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In the context of the AHRES (Advanced Hybrid Rocket Engine Simulation [1]) program of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), an upper stage for the Brazilian sounding rocket VSB-30 is designed. This third stage is based on the hybrid rocket engine VISERION. The pre-design is mainly focused on the fluid and pressurization system using common European design standards. Real gas simulations were conducted to quantify the required pressurant mass and to analyse operating parameters. Subsequently, all additional subsystems are described and analysed. Initial requirements such as the maximum outer diameter and limits of the overall mass were given due to the launch system. Further requirements for each module and the main components are identified and examined. Available modules for the service or recovery system and commercially off-the-shelf components were considered to reduce the overall complexity and costs. Preliminary flight stability and aerodynamic loads were evaluated using numerical fluid simulations on different characteristic ascent points. The dimensioned system demonstrates the ability of hybrid rocket engines to be used as propulsion modules for upper stages. This enables the combination of several advantages of common propulsion systems as the main intention in hybrid rocket development.

Missiles and sounding rockets usually deviate from the trajectory due to unstable roll. Fins with cant angles are generally used to provide a rolling moment in sounding rockets and missiles to minimize the instability. Inducing a rolling moment also leads to an increase in the rocket motor’s power consumption due to the rise in drag, so inducing an optimal rolling moment with a minimal increase in drag is a crucial design criterion. It is crucial to maintain the similarity parameters while testing a scaled-down model in a wind tunnel. Therefore, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is more efficient than extensive wind tunnel tests. In this paper, three-dimensional, incompressible simulations were performed on different models of sounding rockets using commercial CFD package fluent. The simulations were performed with the help of $$k-\epsilon $$ k - ϵ standard turbulence model. The results obtained were tabulated and graphically represented, and the trends of aerodynamic coefficients like $$C_{\text {d}}$$ C d and $$C_{\text {m}}$$ C m were analyzed. The purpose of this study is to analyze the dependency of aerodynamic coefficients on different fin configurations with emphasis on the cant angle. This study will be helpful to researchers designing a sounding rocket and help in maximizing apogee. The experimental and computational results show a favourable comparison. The results will show a particular configuration of fin having greater $$C_{\text {m}}/C_{\text {d}}$$ C m / C d which yields in a greater rolling moment and least amount of drag.

This paper explores the effectiveness of spin motion in mitigating the flight dispersion of a two-stage solid-propellant rocket model due to thrust misalignment. The aerodynamic coefficients of the rocket model are obtained by the use of a panel method and semi-empirical equations. A simulation program is developed to solve the equations of motion while considering the variations of the inertial parameters. Monte Carlo simulation techniques are applied to provide statistical data that are used to analyze the relationship between the spin motion and flight dispersion. The spin motion is generated by canting the fins to generate the axial aerodynamic moment. The results show that thrust misalignment at the first stage of the rocket has a great impact on the dispersion of rocket flight. By canting the first-stage fins at a relatively large angle to create the spin motion right after launch, the dispersion area of the payload-release location can be minimized considerably. However, thrust misalignment as well as the fin cant angle at the second stage appear to have insignificant effects on the rocket flight trajectory. On the other hand, canting the fins of the second stage at a large angle may lead to an increase in the spin rate, which may be harmful to the rocket operation. The paper also shows the variation of the dispersion characteristics of rocket flight when the fin size is modified.

Access to earthbound weightlessness is critical to many branches of applied sciences. Besides, several space systems require microgravity testing before their launch. Existing solutions (drop towers, parabolic flights, sounding rockets) offer variable durations and qualities of microgravity environment, but their cost and lead times make them unpractical for small actors such as universities or start-up companies. This leads to a growing interest for alternative microgravity platforms. Here, we study the use of gliders to perform parabolic flights at a lower cost, and we propose a systematic quantification of glider’s 0-g flight capabilities. Results of our flight test campaign show that gliders offer up to 5.5s of weightlessness, with excursions below 0.1g, and a satisfactory level of repeatability. Besides, the recordings do not suffer from the increased level of vibrations generated by piston engines, typical of light-aircraft-based alternatives. Operational considerations associated with glider parabolic flights are also discussed. Finally, we conclude that a microgravity platform based on gliders would be suitable especially for compact experiments and equipment in order to support accelerated design and development, or to produce preliminary experimental results.

Sounding rockets are particularly important for studies in the scientific community and one of the main attractions is their relatively moderated cost compared to more complex manned missions. Besides, missions with sounding rockets can have varying high ranges according to their needs. Safety aspects are essential for this type of mission to be successfully accomplished. This work aims to analyze systemic factors that influence safety in Brazilian suborbital launch campaigns. A safety analysis methodology for suborbital launch operations is proposed and carried out for the Alcântara Space Center (CEA) and its iterations with other involved organizations. The study of systems safety techniques applied to Launch Operations at CEA is a truly relevant task because it deals with the preservation of human life, properties, knowledge, and the environment. The Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) analysis was used as accident causes analysis, based on systems theory, not on reliability theory. The performed analysis was based on historical data from past launches and eventually accidents that occurred. The resulting analysis by the application of STPA to the evaluation phases of the concept, requirements, architecture, and design of a hypothetical two-stage sounding rocket provided valuable information related to the safety aspects of the mission. The results of this analysis show the effectiveness of analyzing the systemic factors that influence safety in suborbital vehicle launch operations, seeking for existing hazards, and creating safety recommendations or restrictions to minimize the probability of the occurrence of hazard events.

