Some problems of selection and evaluation of the Martian suit enclosure concept

One of the most important tasks for preparation of a future manned mission to Mars is to create a space suit, which ensures efficient and safe operation of the man on the planet surface.

The concept of space suit (SS) utilisation on the Mars surface will be determined mainly by the Mars mission scenario. Currently the preference is given to utilisation of robotics with the crew driving a Mars rover vehicle, whereby the suit will be used solely as an additional safety means.

However, one cannot exclude the necessity of a durable self-contained stay of the man outside a pressurised compartment, to pick up, for instance, soil samples or do certain repair work in case of an emergency.

The requirements to the Mars suit and especially to the personal self-contained life support system (LSS) will depend in many respects on the Mars environmental conditions, the space vehicle system concept and performance characteristics, the airlock and its interface design, the availability of expendable elements for the LSS, etc.

The paper reviews principal problems, which have to be solved during development of the Martian suit. A special attention is paid to the issue of suited man mobility during traversing on the planet surface.

The paper also reviews the arguments for application of a suit semi-rigid design concept and evaluates potentialities of using certain elements of the existing “Orlan” type suit.

The paper presents results of a number of studies on selection of the planetary SS enclosure concept and on experimental evaluation of mobility of the lower torso and leg enclosures in conjunction with a specially designed prototype model (tentative model) of the SS enclosure.     

Application of a modified generalized sail model on a solar sail with wrinkles

In this paper, we present an analysis of effect of wrinkles on the solar sail performance. We describe different analytical, semi-analytical and numerical approaches to the calculation of general large-scale curvature of a solar sail as well as parameters of so-called wrinkled domains, and introduce the impact of such wrinkles on the thrust and torque of the solar sail. Finally, we present a model of an optically-orthotropic surface for such non-ideal sail, providing a connection with the Generalized Sail Model, and other solar sail thrust models.     

Magnetospheric disturbances associated with the 13 December 2006 solar flare and their ionospheric effects over North-East Asia

We present an observational study of magnetospheric and ionospheric disturbances during the December 2006 intense magnetic storm associated with the 4В/Х3.4 class solar flare. To perform the study we utilize the ground data from North–East Asian ionospheric and magnetic observatories (60–72°N, 88–152°E) and in situ measurements from LANL, GOES, Geotail and ACE satellites. The comparative analysis of ionospheric, magnetospheric and heliospheric disturbances shows that the interaction of the magnetosphere with heavily compressed solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field caused the initial phase of the magnetic storm. It was accompanied by the intense sporadic E and F2 layers and the total black-out in the nocturnal subauroral ionosphere. During the storm main phase, LANL-97A, LANL 1994_084, LANL 1989-046 and GOES_11 satellites registered a compression of the dayside magnetosphere up to their orbits. In the morning–noon sector the compression was accompanied by an absence of reflections from ionosphere over subauroral ionospheric station Zhigansk (66.8°N, 123.3°E), and a drastic decrease in the F2 layer critical frequency (foF2) up to 54% of the quite one over subauroral Yakutsk station (62°N, 129.7°E). At the end of the main phase, these stations registered a sharp foF2 increase in the afternoon sector. At Yakutsk the peak foF2 was 1.9 time higher than the undisturbed one. The mentioned ionospheric disturbances occurred simultaneously with changes in the temperature, density and temperature anisotropy of particles at geosynchronous orbit, registered by the LANL-97A satellite nearby the meridian of ionospheric and magnetic measurements. The whole complex of disturbances may be caused by radial displacement of the main magnetospheric domains (magnetopause, cusp/cleft, plasma sheet) with respect to the observation points, caused by changes in the solar wind dynamic pressure, the field of magnetospheric convection, and rotation of the Earth.     

