AE9, AP9 and SPM: New Models for Specifying the Trapped Energetic Particle and Space Plasma Environment

The radiation belts and plasma in the Earth’s magnetosphere pose hazards to satellite systems which restrict design and orbit options with a resultant impact on mission performance and cost. For decades the standard space environment specification used for spacecraft design has been provided by the NASA AE8 and AP8 trapped radiation belt models. There are well-known limitations on their performance, however, and the need for a new trapped radiation and plasma model has been recognized by the engineering community for some time. To address this challenge a new set of models, denoted AE9/AP9/SPM, for energetic electrons, energetic protons and space plasma has been developed. The new models offer significant improvements including more detailed spatial resolution and the quantification of uncertainty due to both space weather and instrument errors. Fundamental to the model design, construction and operation are a number of new data sets and a novel statistical approach which captures first order temporal and spatial correlations allowing for the Monte-Carlo estimation of flux thresholds for user-specified percentile levels (e.g., 50th and 95th) over the course of the mission. An overview of the model architecture, data reduction methods, statistics algorithms, user application and initial validation is presented in this paper.     

DC-to-DC Converter Power-Train Optimization for Maximum Efficiency

A new way is given to describe the independent and dependent design variables of the power train of a dc-to-dc converter in terms of a multidimensional design-parameter space. These concepts provide a framework for examining the problem of design optimization of the power train, with particular emphasis on the maximization of converter efficiency. Numerous examples of important parameterspace surfaces illustrate some of the major relationships between core volume, switching frequency, and output power and between efficiency, ripple, and temperature rise of the energy-storage reactor. Also, the difference in performance between the continuous and discontinuous magnetomotive (MMF) force modes of operation is explored.