Catalyzing life-sustaining reactions, proteins are composed by 20 different amino acids that fold into a compact yet flexible three-dimensional architecture, which dictates what their function(s) might be. Determining the spatial arrangement of the atoms, the protein’s 3D structure, enables key advances in fundamental and applied research. Protein crystallization is a powerful technique to achieve this. Unlike Earth’s crystallization experiments, biomolecular crystallization in space in the absence of gravitational force is actively sought to improve crystal growth techniques. However, the effects of changing gravitational vectors on a protein solution reaching supersaturation remain largely unknown. Here, we have developed a low-cost crystallization cell within a CubeSat payload module to exploit the unique experimental conditions set aboard a sounding rocket. We designed a biaxial gimbal to house the crystallization experiments and take measurements on the protein solution in-flight with a spectrophotometry system. After flight, we used X-ray diffraction analysis to determine that flown protein has a structural rearrangement marked by loss of the protein’s water and sodium in a manner that differs from crystals grown on the ground. We finally show that our gimbal payload module design is a portable experimental setup to take laboratory research investigations into exploratory space flights.

Micro-X is a sounding rocket-borne X-ray telescope that uses a transition edge sensor microcalorimeter array to provide high-energy-resolution spectroscopy. Micro-X is a versatile instrument with plans to observe the Puppis A supernova remnant during its first flight, as well as future observations of the Milky Way to search for X-ray signals from decaying dark matter. Commissioning and functionality testing are complete, and the thermal performance of the system has been validated. We are currently evaluating the detector performance in the flight cryostat with the flight multiplexing electronics. Operating in this setup has allowed us to characterize sources of detector and readout noise, as well as to implement mitigation techniques to improve performance in anticipation of the upcoming flight. We present an overview of important noise considerations in addition to an update on latest detector performance.

During Q2 of 2019, the European sounding rocket, ARION 1 will have its maiden flight. ARION 1, a liquid-propelled sounding rocket that is being developed by PLD Space, will lift off from the launch facilities in the South of Spain, concretely in Huelva. PLD Space, a Spanish start-up company established in 2011, has focused during the last years on the development of liquid-propulsion rocket engines that will power their rockets. After having tested successfully the first reusable rocket engine in their facilities at the airport of Teruel, PLD Space is concentrating its efforts on finalizing the entire ARION 1 sounding rocket. ARION 1, the first-ever reusable sounding rocket in Europe, will be able to provide around 4 min of microgravity conditions after reaching an apogee of 150 km in a nominal mission. This sounding rocket will have the capability of carrying up to 100 kg of payload, exposing scientific and technological payloads to low accelerations due to the liquid-propulsion technologies. With this paper, PLD SPACE wants to introduce the ARION 1 reusable sounding rocket, its capabilities as well as the advantages of a liquid-propelled-based sounding rocket with respect to other traditional solid-based sounding rockets. ARION 1 aims to be the sounding rocket reference in Europe, providing an affordable, flexible and simple microgravity platform to industry, space agencies, research centres and academia.

The third flight of the High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C 2.1) occurred on May 29, 2018, the Sounding Rocket was launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The instrument has been modified from its original configuration (Hi-C 1) to observe the solar corona in a passband that peaks near 172 Angstrom and uses a new, custom-built low-noise camera. The instrument targeted Active Region 12712, and captured 78 images at a cadence of 4.4 sec (18:56:22 - 19:01:57 UT; 5 min and 35 sec observing time). The image spatial resolution varies due to quasi-periodic motion blur from the rocket; sharp images contain resolved features of at least 0.47 arcsec. There are coordinated observations from multiple ground- and space-based telescopes providing an unprecedented opportunity to observe the mass and energy coupling between the chromosphere and the corona. Details of the instrument and the data set are presented in this paper., Comment: 26 pages, 15 figures, submitted to Solar Physics

Accepted: 2017-09-01, 資料番号: SA1170130000

The JOULE sounding rocket 1 experiment was carried out at Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska around 1200 UT on March 27th, 2003 with two instrumented rockets and one chemical tracer rocket. From the released trimethyl aluminum (TMA) trails, neutral wind measurements showed a wind peak at 120 km altitude and a jet structure around it, which were superposed by a vertically propagating wave. Running global ionosphere thermosphere model (GITM) with a stretched grid structure, sub-degree resolution around the JOULE rocket position was applied. Data-model comparison shows that the GITM simulation reproduced the large neutral wind at 120 km altitude. The simulation also shows a strong vertical wind shear below 120 km, which is generally consistent with observation but with a smaller gradient. The primary discrepancies were the wave features below 115 km and the wind gradient above 120 km altitude, which indicates that the wave forcing besides the ion-drag force plays an important role to the neutral dynamics in the lower thermosphere. The comparison between simulations using different high-latitude drivers was also conducted to emphasize the significance of the electrodynamics to the neutral wind. Using assimilative mapping of ionospheric electrodynamics (AMIE) procedure as the high latitude driver produced more accurate neutral wind patterns than using Weimer empirical model.

A sounding rocket experiment undertaken by the Chinese Meridian Project from a low latitude station on Hainan Island (19.5°N, 109.1°E), China, measured the DC electric field during 05:45–05:52 LT on April 5, 2013. The data observed using a set of electric field double probes, as part of the rocket’s scientific payload, revealed the special profile of how the vectors of the DC electric field vary with altitude between 130 and 190 km. During the experiment, the vertical electric field was downward, and the maximum vertical electric field was nearly 5.1 mV/m near the altitude of 176 km. The zonal electric field was eastward and slightly less than 0.6 mV/m. The plasma drift velocity was estimated from the E × B motion, and the zonal drift velocity was eastward and of the order of 100 m/s. The zonal wind velocity was also estimated using the drift velocity near the maximum density height in the F1-region, and it was found to be nearly 120 m/s. This work constituted the first in situ measurement of the DC electric field conducted within the F1-region (between 130 and 190 km) in the East Asian Sector.

