A Method to Obtain the Moving Speed of Uncooperative Target Based on Only Two Measurements

The existing research results show that a fixed single station must conduct three consecutive frequency shift measurements and obtain the target’s moving speed by constructing two frequency difference equations. This article proposes a new method that requires only two consecutive measurements. While using the azimuth measurement to obtain the angular difference between two radial distances, it also conducts two consecutive Doppler frequency shift measurements at the same target azimuth. On the basis of this measurement, a frequency difference equation is first constructed and solved jointly with the Doppler frequency shift equation. By eliminating the velocity variable and using the measured angular difference to obtain the target’s lead angle, the target’s velocity can be solved by using the Doppler frequency shift equation again. The new method avoids the condition that the target must move equidistantly, which not only provides an achievable method for engineering applications but also lays a good foundation for further exploring the use of steady-state signals to achieve passive positioning.

Derivation of a Revised Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation That Predicts Combustion Oscillations

Our study identifies a subtle deviation from Newton’s third law in the derivation of the ideal rocket equation, also known as the Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation (TRE). TRE can be derived using a 1D elastic collision model of the momentum exchange between the differential propellant mass element (dm) and the rocket final mass (m1), in which dm initially travels forward to collide with m1 and rebounds to exit through the exhaust nozzle with a velocity that is known as the effective exhaust velocity ve. We observe that such a model does not explain how dm was able to acquire its initial forward velocity without the support of a reactive mass traveling in the opposite direction. We show instead that the initial kinetic energy of dm is generated from dm itself by a process of self-combustion and expansion. In our ideal rocket with a single particle dm confined inside a hollow tube with one closed end, we show that the process of self-combustion and expansion of dm will result in a pair of differential particles each with a mass dm/2, and each traveling away from one another along the tube axis, from the center of combustion. These two identical particles represent the active and reactive sub-components of dm, co-generated in compliance with Newton’s third law of equal action and reaction. Building on this model, we derive a linear momentum ODE of the system, the solution of which yields what we call the Revised Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation (RTRE). We show that RTRE has a mathematical form that is similar to TRE, with the exception of the effective exhaust velocity (ve) term. The ve term in TRE is replaced in RTRE by the average of two distinct exhaust velocities that we refer to as fast-jet, vx1, and slow-jet, vx2. These two velocities correspond, respectively, to the velocities of the detonation pressure wave that is vectored directly towards the exhaust nozzle, and the retonation wave that is initially vectored in the direction of rocket propagation, but subsequently becomes reflected from the thrust surface of the combustion chamber to exit through the exhaust nozzle with a time lag behind the detonation wave. The detonation-retonation phenomenon is supported by experimental evidence in the published literature. Finally, we use a convolution model to simulate the composite exhaust pressure wave, highlighting the frequency spectrum of the pressure perturbations that are generated by the mutual interference between the fast-jet and slow-jet components. Our analysis offers insights into the origin of combustion oscillations in rocket engines, with possible extensions beyond rocket engineering into other fields of combustion engineering.

Analysis and Research on Aerodynamic Characteristics of Quad Tilt Rotor Aircraft

For the quad tilt rotor aircraft, a computational fluid dynamics method based on multiple reference frames (MRF) was used to analyze the influence of aerodynamic layout parameters on the aerodynamic characteristics of the quad tilt rotor aircraft. Firstly, a numerical simulation method for the interference flow field of the quad tilt rotor aircraft is established. Based on this method, the aerodynamic characteristics of isolated rotors, rotor combinations at different lateral positions on the wing, and rotor rotation directions under different inflow velocities were calculated and analyzed, in order to grasp their aerodynamic interference laws and provide reference for the design and control theory research of such aircraft.

