space sciences and exploration
Fateme Mousavi
Volume 16, Issue 4 , December 2023, , Pages 83-89
Abstract
Seed aging is a process that can lead to a complete loss of seed viability. This process occurs when seeds are exposed to long-term storage or controlled deterioration treatments such as excessive dryness, lack of oxygen, and temperature fluctuations on Earth or in outer space. Proteomic changes can ...
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Seed aging is a process that can lead to a complete loss of seed viability. This process occurs when seeds are exposed to long-term storage or controlled deterioration treatments such as excessive dryness, lack of oxygen, and temperature fluctuations on Earth or in outer space. Proteomic changes can occur in the dry state of seeds. Extreme temperature fluctuations in outer space, especially on the moon and Mars, are one of the most important challenges for space scientists to transfer plant seeds and grow them in outer space outside the atmosphere. The present study studied the effects of simulated space temperature fluctuations on the quantitative and qualitative content of dry tomato seed proteins. The results showed 13 protein bands in the molecular weight range of 8.89 to 91.82 kilodaltons. A double or more significant decrease in the intensity of protein bands with high molecular weight was also observed in the treated group compared to the control. Finally, the two-dimensional electrophoresis technique followed by mass spectrometry is suggested for better resolution of tomato seed proteins and their better separation, as well as identification of unknown protein bands in future studies.
physiology and space medicine (astrobiology)
Fateme Mousavi
Volume 16, English Special Issue , November 2023, , Pages 65-71
Abstract
The extreme temperature fluctuations and the vacuum of the space environment make growing plants in outer space challenging. To simulate the temperature fluctuations and vacuum conditions associated with space environments, dry tomato seeds were placed in a thermal cycle simulator and vacuum simulator ...
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The extreme temperature fluctuations and the vacuum of the space environment make growing plants in outer space challenging. To simulate the temperature fluctuations and vacuum conditions associated with space environments, dry tomato seeds were placed in a thermal cycle simulator and vacuum simulator chamber of space systems, respectively. A Bradford method was used to determine the total protein content of each group of seeds. Sodium dodecyl-sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was used to separate proteins. The seed of the thermal cycle group had the highest protein content (26 to 31 mg/ml), followed by control seeds (8-10 mg/ml) and the vacuum seeds (4-5.6 mg/ml). The molecular weights of the peptides ranged from 8 to 42 kDa. The intensity of the protein bands was significantly different in the thermal cycle group from the other two groups, and vacuum group had the lowest intensity. Water and oil released from seeds in the vacuum environment resulted in a reduction of protein content. In the thermal cycle group, the total protein content and the intensity of the bands were significantly higher than those treated with the control group, which can be attributed to the degradation of storage proteins involved in seed germination in the control group.
Space subsystems design: (navigation, control, structure and…)
Abdolmajid khoshnood; Ali Aminzadeh; Peyman Nikpey
Volume 15, Issue 1 , March 2022, , Pages 63-71
Abstract
This paper is dedicated to modeling of fuel sloshing dynamics and its effect on the stability and control of the space vehicle. Sloshing due to the liquid movement in the fuel tank of a space vehicle's propulsion system can be effective on the vehicle’s control and stability. Force and moment interaction ...
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This paper is dedicated to modeling of fuel sloshing dynamics and its effect on the stability and control of the space vehicle. Sloshing due to the liquid movement in the fuel tank of a space vehicle's propulsion system can be effective on the vehicle’s control and stability. Force and moment interaction between fuel sloshing and space vehicle’s control system will be appeared as a feedback in the control system. With respect to simplicity of analyzing of a rigid body's equations of motion in comparison with a fluid dynamics equations and as a result reducing computational efforts, it is possible to apply a mechanical model instead. So in this paper fuel sloshing is modelled as a linear mechanical system to investigate its effect on the stability and control of the vehicle. For this purpose, two mechanical models, mass-spring and pendulum systems, are applied to model dynamics of a space vehicle with fuel sloshing and each system’s parameters are evaluated for simulat
Hamed Chenarani; Tahereh Binazadeh; Mohammad Hosein Shafiei
Volume 11, Issue 2 , September 2018, , Pages 41-46
Abstract
This paper considers the problem of asymptotic stabilizing of velocity and body rates of a spacecraft in the presence of uncertainties and external disturbances. One of the important methods in controller design for nonlinear systems; is designing based on the passivity concept. This concept which provides ...
