Deorbiter CubeSat mission design

This paper presents the mission design for a CubeSat-based active debris removal approach intended for transferring sizable debris objects from low-Earth orbit to a deorbit altitude of 100 km. The mission consists of a mothership spacecraft that carries and deploys several debris-removing nanosatellites, called Deorbiter CubeSats. Each Deorbiter is designed based on the utilization of an eight-unit CubeSat form factor and commercially-available components with significant flight heritage. The mothership spacecraft delivers Deorbiter CubeSats to the vicinity of a predetermined target debris, through performing a long-range rendezvous maneuver. Through a formation flying maneuver, the mothership then performs in-situ measurements of debris shape and orbital state. Upon release from the mothership, each Deorbiter CubeSat proceeds to performing a rendezvous and attachment maneuver with a debris object. Once attached to the debris, the CubeSat performs a detumbling maneuver, by which the residual angular momentum of the CubeSat-debris system is dumped using Deorbiter’s onboard reaction wheels. After stabilizing the attitude motion of the combined Deorbiter-debris system, the CubeSat proceeds to performing a deorbiting maneuver, i.e., reducing system’s altitude so much so that the bodies disintegrate and burn up due to atmospheric drag, typically at around 100 km above the Earth surface. The attitude and orbital maneuvers that are planned for the mission are described, both for the mothership and Deorbiter CubeSat. The performance of each spacecraft during their operations is investigated, using the actual performance specifications of the onboard components. The viability of the proposed debris removal approach is discussed in light of the results.     

Development and performance evaluation of tropospheric scintillation model on Ku-band satellite link over Akure,Nigeria

Existing amplitude scintillation prediction models often perform less satisfactorily when deployed outside the regions where they were formulated. This necessitates the need to evaluate the performance of scintillation models developed in one region using data data from other regions while documenting their relative errors. Due to its variation with elevation angle, frequency, other link parameters and meteorological factors, we employed three years (January 2016 to December 2018) of concurrently measured satellite radio beacons and tropospheric weather parameters to develop a location-based amplitude scintillation prediction model over the Earth-space path of Akure (7.17^oN, 5.18^oE), South-western Nigeria. The satellite beacon measurement used Tektronix Y400 NetTek Analyzer at 1 s integration time while meteorological parameters, namely; temperature, pressure and relative humidity were measured using Davis Vantage Vue weather station at 1 min integration time. Comparative study of the model’s performance with nine (9) existing scintillation prediction models indicates that the best and worst performing models, in terms of root mean square error (RMSE), are the Statistical Temperature and Refractivity (STN) and direct physical and statistical prediction (DPSP) models with values 11.48 and 51.03 respectively. Also, worst month analysis indicates that April, with respective enhancement and fade values of 0.88 and 0.90 dB for 0.01% exceedance, is the overall worst calendar month for amplitude scintillation.     

Study of highly perturbed spacecraft formation dynamics via approximation

This paper explores methods for approximating and analyzing the dynamics of highly perturbed spacecraft formations with an emphasis on computationally efficient approaches. This facilitates on-board computation or rapid preliminary mission design analysis. Perturbed formation dynamics are often approximated as linear time-varying (LTV) systems, for which Floquet theory can be used to analyze the degree of system instability. Furthermore, the angular momentum of the relative orbital state can be computed with the approximate dynamics to provide additional insight. A general methodology is developed first and then applied to the problem of unstable formation dynamics in asteroid orbits. Here the dominant perturbative effects due to low-order gravitational harmonics and solar radiation pressure are modeled. Numerical simulations validate the approach and illustrate the approximation accuracy achieved.     

Estimating the spin axis orientation of the Echostar-2 box-wing geosynchronous satellite

For the first time, the spin axis orientation of an inactive box-wing geosynchronous satellite has been estimated from ground-based optical photometric observations of Echostar-2’s specular reflections. Recent photometric light curves obtained of Echostar-2 over four years suggest that unusually bright and brief specular reflections were occurring twice within an observed spin period. These bright and brief specular reflections suggested two satellite surfaces with surface normals separated by approximately 180°. The geometry between the satellite, the Sun, and the observing location at the time of each of the brightest observed reflections, was used to estimate Echostar-2’s equatorial spin axis orientation coordinates. When considering prograde and retrograde rotation, Echostar-2’s spin axis orientation was estimated to have been located within 30° of either equatorial coordinate pole. Echostar-2’s spin axis was observed to have moved approximately 180° in right ascension, within a time span of six months, suggesting a roughly one year spin axis precession period about the satellite’s angular momentum vector.     