Spectrally resolved measurements of individual solar active regions (ARs) in the soft X-ray (SXR) range are important for studying dynamic processes in the solar corona and their associated effects on the Earth’s upper atmosphere. They are also a means of evaluating atomic data and elemental abundances used in physics-based solar spectral models. However, very few such measurements are available. We present spectral measurements of two individual ARs in the 0.5 to 2.5 nm range obtained on the NASA 36.290 sounding rocket flight of 21 October 2013 (at about 18:30 UT) using the Solar Aspect Monitor (SAM), a channel of the Extreme Ultaviolet Variability Experiment (EVE) payload designed for underflight calibrations of the orbital EVE on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The EVE rocket instrument is a duplicate of the EVE on SDO, except the SAM channel on the rocket version was modified in 2012 to include a freestanding transmission grating to provide spectrally resolved images of the solar disk with the best signal to noise ratio for the brightest features, such as ARs. Calibrations of the EVE sounding rocket instrument at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Synchrotron Ultraviolet Radiation Facility (NIST/SURF) have provided a measurement of the SAM absolute spectral response function and a mapping of wavelength separation in the grating diffraction pattern. We discuss techniques (incorporating the NIST/SURF data) for determining SXR spectra from the dispersed AR images as well as the resulting spectra for NOAA ARs 11877 and 11875 observed on the 2013 rocket flight. In comparisons with physics-based spectral models using the CHIANTI v8 atomic database we find that both AR spectra are in good agreement with isothermal spectra (4 MK), as well as spectra based on an AR differential emission measure (DEM) included with the CHIANTI distribution, with the exception of the relative intensities of strong Fe xvii lines associated with $2p^{6}$ – $2p^{5}3{s}$ and $2p^{6}$ – $2p^{5}3{d}$ transitions at about 1.7 nm and 1.5 nm, respectively. The ratio of the Fe xvii lines suggests that the AR 11877 is hotter than the AR 11875. This result is confirmed with analysis of the active regions imaged by X-ray Telescope (XRT) onboard Hinode.

Aircraft parabolic flights repetitively provide up to 23 seconds of reduced gravity during ballistic flight manoeuvres. Parabolic flights are used to conduct short microgravity investigations in Physical and Life Sciences and in Technology, to test instrumentation prior to space flights and to train astronauts before a space mission. The use of parabolic flights is complementary to other microgravity carriers (drop towers, sounding rockets), and preparatory to manned space missions on board the International Space Station and other manned spacecraft, such as Shenzhou and the future Chinese Space Station. After 17 years of using the Airbus A300 ZERO-G, the French company Novespace, a subsidiary of the ’Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales’ (CNES, French Space Agency), based in Bordeaux, France, purchased a new aircraft, an Airbus A310, to perform parabolic flights for microgravity research in Europe. Since April 2015, the European Space Agency (ESA), CNES and the ‘Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.’ (DLR, the German Aerospace Center) use this new aircraft, the Airbus A310 ZERO-G, for research experiments in microgravity. The first campaign was a Cooperative campaign shared by the three agencies, followed by respectively a CNES, an ESA and a DLR campaign. This paper presents the new Airbus A310 ZERO-G and its main characteristics and interfaces for scientific experiments. The experiments conducted during the first European campaign are presented.

Micro-X is a NASA funded, rocket borne X-ray imaging spectrometer that uses transition edge sensors (TESs) to do high-resolution microcalorimetry. The TESs are cooled by an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator, whose salt pill functions as a heat sink for the detectors. We have made a thermal model of the cryostat with SPICE for the purposes of understanding its behavior at low temperatures. Implementing modifications based on this model has further allowed us to cool the system down to a lower temperature than had previously been accessible and to improve its low-temperature hold time. These modifications include a variety of schemes for power through heat sinks and tweaking the conductance between the cold baths and the refrigerated hardware. We present an overview of the model and its constituent parameters, information about thermal modifications, and a summary of results from thermal tests of the entire system.

The present study has the purpose of presenting a numerical and experimental analysis of the flow patterns on the fore-body section of a sounding rocket model in the transonic regime. The measurements were carried out in the Pilot Transonic Wind Tunnel, known as TTP, at the Instituto de Aeronautica e Espaco (IAE), in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, for Mach numbers ranging from 0.6 to 1.06 and zero angle of attack. The experimental techniques of pressure taps, pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) and schlieren visualization method were performed on a 1:34 scaled model of a sounding rocket. Complex phenomena as shock waves, boundary layer detachment, and expansion waves were clearly identified from the PSP pressure field and from the schlieren images. Good agreements between the PSP, pressure taps and numerical simulation results were observed, except around the tip of the model because of the curvature and also in details that were not captured by the camera.

