The Sun to the Earth -- and Beyond A Decadal Research Strategy in Solar and Space Physics (2003) / Chapter Skim
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3. Technology Development
3. Technology Development
Pages 81-92
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From page 81... ...
Studies of coronal activity benefited greatly from the deployment of solar imagers on the Skylab space station. In 1973-1974, for example, these imagers verified and extended earlier rocket measurements identifying coronal holes as the source of high-speed solar wind streams.
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From page 82... ...
While the above-mentioned "borrowed" technologies have made possible many of the advances in solar and space physics, the development of new technologies is needed to enable the solar and space physics research communities to address some of the key scientific questions set forth in Chapter 1. The committee has identified seven main areas in which focused technology development, based on the immediate and projected needs of solar and space physics research, is required: sible: · Sending spacecraft to the planets and beyond as efficiently as pos· Developing highly miniaturized spacecraft and advanced spacecraft subsystems for missions involving constellations of multiple spacecraft; · Developing highly miniaturized sensors of charged and neutral particles and photons; · Gathering and assimilating the data from multiple platforms; · Integrating large space-physics databases into physics-based numerical models; · Deploying reliable, unmanned, ground-based ionospheric and geomagnetic measurement stations; and · Developing a high-resolution, ground-based solar imager.
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From page 83... ...
Near-Earth missions slated for launch in the relatively near term will use hydrazine thrusters to provide impulsive changes in velocity for station keeping required, for example, for magnetospheric multiprobe missionsand for excursions to low altitudes by the Geospace Electrodynamic Connections mission. However, many future missions require satellite trajectories that are not possible without continuous thrust capability.
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From page 84... ...
Because of the time required for development, testing, and validation, use of solar sails for actual solar and space physics missions is likely to be some 7 to 10 years in the future.
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From page 85... ...
Such technologies include solar sails, space nuclear power systems, and high-efficiency solar arrays. Equally high priority should be given to the development of lower-cost launch vehicles for Explorer-class missions and to the reopening of the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG)
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From page 86... ...
In addition, to generate such a fleet of nanosatellites on a normal development schedule requires that they be mass-produced, a process that would be facilitated by highly integrated instrumentation and spacecraft subsystems. Several of the technologies required for MagCon will be flight-tested by the New Millennium Program's Space Technology 5 mission, which is planned for launch in 2004 and will place three nanosatellites (mass = 19 kg)
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From page 87... ...
Space science instrument development both drives advanced technology and utilizes emerging technologies at the forefront of materials science. Miniature particle multipliers and counters and charge-coupled device arrays for photon detection are two examples of emerging technologies that have significantly advanced space instrument capability.
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From page 88... ...
Microcalorimeters (superconducting tunnel junctions and transition edge sensors) may be fabricateu as pixel arrays, allowing unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution at wavelengths ranging from the infrared to the hard x ray.
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From page 89... ...
Future missions will involve operation of many satellites that may be triggered by information from just one, and data transfer to and from the ground must accommodate multiple satellites in the same orbit with conflicting contact times. Such operational scenarios already exist, for example, in satellite telephone systems, but they have yet to be implemented in NASA science missions.
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From page 90... ...
cat . , The planned constellation-type missions, for example, will require parallel data assimilation techniques through which the spacecraft data can be directly injected into global magnetohydrodynamic models of the magnetosphere.
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From page 91... ...
However, the severe environments of temperature and moisture and the wildly varying solar insolation5 have posed a serious reliability problem for these systems, to the point that their existence is now threatened. Recommendation: The relevant program offices in the NSF should support comprehensive new approaches to the design and maintenance of ground-based, distributed instrument networks, with proper regard for the severe environments in which they must operate.
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From page 92... ...
has invested substantial resources in demonstrating the first solar adaptive optics system, which works with solar granulation as the wavefront sensing target. Recommendation: The NSF should continue to fund the technology development program for the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope.
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