Cheaper Precision Weapons: An Exploratory Study about the HESA Shahed 136

The ability to hit a target with precision and from a great distance has been reserved for the world’s superpowers. However, this resource is increasingly being threatened as drones with this long-range and precision capability are becoming more accessible to those who don’t have this strategic ability. This article starts with an analysis of the Iranian HESA Shahed 136 drone to discuss the latest innovations in low-cost long-range precision weapons, specifically the use of kamikaze drones and loitering munitions. This is an exploratory study that starts by discussing the notion of a kamikaze drone and then analyses the design options for the Shahed 136, to reflect on the future of this new type of weapon and its implications for the economic and political relationship between weapon and cost. The conclusion is that the HESA Shahed 136 revolutionizes the concept of precise long-range strikes, a function that until now was reserved for expensive and technologically demanding tactical missiles and aircraft, and which can now be carried out with cheap drones. This creates an arms race not only in producing the most technological and precise weaponry but also the least expensive.

We Live on a Small Space Comet: The Third Extraordinary Motion of Earth towards the North Pole and Its Various Effects

The idea of research started with a crazy imaginary theory in the field of astrogeography, saying: We often taught ourselves and then convinced the students that the planet Earth moves despite not feeling the vibrations of traffic, and we listed successive scientific confirmations to indicate the rotation of the planet in a regular movement around its axis once every 24 hours, and it is running in another second movement around the sun once every 365¼ days, so are they only two movements, no more?! Is it possible for him to run at a regular speed in an additional direction?

Faster Than Sound, Daredevil Parachute Jumps from the Edge of the Space

This article discusses the kinematics of a parachutist making a very-high-altitude jump. The effect of altitude on the density of air, on the gravitational field strength of the Earth, and on the atmosphere’s temperature has been taken into account in our analysis. The well-known equations of classical mechanics governing the selected topic have been solved numerically by using the mathematical software Mathcad. Especially, the possibility of a person exceeding the speed of sound during their fall has been considered in our analysis. The effect of the sound barrier is taken into account so that the shape factor of the falling body is given as a speed-dependent function, which reaches its maximum value at Mach 1.0. The obtained results have been found to be highly consistent with the available experimental data on some high-altitude jumps. The data published on the famous jump of Captain Joseph Kittinger has been analyzed very carefully, and although our calculations reproduced the reported values for most parts, some interesting inconsistencies were also discovered. Kittinger jumped from a gondola attached to a helium-filled balloon from a record-high altitude of 102,800 ft, or 31,330 m, in August 1960. We also made numerical analysis on the high-altitude jump of Felix Baumgartner. He bailed out from his gondola at the record-high altitude of 39.0 km in October 2012.

An Innovative Scientific Theory to Create a “New Engine for Compressing and Transporting Matter and Creating an Independent Ultra-Gravitational Magnetic Field” for Flight on Earth and Space

This research proposes a new theory in the field of physics and space technology, based on several scientific hypotheses and conclusions, as it plans to manufacture a “new magnetic focus” by means of high-speed centrifugal engines, by equipping a group of them, and installing heavy, dense fans, not for the purpose of air pressure, Rather, it works to rotate at a speed of up to 1000 kilometers per hour at an angle of 45 degrees, and is lined up in front of each other in a circle, so that the final result is to transfer the effort and weight of the propellers to an upper point in their midst, and this point will reach a large degree of density, size and mass, causing the generation of a point independent magnetic attraction, which pulls the motors upward, as a result of the mutual gravitational effect created by the motors. These hypotheses need a large number of experiments, applications, and analyze the use of specialists in physics, technology, technology, engine engineers, and others, and the correct results will cause a major revolution in the field of space technology, and this theory will be relied upon in many means of land, air, and space transportation and different fields.

Solar Wind Interaction with Jupiter’s Magnetosphere

This paper studies the effects of the solar wind on Jupiter’s magnetosphere. The solar wind parameters are characterized using the Michigan Solar Wind Model (mSWiM) solar wind data propagated to Jupiter from 1997 to 2016. This analysis covers almost solar cycles 23 and 24. Interplanetary fast shocks: Forward shocks (FS), Reverse shocks (RS), and solar wind dynamic pressure were obtained and analyzed during the apparent opposition periods. The fast forward (FS) shocks were predominant during this period. Generally, the solar wind dynamic pressure from FS and RS shocks follows the solar cycles 23 and 24.

