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Attachment performance analysis and experimental study of lunar rock bionic attachment device based on DEM-MBD Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-26 Haitao Luo, Yuxin Li, Miao Yu, Junlin Li, Wei Zhang, Weijia Zhou
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Mathematical modeling of droplet collisions in sprays under microgravity conditions Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-23 V.V. Tyurenkova, M.N. Smirnova, L.I. Stamov, N.N. Smirnov
Two-phase flows under microgravity conditions play a crucial role in Space technology and science. Studying the behavior of dispersed droplets suspended in a gas flow and their influence on the characteristics of the carrier flow is the main task of computational modeling of turbulent two-phase flows. To understand the features and predict the behavior of such flows, along with experimental studies
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Simulating impact-induced satellite breakups with a discrete element method Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-21 Erkai Watson, José Luis Sandoval Murillo, Nathanaël Durr, Noah Ledford
The Discrete Element Method is uniquely suited to modeling the extreme fragmentation typical of impact-induced satellite breakups. In this paper, we introduce a discrete orthotropic material model for simulating carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP). We calibrate and validate the CFRP model with hypervelocity impact experiments performed at Fraunhofer EMI on thin CFRP face sheets. We demonstrate
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Miniaturized bulk metallic glass gripping structures for robotic mobility platforms Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Punnathat Bordeenithikasem, Kalind C. Carpenter, Douglas C. Hofmann, Victor E. White, Karl Y. Yee, Quentin Rizzardi, Jacob Maher, Robert Maaß
Advancements in bulk metallic glass thermoplastic forming unleash the potential to fabricate microscale metallic features with unparalleled precision and durability, i.e. microspine gripping structures for mobility platforms on planetary or in-space robots. Four designs of grippers were fabricated and rigorously tested. Coefficient of friction on four test surfaces were measured and compared to SiC
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DEM analysis of the dynamic characteristics of QH-E lunar soil simulant under cyclic triaxial tests Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Yun-Li Li, Zhen-Rui Yang, Wen-Ping Wu
In this paper, cyclic triaxial tests are performed by using discrete element method (DEM) to investigate the dynamic behaviors of QH-E lunar soil simulant. The influences of number of cycles, loading frequency, waveform, cyclic stress ratio (CSR) and confining pressure on the dynamic behaviors of lunar soil simulant are discussed. The results indicate that the axial strain and dynamic modulus first
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Experimental study on the heat flux of transitional shock wave–boundary layer interaction at Mach 6 Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-19 Yun Jiao, Zhangyu Ma, Longsheng Xue, Chengpeng Wang, Jianqiang Chen, Keming Cheng
The shock wave–boundary layer interaction (SWBLI) phenomenon was investigated experimentally to explore the heat flux distribution characteristics of SWBLIs under different boundary layer flow regimes and the influence/mechanism of different transition positions on peak heat flux of SWBLI. Experiments were conducted in a flow of Mach number 6. The shock generator deflected the flow by 20 , 22 , 25
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Direct fusion drive based on centrifugal mirror confinement Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-19 Jerry Carson, Raymond Sedwick
A concept for direct fusion drive based on centrifugal mirror (CM) confinement of thermonuclear plasmas (DFD-CM) is described. In centrifugal mirrors, electric and magnetic fields are combined to confine the plasma within a rapidly rotating annulus of burning plasma fixed between two mirror magnets. High energy fusion products leave the reactor core at a rate determined by the velocity of plasma rotation
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Ultrafast transfer of low-mass payloads to Mars and beyond using aerographite solar sails Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-19 Julius Karlapp, René Heller, Martin Tajmar
With interstellar mission concepts now being under study by various space agencies and institutions, a feasible and worthy interstellar precursor mission concept will be key to the success of the long shot. Here we investigate interstellar-bound trajectories of solar sails made of the ultra lightweight material aerographite. Due to its extremely low density () and high absorptivity (), a thin shell
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‘Microgravity's dental dilemma: Navigating oral health challenges in space, from effect on bone to therapeutic frontiers – A review’ Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-19 Ankita Chhabrani, Avinash BS, R.Sumukh Bharadwaj, Revati Kale, Abhinav Kathuria
For many years, space human factors research has focused on the impact of microgravity on human physiology and the health risks astronauts face during space flights of various durations. Our review paper reveals that microgravity leads to both reversible and non-reversible effects on astronauts' oral health.