Barium release experiment is an effective way to study the near-earth environment, in which artificial plasma cloud is created via ionization of neutral gases released from a rocket or a satellite. The first barium release experiment in China was successfully carried out by a sounding rocket at a height of about 190 km on April 5, 2013. The observed barium cloud images show that the neutral cloud follows a damping motion, whose velocity decreases exponentially and finally tends towards the wind velocity of the background. But for the ion cloud, the motion is controlled mainly by the Lorentz force and a E×B drift happens. This work is devoted to calculating the wind and electric field of the background by analyzing the observed images from different stations. It turns out that the wind has a magnitude of 51.28 m/s, which is mainly in the northeast direction but also has an appreciable vertical component; the ion cloud has a drift velocity of 71.38 m/s, with a large vertical velocity component besides the horizontal components, then the electric field is obtained from the drift velocity as 2.49 mV/m. It is interesting that the wind field shows a better agreement with GITM model than the other empirical or theoretical models, and the GITM model can also give a good prediction for the ion velocity observed by us, which is consistent with the ISR observation at Jicamarca as well.

In this study we carry out multi-disciplinary multi-objective optimization of a solid fin for sounding rocket by considering its (i) aerodynamic performance in terms of static aerodynamic stability and drag, (ii) structural performance in terms of torsional deflection and factor of safety (FOS), and (iii) flight performance in terms of peak altitude (PA) and maximum payload capability for given propulsion system characteristics. Four different fin design optimization problems have been studied:(i) maximize PA of the sounding rocket and maximize aerodynamic static margin, (ii) maximize PA and maximize payload mass, (iii) maximize PA and minimize tip torsion angle of the fin, (iv) maximize PA and maximize FOS. In all of these optimization problems, essential aerodynamic and structural constraints have been satisfied. Multi-objective optimization has been used to get the Pareto-optimal front of the conflicting objectives. It is seen that all the four design problems have conflicting objectives. The study gives insight into the optimal fin configuration variables and effect of active constraints.

The High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) was flown on a NASA sounding rocket on 11 July 2012. The goal of the Hi-C mission was to obtain high-resolution (≈ 0.3 – 0.4′′), high-cadence (≈ 5 seconds) images of a solar active region to investigate the dynamics of solar coronal structures at small spatial scales. The instrument consists of a normal-incidence telescope with the optics coated with multilayers to reflect a narrow wavelength range around 19.3 nm (including the Fe xii 19.5-nm spectral line) and a 4096×4096 camera with a plate scale of 0.1′′ pixel−1. The target of the Hi-C rocket flight was Active Region 11520. Hi-C obtained 37 full-frame images and 86 partial-frame images during the rocket flight. Analysis of the Hi-C data indicates the corona is structured on scales smaller than currently resolved by existing satellite missions.

As of 2013, a number of companies had announced their intention to start flying suborbital vehicles, capable of transporting people to high altitudes out of any airport or launch site, on a commercial and regular basis. According to several studies, a market for suborbital “space tourism” exists. Another very promising application of suborbital flight is scientific research. The present paper provides an overview of the potential of commercial suborbital flight for science, including microgravity research. Suborbital flight provides a much-needed intermediate-duration opportunity between research performed in Earth orbit and more affordable but shorter duration alternatives, such as drop towers and zero-g parabolic flights. Moreover, suborbital flight will be less expensive and more frequent than both orbital flight and sounding rockets, and it has the capability to fly into sub-orbit the researcher together with the payload, and thus enable on-site interaction with the experiment. In the United States, both the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and a number of private institutions have already shown interest in conducting scientific experiments, particularly microgravity research, aboard these new platforms. Researchers who intend to participate in future suborbital flights as payload specialists will need training, given the physical challenges posed by the flight. Finally, suborbital researchers may also want to have a basic knowledge of the legal status that will apply to them as passengers of such flights.

Structural material properties are strongly related to the solidified microstructures, thus precise control of microstructural formation and selection are crucial in engineering. As most of the phenomena involved during solidification are dynamic, in situ and real-time X-ray imaging should be retained as the method of choice for investigating the solidification front evolution of metallic alloys grown from the melt. On Earth, natural convection in the melt is the major source of various disturbing effects. Solidification under microgravity conditions is an efficient way to eliminate buoyancy and convection, providing valuable benchmark data for the validation of analytical models and numerical simulations. In addition, a comparative study of solidification experiments carried out on Earth and in space can also enlighten the effects of gravity. In the frameworks of the ESA - MAP programme entitled XRMON, an experimental apparatus has been developed to perform directional and equiaxed solidification in microgravity conditions with in situ X-ray radiography observation. In the first part of this paper, we will present a brief review of some effects induced by gravity on the solidification process and investigated by mean of synchrotron X-ray radiography at ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility). In the second part of this paper, we will describe the key elements of the XRMON-GF device, and some scientific results achieved during the MASER-12 sounding rocket mission and the 58 th ESA Parabolic flight campaign are finally presented in the third and last part of the paper.

We describe the first measurements of the critical Marangoni number of thermocapillary flow in liquid bridges under microgravity. The experiments were conducted during the ballistic flight of rockets with small liquid bridges established by melting the equivalent cylindrical rod of solid sodium nitrate under microgravity. Fine thermocouples in the melt indicated the onset of flow oscillations by the increase of temperature oscillations. The critical Marangoni number M a c was measured to be approximately 1·104 for Prandtl number P r = 9. This type of experiment was especially simple, effective and suitable for execution during the short microgravity–time available during sounding rockets flights. The lessons learned from these experiments have been collected. In a second part of this paper we review five more sophisticated microgravity experiments in sounding rockets in which the surface tension driven flow was visualized by tracers and suitable illumination. Two experiments are devoted to the very first demonstration of the classical cellular Benard-Marangoni instability of thin liquid layers with free surface, heated from below. We could demonstrate in another experiment chaotic thermocapillary flow in a cubic cuvette filled with oil up to a flat free surface. Two experiments dealt with liquid bridges (LBs); in one the LB was nearly as long as possible at all. Here we could observe the helical nature of the hydrothermal wave in the geometry of the LB and measured a much smaller critical Marangoni number than in the short liquid bridges on ground. In the other experiment we investigated particle accumulation structures (PAS) and could show that PAS develops independently from gravity forces though it was indicated that gravity has an influence on PAS–formation by changing the flow field.

