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Spaceflight > I2S - Lecture 1-3 > Flashcards

I2S - Lecture 1-3 Flashcards

1
Q

Which spacecraft crossed the boundaries of the heliosphere in interstellar space?

A

Voyager, (approx. 23.5 billion km)

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2
Q

What do satellites do?

A
  • GNSS (navigation)
  • Meteorology
  • Earth observation
  • Telecommunications
  • Interplanetary Explorations
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3
Q

What are aspects of the in-space economy?

A

Maintenance, Life Extension, Refuelling, Upgrade, Fuel Depots, Closed-Loop Life Support, Proximity Operations, Manufacturing, Assembling, Debris Removal, Recycling, In-Situ resource utilization

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4
Q

What are the heights of typical orbits?

A

LEO - 200 to 2000km
MEO - 2000 to <36000km
GEO - 35786km
SSO - 600 to 800km
GTO - 200 to 800 (P) - 36000km (A)

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5
Q

State Kepler‘s laws and explain them shortly.

A
  1. Law: Each planet‘s orbit about the sun is an ellipse, sun center is always located at a focus
  2. Law: the imaginary line joining a planet and the Sun sweeps equal areas of space during equal time intervals
    3.Law: squares of orbital periods of the planets are directly proportional to the cubes of the semi-major axis of their orbits
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6
Q

What mean temperature do the planets of the solar system have?

A
  1. Venus: 737K
  2. Mercury: 440K
  3. Earth: 288K
  4. Mars: 208K
  5. Jupiter: 163K
  6. Saturn: 133K
  7. Uranus: 78K
  8. Neptune: 72K
  9. (Pluto: 47K)
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7
Q

State Newton‘s Law of Universal Gravitation, and what it describes.

A

The gravitational force between two masses having a distance r between their centers.

F_g = G * ( (m1*m2) / r^2

[ for an object on the surface of the Earth: g_0 = G*(m_Earth / r_Earth^2 ) ]

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8
Q

What are Exoplanets?

A

An exoplanet is any planet beyond our solar system. Most of them orbit other stars, but some free-floating exoplanets, called rogue planets, are untethered to any star.

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9
Q

How many exoplanets are confirmed, and what classes are there?

A

We have confirmed more than 5600 exoplanets (NASA).

Gas Giant (30%)
Super-Earth (31% - size range between Earth and Neptune)
Terrestrial (4% - small rocky planets)
Neptune-like (35% - ice giants or warmer)

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10
Q

State some „exoplanet-sensitive“ missions

A

Ariel (ESA), Plato(ESA), Webb (NASA/ESA), Cheops (ESA), Tess (NASA), Gaia (ESA), Kepler/K2 (NASA), Corot (ESA), Spitzer (NASA), Hubble (NASA/ESA)

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11
Q

How do we detect exoplanets? (Short)

A
  • Transit photometry (variation of brightness of stars)
  • Transit-timing variation (measuring of orbital periods)
  • Radial velocity (shift of wavelength)
  • Microlensing (anomalies in brightness)
  • Astrometry (Position in the sky over time)
  • Direct imaging
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12
Q

*What is space weather?

A
  • Solar weather, is the dynamical transfer of energy from the Sun to the Earth in the form of solar photons, charged particles, and fields that vary on multiple time and spatial scales
  • Cosmic weather, ….
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13
Q

Does the solar weather varies over time?

A

Yes, solar activity varies constantly. Furthermore solar activity increases significantly in a 11-year solar cycle.

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14
Q

Does the surface of the sun have a constant rotation speed?

A

No, it exhibits differential rotation, this means that different parts of the Sun rotate at different rates.

The rotation speed varies gradually between the equator (25 days/rotation) and the poles (35 days).

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15
Q

What happen to the incoming solar wind? (-> earth)

A

When the solar wind encounters Earth, it is deflected by our planet’s magnetic shield, causing most of the solar wind’s energetic particles to flow around and beyond us. This region that meets and blocks the solar wind is called the magnetosphere.

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16
Q

What is a CME?

A

Coronal Mass Ejection
They are large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona. They can eject billions of tons of coronal material, at speeds up to 3000 km/s

17
Q

What is the corona?

A

The Sun’s corona is the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere. The corona is usually hidden by the bright light of the Sun’s surface.

18
Q

What effect have solar wind on technology?