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Evaluation of the effectiveness of 5-year rule - - impact on the orbital environment at each altitude by reducing the post-mission disposal lifetime Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Satomi Kawamoto, Ryusuke Harada, Yasuhiro Kitagawa, Toshiya Hanada
This paper examines the effect of shortening the post-mission disposal (PMD) orbit lifetime (remaining orbit lifetime after PMD) from 25 years to 5 or 1 year. Using NEODEEM, the debris evolutionary model developed by Kyushu University and JAXA, the change in the orbital environment at various altitude bands for long-term stability and short-term safety are discussed. It was confirmed that the PMD compliance
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Two-stage estimator for the complete inertia tensor of uncooperative debris on CubeSat based Active Debris Removal missions Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Cameron Creaser, Robert Bauer
The threat of debris collisions in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) has driven many researchers to develop Active Debris Removal (ADR) missions to manage large debris in LEO. A modern method of capturing debris with a non-rigid tether has been a recent research focus because of difficult post capture dynamics associated with controlling an uncooperative debris through a tether. To facilitate these control schemes
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Uncertainty-resilient constrained rendezvous trajectory optimization via stochastic feedback control and unscented transformation Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Hao Yuan, Dongxu Li, Guanwei He, Jie Wang
This paper proposes an innovative approach for constrained rendezvous trajectory optimization (CRTO) using stochastic optimal feedback control and unscented transform (UT) uncertainty quantification. The method overcomes limitations of traditional deterministic CRTO solutions that suffer from uncontrolled terminal state error growth and severely deteriorated path constraint satisfaction when initial
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Spray-deposition of graphene/polymer thin coatings on polyimide sheets for lunar dust adhesion mitigation Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-17 Keith L. Gordon, Lopamudra Das, Thanuja L. Galhena, Mayank Gautam, Glen C. King, Valerie L. Wiesner, Jonathan J. Hernandez, Stephen A. Hodge, Christopher J. Wohl
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Shape-based method for low-thrust transfers between periodic orbits in cislunar space Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-16 Dawei Wang, Zhaowei Sun
Low-thrust trajectory design in the context of the three-body problem, particularly in the vicinity of liberation points, is addressed in this paper with a focus on efficiency and accuracy. The Finite Fourier series, previously successful in approximating near-coplanar low-thrust trajectories within two-body dynamics, is applied to the challenging landscape of the three-body problem, marked by instability
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Real growth in space manufacturing output substantially exceeds growth in the overall space economy Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-16 Tina Highfill, Matthew Weinzierl
Accurately measuring real economic output in the space economy is made difficult by the rapid increase in capabilities and decrease in prices of launch and satellite technologies achieved over the past two decades. Nominal measures of output in space will tend to underestimate real growth if customers are paying lower prices for better services over time. In this paper, we use price indexes that apply
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Experimental investigation of combustion performance of a green hypergolic bipropellant based on hydrogen peroxide Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Alberto Sarritzu, Angelo Pasini, Florian Merz, Lukas Werling, Felix Lauck
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Evaluation of the thermo-elastic response of space telescopes using uncertainty assessment Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Uxia Garcia-Luis, Alejandro M. Gomez-San-Juan, Fermin Navarro-Medina, Alba Eva Peláez Santos, Pablo Gonzalez De Chaves Fernandez, Alfonso Ynigo-Rivera, Fernando Aguado-Agelet
The aerospace sector is evolving due to reduced launch costs and standardization of small satellite platforms. This research, aligned with European Guidelines for Thermo-Elastic Verification, addresses the pointing precision gap in small satellites by assessing space telescope performance using uncertainty propagation in thermo-elastic models. The methodology will be directly applied to an Earth observation
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A novel concept on Mid Air Recovery of crew module Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Arun Nyamagoudar, Abhijeet Kibe, Vivek Kumar Khare, K. Xavier Raja
Crew recovery is one of the most critical phase of Human space flight missions. The current recovery strategies include both water (sea) and land-based recovery operations. The land-based recovery operations mandate additional systems to reduce impact loads whereas water-based operations involve mobilization of many recovery assets. Considering the increased frequency of human space flight missions
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Sun-Earth system Lagrange point spacecraft orbit computation by numerical method and deep learning technique Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Amit K. Singh, Vineet K. Srivastava, Sonali Agarwal, Pavan Chakraborty