Analysis of the Causes of a Low Cloud and Low Visibility Weather at Cangyuan Washan Airport

At 11:00 am on August 5, 2017, Cangyuan Washan Airport experienced low cloud and low visibility weather, accompanied by aircraft turbulence, which affected the normal operation of flights, which was closely related to the meteorological conditions at that time. Using the hourly reanalysis data of the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) Reanalysis 5 (ERA5), including Geopotential height, temperature, precipitation, wind field, specific humidity, vorticity and other elements, with a spatial resolution of 0.25° × 0.25°, this paper focuses on the horizontal distribution and vertical configuration of various physical quantities before and after the occurrence of low cloud and low visibility weather at the airport. The results indicate that the main influencing system of this low cloud and low visibility weather is the westward tropical depression. Before the occurrence of low cloud and low visibility weather, low-level water vapor converges and is accompanied by precipitation. The temperature decreases with precipitation, the near-surface wind direction changes, and the wind speed decreases.

The Study on the Electrorocket Engine for the Future

A project of electrical rocket engine of the future, which operates on principle of a magnetoplasmadynamic engine, is being considered. New concept of the superconducting magnetic system, stipulating installation of external field winding, in which the current is directed parallel to longitudinal axis of the engine, makes it possible to increase the magnitude of the transversal magnetic field in working chamber, to decrease the rated current and to raise the engine efficiency. On the basis of equations that describe the process of converting electrical energy into mechanical energy, a mathematical model has been composed with whose help the characteristics of magnetoplasma engine having conventional design and the characteristics of the engine being developed in the project have been determined. Conducted research has shown that new design increases engine efficiency from 50% up to 91%. The project also contains a consideration of the new engine design with movable cathode and with cathode having forced cooling which helps to reduce carryover of cathode mass and to increase lifetime by several times. In conclusion, the results of calculations and constructive development of electrorocket engine for flight towards planet Jupiter, which creates tractive force of 250 N at 2500 kW power, are given.

A Data-Driven Adaptive Method for Attitude Control of Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In this paper, a real-time online data-driven adaptive method is developed to deal with uncertainties such as high nonlinearity, strong coupling, parameter perturbation and external disturbances in attitude control of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Firstly, a model-free adaptive control (MFAC) method requiring only input/output (I/O) data and no model information is adopted for control scheme design of angular velocity subsystem which contains all model information and up-mentioned uncertainties. Secondly, the internal model control (IMC) method featured with less tuning parameters and convenient tuning process is adopted for control scheme design of the certain Euler angle subsystem. Simulation results show that, the method developed is obviously superior to the cascade PID (CPID) method and the nonlinear dynamic inversion (NDI) method.

Air Plasma Mitigation of Shock Wave

Shock wave is a detriment in the development of supersonic aircrafts;it increases flow drag as well as surface heating from additional friction;it also initiates sonic boom on the ground which precludes supersonic jetliner to fly overland. A shock wave mitigation technique is demonstrated by experiments conducted in a Mach 2.5 wind tunnel. Non-thermal air plasma generated symmetrically in front of a wind tunnel model and upstream of the shock, by on-board 60 Hz periodic electric arc discharge, works as a plasma deflector, it deflects incoming flow to transform the shock from a well-defined attached shock into a highly curved shock structure. In a sequence with increasing discharge intensity, the transformed curve shock increases shock angle and moves upstream to become detached with increasing standoff distance from the model. It becomes diffusive and disappears near the peak of the discharge. The flow deflection increases the equivalent cone angle of the model, which in essence, reduces the equivalent Mach number of the incoming flow, manifesting the reduction of the shock wave drag on the cone. When this equivalent cone angle exceeds a critical angle, the shock becomes detached and fades away. This shock wave mitigation technique helps drag reduction as well as eliminates sonic boom.