The navigational experiments on microgravitational space platform “FOTON-M2”

This paper presents the review of results of the navigating experiments which have been carried out during flight of microgravitational space platform (MSP) Foton-M2 in May–June 2005. The brief characteristic of the created MIRAGE–M equipment consisting from magnitometric system and satellite radionavigation receiver is given. The measurements have allowed to restore unguided MSP movement and to estimate a level of microaccelerations (microgravitations) onboard during flight, and have provided precision time-position binding of the research experiments. The data from the equipments transmitted on the telemetering channel have allowed testing the information technologies of virtual support of experiments in space. Flight testing of the equipment has allowed make a conclusion on usefulness of accommodation onboard the small-sized auxiliary navigating system focused for work with users of research experiments. The experiments on MSP Foton-M2 are the development of experiments with MIRAGE equipment carried out in 1999 during flight time of MSP Foton-12 [N.D. Semkin, V.V. Ivanov, V.I. Abrushkin, V.L. Balakin, I.V. Belokonov, K.E. Voronov, The experiments with magnetic fields formed by technical equipment inside Foton-12 spacecraft: the results of the MIRAGE experiments, in: Proceedings of International Conference “Scientific and Technological Experiments on Russian Foton/Bion Recoverable Satellites: Results, Problems and Outlooks”, 25–30 June 2000, pp. 116–122; V.L. Balakin, I.V. Belokonov, V.V. Ivanov, “Determination of motion of spacecraft Foton-12 as a result of magnetic fields measurement in MIRAGE experiment”, pp. 231–238 (published in the same place)].Paper is executed within the framework of the grant of the Russian Fund of Fundamental Researches 06-08-00244.     

Clouds and Hazes of Venus

More than three decades have passed since the publication of the last review of the Venus clouds and hazes. The paper published in 1983 in the Venus book summarized the discoveries and findings of the US Pioneer Venus and a series of Soviet Venera spacecraft (Esposito et al. in Venus, p. 484, 1983). Due to the emphasis on in-situ investigations from descent probes, those missions established the basic features of the Venus cloud system, its vertical structure, composition and microphysical properties. Since then, significant progress in understanding of the Venus clouds has been achieved due to exploitation of new observation techniques onboard Galileo and Messenger flyby spacecraft and Venus Express and Akatsuki orbiters. They included detailed investigation of the mesospheric hazes in solar and stellar occultation geometry applied in the broad spectral range from UV to thermal IR. Imaging spectroscopy in the near-IR transparency “windows” on the night side opened a new and very effective way of sounding the deep atmosphere. This technique together with near-simultaneous UV imaging enabled comprehensive study of the cloud morphology from the cloud top to its deep layers. Venus Express operated from April 2006 until December 2014 and provided a continuous data set characterizing Venus clouds and hazes over a time span of almost 14 Venus years thus enabling a detailed study of temporal and spatial variability. The polar orbit of Venus Express allowed complete latitudinal coverage. These studies are being complemented by JAXA Akatsuki orbiter that began observations in May 2016. This paper reviews the current status of our knowledge of the Venus cloud system focusing mainly on the results acquired after the Venera, Pioneer Venus and Vega missions.     

Global geomagnetic response to a sharp compression of the magnetosphere and IMF variations on October 29, 2003

We study the response of the ionosphere and magnetosphere to a sudden commencement (SC) on October 29, 2003, at 06:11 UT. It is shown that the geomagnetic response had the form of two successive stages. In the first 5 min after the SC, a strong intensification of a two-vortex current system of the DP2 type was observed in latitudes 67°-65°, with variations of H -4000 nT (+700 nT). At the same time, energetic electrons were injected without dispersion to geosynchronous orbits simultaneously in the sectors 16, 04, and 07 MLT. In the subsequent 5–15 min, a new intensification of the western electrojet took place in all time sectors at latitudes 70°. Around midnight, this electrojet was extended in the poleward direction up to the polar cap latitudes ( 75°-83°). It had an unusually high velocity of extension (up to 5.0 km/s) and was accompanied by typical dispersionless substorm injections, but only at meridians 04 and 07 MLT. From comparing the development of electrojets with the data of satellite observations in the solar wind and magnetosphere, we suggest that 3–5 min after the SC onset a dipolization of the magnetic field at the geosynchronous orbit occurred. It was connected with the decay of the current flowing across the magnetotail. The subsequent extension of the region of current decay into the tail up to 150 R_E proceeded with a velocity of 1000 km/s, which exceeds the known velocities of such an extension by a factor of 5.Translated from Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, Vol. 42, No. 6, 2004, pp. 622–631.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Solovyev, Moiseyev, Mullayarov, Du, Engebretson, Newitt.