In this article, the Lagrange points locations are computed in the Rotating Lagrangian Point (RLP) as well as in J2000 inertial reference frames. The well-known Sun-Earth system is considered for the circular restricted three-body problem (CRTBP). In the synodic frame, the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point halo orbit is computed via Differential Correction and Lindstedt-Poincaré (LP) methods. The periodic
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Koopman Operator theory applied to Lambert’s problem with a spectral behavior analysis Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Julia Pasiecznik, Simone Servadio, Richard Linares
Lambert’s problem has been long studied in the context of space operations; its solution enables accurate orbit determination and spacecraft guidance. This work presents an approximate-analytical solution to Lambert’s problem using the Koopman Operator (KO). In contrast to previous methods in the literature, the KO provides the analysis of a nonlinear system by seeking a transformation that embeds
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Mission analysis of a 1U CubeSat post-mission disposal using a thin-film vacuum arc thruster Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-15 Kash Saddul, James Saletes, Minkwan Kim, Alexander Wittig
We present the operation of the CubeSat De-orbiting All-Printed Propulsion System (Cube-de-ALPS), a thin-film Vacuum Arc Thruster being developed at the University of Southampton in collaboration with the European Space Agency to provide robust de-orbiting capability to sub-3U CubeSats. It comprises a flexible substrate on which coplanar arrays of vacuum arc micro-thrusters (micro-VAT) are printed
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Experimental study on the combustion and pressure drop characteristics of a pintle injector for LOX/kerosene rocket engine Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Yaming Zhao, Nanjia Yu, Tianwen Li, Chuang Zhou
Pintle injectors have attracted much attention in recent years for their excellent throttling and combustion performance. However, the combustion characteristics of cryogenic propellant on pintle injectors with varying operating conditions remain unclear. A LOX/kerosene throttleable rocket engine with a fuel-centered liquid-liquid pintle injector was designed and its pressure drop and combustion characteristics
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Closing the loop in space 3D printing: Effect of vacuum, recycling, and UV aging on high performance thermoplastics produced via filament extrusion additive manufacturing Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-12 Manuel Ortega Varela de Seijas, Marko Piskacev, Luca Celotti, Riccardo Nadalini, Anna Daurskikh, Aurora Baptista, Marco Berg, Francesco Caltavituro, Ian Major, Declan M. Devine, Aaron Maloney, Ugo Lafont, Advenit Makaya
The outlook for space exploration, and the long-term sustainable presence of humans in space, rely upon the advancement of in-situ manufacturing capabilities. In-space additive manufacturing (AM) has gained significant attention due to its potential to produce spare parts and facilitate repairs for extending space missions. However, to date, there is no AM system capable of processing high-performance
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Accurate semantic segmentation of small-body craters for navigation Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-12 Shuai Li, Tianhao Gu, Yanjie Liu, Wei Shao
Feature extraction and matching play integral roles in autonomous vision navigation. As a typical morphological feature, craters can be used as navigation landmarks. However, the spin of small bodies introduces substantial variations in illumination and viewing angles within acquired images, thereby posing challenges to feature extraction and matching algorithms. Addressing these challenges, a deep
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Magnetic field configuration effects on a miniature DC ion thruster with an inverted potential structure Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-12 Yoshinori Tanaka, Yoshinori Takao
To improve the mass utilization and total efficiency of miniature direct current (DC) ion thrusters, this article proposes a graphene–oxide–semiconductor (GOS) electron source as a cathode in the discharge chamber and neutralizer. To apply the GOS device to the discharge chamber, multiple electron sources were positioned downstream to provide sufficient electrons for plasma generation. Accordingly
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From yachts to spacecraft: Legal aspects of space tourism ventures in comparison with the legal regime governing marine tourism Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-11 Ms Niki Giannakou, Ms Maria Angeliki Gerasimou
Until recently space travel was considered a privilege of governmental astronauts, with the exception perhaps of a few billionaire space tourists, who had been accommodated on the International Space Station on some rare occasions. Nonetheless, with major space pioneers announcing plans for space tourism activities and after the successful launch in orbit of space tourism vehicles from the Virgin Galactic
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Emission and performance characterization of ionic liquids for an externally wetted electrospray thruster Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-11 David Villegas-Prados, Javier Cruz, Mick Wijnen, Pablo Fajardo, Jaume Navarro-Cavallé
