Fuel-optimal deorbit scheme of space debris using tethered space-tug based on pseudospectral method

This paper proposes a fuel-optimal deorbit scheme for space debris deorbit using tethered space tug.The scheme contains three stages named respectively as dragging,maintenance and swinging.In the first stage,the tug,propelled by continuous thrust,tows deorbit to a transfer orbit with a tether.Then in the second stage,the combination of the tug and the debris flies unpowered and uncontrolled to a swing point on the transfer orbit.Finally,in the third stage,the tug is propelled at the swing point and the rotation speed of the tethered system increases such that the debris obtains enough velocity increment.The trajectory optimization of the first stage is established considering the total fuel consumption of the three stages,whereas the dynamic model is simplified for computation efficiency.The solution to the optimal problem is obtained using a direct method based on Gauss pesudospectral discretization.Then a model predictive controller is designed to track the open-loop optimal reference trajectories,reducing the states’deviations caused by model simplification and ignorance of perturbations.Furthermore,it is proved that the fuel-optimal swing point is the apogee of the transfer orbit.The paper analyzes the fuel consumption of a typical scenario and demonstrates effectiveness of the proposed deorbit scheme numerically.

A Computational Study on Iridium-Catalyzed Production of Acetic Acid from Ethanol and Water Solution

The mechanism for the production of acetic acid from ethanol and water mixture catalyzed by iridium catalyst has been theoretically investigated.The cooperation of the iridium center and bpyO ligand is highlighted,which plays an important role in the catalytic activity.The hydrogen release from the iridium center is the rate-determining step,with an energy barrier of 22.5 kcal/mol.The electronic structure analysis suggests electron-donating substituents could decrease the energy barrier.

β-decay study of neutron-rich nucleus ^(34)Al

The ＂island of inversion＂ has been known for over a quar- ter century, since Warburton et al. [1] proposed that nuclei with intruder ground states would constitute a 3x3 square with Z=10-12, N=20-22 in 1990. Uncovering the underlying inversion mechanism and exploring the scope of the island have attracted significant theoretical and experimental efforts in the following years. Now it is well known that the reduction of N=20 shell gap, which is likely caused by the strong nucleon-nucleon tensor interaction [2-5], allows the intrusion of neutron orbits from the pf shell into the sd shell and results in the inversion of the 2p-2h intruder and 0p-0h normal con- figurations of the nuclear ground states in this region. Mean- while, the original border of the ＂island of inversion＂ has been extended greatly [6-14].

High-lying excited states in ^10Be from the ^9Be(^9Be,^10Be)^8Be reaction

A transfer-reaction experiment of ~9Be(~9Be,^(10)Be)~8Be was performed at a beam energy of 45 Me V.Excited states in ^(10)Be up to 18.80 Me V are produced using missing mass and invariant mass methods.Most of the observed high-lying resonant states,reconstructed from theα+~6He and t+~7Li decay channels,agree with the previously reported results.In addition,two new resonances at 15.6 and 18.8 Me V are identified from the present measurement.The 18.55 Me V state is found to decay into both the t + ~7Lig:s: and t + ~7Li?(0.478 MeV) channels, with a relative branching ratio of 0:93 ± 0:33. Further theoretical investigations are encouraged to interpret this new information on cluster structure in neutron-rich light nuclei.