机上互联:航空公司面临艰难的选择

随着时代的发展,加装机上互联系统已经成为了航空公司必须面对的选择之一,因为它能够为飞机乘客、飞行员、MRO供应商等民航业不同层次的参与者带来全新的变化和效率的提升。但当前摆在航空公司面前的是如何选择机上互联系统或供应商,如何赶上先进技术红利并守住自己的成本底线。为此,机上互联供应商也在不断优化产品,其中部件标准化首当其冲。     

国外维修企业的未来

大约两年前,美国国会颁布法律,禁止美国联邦航空局(FAA)为新提出申请的国外MRO企业签发维修许可证.现在又将可能出台一条新的法规,阻止FAA为国外MRO企业更新维修许可证.     

NBAA Sees Benefits with East Coast Airspace Redesign

正The FAA's airspace optimization initiative on the U.S.East Coast is expected to bring incremental relief to constraints in business aviation travel beginning with changes taking place this month,according to NBAA.Under the FAA's Northeast Corridor Atlantic Coast Routes (NEC ACR) initiative,"operators will see significant changes ahead of the project's targeted November 2020 completion date,"the association said.     

“项目引导”培养维修人才

虽然近期世界航空运输业的形势令人堪忧.但未来20年,维修人员的供需矛盾同样很尖锐.因此,美国公务机协会(NBAA)提出了"项目引导" (Project Bootstrap)计划,旨在以此吸引、稳定和培养有志于航空维修业的年轻人,带动航空维修队伍整体素质的提升.通过不断提高航空维修人员的技术水平、创新能力和组织协调能力,进一步改善航空维修人员的待遇及社会地位.     

The role of image processing in mineral exploration: Why stop at Landsat?

Digital image processing procedures can be applied to data other than Landsat. Registered images of ancillary data such as may be derived from airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys provide new insights into existing data and extend the usefulness of satellite imagery. In times of increasing costs and difficulty of exploration better information handling is at a premium. It should be remembered that the field geologist is the ultimate end-user of most geological information, and as such the data should be easily useable and interpretable by him.     

InSight Mars Lander Robotics Instrument Deployment System

The InSight Mars Lander is equipped with an Instrument Deployment System (IDS) and science payload with accompanying auxiliary peripherals mounted on the Lander. The InSight science payload includes a seismometer (SEIS) and Wind and Thermal Shield (WTS), heat flow probe (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, HP³) and a precision tracking system (RISE) to measure the size and state of the core, mantle and crust of Mars. The InSight flight system is a close copy of the Mars Phoenix Lander and comprises a Lander, cruise stage, heatshield and backshell. The IDS comprises an Instrument Deployment Arm (IDA), scoop, five finger “claw” grapple, motor controller, arm-mounted Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), lander-mounted Instrument Context Camera (ICC), and control software. IDS is responsible for the first precision robotic instrument placement and release of SEIS and HP³ on a planetary surface that will enable scientists to perform the first comprehensive surface-based geophysical investigation of Mars’ interior structure. This paper describes the design and operations of the Instrument Deployment Systems (IDS), a critical subsystem of the InSight Mars Lander necessary to achieve the primary scientific goals of the mission including robotic arm geology and physical properties (soil mechanics) investigations at the Landing site. In addition, we present test results of flight IDS Verification and Validation activities including thermal characterization and InSight 2017 Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO), Deployment Scenario Test at Lockheed Martin, Denver, where all the flight payloads were successfully deployed with a balloon gravity offload fixture to compensate for Mars to Earth gravity.     

Statistical validation of HZETRN as a function of vertical cutoff rigidity using ISS measurements

Measurements taken in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) onboard the International Space Station (ISS) and transit vehicles have been extensively used to validate radiation transport models. Primarily, such comparisons were done by integrating measured data over mission or trajectory segments so that individual comparisons to model results could be made. This approach has yielded considerable information but is limited in its ability to rigorously quantify and differentiate specific model errors or uncertainties. Further, as exploration moves beyond LEO and measured data become sparse, the uncertainty estimates derived from these validation cases will no longer be applicable. Recent improvements in the underlying numerical methods used in HZETRN have resulted in significant decreases in code run time. Therefore, the large number of comparisons required to express error as a function of a physical quantity, like cutoff rigidity, are now possible. Validation can be looked at in detail over any portion of a flight trajectory (e.g. minute by minute) such that a statistically significant number of comparisons can be made. This more rigorous approach to code validation will allow the errors caused by uncertainties in the geometry models, environmental models, and nuclear physics models to be differentiated and quantified. It will also give much better guidance for future model development. More importantly, it will allow a quantitative means of extrapolating uncertainties in LEO to free space. In this work, measured data taken onboard the ISS during solar maximum are compared to results obtained with the particle transport code HZETRN. Comparisons are made at a large number (∼77,000) of discrete time intervals, allowing error estimates to be given as a function of cutoff rigidity. It is shown that HZETRN systematically underestimates exposure quantities at high cutoff rigidity. The errors are likely associated with increased angular variation in the geomagnetic field near the equator, the lack of pion production in HZETRN, and errors in high energy nuclear physics models, and will be the focus of future work.     

The Mars Odyssey Gamma-Ray Spectrometer Instrument Suite

The Mars Odyssey Gamma-Ray Spectrometer is a suite of three different instruments, a gamma subsystem (GS), a neutron spectrometer, and a high-energy neutron detector, working together to collect data that will permit the mapping of elemental concentrations on the surface of Mars. The instruments are complimentary in that the neutron instruments have greater sensitivity to low amounts of hydrogen, but their signals saturate as the hydrogen content gets high. The hydrogen signal in the GS, on the other hand, does not saturate at high hydrogen contents and is sensitive to small differences in hydrogen content even when hydrogen is very abundant. The hydrogen signal in the neutron instruments and the GS have a different dependence on depth, and thus by combining both data sets we can infer not only the amount of hydrogen, but constrain its distribution with depth. In addition to hydrogen, the GS determines the abundances of several other elements. The instruments, the basis of the technique, and the data processing requirements are described as are some expected applications of the data to scientific problems.     

OLTARIS: On-line tool for the assessment of radiation in space

OLTARIS (On-Line Tool for the Assessment of Radiation In Space) is a space radiation analysis tool available on the World Wide Web. It can be used to study the effects of space radiation for various spacecraft and mission scenarios involving humans and electronics. The transport is based on the HZETRN transport code and the input nuclear physics model is NUCFRG. This paper describes the tools behind the web interface and the types of inputs required to obtain results. Typical inputs are mission parameters and slab definitions or vehicle thickness distributions. Radiation environments can be chosen by the user. This paper describes these inputs as well as the output response functions including dose, dose equivalent, whole body effective dose equivalent, LET spectra and detector response models.