Ionic liquids are the base for electrospray propulsion, yet few have been explored. The performance of an externally wetted electrospray thruster is characterized for seven different ionic liquids: 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (EMI-B), dicyanamide (EMI-DCA), bistrifluoromethylsulfonylimide (EMI-Im), thiocyanate (EMI-SCN), ethylsulphate (EMI-EtOSO), triflate (EMI-OTf), and trifluoromethanesulfonate
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Density-based evolutionary model of the space debris environment in low-Earth orbit Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-11 Lorenzo Giudici, Camilla Colombo, André Horstmann, Francesca Letizia, Stijn Lemmens
Lethal untrackable debris objects pose the highest risk to the sustainability of the space environment, and thus, shall be included in the assessment of the long-term effect of mitigation and remediation measures to the space debris problem. The introduction of centimetre-sized particles in the debris evolutionary models represents a challenge from a computational cost point of view. To answer this
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Optimizing launch window opportunities for ESA's comet Interceptor mission using primer vector theory Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-10 M. Rebelo, J.P. Sánchez
Comet Interceptor (Comet-I) was selected in June 2019 as the first ESA F-Class mission and aims to explore a pristine comet, which will visit the inner Solar System for the first time. Comet-I will hitch a ride to a Sun-Earth L2 quasi-halo orbit, as a co-passenger in ESA's M4 ARIEL's launch. At the time of writing, this is scheduled for 2029. It will then remain there awaiting the right departure conditions
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Periodicity and lifetime of orbits around elongated asteroids Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-10 Sivaperuman Muniyasamy, Shribharath B., Vivek Verma, Mangal Kothari
This paper presents dynamics and control of orbits around an asteroid that is modelled as a uniformly rotating homogeneous rectangular parallelepiped (HRP). Aside from the non-uniform gravitational field of the asteroid, we include the solar radiation pressure (SRP) as a perturbing force. A simple model based on the polyhedral method is employed for calculating the gravity around the HRP. First, circular
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The right stuff: Salutogenic and pathogenic responses over a year in Antarctica Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Barbara Le Roy, Charles Martin-Krumm, Jérémy Rabineau, Sandrine Jacob, Céline Dupin, Marion Trousselard
Ever since the first human reached the South Pole, studies have sought to explore the impact of an isolated, confined, and unusual environment on human adaptation. The findings have highlighted both negative and salutogenic effects on crews. Although several studies have focused on adaptation in the polar regions, we still do not fully understand its mechanisms. Thus, the objectives of the present
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Formulation effect on combustion and agglomeration characteristics in nitramine solid propellants Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Lu Liu, Songchen Yue, Zhan Wen, Wenchao Zhang, Peijin Liu, Guoqiang He, Wen Ao
The formulation fundamentally determines the combustion characteristics and agglomeration behavior of propellants. This study compared the effects of four factors on the combustion, agglomeration, and combustion efficiency of nitramine solid propellants: the aluminum size, the ammonium perchlorate size, the nitramine size, and the mass ratio of ammonium perchlorate to nitramine. The comparison was
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Need for an education model for adolescents, specifically in rural areas Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Sri Venkata Vathsala Musunuri
Secondary and High School students are usually adolescents, most of them in the urban areas and metropolitan cities are aware about the existence, various opportunities, career paths and advancements of the space industry. They are constantly updated, given they have access to quality and organized education models and a competitive environment. Although, the students in the rural areas who are equally
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Mission lifetime optimisation with self or assisted disposal Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-07 Andrew Monham
Operation to failure was the modus operandi of most satellite operators prior to the awareness of the impact on the space debris environment. While compliance to space debris mitigation guidelines, standards and regulations is clearly a priority, there remains a business advantage in extracting the maximum lifetime out of any in-orbit asset. For certain types of strategic assets, which provide unique
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Investigation of aluminium Whipple Shield response to hypervelocity impacts close to ballistic limit between 2.5 and 5 km/s Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-07 Lorenzo Olivieri, Rannveig Marie Faergestad, Cinzia Giacomuzzo, Stefano Lopresti, Giovanni Pitacco, Alessandro Francesconi, Tiziana Cardone, Jens Kristian Holmen, Tore Borvik
For impact velocities larger than a threshold velocity of 3 km/s, aluminium Whipple Shields present an enhanced protection capability with respect to monolithic protections with the same areal density. In particular, in the range between 3 and 7 km/s the projectile partially fragments and melts after impacting the bumper; modelling this transition might be complex due to the high number of parameters