A

It can disrupt satellites power grid, and communications on earth.
(Also induces drag on satellites)

19
Q

How are solar flares created?

4 Steps

A
  1. Sun’s magnetic field lines run from sout to north between the poles
  2. Rotation causes field lines to stretch, more so at the equator which rotates faster than the poles
  3. Field lines become twisted and some eventually burst trough the surface to form loops
  4. When the loop grows past a critical point, it blasts away from the sun forming a solar storm
20
Q

What are the Van Allen belts?

A

The Earth’s magnetosphere traps the high energy radiation particles and shields the Earth from the solar storms.
These trapped particles form two belts of radiation, known as the Van Allen Belts, that surround the Earth like enormous donuts

https://science.nasa.gov/biological-physical/stories/van-allen-belts/

21
Q

What are the units of radiation?

A
  • Gray (Gy): SI unit: amount of radiation that deposits 1 J/kg in a material
  • Rad: 100 Rads = 1 Gy
  • Dose: amount of radiation energy deposited in a material as a function of time
22
Q

What are common energy levels of radiation?

Human-made, Solar, Radiation belts, Galactic

A
  • Human-produced: up to 108eV
  • Solar energetic photons: from solar events 108eV
  • Radiation belts: up to 109eV
  • Solar energetic particles (SEP): during CME, 1011eV
  • Galactic cosmic rays: 1021eV
23
Q

Which impacts on operations can space weather have?

A
  • Earth-orbiting (EO) = location knowledge, pointing precision and gas supply
  • Deep Space (DS) = pointing precision and gas supply
  • End-of-life (EL) = end of life timing and location
24
Q

What effect has radiation on solar arrays?

A

Radiation decreases both current and voltage, leading to lower performance as initial

25
Q

What are geomagnetic storms?

A

… are large disturbances in the near-Earth environment, which are caused by solar disturbances, like solar wind

26
Q

What are typically heat and cool sources for an spacecraft?

A
  1. Sun, internal components, other planets (albedo), atmospheric friction, micrometeorites
  2. Radiation to cooler environment, mainly deep space
27
Q

How does the thermal conditions in space differ than on the ground?

A
  • No natural air convection
  • Vacuum, extreme fast temperature variations
28
Q

What are the major parameters that driving the TCS (thermal control spacecraft)?

A
  • environment in which the s/c has to operate
  • total amount of heat dissipated on board the s/c
  • distribution of the thermal dissipation inside the s/c
  • temperature requirements of the various equipment items
  • configuration of the s/c, and its reliabilty/ verification requirements
29
Q

What are galactic cosmo rays?

A

Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCR) are the slowly varying, highly energetic background source of energetic particles that constantly bombard Earth. GCR originate outside the solar system and are likely formed by explosive events such as supernova.
They are impeded by solar wind, therefore while solar activity is on a minimun, GCR is on a maximum for earth.

https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/galactic-cosmic-rays#:~:text=Galactic%20Cosmic%20Rays-,Galactic%20Cosmic%20Rays,explosive%20events%20such%20as%20supernova.

30
Q

What protects Earth for the most of galactic cosmo rays?

A

The solar activity creates a bubble (Heliosphere) around the solar system, like the magnetic field aroud earth, and blocks the cosmic rays

31
Q

Name the different classes of meteor terminology

A
  • Comet = solid body, ice, rock, dust
  • Asteroid = rocky, iron or debris ( d >1m)
  • Meteoroid = small asteroid (1m > d )
  • Meteor = light emitted as is enters the atmosphere
  • Meteorite = Fragment that survives through the atmosphere and hits the ground
32
Q

What and where are asteroid belts?

(two biggest in solar system)

A

The Main Asteroid Belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun. It roughly spans half the distance between Mars and Jupiter.
The Trojan asteroid (belts) share their orbit Jupiter and contain a large group of asteroids

33
Q

What is space debris?

A

also known as orbital debris, includes all human-made objects that are in Earth orbit but which have no function. Typical examples of space debris are disused rocket upper stages and decommissioned satellites.

34
Q

What is the kessler syndrome?

A

It describes a scenario in which the density of objects in LEO due to space pollution is high enough that collisions between objects cause a cascade in which each collision increases the likelihood of further collisions

35
Q

How many satellites have been launched in history and how many are planned?

A

Since Sputnik 1, 11,000 satellites have been launched with additional 70,000 more if proposed plans materialize

Spaceflight (8 decks)

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