When a sounding rocket rolls about its longitudinal axis, the role of angle of attack and sideslip angle exchange regularly. This interchange causes the aerodynamic moments to alternate between pitching and yawing moments, which, coupled with the moment of inertia effects, further aggravates the inertial cross-coupling. In this paper, first we analyze the cross-coupling phenomena and derive a Linear, Time-Invariant (LTI), multi input — multi output model of a spinning sounding rocket and then we design an autopilot for this system. An application of multivariable control technique is presented to the design of the autopilot. The involved controller is advanced by combining Eigenstructure Assignment (EA) approach with the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. Results of linear and nonlinear simulations are reported to demonstrate the performance and stability margin of the considered autopilot.

We are developing transition edge sensor (TES) mirocalorimeters with large area (0.72 mm $$^2$$ ) absorbers to study the keV diffuse X-ray background. The goal is to develop a 2 cm $$^2$$ array of 256 pixels for a sounding rocket payload. We present a pixel design which includes a Mo/Au bilayer TES coupled to a large (850 x 850 x 0.2 $$\upmu $$ m $$^3$$ ) gold absorber. Our simulations indicate that such a design can achieve energy resolution as good as 1.6 eV FWHM in our target bandpass of 0.05–1 keV. Additionally, thermal modelling shows that for typical gold layers, the position-dependent variation of the pulse shape over the large area of the absorber is not expected to significantly degrade this energy resolution. An array of devices will be fabricated in late 2013 to test this design.

Thin-walled structures have been extensively used as energy absorbers in crashworthiness applications such as automobile and aeronautical industries to protect passengers from severe injury. This paper investigates the energy absorption responses of empty and foam-filled cylindrical and conical tubes with shallow spherical caps under quasi-static axial loading. Nonlinear dynamic finite element analyses are carried out to investigate the details concerning crushing process. Satisfactory agreements are achieved between the finite element and the experimental results. The numerical and experimental results highlight several effects of foam filling on the crushing behavior of the thin-walled tubes. Finally, the effect of semi-apical angle on the crushing behavior of the empty and foam-filled tubes with shallow spherical caps is investigated. This study provides practical information about using thin-walled tubes with shallow spherical caps as energy absorbers in aerospace applications in order to design reentry sounding rocket based on foam-filled tube with shallow spherical caps.

Besides safety and low-cost, the start/shutdown/restarting and throttling ability are the other two significant advantages of hybrid rocket motors (HRMs) compared with liquid and solid ones. In this study, a two-stage variable thrust and non-toxic 98%HP/HTPB hybrid rocket motor (VTHRM) is designed and applied in a sounding rocket, and the design parameters of the motor are analyzed and optimized. A computational program is developed to design the motor system structure, to predict the interior ballistics and the ballistic trajectory. A star grain and a wheel grain are compared. The design of experiment (DOE), variance analysis and the main effect analysis are employed to investigate the influence of the main design parameters on motor performance. The multidiscipline feasible (MDF) approach is applied to establish the optimization procedure after analyzing the system design structure matrix. A modified differential evolution algorithm is employed to maximize the load mass. The results indicate that the wheel grain could obtain a larger load mass and a lower length to diameter ratio, and that throttling markedly meliorates the motor and rocket performance. The conclusions drawn from the analysis and optimization could provide instructive guide and theoretical basis for engineering designs.

Brazil has a Microgravity Program mainly based on experiments using sounding rockets. This paper presents a brief account of the Program and the experiments made on the Brazilian rockets. Up to now three missions carrying a total of 26 experiments were made. In all flights a fast solidification furnace, capable of producing temperatures up to 900°C, was tested with semiconductor and metal alloys. This paper describes the construction and the performance of that furnace during the last parabolic flight, occurred in 2010. The solidification furnace is now qualified and ready to be used by other institutions in sounding rocket flights.

Accepted: 2010-07-02, 資料番号: SA1002863000

Results obtained from ground-based reference experiments, a parabolic flight campaign (PFC) and the sounding rocket MASER 11 campaign are presented. X-ray analysis that allows us to follow the entire foaming process in-situ, was employed for qualitative and quantitative analysis of local changes in density, pore size distribution and the frequency and location of cell wall rupture. In the PFC, we found that under microgravity imbibition of liquid metal into the foam due to capillarity forces dominates, and even a pre-existing gravity-induced drainage disappears. This effect could be observed specially after gravity transitions from 1.8 to 0 g. During MASER 11, a homogeneous wet collapsefree metal foam with round pores could be produced. Obviously, there was no gravity-induced drainage, but an unexpected strong coalescence rate was observed. We conclude that gravity-induced drainage is not the only factor that leads to cell wall rupture as previously assumed.