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Measurement of fuel port pressure distribution by exposed solid fuel hydrogen peroxide catalytic decomposition hybrid thruster Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-07 Seungho Lee, Junyeong Jeong, Eunsang Jung, Sejin Kwon
Although numerous experimental studies on a hybrid thruster have been recently executed, a fuel port pressure was rarely measured because a gap between a fuel and a fuel case is complicated to be sealed due to a fuel port pressure sensor hole. Therefore, the hybrid thruster with an exposed solid fuel was applied to install a fuel port pressure sensor without the fuel case. An exposed solid fuel hydrogen
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Design and analysis of scissor-like hoop truss deployable antenna mechanism with arbitrary curvature support ribs Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Zhiyang Shi, Tuanjie Li, Yaqiong Tang, Ming Li, Xin Zhou, Junjie Qian
To align with the development trend of large aperture, high stiffness, and high expansion ratio for space antennas, we propose a scissor-like hoop truss deployable antenna mechanism with arbitrary curvature mesh support. Compared to classical AstroMesh-hoop structures, this configuration features parabolic support ribs under the mesh surface, eliminating the need for additional high columns. It has
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Influence of passive strut on the mixing and combustion performance enhancement Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Prasanth P. Nair, Ananthu J P, Vinod Narayanan
The scramjet engine is one of the possible means of reaching supersonic speed using airbreathing engines. As the inflow of air is at supersonic speed, proper mixing and combustion is a challenge. Researchers have used multi-strut arrangements to address the problem. However, the additional supply of fuel from multiple struts with inefficient mixing and combustion leads to losses in terms of fuel and
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Research on space-based kinetic impactor disrupting small-sized asteroids under short warning time conditions Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-05 Kaiduo Wang, Qi Zhou, Yandong Liu, Mingtao Li, Yirui Wang
Near Earth asteroids with diameters less than 50 m possess distinct characteristics including a large population, a high likelihood of Earth impact, and limited warning time. While small asteroid impacts may not induce global disasters, they can still result in localized hazard. This study focuses on investigating the feasibility and strategies for disrupting small-sized asteroid structures through
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Multi-perspective analysis of sustainability metrics characterising the debris environment Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-04 Lorenz Böttcher, Simona Silvestri
To assess the effectiveness of mitigation measures, long-term simulations of the debris environment are often analysed and evaluated using simple metrics such as the total number of objects or the frequency of fragmentation events. In addition, more complex criticality metrics have been developed in the past to rank objects according to their environmental impact and evaluate the overall state of the
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An energy-based pulsar period estimation method using Hilbert curve and double CNNs Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-04 Xin Ma, Tianhao Xie, Junru Li, Wenjia Zhang, Yifei Cheng, Peiling Cui, Xiaolin Ning
In order to accurately estimate the period of X-ray pulsars to improve navigation performance, this paper proposes a pulsar period estimation method based on photon energy using reverse Hilbert coding and double Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) discrimination. This method uses photon energy information to perform epoch folding. It converts one-dimensional contour information into two-dimensional
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Machine learning for the prediction of local asteroid damages Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-04 Gregoire Chomette, Lorien Wheeler, Donovan Mathias
Risk assessment studies of local asteroid hazards traditionally simulate the physics of meteors with engineering models tailored to analyze tens-of-millions of scenarios. However, these simplified approaches still need to solve time-dependent ODEs to model the entry process and the resulting ground damage. With a computational cost of O(0.01 CPU.s) per scenario, simulating these large numbers of potential
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Dynamics of reconfiguration and assembly of a stacked satellite system Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-03 Xiaoliang Zhang, Jialiang Sun, Dongping Jin, Hao Wen
Separation and reconfiguration of stacked satellites in orbit is an effective method for constructing large space structures. This paper investigates the dynamics of a stacked satellite system (SSS) during the separation and reconfiguration process. Firstly, the dynamic model of the SSS is established via the natural coordinate formulation (NCF) to conveniently handle the time-varying constraints between
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Experimental and Simulative Evaluation of a Reinforcement Learning Based Cold Gas Thrust Chamber Pressure Controller Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-02 Till Hörger, Lukas Werling, Kai Dresia, Günther Waxenegger-Wilfing, Stefan Schlechtriem
