The MELISSA pilot plant facility as as integration test-bed for advanced life support systems.

The different advances in the Micro Ecological Life Support System Alternative project (MELISSA), fostered and coordinated by the European Space Agency, as well as in other associated technologies, are integrated and demonstrated in the MELISSA Pilot Plant laboratory. During the first period of operation, the definition of the different compartments at an individual basis has been achieved, and the complete facility is being re-designed to face a new period of integration of all these compartments. The final objective is to demonstrate the potentiality of biological systems such as MELISSA as life support systems. The facility will also serve as a test bed to study the robustness and stability of the continuous operation of a complex biological system. This includes testing of the associated instrumentation and control for a safe operation, characterization of the chemical and microbial safety of the system, as well as tracking the genetic stability of the microbial strains used. The new period is envisaged as a contribution to the further development of more complete biological life support systems for long-term manned missions, that should be better defined from the knowledge to be gained from this integration phase. This contribution summarizes the current status of the Pilot Plant and the planned steps for the new period.     

Microphysics of Magnetic Reconnection

Magnetic reconnection is a universal phenomenon where energy is efficiently converted from the magnetic field to charged particles as a result of global magnetic topology changes during which earlier separated plasma regions become magnetically connected. While the reconnection affects large volumes in space most of the topology changes and of the energization occur within small localized regions. Regions of special importance are the X-region and the separatrix region. The understanding of the microphysics of these regions is crucial for the overall understanding of the reconnection. The Earth magnetosphere is the best environment where the details of these regions can be studied in situ. We summarize their main properties and discuss recent spacecraft observations.     

Active stars and systems

The most notable manifestations of stellar activity are reviewed with particular emphasis on the merging picture of solar-type activity in physical conditions different from those in the Sun. Evidence for starspots, plages and high-level coronal emissions is presented from observations covering a wide range of spectral bands: from X-ray to radio wavelengths. The main physical parameters of the active areas in the active stars, when compared with solar values, indicate that the basic requirement for activity phenomena to develop is the presence of observationally elusive localized magnetic fields on and above the stellar surface. The importance of coordinated programs involving simultaneous observations from the ground and from space - aiming at empirical and theoretical modeling of activity phenomena - is stressed.     

The X-TRACK/ALES multi-mission processing system: New advances in altimetry towards the coast

In the context of the ESA Climate Change Initiative project, a new coastal sea level altimetry product has been developed in order to support advances in coastal sea level variability studies. Measurements from Jason-1,2&3 missions have been retracked with the Adaptive Leading Edge Subwaveform (ALES) Retracker and then ingested in the X-TRACK software with the best possible set of altimetry corrections. These two coastal altimetry processing approaches, previously successfully validated and applied to coastal sea level research, are combined here for the first time in order to derive a 16-year-long (June 2002 to May 2018), high-resolution (20-Hz), along-track sea level dataset in six regions: Northeast Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, West Africa, North Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia and Australia. The study demonstrates that this new coastal sea level product called X-TRACK/ALES is able to extend the spatial coverage of sea level altimetry data ~3.5 km in the land direction, when compared to the X-TRACK 1-Hz dataset. We also observe a large improvement in coastal sea level data availability from Jason-1 to Jason-3, with data at 3.6 km, 1.9 km and 0.9 km to the coast on average, for Jason-1, Jason-2 and Jason-3, respectively. When combining measurements from Jason-1 to Jason-3, we reach a distance of 1.2–4 km to the coast. When compared to tide gauge data, the accuracy of the new altimetry near-shore sea level estimations also improves. In terms of correlations with a large set of independent tide gauge observations selected in the six regions, we obtain an average value of 0.77. We also show that it is now possible to derive from the X-TRACK/ALES product an estimation of the ocean current variability up to 5 km to the coast. This new altimetry dataset, freely available, will provide a valuable contribution of altimetry in coastal marine research community.     

IV: GEODESY: Remarks on the Role of Height Datum in Altimetry-Gravimetry Boundary-Value Problems

The problem of global geoid determination is usually solved using satellite altimetry data on the oceans, together with an oceanographic model of sea surface topography, and gravity anomaly data on the continents. Such data, however, enable to obtain only potential differences with respect to a reference surface whose absolute potential is unknown. This situation suggests to modify the classical mixed boundary-value problem of physical geodesy by inserting into the boundary conditions an unknown additive constant, that must be determined by imposing a suitable additional constraint. Yet, such formulation of the boundary-value problem, from the point of view of its mathematical properties, is not unconditionally well-posed, and, furthermore, does not reflect faithfully the available physical model, as the present knowledge of ocean circulation does not allow to connect along coastlines the reference surfaces defined on the oceans and on the continents. The introduction of two different unknown additive constants, one for the oceans and one for the earth, to be determined by imposing two additional constraints, gives rise to a more faithful picture of the present physical knowledge, and, at the same time, to a new well-posed formulation of the boundary-value problem. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Exact analytic solution for the spin-up maneuver of an axially symmetric spacecraft

The problem of spinning-up an axially symmetric spacecraft subjected to an external torque constant in magnitude and parallel to the symmetry axis is considered. The existing exact analytic solution for an axially symmetric body is applied for the first time to this problem. The proposed solution is valid for any initial conditions of attitude and angular velocity and for any length of time and rotation amplitude. Furthermore, the proposed solution can be numerically evaluated up to any desired level of accuracy. Numerical experiments and comparison with an existing approximated solution and with the integration of the equations of motion are reported in the paper. Finally, a new approximated solution obtained from the exact one is introduced in this paper.     

A ballistic-pendulum test stand to characterize small cold-gas thruster nozzles

This paper deals with the design, development and experimentation of a new test stand for the accurate and precise characterization of small cold-gas nozzles having thrust of the order of 0.1 N and specific impulse of the order of 10 s. As part of the presented research, a new cold-gas supersonic nozzle was designed and developed based on the quasi one-dimensional theory. The test stand is based on the ballistic-pendulum principle: in particular, it consists of a suspended gondola hosting the propulsion system and the sample nozzle. The propulsion system consists of an air tank, pressure regulator, solenoid valve, battery and digital timer to command the valve. The gondola is equipped with a fin, immersed in water, to provide torsional and lateral oscillation damping. A laser sensor measures the displacement of the gondola. The developed test stand was calibrated by using a mathematical model based on the inelastic collision theory. The obtained accuracy was of ～1%. Sample experimental results are reported regarding the comparison of the new supersonic nozzle with a commercially available subsonic nozzle. The obtained measurements of thrust, mass flow rate and specific impulse are precise to a level of ～3%. The broad goal of the presented research was to contribute to an upgraded design of a spacecraft simulator used for laboratory validation of guidance, navigation and control algorithms for autonomous docking manoeuvres.