Aircraft parabolic flights provide repetitively up to 20 s of reduced gravity during ballistic flight manoeuvres and are used to conduct short microgravity investigations in Physical and Life Sciences and Technology, to test instrumentation and to train astronauts before a space flight. Their use is complementary to other microgravity platforms, such as drop towers, sounding rockets, automatic orbital capsules and the International Space Station (ISS), and preparatory to space missions. Since 1997, parabolic flights in Europe are performed with the Airbus A300 ‘Zero-G’, the world largest aircraft for this research activity. ESA campaigns are organized at a rate of two campaigns per year, usually in spring and autumn. Depending on their sizes, 12 to 14 experiments can be accommodated per campaign. Due to the scientific interest and the growing importance of heat and mass transfer experiments, ESA has dedicated its 48th ESA parabolic flight campaign of 2008 to this kind of experiments. A certain number of experiments have been identified in Europe, USA and Japan and eight of these experiments have been assigned to the 48th ESA campaign of March 2008. Five other experiments are scheduled to participate in the next 49th ESA campaign of October 2008. The ESA aircraft parabolic flight programme and the Airbus A300 ‘Zero-G’ aircraft are presented. The eight heat and mass transfer experiments foreseen for the 48th campaign of March 2008 are summarized.

A SOUnding Rocket Compere Experiment (SOURCE) is prepared for launch in spring 2008 and shall deliver approximately 360 s of microgravity time. The experiment is intended to partially fulfill the scientific objectives of the European Space Agency Microgravity Applications Program project AO-2004-111 (Convective boiling and condensation). One of the tasks of this experiment is the investigation of capillary dominated flow at a heated wall. The SOURCE experiment will also serve the needs of the COMPERE research group whose mandate is to investigate the behavior of propellant in spacecraft tanks. SOURCE is a benchmark type of experiment on fluid behavior in tanks to test hypotheses and numerical predictions (quantitative results on a tank scale). Several work packages have been distributed to the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) to manage a part of the preparation of this experiment. Since ZARM acts also as a principal investigator, the subject of surface tension driven flows is one of the main topics. It includes the design of the experimental setup to study free surface behavior as well as the numerical predictions to quantify the heat transfer at a non-isothermal boundary condition in the absence of gravity.

We have developed a new calorimeter array to increase our collecting area by a factor of four. The 6×6 pixel device has a total area of 144 mm2, making it one of the largest X-ray microcalorimeter arrays yet constructed. A relatively thin high-z absorber consisting of a 0.7 μm HgTe layer supported on 15 μm high-purity silicon provides good efficiency up to photon energies of 1.5 keV. The heat capacity of this composite is low enough to obtain an energy resolution of ∼6 eV FWHM on the 2 mm×2 mm pixels when operated at a base temperature of 50 mK. The infrared blocking filters have also been improved. Room temperature radiation must be attenuated by about 9 orders of magnitude between 2 μm and 2 cm to avoid having photon shot noise dominate the detectornoise. Accomplishing this while maintaining a high transmission for very soft X-rays that can penetrate only a few μg cm−2 is a problem common to all soft X-ray calorimeters that observe external targets. We are constructing monolithic silicon two-layer support meshes with a 350 μm pitch front layer on a 5 mm pitch backing layer. These are 98% open and have >95% effective transmission over a 60° field of view, while providing robust support for 38 mm diameter filters consisting of 20 nm of aluminum on 50 nm of polyimide. Five of these filters in series provide the necessary infrared attenuation. Integral deicing heaters are ion implanted in the fine mesh to remove contamination when necessary.

Micro-X, the High-Resolution Microcalorimeter X-ray Imaging Rocket, is a sounding rocket space telescope that will combine a transition-edge-sensor (TES) X-ray microcalorimeter array with a conical imaging mirror to obtain high spectral resolution images of extended and point X-ray sources. Microcalorimeters measure the energy of an absorbed photon by sensing the increase in temperature of the sensor from the thermalization of the absorbed photon’s energy. The advantages and scientific promise of this technology have fueled active development for the past 20 years. We will leverage this development and take the next step by producing a flight-qualified system that will serve as a pathfinder for future missions. Our scientific program will initially focus on extended sources, for which our high-spectral-resolution observations have distinct advantages over other technologies. For our initial flight, we will observe the bright eastern knot in the Puppis A remnant, a site of complex cloud-shock interactions and ejecta enrichment. A Micro-X observation of the bright eastern knot of Puppis A will obtain a line-dominated spectrum with 90,000 counts collected in 300 seconds at 2 eV resolution across the 0.3–2.5 keV band.

We describe the capillary motion of liquid into aqueous foams under microgravity. Experiments in which a constant input of liquid is added to a foam under a variety of controlled experimental conditions (bubble size, cell geometry, bubble interfacial properties) have been performed in parabolic flights and in the MAXUS 6 sounding rocket. For comparison, we also performed numerical simulations, based on the foam drainage equations in which the gravitational contributions are removed. The agreement between these simulations and the experimental data is good, and the quantitative adjustment between them enables us to estimate foam permeabilities and surface shear viscosities.

Accepted: 2006-07-27, 資料番号: SA1000417000

Transient growth conditions are common to a variety of technical solidification processes and lead to modified materials properties. In directional solidification the microstructure at the solid-liquid interface of an alloy is a result of the interaction of diffusive and convective heat and mass transport in the bulk and of interface and thermophysical properties. We have carried out experiments under diffusive conditions without convection in microgravity during the sounding rocket missions TEXUS-36 and 40. The used transparent alloy succinonitrile-acetone freezes like metals and the solidification process was observed in-situ. Within a gradient furnace the solid-liquid interface is forced to move accelerated and to transform from planar into cellular and dendritic structures. The dynamics of the planar interface and of the spacing and the amplitude of diffusive grown cells and dendrites were observed directly with cameras and analyzed. A comparison of the TEXUS-40 results to predictions taken from a macroscopic thermal model, a coupled heat-mass transfer model and a phase-field model was carried out. A good agreement is found for the planar interface dynamics for the coupled heat-mass transfer model and the phase-field model, when using additional information from the thermal modelling. In the cellular and dendritic growth regime typical microstructure features can be reproduced by the phase-field model. The experimental results thus serve as important bench-marks for the validation of numerical models describing time-dependent solidification processes.