At DLR neural networks, as potential future controller for rocket engines, are studied. A neural network-based chamber pressure controller for a simplified cold gas thruster is presented and analyzed in simulation and experiment. The goal of the controller is twofold: It can track a trajectory with different changes of setpoints and it allows to set and control a wide variety of steady state chamber
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Characterization of out-of-plane libration of tethered satellite systems in elliptical orbits Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-03-01 B.S. Yu, Zheng H. Zhu
This paper investigates the dynamic behavior of a tethered satellite system in an elliptical orbit as the tethered subsatellite is deployed from a mother satellite at an out-of-plane angle while maintaining the tether at a constant in-plane pitch angle by a predefined control force acting on the subsatellite. A variable-length pendulum model is employed to describe the purely out-of-plane tether deployment
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An anomaly detection methodology of load-carrying structure of satellite based on high-precision predictive model Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-29 Naijian Gu, Kun Liu, Wenhua Wu, Xinglin Guo
The Load-Carrying structure is a crucial element within the satellite framework, directly impacting its overall mechanical performance. Comprised of composite materials, Load-Carrying Structure poses challenges like concealed fault locations, insufficient abnormal sample sets, and limited sensor deployment positions. These challenges result in lower diagnostic accuracy when identifying anomaly behaviors
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Experimental investigation of the effects of different internal surface features on additive-manufactured resonant igniters performance Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-29 Antonietta Conte, Giacomo Gedda, Serena Lerda, Filippo Masseni, Sara Biamino, Andrea Ferrero, Giulio Marchese, Dario Pastrone
Resonant igniters are attractive for liquid rocket engines using non-hypergolic green propellants (envisaged to replace hydrazine and its compounds) especially when multiple restarts are required. They exploit the interaction of an under-expanded jet flow with a downstream cavity to obtain a significant temperature rise. Compared to other ignition systems, they do not require any external energy source
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Adaptive fault-tolerant attitude tracking control for spacecraft with input quantization Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-29 Mingyue Shi, Baolin Wu, Jiaxu Tian
This paper addresses the fault-tolerant attitude tracking control problem for spacecraft with limited communication capability and input saturation. The design of a hysteresis quantizer aims to alleviate communication burden between the controller module and the actuator module. Then, the attitude tracking problem for spacecraft with input quantization, input saturation, actuator faults and external
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Towards an optimized heat transfer process in vaporizing liquid microthrusters using pulsed heating control Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 D. Fontanarosa, D. Van Langenhove, M.A. Signore, M.G. De Giorgi, L. Francioso, J. Steelant, M.R. Vetrano
The Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems of the Italian National Research Council (Italy) has designed and fabricated a water-fed MEMS vaporizing liquid microthruster (VLM) in collaboration with the University of Salento (Italy) and KU Leuven (Belgium). Previous studies have demonstrated the device’s functioning and highlighted the presence of a strong thermoelectric-hydraulic coupling that
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Stereo vision based object detection for autonomous navigation in space environments Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Prasanth Kumar Duba, Naga Praveen Babu Mannam, Rajalakshmi P
Obstacle detection and avoidance are the major issues in autonomous navigation for partially known or unknown environments. With the proliferation of space debris, researchers are actively investigating debris removal to facilitate future space operations. This calls for the development of autonomous navigation techniques for space missions. Free-space object detection is a crucial task in intelligent
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A light sail astrobiology precursor mission to Enceladus and Europa Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Manasvi Lingam, Adam Hibberd, Andreas M. Hein
Icy moons with subsurface oceans of liquid water rank among the most promising astrobiological targets in our Solar System. In this work, we assess the feasibility of deploying laser sail technology in precursor life-detection missions. We investigate such laser sail missions to Enceladus and Europa, as these two moons emit plumes that seem accessible to in situ sampling. Our study suggests that GigaWatt
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Impact of chemical modeling on the numerical analysis of a LOx/GCH4 rocket engine pintle injector Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-27 L. Lucchese, J. Liberatori, D. Cavalieri, D. Simone, D. Liuzzi, M. Valorani, P.P. Ciottoli
Liquid rocket engines equipped with LOx/GCH4 pintle injectors represent a promising technology when a large throttling capability is required. Still, limited amounts of data are available in the literature about the numerical characterization of pintle injector configurations under reacting conditions, with the entirety of these studies resorting to global or quasi-global reaction mechanisms. To this
