Space-enhanced terrestrial solar power for equatorial regions

This Paper investigates the concept of solar mirrors in an Earth orbit to provide large-scale terrestrial equatorial solar farms with additional solar power during the hours of darkness. A flower constellation of mirrors is considered in highly eccentric orbits (semimajor axis=20,270.4  km) in order to increase the time of visibility over the solar farms, and through this architecture, only two mirrors are needed to provide complete night coverage over three equatorial locations. Selecting the proper value for the orbit eccentricity, solar radiation pressure and Earth’s oblateness perturbations act on the mirrors so that the apsidal motion of the orbit due to these perturbations is synchronized with the apparent motion of the sun. Therefore, it can be guaranteed that the perigee always points toward the sun and that the mirrors orbit mostly above the night side of the Earth. With respect to geostationary orbit, the family of orbits considered in this Paper allows a passive means to overcome issues related to orbital perturbations. Moreover, because of the large slant range from geostationary orbits, a larger mirror is required to deliver the same energy that could be delivered from a lower orbit with a smaller mirror. As a result, a single antiheliotropic flower constellation composed of two mirrors of 50  km2 would be able to deliver energy in the range of 4.60–5.20 GW·h per day to 1000  km3 solar farms on the equator. Finally, it is estimated that, deploying 90 of these constellations, the price of electricity could be reduced from 9.1 cents to 6 cents per kW⋅h

Multiple input control strategies for robust and adaptive climate engineering in a low order 3-box model

A low-order 3-box energy balance model for the climate system is employed with a multivariable control scheme for the evaluation of new robust and adaptive climate engineering strategies using solar radiation management. The climate engineering measures are deployed in three boxes thus representing northern, southern and central bands. It is shown that, through heat transport between the boxes, it is possible to effect a degree of latitudinal control through the reduction of insolation. The approach employed consists of a closed-loop system with an adaptive controller, where the required control intervention is estimated under the RCP4.5 radiative scenario. Through the online estimation of the controller parameters, adaptive control can overcome key issues related to uncertainties of the climate model, the external radiative forcing and the dynamics of the actuator used. In fact, the use of adaptive control offers a robust means of dealing with unforeseeable abrupt perturbations, as well as the parametrization of the model considered, to counteract the RCP4.5 scenario, while still providing bounds on stability and control performance. Moreover, applying multivariable control theory also allows the formal controllability and observability of the system to be investigated in order to identify all feasible control strategies

On-orbit assembly using superquadric potential fields

The autonomous on-orbit assembly of a large space structure is presented using a method based on superquadric artificial potential fields. The final configuration of the elements which form the structure is represented as the minimum of some attractive potential field. Each element of the structure is then considered as presenting an obstacle to the others using a superquadric potential field attached to the body axes of the element. A controller is developed which ensures that the global potential field decreases monotonically during the assembly process. An error quaternion representation is used to define both the attractive and superquadric obstacle potentials allowing the final configuration of the elements to be defined through both relative position and orientation. Through the use of superquadric potentials, a wide range of geometric objects can be represented using a common formalism, while collision avoidance can make use of both translational and rotation maneuvers to reduce total maneuver cost for the assembly process

Inaccessible Singularities in Toral Cosmology

The familiar Bang/Crunch singularities of classical cosmology have recently been augmented by new varieties: rips, sudden singularities, and so on. These tend to be associated with final states. Here we consider an alternative possibility for the initial state: a singularity which has the novel property of being inaccessible to physically well-defined probes. These singularities arise naturally in cosmologies with toral spatial sections.Comment: 10 pages, version to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Escape Trajectories of Solar Sails and General Relativity

General relativity can have a significant impact on the long-range escape trajectories of solar sails deployed near the sun. Spacetime curvature in the vicinity of the sun can cause a solar sail traveling from 0.01 AU to 2550 AU to be deflected by as much as one million kilometers, and should therefore be taken into account at the beginning of the mission. There are a number of smaller general relativistic effects, such as frame dragging due to the slow rotation of the sun which can cause a deflection of more than one thousand kilometers.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of the Sixth IAA Symposium on Realistic Near-Term Advanced Scientific Space Missions. Missions to the Outer Solar System and Beyond, pp. 67-72, Aosta, Italy, 6-9 July, 200

The final state and thermodynamics of dark energy universe

As it follows from the classical analysis, the typical final state of the dark energy universe where dominant energy condition is violated is finite time, sudden future singularity (Big Rip). For a number of dark energy universes (including scalar phantom and effective phantom theories as well as specific quintessence model) we demonstrate that quantum effects play the dominant role near Big Rip, driving the universe out of future singularity (or, at least, making it milder). As a consequence, the entropy bounds with quantum corrections become well-defined near Big Rip. Similarly, black holes mass loss due to phantom accretion is not so dramatic as it was expected: masses do not vanish to zero due to transient character of phantom evolution stage. Some examples of cosmological evolution for negative, time-dependent equation of state are also considered with the same conclusions. The application of negative entropy (or negative temparature) occurence in the phantom thermodynamics is briefly discussed.Comment: LaTeX file 36 pages, version to appear in PR

