发策略。     

基于小波变换的单脉冲雷达目标RCS测量方法研究

随着现代信号处理技术的发展,对非平稳信号分析和处理的小波分析技术已成功应用于雷达目标特性分析领域,大功率单脉冲雷达作为我国航天测控网的主干设备,具有一定的目标特性识别能力。本文主要针对脉冲雷达RCS测量原理,讨论了基于小波变换的单脉冲雷达空间目标RCS测量方法,提出应发挥窄带低分辨率雷达在未来空间目标识别中的作用。