双模块下颌式内转进气道/圆锥前体一体化布局研究

为实现三维内转进气道的内收缩流场与圆锥前体的外压缩流场的良好匹配，提出了一种双模块下颌式内转进气道/圆锥前体(Double-modules Chin Inward-turning Inlet and Conical Forebody，DCII/CF)一体化设计方法，获得一种新颖的双发并置、侧向安装的DCII/CF一体化布局。针对该布局形式，开展了DCII/CF一体化构型与传统的单模块内转进气道/圆锥前体(Single-module Inward-turning Inlet and Conical Forebody，SII/CF)一体化构型的数值对比研究。结果表明：DCII/CF一体化布局不仅为内转进气道提供了优秀的前体附面层排移效果，还有效避免了传统SII/CF布局中前体附面层与进气道内部流场之间的相互干扰。在Ma∞=6.0设计状态，DCII/CF一体化布局的进气道总压恢复系数相较传统的SII/CF布局有了显著提高，从0.403提高至0.482；但由于前体附面层的排移，该布局的捕获流量略有降低， SII/CF的流量系数为0.956，该布局则为0.917。而在非设计状态，该布局形式同样具备较好的总压恢复性能，在Ma∞=5.0与Ma∞=4.0的总压恢复系数分别达到了0.586和0.682，明显高于SII/CF的总压恢复系数0.507和0.619。     

航空电子产品电磁环境效应模块化设计方法

对高强度辐射场（HIRF）环境特点与干扰类型进行分析，采用理论计算、计算机仿真技术（CST）的仿真分析及实测等方法分别对某型飞机航空电子系统综合显示单元的外部强电磁辐射场孔缝耦合、场线耦合及芯片前端电路影响关键芯片的相关规律进行了研究，给出了相关设计建议。结果表明，可通过分析孔缝、场线耦合获得进入关键芯片前端电路的电磁干扰能量，再结合关键芯片前端电路网络对干扰的插入损耗分析，获得关键芯片在外部强场激励下的感应电压。     

An innovative approach for integrated airline network and aircraft family optimization

The determination of optimal aerial transport networks and their associated flight frequencies is crucial for the strategic planning of airlines, as well as for carrying out market research, to establish target markets, and for aircraft and crew rostering. In addition, optimum airplane types for the selected networks are crucial to improve revenue and to provide reduced operating costs. The present study proposes an innovative approach to determine the optimal aerial transport network simultaneously with the determination of the optimum fleet for that network, composed of three types of airplanes (network and vehicle integrated design). The network profit is maximized. The passenger’s demands between the airports are determined via a gravitational model. An embedded linear programming solution is responsible for obtaining potential optimal network configurations. The optimum fleet combination is determined from a database of candidate aircraft designs via genetic algorithm. A truly realistic airplane representation is made possible thanks to accurate surrogate models for engine and aerodynamics is adopted. An accurate engine deck encompassing a compression map and an innovative engine weight calculation besides an aerodynamical artificial neural network module enable a high degree of accuracy for the mission analysis. The proposed methodology is applied to obtain the optimum network comprised of twenty main Brazilian airports and corresponding fleet.     

一种卫星间跟瞄方向的控制策略与实现

进行自由空间的光通信或空间对抗，需要在卫星间实现精确的跟踪与瞄准。因为地面测控站的设置非常有限，指令与数据注入的范围受到很多限制，所以要求这种跟瞄在很多时候是无主控制状态下完成的。提出了一种利用在地面测控站的范围内向星上数管中心注入目标卫星、本体卫星的轨道参数，其它时间依靠自主导航飞行和GPS修正的方法，结合本体星的姿态测量、振动测量实现卫星瞄准指向的方位角与俯仰角的精确控制的方法，提高了在地面站无法注入指令与数据时卫星的捕获概率。通过仿真，将计算结果与卫星仿真工具软件STK的数据进行比较，结果一致。最后在嵌入式DSP平台上实现了这一策略。     

用亚稳态正电子素研究络合的瞬态反应（Ⅲ）

本文用自制的装有 BaF_2探头的高探测效率的正电子湮没寿命谱仪测量了在室温下正电子素 o-Ps 与 p-RPhG 及 m-RPhG(R=NO_2,Cl,H,CH_3,cH_3O)在20%(V/V)二氧六环水溶液中的络合形成速度常数。实验结果表明,这些o-Ps-M 络合形成速度常数 K 值均与作为配位体的 p-RPhG、m-RPhG 的碱性解离常数 K 的负对数 pK_2 呈线性函数。这表明上述瞬态络合反应满足线性自由能关系,由此可推断出上述络合反应的一些重要性质。