Far-UVC light as a new tool to reduce microbial burden during spacecraft assembly

This work aims to investigate far-UVC light at 222 nm as a new microbial reduction tool for planetary protection purposes which could potentially be integrated into the spacecraft assembly process. The major advantage of far-UVC (222 nm) compared to traditional germicidal UVC (254 nm) is the potential for application throughout the spacecraft assembly process in the presence of humans without adverse health effects due to the limited penetration of far-UVC light into biological materials. Testing the efficacy of 222-nm light at inactivating hardy bacterial cells and spores isolated from spacecraft and associated surfaces is a necessary step to evaluate this technology. We assessed survival of Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 and Acinetobacter radioresistens 50v1 exposed to 222-nm light on proxy spacecraft surfaces simulated by drying the bacteria on aluminum coupons. The survival fraction of both bacteria followed a single stage decay function up to 60 mJ/cm², revealing similar susceptibility of both species to 222-nm light, which was independent of the exposure rate. Irradiation with far-UVC light at 222 nm is an effective method to decontaminate the proxy spacecraft materials tested in this study.     

Late Stages of Stellar Evolution

A large fraction of ISO observing time was used to study the late stages of stellar evolution. Many molecular and solid state features, including crystalline silicates and the rotational lines of water vapour, were detected for the first time in the spectra of (post-)Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars. Their analysis has greatly improved our knowledge of stellar atmospheres and circumstellar environments. A surprising number of objects, particularly young planetary nebulae with Wolf-Rayet (WR) central stars, were found to exhibit emission features in their ISO spectra that are characteristic of both oxygen-rich and carbon-rich dust species, while far-IR observations of the PDR around NGC 7027 led to the first detections of the rotational line spectra of CH and CH⁺. Based on observations with ISO, an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA Member States (especially the PI countries: France, Germany, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom), and with the participation of ISAS and NASA.     

Emergence of a Habitable Planet

We address the first several hundred million years of Earth’s history. The Moon-forming impact left Earth enveloped in a hot silicate atmosphere that cooled and condensed over ∼1,000 yrs. As it cooled the Earth degassed its volatiles into the atmosphere. It took another ∼2 Myrs for the magma ocean to freeze at the surface. The cooling rate was determined by atmospheric thermal blanketing. Tidal heating by the new Moon was a major energy source to the magma ocean. After the mantle solidified geothermal heat became climatologically insignificant, which allowed the steam atmosphere to condense, and left behind a ∼100 bar, ∼500 K CO₂ atmosphere. Thereafter cooling was governed by how quickly CO₂ was removed from the atmosphere. If subduction were efficient this could have taken as little as 10 million years. In this case the faint young Sun suggests that a lifeless Earth should have been cold and its oceans white with ice. But if carbonate subduction were inefficient the CO₂ would have mostly stayed in the atmosphere, which would have kept the surface near ∼500 K for many tens of millions of years. Hydrous minerals are harder to subduct than carbonates and there is a good chance that the Hadean mantle was dry. Hadean heat flow was locally high enough to ensure that any ice cover would have been thin (<5 m) in places. Moreover hundreds or thousands of asteroid impacts would have been big enough to melt the ice triggering brief impact summers. We suggest that plate tectonics as it works now was inadequate to handle typical Hadean heat flows of 0.2–0.5 W/m². In its place we hypothesize a convecting mantle capped by a ∼100 km deep basaltic mush that was relatively permeable to heat flow. Recycling and distillation of hydrous basalts produced granitic rocks very early, which is consistent with preserved >4 Ga detrital zircons. If carbonates in oceanic crust subducted as quickly as they formed, Earth could have been habitable as early as 10–20 Myrs after the Moon-forming impact.     