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This paper considers the problem of asymptotic stabilizing of velocity and body rates of a spacecraft in the presence of uncertainties and external disturbances. One of the important methods in controller design for nonlinear systems; is designing based on the passivity concept. This concept which provides a useful tool for analysis of nonlinear systems has been also used for asymptotic stabilizing of nonlinear dynamical systems especially mechanical systems. The passivity-based control law is a static output feedback and has valuable features. Because of existence of uncertainties and external disturbances in the state-space of equations of physical systems; first the robust version of passivity-based control method, which is recently developed in literature, is given and the control law for nonlinear uncertain systems with affine structure is presented. Then, this approach is used in controller design for a spacecraft. Since, this paper considers only the stabilization of velocity and body rates, therefore the reduced-order model is extracted from the state-space equation of a spacecraft with six degree of freedom and then the robust control law is designed. Computer simulations show the efficiency of the proposed controller in robust asymptotic stabilizing of the velocity and body rate vectors of the spacecraft in the presence of uncertainties and external disturbances.
Ghasem Kahe; Maysam Mohammadi-Amin; Arash Sefidan Benisi
Volume 10, Issue 1 , June 2017, , Pages 1-13
Abstract
Various strategies have been developed to increase the safety of spacecraft crews, among which the Launch Abort System has been widely considered by the space centers across the world. The launch abort system should be able to carry the crew module away from the failed launcher or rocket in a short time ...
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Various strategies have been developed to increase the safety of spacecraft crews, among which the Launch Abort System has been widely considered by the space centers across the world. The launch abort system should be able to carry the crew module away from the failed launcher or rocket in a short time in accordance with the predetermined profile and recover the crew module on the ground. While the main part of the vehicle flight consists of the tracking, reorientation, and settling phase; attitude control in the flight path is done via the roll and pitch channel. Non-linear dynamic inversion flight control is considered for the attitude control of the LAS. Tracking the predetermined profile for the angle of attack as well as the sideslip angle and maintaining the stability of the vehicle in the flight path are considered as the control objectives based on the requirements. Simulations and analytical evaluations indicate the outperformance of the proposed controller for the attitude control of LAS in line with the predetermined profile.
fatemeh Sadeghi-kia
Volume 10, Issue 1 , June 2017, , Pages 27-34
Abstract
This study focuses on the characteristics of plasma antennas for their application in space communication systems. Structural and functional characteristics of plasma antenna are presented to evaluate their capability of being used in space missions. Numerical and experimental analysis results of the ...
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This study focuses on the characteristics of plasma antennas for their application in space communication systems. Structural and functional characteristics of plasma antenna are presented to evaluate their capability of being used in space missions. Numerical and experimental analysis results of the plasma antenna show that the resonant frequency of the antenna is controllable by changing the applied power, thus allowing different transmitting frequencies with a single element. This property leads to the reduction of the antenna elements in a limited area and the simplification in the layout of onboard communication systems as well as a decrease in the interferences of the electromagnetic waves. Analysis of the circular array of plasma antenna shows a novel beam forming mechanism with a high directivity in the space.
Mohammad Reza Mortazavi; Ali Reza Alikhani
Volume 8, Issue 1 , April 2015, , Pages 27-41
Abstract
This paper presents a suitable technique for nonlinear control of a flexible spacecraft in proximity operations. To do proximity operations well, the pursuer spacecraft must place itself in a pre specified location relative to target and align its docking port to target’s docking port while keeping ...
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This paper presents a suitable technique for nonlinear control of a flexible spacecraft in proximity operations. To do proximity operations well, the pursuer spacecraft must place itself in a pre specified location relative to target and align its docking port to target’s docking port while keeping their attitude compatible. This procedure usually needs large, fast and accurate manoeuvres which can cause flexible structure vibrations. In addition, external disturbances, actuator saturation and model uncertainties increase difficulties of achieving such a goal. Consequently it is necessary to utilize an effective and nonlinear controller design approach to overcome these challenges. To perform considered scenario successfully, in this paper we use a method in nonlinear optimal control called State Dependent Riccati Equation (SDRE). Simple formulation and tuning as well as good performance and satisfactory robustness are some advantages of this approach in unified control of the spacecraft position, attitude and flexible motion during a proximity operation. 6DoF simulations show good performance of controller in presence of structure flexibility, parametric uncertainties, input uncertainty and saturation and external disturbance.