The Strong Energy Condition and the S-Brane Singularity Problem

Recently it has been argued that, because tachyonic matter satisfies the Strong Energy Condition [SEC], there is little hope of avoiding the singularities which plague S-Brane spacetimes. Meanwhile, however, Townsend and Wohlfarth have suggested an ingenious way of circumventing the SEC in such situations, and other suggestions for actually violating it in the S-Brane context have recently been proposed. Of course, the natural context for discussions of [effective or actual] violations of the SEC is the theory of asymptotically deSitter spacetimes, which tend to be less singular than ordinary FRW spacetimes. However, while violating or circumventing the SEC is necessary if singularities are to be avoided, it is not at all clear that it is sufficient. That is, we can ask: would an asymptotically deSitter S-brane spacetime be non-singular? We show that this is difficult to achieve; this result is in the spirit of the recently proved "S-brane singularity theorem". Essentially our results suggest that circumventing or violating the SEC may not suffice to solve the S-Brane singularity problem, though we do propose two ways of avoiding this conclusion.Comment: 13 pages, minor corrections and improvements, references adde

Asymptotic analysis of displaced lunar orbits

The design of spacecraft trajectories is a crucial task in space mission design. Solar sail technology appears as a promising form of advanced spacecraft propulsion which can enable exciting new space science mission concepts such as solar system exploration and deep space observation. Although solar sailing has been considered as a practical means of spacecraft propulsion only relatively recently, the fundamental ideas are by no means new (see McInnes1 for a detailed description). A solar sail is propelled by reflecting solar photons and therefore can transform the momentum of the photons into a propulsive force. Solar sails can also be utilised for highly non-Keplerian orbits, such as orbits displaced high above the ecliptic plane (see Waters and McInnes2). Solar sails are especially suited for such non-Keplerian orbits, since they can apply a propulsive force continuously. In such trajectories, a sail can be used as a communication satellite for high latitudes. For example, the orbital plane of the sail can be displaced above the orbital plane of the Earth, so that the sail can stay fixed above the Earth at some distance, if the orbital periods are equal (see Forward3). Orbits around the collinear points of the Earth-Moon system are also of great interest because their unique positions are advantageous for several important applications in space mission design (see e.g. Szebehely4, Roy,5 Vonbun,6 Thurman et al.,7 Gomez et al.8, 9). Several authors have tried to determine more accurate approximations (quasi-Halo orbits) of such equilibrium orbits10. These orbits were first studied by Farquhar11, Farquhar and Kamel10, Breakwell and Brown12, Richardson13, Howell14, 15.If an orbit maintains visibility from Earth, a spacecraft on it (near the L2 point) can be used to provide communications between the equatorial regions of the Earth and the lunar poles. The establishment of a bridge for radio communications is crucial for forthcoming space missions, which plan to use the lunar poles.McInnes16 investigated a new family of displaced solar sail orbits near the Earth-Moon libration points.Displaced orbits have more recently been developed by Ozimek et al.17 using collocation methods. In Baoyin and McInnes18, 19, 20 and McInnes16, 21, the authors describe new orbits which are associated with artificial Lagrange points in the Earth-Sun system. These artificial equilibria have potential applications for future space physics and Earth observation missions. In McInnes and Simmons22, the authors investigate large new families of solar sail orbits, such as Sun-centered halo-type trajectories, with the sail executing a circular orbit of a chosen period above the ecliptic plane. We have recently investigated displaced periodic orbits at linear order in the Earth-Moon restricted three-body system, where the third massless body is a solar sail (see Simo and McInnes23). These highly non-Keplerian orbits are achieved using an extremely small sail acceleration. It was found that for a given displacement distance above/below the Earth-Moon plane it is easier by a factor of order 3.19 to do so at L4=L5 compared to L1=L2 - ie. for a fixed sail acceleration the displacement distance at L4=L5 is greater than that at L1=L2. In addition, displaced L4=L5 orbits are passively stable, making them more forgiving to sail pointing errors than highly unstable orbits at L1=L2.The drawback of the new family of orbits is the increased telecommunications path-length, particularly the Moon-L4 distance compared to the Moon-L2 distance

Processing and Linking Audio Events in Large Multimedia Archives: The EU inEvent Project

In the inEvent EU project [1], we aim at structuring, retrieving, and sharing large archives of networked, and dynamically changing, multimedia recordings, mainly consisting of meetings, videoconferences, and lectures. More specifically, we are developing an integrated system that performs audiovisual processing of multimedia recordings, and labels them in terms of interconnected “hyper-events ” (a notion inspired from hyper-texts). Each hyper-event is composed of simpler facets, including audio-video recordings and metadata, which are then easier to search, retrieve and share. In the present paper, we mainly cover the audio processing aspects of the system, including speech recognition, speaker diarization and linking (across recordings), the use of these features for hyper-event indexing and recommendation, and the search portal. We present initial results for feature extraction from lecture recordings using the TED talks. Index Terms: Networked multimedia events; audio processing: speech recognition; speaker diarization and linking; multimedia indexing and searching; hyper-events. 1