不均布行星齿轮传动装置设计的几个问题

推导了不均布行星传动的装配条件；提出了不均布所带来的各行星轮合力及工作过程中的动不平衡离心力的计算公式；推荐了使其合力为零或减至最小的方法；得出了行星轮不均布的行星传动装置的使用条件和设计时应注意的几个问题。     

Deep Impact: Working Properties for the Target Nucleus – Comet 9P/Tempel 1

In 1998, Comet 9P/Tempel 1 was chosen as the target of the Deep Impact mission (A’Hearn, M. F., Belton, M. J. S., and Delamere, A., Space Sci. Rev., 2005) even though very little was known about its physical properties. Efforts were immediately begun to improve this situation by the Deep Impact Science Team leading to the founding of a worldwide observing campaign (Meech et al., Space Sci. Rev., 2005a). This campaign has already produced a great deal of information on the global properties of the comet’s nucleus (summarized in Table I) that is vital to the planning and the assessment of the chances of success at the impact and encounter. Since the mission was begun the successful encounters of the Deep Space 1 spacecraft at Comet 19P/Borrelly and the Stardust spacecraft at Comet 81P/Wild 2 have occurred yielding new information on the state of the nuclei of these two comets. This information, together with earlier results on the nucleus of comet 1P/Halley from the European Space Agency’s Giotto, the Soviet Vega mission, and various ground-based observational and theoretical studies, is used as a basis for conjectures on the morphological, geological, mechanical, and compositional properties of the surface and subsurface that Deep Impact may find at 9P/Tempel 1. We adopt the following working values (circa December 2004) for the nucleus parameters of prime importance to Deep Impact as follows: mean effective radius = 3.25± 0.2 km, shape – irregular triaxial ellipsoid with a/b = 3.2± 0.4 and overall dimensions of ∼14.4 × 4.4 × 4.4 km, principal axis rotation with period = 41.85± 0.1 hr, pole directions (RA, Dec, J2000) = 46± 10, 73± 10 deg (Pole 1) or 287± 14, 16.5± 10 deg (Pole 2) (the two poles are photometrically, but not geometrically, equivalent), Kron-Cousins (V-R) color = 0.56± 0.02, V-band geometric albedo = 0.04± 0.01, R-band geometric albedo = 0.05± 0.01, R-band H(1,1,0) = 14.441± 0.067, and mass ∼7×10¹³ kg assuming a bulk density of 500 kg m⁻³. As these are working values, {i.e.}, based on preliminary analyses, it is expected that adjustments to their values may be made before encounter as improved estimates become available through further analysis of the large database being made available by the Deep Impact observing campaign. Given the parameters listed above the impact will occur in an environment where the local gravity is estimated at 0.027–0.04 cm s⁻² and the escape velocity between 1.4 and 2 m s⁻¹. For both of the rotation poles found here, the Deep Impact spacecraft on approach to encounter will find the rotation axis close to the plane of the sky (aspect angles 82.2 and 69.7 deg. for pole 1 and 2, respectively). However, until the rotation period estimate is substantially improved, it will remain uncertain whether the impactor will collide with the broadside or the ends of the nucleus.     

太阳质量损失对行星轨道的影响

本文利用Ｇｙｌｄｅｎ－Ｍｅｓｈｃｈｅｒｓｋｉｉ方程和Ｅｄｄｉｎｇｔｏｎ－Ｊｅａｎｓ定律，讨论太阳质量损失对行星轨道的影响，结果表明由于太阳质量损失会产生轨道半长径α的一阶周期项和二阶混合项；近日点角距ω的一阶周期项、二阶长期项和混合项，行星轨道半长径的长期变化会影响太阳系的稳定性。     

基于ANSYS Workbench的行星滚柱丝杠动态特性分析

通过Pro/Engineer建立行星滚柱丝杠三维模型，基于ANSYS Workbench有限元分析技术进行模态与谐响应分析，得到前六阶固有频率与各阶模态振型，确定共振频率，掌握对应频率下的位移峰值响应，并研究螺母处于不同工作位置时对固有频率的影响，为基于行星滚柱丝杠传动的舵系统抗振设计提供数据支撑。     