Journey to the Typhoon

Application of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) for tropical cyclone missions is an emerging area of research and recent advances include the concept of spinsonde for multi-cycle measurement of vertical wind profile within the storm. This work proposes the design of a typhoon UAV as part of a cost-effective approach for acquiring atmospheric data to improve prediction and refine models. Land- and carrier-based flight schemes are proposed in this study and computer simulations are carried out to investigate the flight performance. Results suggest that the UAV achieves a maximum cruising speed in excess of 350 km·h-1 with excellent spinsonde performance. Furthermore, the UAV is capable of performing high-alpha maneuvers as well as vertical landing, thus rendering it suitable for space-efficient operation whether on land or aircraft carrier.

Jump Drive, Replicators, Transporters, and Time Travel

Jumping from place to place, replicating food, biological or mechanical parts or beaming up somebody, may not be fiction, rather an issue of practical implementation as shall be observed in this paper. Devices like transporter, food replicators or warp drive intrigue our imagination. This paper is intended to show that Jump drive is an issue of coordinate transformation. Changing location from planet X to planet Y does not necessarily require travelling a distance D connecting between the two planets. The theoretical knowledge of changing the location from coordinate X to coordinate Y exists;we do that in signal processing, but, we have not yet developed such a machine. The present paper shows the feasibility of jump drive;however, much work needs to be done on the implementation.

Interference Detection and Suppression Based on Time-Frequency Analysis

Radio frequency interference (RFI) is greatly harmful to Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers. Sweep interference is one of the RFI for the GNSS receivers, which can degrade the performance of GNSS receivers seriously. In this paper, the Fractional Fourier Transform (FrFT) of time-frequency analysis is proposed in the GNSS interference detection and suppression. The FrFT method is tested for detecting and suppressing sweep interference, which is generated by a GNSS jammer. In the simulation experiment, the GNSS signal affected by sweep frequency interference is successfully captured after interference suppression by using the proposed method, which shows its effectiveness. The interference detection performance of the FrFT method is compared with the conventional techniques such as Short-Time Fourier transform (STFT) and Wigner-Ville distribution (WVD). The detection performance is improved by about a least one order of magnitude. In the aspect of interference suppression, a threshold method based on detection probability is proposed, and the performance of the proposed threshold method is compared with the conventional threshold methods. In the result, the interference tolerance is increased by 5 dB compared with the mean threshold method, and by 9 dB compared with the fixed threshold.

Kinematic and Aerodynamic Modelling of Bi- and Quad-Wing Flapping Wing Micro-Air-Vehicle

A generic approach to model the kinematics and aerodynamics of flapping wing ornithopter has been followed, to model and analyze a flapping bi- and quad-wing ornithopter and to mimic flapping wing biosystems to produce lift and thrust for hovering and forward flight. Considerations are given to the motion of a rigid and thin bi-wing and quad-wing ornithopter in flapping and pitching motion with phase lag. Basic Unsteady Aerodynamic Approach incorporating salient features of viscous effect and leading-edge suction are utilized. Parametric study is carried out to reveal the aerodynamic characteristics of flapping bi- and quad-wing ornithopter flight characteristics and for comparative analysis with various selected simple models in the literature, in an effort to develop a flapping bi- and quad-wing ornithopter models. In spite of their simplicity, results obtained for both models are able to reveal the mechanism of lift and thrust, and compare well with other work.

Calculation of Aerodynamic Characteristics of Hypersonic Vehicles Based on the Surface Element Method

A program for calculating the aerodynamic properties of hypersonic vehicles based on the surface element method was developed using the general-purpose programming language C++. The calculated values of lift coefficients, drag coefficients, and surface pressure coefficients are discussed with the results of wind tunnel experiments using the HL-20 lift body and the NASA hypersonic aircraft STS Columbia OV-102 as research subjects. Finally, the results of the experimental and wind tunnel studies of the aerodynamic characteristics of the HL-20 lift body at an altitude of 65 km and Mach numbers of 6 and 10 Ma are discussed. The maximum error in the aerodynamic characteristics at 6 Ma does not exceed 3%, consistent with the results. The maximum error at 10 Ma occurs in the 11° - 14° angle of attack and does not exceed 10%, which is still within the error tolerance. The STS results for NASA’s hypersonic aircraft were also tested using this procedure. Experimental aerodynamic data for the Colombian OV-102 aircraft. The results show that the program takes only 10 minutes to calculate the results, with no more than 2% error from the wind tunnel experimental results.