In order to find reliable collector surfaces for the Mesospheric Aerosol – Genesis, Interaction and Composition (MAGIC) sounding rocket experiment, intended to collect atmospheric nanoparticles, the sticking efficiency of nanoparticles was measured on several targets of different materials. The nanoparticles were generated by a molecular beam apparatus in Jena, Germany, by laser ablation (Al2O3 particles, diameter 5–50 nm) and by laser pyrolysis (carbon particles, diameter 10–20 nm). In a vacuum environment (>10−5 mbar) the particles condensed from the gas phase, formed a particle beam, and were accelerated to ∼ ∼1 km/s. The sticking efficiency on the target materials carbon, gold and grease was measured by a microbalance. Results demonstrate moderate to high sticking probabilities. Thus, the capture and retrieval of atmospheric nanoparticles was found to be quantitatively feasible.

An experimental and numerical analysis of the behavior of drops in a liquid matrix, in presence of temperature differences, is carried out in preparation for a MAXUS sounding rocket flight to study wetting and coalescence prevention induced by thermal Marangoni effect. On-ground experimentation has been carried out using micro zone apparatus. Different pairs of liquids (drop and matrix) have been analyzed; wetting prevention has been observed with drops of different diameter and critical temperature differences have been measured for each pair. To avoid buoyancy effects similar experiments have been carried out during the 30th ESA parabolic flight campaign. The main objective of the experiments is facility tests in a parabolic flight for the MAXUS flight. During the parabolic flight a hanging drop of Silicone oil 10 mm diameter has been injected in a matrix of Fluorinert and in air; wetting prevention has been observed in presence of a temperature difference between the drop and the lower surface. The theoretical-numerical study of the problem has been carried out with a thermofluidynamic model based on the assumption of the existence of a fluid film between the drop and the lower surface.

The optical properties of heavy metal fluoride (HMF) glasses degrade during the fibre drawing process due to undesired micro-crystal formation. Since gravity-driven density segregation is believed to be a major cause for homogeneous nucleation in viscous glasses during their ground-based processing, use of microgravity during such processes should minimize micro-crystal formation and resulting optical degradation. Our research on HMF glasses has been aimed at seeking experimental evidence to support this hypothesis. Earlier results from our experiments on the T-33 aircraft and the CSAR-I sounding rocket had indicated that microgravity helps in reducing crystallization in HMF glasses during their heat treatment at temperatures above 325°C. This temperature is very close to the fibre drawing temperature range of 300–320°C in these glasses, and implies that crystal nucleation and optical degradation may occur during fibre drawing. Therefore, the CSAR-II sounding rocket experiments were conducted on HMF glass samples at processing temperatures within the fibre drawing region. The results of CSAR-II sounding rocket experiments are in tune with the earlier findings and indicate that microgravity helps in reducing optical degradation in HMF glasses during their processing at temperatures in the fibre drawing region.

The structure and the stability of a laminar diffusion flame established over a flat plate was studied in micro-gravity and for low Reynolds number. A two stages program was developed and tested during parabolic flights, drop tower and finally aboard a sounding rocket. Three different regimes were established either for gas-gas or gas-solid systems: two stable regimes for blue and yellow flames, a transition regime between the two and the extinction or non-propagating zone.

Gravity-driven density segregation in viscous glass is believed to trigger homogeneous nucleation during the high-temperature processing of heavy metal fluoride (HMF) glasses. Processing of HMF glasses in microgravity could, therefore, minimize commonly observed micro-crystal formation in these glasses during their heat treatment for fibre drawing. Although, preliminary experiments on parabolic flight aircraft had earlier indicated that gravity enhances and microgravity suppresses crystallization during the processing of HMF glasses, these results were considered inconclusive due to the short processing time of 20 seconds. The CSAR-I sounding rocket provided an opportunity to process HMF glasses over a longer duration of five minutes in microgravity. These experiments indicated that microgravity helps in reducing crystallization in HMF glasses during their heat treatment at 325°C, which is very close to their fibre drawing temperature range of 300–320°C.

Heavy metal fluoride (HMF) glasses are prone to micro-crystal formation and resulting optical degradation during their high-temperature processing for fibre drawing. It is believed that the absence of gravity-driven density segregation in microgravity can reduce this undesired micro-crystallization during the processing of HMF glasses. Experiments were conducted on the T-33 parabolic flight aircraft in microgravity and under 2-g acceleration to study the effect of gravity on crystallization in HMF glasses. These preliminary experiments indicated that gravity enhances crystallization in HMF glasses during their processing at 370–400°C. However, these results were not considered conclusive due to the short duration of 20 seconds available on the parabolic flight aircraft. Subsequent ground-based experiments were conducted on the T-33 payload using statistical design of experiments to simultaneously study the effect of glass composition, processing temperature, processing time and mode of heating (continuous or pulsed). These experiments indicated that a continuous processing time of over two minutes at crystallization temperatures is required to observe a statistically significant amount of crystallization in HMF glasses. This established the need for longer duration experiments on the sounding rocket, space shuttle or space station.