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Cultural differences in the ICE-Group experience: Diaries of French and British antarctic winteroverers Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-27 Bea Ehmann, Irén Barkaszi, Eliza Kollerits, Attila István Kiss, László Balázs, Anna Altbäcker
Cultural differences may influence the psychosocial adaptation to prolonged isolation and confinement in extreme environments. Recent results showed that the temporal pattern of mood changes may also be affected by cultural differences. The aim of the study was to gain deeper insight into the structure and temporal patterns of group-related themes mentioned in the diaries of Antarctic winteroverers
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Simulations of n-dodecane/oxygen/nitrogen cellular detonations Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-25 Qingyang Meng, Chao Xu, Liangqi Zhang, Huangwei Zhang
In this work, two-dimensional -dodecane/air/nitrogen cellular detonations are simulated with various equivalence ratios (ERs). A skeletal mechanism consisting of 54 species and 269 reactions is used. The lower and upper equivalence ratio boundaries for self-sustained detonation are 0.3 and 2.2, respectively. Detonation with different regimes characterized by the detonation cell patterns is observed
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Effect of characteristic structure of nested composite hybrid rocket fuel grain on combustion properties Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-24 Ruoyan Wang, Xin Lin, Zezhong Wang, Kun Wu, Junjie Pan, Zelin Zhang, Jiaxiao Luo, Fei Li, Xilong Yu
This work numerically and experimentally investigated the effect of the characteristic structure of nested composite fuel grains on their combustion properties. The characteristic structure comprised multiple helical grooves inside the fuel grain port, which formed during the combustion process. Three-dimensional steady-state simulations were employed to analyze the burning behavior of composite fuel
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Experimental investigation and tomography analysis of Darcy-Forchheimer flows in thermal protection systems Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-24 Shaolin Liu, Azita Ahmadi-Senichault, Hermes Scandelli, Jean Lachaud
In thermal protection systems (TPS), Darcy’s law or Darcy-Forchheimer’s law is employed to model the pyrolysis gas flow within the anisotropic porous ablator depending on the flow regime considered. A key challenge with using these laws is first, the knowledge of the validity domain of each flow regime in terms of a critical Reynolds number (). Secondly, the lack of data on macroscopic properties,
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Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART): Navigating to obliteration Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-24 Julie Bellerose, Shyamkumar Bhaskaran, Brian Rush, Zahi Tarzi, Dianna Velez, Declan Mages, Andrew Vaughan, Frank Laipert, Justin Atchison, Maria McQuaide, Christopher Volk
DART is NASA’s demonstration of an asteroid deflection using a kinetic impactor. The spacecraft launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 on November 24th 2021, on a direct collision with the binary asteroid system Didymos planned for September 26th 2022. By impacting the small moon, Dimorphos, DART’s objective was to alter the moon’s orbit about the larger asteroid by several minutes.
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The Moon as an effective propellant source: A comprehensive exergy analysis from extraction to depot Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-24 M.M. Gallbrecht, A. Cervone, S. Vincent-Bonnieu
Establishing a permanent lunar base has gained increasing attention since it offers opportunities for international cooperation and the commercialization of space, forming the foundation and testing ground for a human existence independent from Earth. Essential to future missions beyond cislunar space is the exploration and in situ processing of the Moon's resources, especially the sustainable production
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Acoustic emission diagnostics of a hull structures by a system of integrating fiber-optic sensors for the aircraft and spacecraft safe operation Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-23 V.V. Zaletin, O.A. Savitsky, M.V. Silnikov, V.N. Sorokovikov, E.I. Yakushenko
A variant of aircraft and spacecraft state of hull structures acoustic emission diagnostics method based on a system of distributed fiber-optic sensors is considered. Such systems can be sources of information for a technical means of ensuring safety at aerospace facilities. The Green's function for a single sensor is found, and the features of its operation under the influence of pulsed acoustic emission
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Water vapor condensation in optical instruments on Mars Acta Astronaut. (IF 3.5) Pub Date : 2024-02-23 Madeline Walters, John E. Moores, Frédéric Grandmont, Mark Gordon, Haley Sapers
Modern high-sensitivity spectrometers rely on photons reflecting thousands of times between extremely reflective mirrors to generate absorption pathlengths that are kilometers long. The absorption spectrum of trace gas species is enhanced when cooling the gas sample, however, should any atmospheric volatiles condense within the gas cell, the highly-reflective mirrors may become marred, drastically