PTVC-M for Ultra-Agile VTOL and 300+ km·h-1 Cruising

There remains a need to develop improved VTOL techniques that are cost-effective and with minimum compromise on cruising flight performance for fixed-wing aircraft. This work proposes an elegant VTOL control method known as PTVC-M (pitch-axis thrust vector control with moment arms) for tailsitters. The hallmark of the approach is the complete elimination of control surfaces such as elevators and rudder. Computer simulations with a 1580 mm wing span airplane reveal that the proposed technique results in authoritative control and unique maneuverability such as inverted vertical hover and stall-spin with positive climb rate. Zero-surface requirement of the PTVC-M virtually eliminates performance tradeoffs between VTOL and high-speed flight. In this proof-of-concept study, the VTOL-capable aircraft achieves a VH of 360 km·h-1 at near sea-level. The proposed technique will benefit a broad range of applications including high-performance spinsonde that can directly measure 10-m surface wind, tropical cyclone research, and possibly serving as the cornerstone for the next-generation sport aerobatics.

A Pathway to Small Satellite Market Growth

The United States is experiencing a renaissance in interest in space due to the advent of new lowercost small spacecraft. New launch entrants, such as Interorbital Systems, promise to lower launch cost levels. Many developers also benefit from free-to-developer launch services from NASA or the ESA. Unfortunately, existing commercial off the shelf (COTS) CubeSat hardware is priced based on amortization of design costs across low-sales volume. A lack of trained staff in any one of the numerous disciplines required for spacecraft design or other resources required for in-house development restricts entry into the small satellite industry to those who can afford expensive COTS hardware or pay for significant design expenses. With entry-level satellite hardware still priced in the six-figure range, limited market growth is expected even as the average CubeSat launch cost continues to decline. A new archetype could lower barriers to entry for building small satellites. A free, public-domain architecture for building a small satellite could allow low-cost, in-house satellite development. Under this paradigm, the expenses for initiating a small satellite program are limited to component and launch vehicle costs. The proposed framework allows for broad access to small satellite hardware, greatly increasing the size of the small satellite developer community. In the context of the small satellite market, freely offering plans to construct an entry-level satellite will court new non-traditional actors into building space hardware for launch on commercial and government small satellite launchers. The low-cost, high flight rate possible with the next generation of launch systems affords operators the freedom to experiment and innovate in a risktolerant environment. Successfully demonstrating products and services utilizing low-risk, publicdomain plans will stimulate demand for mature and more capable flight systems in the retail marketplace. If technical schools, community colleges, universities, small businesses and even amateurs can enter into the small satellite ecosystem, at an affordable entrance price, a positive spiral of increasing demand and decreasing cost may be created over time. A free, public domain satellite architecture may, thus, open the door to sustained growth and commercial opportunity for the small satellite industry.

Validation of Novel Model for Identification of Thermal Conditions in the Low Corona

The electron density and temperature key properties of the neutral-magnetized plasma in the solar corona, which are predicted with a novel model, provide an interesting window along the whole solar cycle. In this work, we test the quantitative validity of the model and prove that the Coronal Density and Temperature (CODET) is reliable. Furthermore, this work contrasts the CODET model results with alternative observational remote and in-situ datasets during the simplest conditions of the quiescent corona near the solar minimum. This successful outcome/validation of the CODET model allowed a good qualitative density and temperature retrieval in the solar corona covering a large portion of time interval from solar cycles 23 and 24.