Search

Abstract: The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), established in 1997 through a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) competition, is a 12-university consortium dedicated to space life science research and education. NSBRI''s Education and Public Outreach Program (EPOP) has partnered with Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) to support NSBRI-NASA''s education mission, which is to strengthen the nation''s future science workforce through initiatives that communicate space exploration biology research findings to schools; support undergraduate and graduate programs; fund postdoctoral fellowships; and engage national and international audiences in collegial exchanges that promote global visions for space exploration education. This paper describes select MSM–NSBRI–EPOP activities, including scholarly interchanges with audiences in Austria, Canada, France, China, Greece, Italy, Scotland and Spain. The paper also makes the case for a global space exploration education vision that inspires students, engages educators and informs general audiences about the benefits that space exploration holds for life on Earth. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Space traffic management means that space is no longer an open frontier; it means the space-faring nations have decided that there is a reason to bring order to near-Earth space. There are several ways space traffic management might be implemented, and “bringing order” raises numerous questions. This paper discusses justifications and goals for establishing space traffic management, triggers which might move the concept forward, current plans for piloting aspects for space traffic management, and questions that must be answered. The paper argues that effective space traffic management will become a reality when one of two things happens: a collision involving a major space asset, or interest by commercial satellite operators in such a service to protect their assets from collision. The paper includes a discussion of the likelihood of collision and how cost-effectiveness might be interpreted. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In the coming decades, as we continue our path of space exploration beyond the Earth''s orbit, we will be required to provide sound medical and surgical care for the safety of space travellers and spaceflight participants. A few investigations have taken place in the field of surgery in space. In this paper, the authors review the present literature in order to identify possible limitations that currently exist and that could impair our ability to provide surgical care during spaceflight, from the pre-operative to the post-operative period. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The development of the European Student Earth Orbiter (ESEO) was announced in the year of 2008 by the European Space Agency for students interested in the space exploration. The Budapest University of Technology and Economics joined this international cooperation with three student groups among other participating European universities. One of them is the ESEO-TriTel team. The development of the TriTel 3D silicon detector telescope began in the KFKI Atomic Energy Research Institute several years ago in order to determine the average radiation quality factor of the space radiation field for dosimetric purposes. In the year 2011—before the start of the ESEO mission—it will be operated on board the European Columbus module of the International Space Station (ISS) and will be installed in the Russian segment of the ISS as well. The ESEO version of TriTel will fly higher than the ISS version, at an altitude of 520km. At this altitude the Earth''s geomagnetic field is much lower and the spectrum of the radiation field is also different. In the ESEO-TriTel experiment the anisotropies in the radiation field, the effects of the Earth shadow and the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) will be analysed and the results will be compared with the fluxes calculated with the standard AP-8 and AE-8 trapped proton and electron models. In the near future the frequency of manned space flights will probably increase, we can think of the continuous human presence in the near-Earth region (low Earth orbits) or the proposed human Mars expedition. That is why the cosmic radiation field is interesting not only in the near-Earth region but at higher altitudes or in the interplanetary field as well. The present paper addresses the optimal shielding of the dosimetric telescopes of TriTel in order to avoid the saturation of the electronics. The amount of optimal shielding is equivalent to the effective thickness of astronaut''s space suit, which means that the same dose will be measured as what the astronauts might experience in the interplanetary field. The thermal requirements, both the general and TriTel specific ones, are discussed as well. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Nanosatellite constellations at low Earth orbits represent a cost-efficient way for the accomplishment of Earth and space observation tasks. With the growing complexity of the exploration tasks, the amount of science data is expected to increase. For data download purposes efficient communication strategies must be adopted. The available power of a single nanosatellite spacecraft is limited by the small area of solar arrays. The communications equipment consumes a substantial amount of power. A constellation of nanosatellites allows to share resources efficiently, assigning major tasks to different spacecrafts. Within the constellation, a dedicated spacecraft which acts as data relay, monitoring and controlling inter-satellite communications is advantageous. This allows all other satellites to reuse the energy saved by implementing low-energy consuming communications links between the satellites. With this approach, taking advantage of scheduled communication contacts, the overall system performance can be maximized. For the envisaged data relay scenario, the adoption of advanced communication protocol concepts is required. This paper presents innovative solutions for the fulfilment of the described communications tasks. After an investigation of the system requirements, strategies for the interconnection of the spacecrafts for the creation of a small constellation network are provided. Suitable transport protocol implementations are investigated