MESSENGER: Exploring Mercury’s Magnetosphere

The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission to Mercury offers our first opportunity to explore this planet’s miniature magnetosphere since the brief flybys of Mariner 10. Mercury’s magnetosphere is unique in many respects. The magnetosphere of Mercury is among the smallest in the solar system; its magnetic field typically stands off the solar wind only ∼1000 to 2000 km above the surface. For this reason there are no closed drift paths for energetic particles and, hence, no radiation belts. Magnetic reconnection at the dayside magnetopause may erode the subsolar magnetosphere, allowing solar wind ions to impact directly the regolith. Inductive currents in Mercury’s interior may act to modify the solar wind interaction by resisting changes due to solar wind pressure variations. Indeed, observations of these induction effects may be an important source of information on the state of Mercury’s interior. In addition, Mercury’s magnetosphere is the only one with its defining magnetic flux tubes rooted beneath the solid surface as opposed to an atmosphere with a conductive ionospheric layer. This lack of an ionosphere is probably the underlying reason for the brevity of the very intense, but short-lived, ∼1–2 min, substorm-like energetic particle events observed by Mariner 10 during its first traversal of Mercury’s magnetic tail. Because of Mercury’s proximity to the sun, 0.3–0.5 AU, this magnetosphere experiences the most extreme driving forces in the solar system. All of these factors are expected to produce complicated interactions involving the exchange and recycling of neutrals and ions among the solar wind, magnetosphere, and regolith. The electrodynamics of Mercury’s magnetosphere are expected to be equally complex, with strong forcing by the solar wind, magnetic reconnection, and pick-up of planetary ions all playing roles in the generation of field-aligned electric currents. However, these field-aligned currents do not close in an ionosphere, but in some other manner. In addition to the insights into magnetospheric physics offered by study of the solar wind–Mercury system, quantitative specification of the “external” magnetic field generated by magnetospheric currents is necessary for accurate determination of the strength and multi-polar decomposition of Mercury’s intrinsic magnetic field. MESSENGER’s highly capable instrumentation and broad orbital coverage will greatly advance our understanding of both the origin of Mercury’s magnetic field and the acceleration of charged particles in small magnetospheres. In this article, we review what is known about Mercury’s magnetosphere and describe the MESSENGER science team’s strategy for obtaining answers to the outstanding science questions surrounding the interaction of the solar wind with Mercury and its small, but dynamic, magnetosphere.     

基于人工免疫算法的载人登月任务地月转移双脉冲中止策略研究彭 坤,果琳丽,向开恒,王 平,杨 雷

载人登月任务中,任务中止策略设计是确保航天员安全返回的重要基础。首先结合"星座"计划飞行方案分析了载人登月任务各飞行阶段的中止策略;其次针对地月转移巡航段进行了双脉冲中止策略设计,以速度增量数值、方位角以及变轨时间间隔为控制变量,加入轨道同向、近地点高度、偏心率以及飞行时间约束,提出双脉冲变轨计算流程;最后采用人工免疫算法对该问题进行了求解和优化。仿真算例表明,双脉冲中止策略存在多组解,其全局分布特性为:飞行时间越短速度增量需求越大;飞行时间相近时,大偏心率中止轨道对应的速度增量小;故障点离地月加速点越近,所需速度增量越小。同时也验证了人工免疫算法求解双脉冲中止策略问题的有效性。     

A dimension reduced INS/VNS integrated navigation method for planetary rovers

Inertial navigation system/visual navigation system (INS/VNS) integrated navigation is a commonly used autonomous navigation method for planetary rovers. Since visual measurements are related to the previous and current state vectors (position and attitude) of planetary rovers, the performance of the Kalman filter (KF) will be challenged by the time-correlation problem. A state augmentation method, which augments the previous state value to the state vector, is commonly used when dealing with this problem. However, the augmenting of state dimensions will result in an increase in computation load. In this paper, a state dimension reduced INS/VNS integrated nav-igation method based on coordinates of feature points is presented that utilizes the information obtained through INS/VNS integrated navigation at a previous moment to overcome the time rel-evance problem and reduce the dimensions of the state vector. Equations of extended Kalman filter (EKF) are used to demonstrate the equivalence of calculated results between the proposed method and traditional state augmented methods. Results of simulation and experimentation indicate that this method has less computational load but similar accuracy when compared with traditional methods.