Two successful sounding rocket flights were launched on 15 May 1997 and 2 November 1998 with an objective of providing inter-calibration with several of the instruments on board SOHO and TRACE. We will discuss here the results of the inter-calibration between the SwRI/LASP rocket imaging instruments and the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) on SOHO. The Multiple XUV Imager (MXUVI) sounding rocket instrument is a multi-layer mirror telescope equipped with an internal occulter and light trap to provide full-disk images of Fe ix/x 17.1 nm and off-limb observations of He ii 30.4 nm. The SOHO/EIT instrument is also a full-disk multi-layer imager with four channels, Fe ix/x 17.1 nm, Fe xii 19.5 nm, Fe xv 28.4 nm and He ii 30.4 nm. By comparison with the EIT observations taken at the same time, we provide new flat-field determinations for EIT which help quantify the sensitivity degradation of the EIT detector, as well as provide a measure of the off-limb stray-light characteristics of the two instruments. We find that the EIT stray-light function is strongly asymmetric, with greater stray light in the 17.1 and 19.5 nm quadrants than the 30.4 and 28.4 nm quadrants. Two possible causes of this asymmetry are the polishing processes of the EIT mirrors and the asymmetric support grid pattern in the foil mesh at the EIT pupil.

The Very-high-resolution Advanced ULtraviolet Telescope (VAULT) experiment was successfully launched on 7 May 1999 on a Black Brant sounding rocket vehicle from White Sands Missile Range. The instrument consists of a 30 cm UV diffraction limited telescope followed by a two-grating, zero-dispersion spectroheliograph tuned to isolate the solar Lα emission line. During the flight, the instrument successfully obtained a series of images of the upper chromosphere with a limiting resolution of ∼ 0.33 arc sec. The resulting observations are the highest-resolution images of the solar atmosphere obtained from space to date. The flight demonstrated that sub-arc second ultraviolet images of the solar atmosphere are achievable with a high-quality, moderate-aperture space telescope and associated optics. Herein, we describe the payload and its in-flight performance.

Eine kurze Ubersicht wird uber diejenigen Forschungsgebiete gegeben, fur die trotz Fernerkundungssatelliten oder Bodenmessungen Messungen am Ort mit Hilfe von Ballonen oder Raketen erforderlich sind.

We present an overview and instrumental details of the solar XUV Doppler Telescope (XDT) launched in January 1998 with the S520CN-22 sounding rocket of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. The XDT observes nearly single-temperature solar corona at 1.8 MK with angular resolution of ≈ 5′′ pixel size, together with the ability to detect the coronal velocity field with a full-Sun field of view. By use of normal incidence optics whose primary and secondary mirrors are coated with multilayer materials in two sectors, the XDT takes images of the Sun in a set of shorter and longer wavelength bands around the Fe xiv 211.3 A emission line. Summation of a pair of images in the two bands provides an image of the 1.8 MK-corona while the difference between the two provides velocity images of the Fe xiv-emitting plasma. A brief description on the observation sequence together with the flight result is also given.

Measurements of the solar soft X-ray (XUV: 2 nm to 30 nm) irradiance were performed from a sounding rocket payload flown from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico on 4 October 1993 and again on 3 November 1994. The soft X-ray instrumentation comprised of silicon photodiodes with thin films deposited directly onto their active areas. The deposited material and its thickness in conjunction with the sensitivity of an uncoated diode determine the passband and the sensitivity of these photometric devices. The measurements are interpreted in terms of appropriate SERF 1 (Hinteregger, Fukui, and Gilson, 1981) model solar spectra. It is found that the data are consistent with a solar spectrum that is on average approximately a factor of two times the model solar spectra. It is shown that the measured irradiances are in reasonable agreement with other experiments.

A considerable increase in the intensity of the telemetric signal radiated from the MR 12 sounding rocket surrounded by an artificial RF discharge plasma envelope was detected in the “Aktivny Shnur” ionospheric experiment in February 1991. The experimental data are presented and their interpretation is given.

We report on the reduction and analysis of UVpolarimetric images of CI (λ1657 A) and dust continuum (2696 A emissions from C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) taken using the Wide Field Imaging Survey Polarimeter (WISP) sounding rocket on 8 April, 1997. These observations represent the first imaging polarimetry of comets in the UV, and were performed in consort with ground based measurements of gas and dust polarization and distribution. The continuum results show 9% polarization across the image field with a polarization phase angle close to the 129° prediction. Comparison with ground based data implies minimal color dependence for Hale-Bopp in either the degree of polarization and in the position angle. The carbon polarimetry implies that most production occurs in the dense inner coma, and that it leaves that area in thermodynamic equilibrium. Its radial profile further constrains the carbon outflow speed to be sufficient to travel ≥5 × 106 km without photoionization.

Ultraviolet spectroscopy and imaging of comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) were obtained from a variety of space platforms from shortly after the discovery of the comet through perihelion passage. Observations with the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) spanned the range of 6.8 to 2.7 AU pre-perihelion, but IUE was decommissioned in September 1996 and HST was precluded from near-perihelion observations because of its solar avoidance constraint. In September 1996, observations were made by the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) that showed the presence of soft X-rays offset from the optical center of the coma and provided a sensitive spectroscopic upper limit to the Ne/O abundance ratio. During the perihelion period NASA mounted a successful campaign of four sounding rockets that were launched at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, between March 25 and April 8, 1997. The payloads included long-slit spectroscopy and ultraviolet imaging polarimetry. In addition, Hale-Bopp was observed near perihelion by ultraviolet instruments on orbiting spacecraft that were designed for solar or terrestrial observations. Observations with HST, using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), installed during the February 1997 servicing mission, resumed in August 1997. Intercomparison of the ultraviolet observations and comparison with the results on gas composition and activity from ground-based visible, infrared and radio observations may permit the resolution of many discrepant results present in the literature.