and efficient store-and-forward concepts are proposed. A communication architecture for the usage of a data relay satellite within the constellation is presented, describing the role of the different nodes in the network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper discusses the role of human being in space, his/her functions and responsibility during space flights beyond the Earth orbit. The relationship of the “Human”, “Machine” and the “Earth” as basic elements of the control and decision-making loop is analyzed to provide maximum efficiency of such complex system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The COM DEV Mission Development Group has recently launched a nanosatellite mission called NTS (Nanosatellite Tracking of Ships). NTS is a space trial, intended to provide proof-of-concept validation for a COM DEV AIS (Automatic Identification System) radio that has been specifically designed to receive ship AIS transmissions from low Earth orbit. The AIS system uses the very high frequency (VHF) band and provides detailed information about each equipped vessel. Not only does this system provide information such as the location of a vessel, but it also provides heading, engine status and other crucial information about the ship. Designed for terrestrial use, the AIS system traditionally has a range of only 100km and uses a local self-organized time-division multiple access (SO-TDMA) scheme to ensure transmissions from all ships in any self-organized cell do not overlap. Receiving these signals from a space platform presents an opportunity to provide wide area monitoring of shipping activity. Detection of AIS signals from space will provide a new capability to track and monitor large maritime vessels even when there are large distances from traditional shore based detection systems. The NTS program was designed to be a low cost demonstration satellite and provide rapid risk mitigation to assist in the development of a future constellation of spacecraft that could provide operational AIS from space (AIS-S) reception and dissemination. The scope of the NTS program was kept to a minimum with focus on the design, development and demonstration of a new payload. The nanosatellite bus was developed using a combination of pre-existing designs by the University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies/Space Flight Laboratory (UTIAS/SFL). The resulting bus design was a combination of their CanX-2 and Generic Nanosatellite Bus. The NTS spacecraft is able to provide the capability to detect AIS signals from low earth orbit with multiple, short AIS signal collection cycles over its planned mission lifetime. The paper presents an overview of the NTS spacecraft, mission concept and preliminary results obtained from the flight. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The development of the Ares V launch vehicle will provide levels of performance unseen since the days of Apollo. This capability, like the Saturn V before it, is being developed primarily in support of lunar exploration missions. However, the tremendous jump in performance offered by the Ares V launch system has tremendous potential for the furtherance of robotic solar system exploration missions as well. Preliminary performance assessments indicate that Ares V could deliver 5 times the payload to Mars as compared to the most capable US expendable launch vehicle available today. Beyond Mars, the outer planets offer a number of high-priority investigations with compelling science. Presently, missions to these destinations are only achievable using indirect flights with gravity assist trajectories and, in many cases, suffer from long flight times. An Ares V with an upper stage could capture these missions using direct flights with shorter interplanetary transfer times that would enable extensive in situ investigations and possibly the return of samples to Earth. This paper lays out an estimate of Ares V performance for moderate and high C3 missions, and goes on to discuss a range of revolutionary mission concepts that could be enabled by this significant increase in launch capability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Upcoming space missions utilizing hyperspectral or other high-resolution sensors will generate a vast amount of data in orbit. The average communication duration between a spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO) to a dedicated ground station is short and in addition, due to the high amount of data to be transferred at link times, a high-performance communication system on board of the satellite is indispensable. A solution that provides longer acquisition times with the ground station is to employ a high data-rate inter-satellite link to a geostationary relay satellite, which requires a flat, compact, steerable, light-weight yet robust antenna. Such an antenna system (antenna module plus pointing module) was developed for S-Band at the Institute of Astronautics (Technische Universität München), in cooperation with German space companies, research institutes and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Its successful operation via the geostationary relay satellite Artemis was demonstrated in cooperation with ESA in 2007. This paper describes the evaluation of an antenna system in the Ka-Band, as a successor to be developed in the next two years for high data rates and the various applications of such an antenna system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Although the threat caused by an impact of near-Earth objects (NEOs) has been increasingly recognized by the international community both at a scientific and political level, no study is addressing this issue in an interdisciplinary manner. A project has been carried out at the International Space University (ISU), located in Strasbourg, France, addressing the problem of the response to a NEO threat, including space-based missions, Earth-based mitigation, political, organizational and space-law issues. This paper summarizes the main results of this study. In order to determine an appropriate response, a new system of classification of the different NEO threat scenarios was created. A specific case study was examined in the project. The threat scenario involved the NEO named 1997 XF11, with response options ranging from deflection, to destruction using the concept known as the “billiards shot”. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]