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- It's not just space: in Russia, they create "packaging" for organisms and discover the "muon mystery"
It's not just space: in Russia, they create "packaging" for organisms and discover the "muon mystery"
Russian scientists have figured out how to "package" living organisms into polymers for space expeditions, domestic satellites will make maps of the ice cover in the Arctic and Antarctic to monitor the Earth's climate and for the needs of the Northern Sea Route, and new protective screens will protect spacecraft from damage in collisions with debris much more effectively than monolithic plates. Izvestia, together with the Russian Science Foundation, collected the most interesting scientific papers for Cosmonautics Day.
"Packaging" of organisms in space
Scientists have found a way to increase the size of small marine animals, trichoplax, consisting of only a couple dozen cells. Before that, they were too small to study their structural features under a microscope. Chemists have created a complex organic substance, a polymer, in which the body's cells expand when filled with water. This method can be used in space research when transporting cells of living organisms to Earth for their subsequent study in laboratories, for example, after experiments with weightlessness or cosmic radiation.
Trichoplax are small (16 times smaller than the thickness of a hair) animals consisting of only a couple dozen cells and having a strongly flattened body shape. They belong to the Placozoa type, an evolutionarily ancient branch of animals that have existed on Earth for half a billion years.
— Imagine you are conducting experiments on the ISS and you need to send samples to Earth for further research: if you send live animals, they will experience overloads upon landing, so the experiment can hardly be called correct. Polymerization using our method will preserve biological samples for further research," said Daria Romanova, PhD, Researcher at the Laboratory of Cellular Neurobiology of Education at the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, head of the project supported by an RNF grant.
The method is particularly useful for in-orbit research because it will allow biomaterials to be transported to Earth in a laboratory after experiments conducted in zero gravity.
Ice tracking satellites
Scientists from the A.V. Gaponov-Grekhov Institute of Applied Physics (Nizhny Novgorod) and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Physico-Technical and Radio Engineering Measurements (Solnechnogorsk) proposed using signals from global navigation satellite systems (for example, GPS and GLONASS) to map the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets. Traditionally, radiometers, as well as infrared and optical sensors are used for monitoring. However, these methods depend on the weather: clouds and fog can completely block optical measurements and distort temperature readings. Therefore, the development of new accessible and accurate remote sensing methods remains relevant.
— The proposed method can be used for mapping the ice cover in the Arctic and Antarctic, including for monitoring the Earth's climate and for the needs of the Northern Sea Route. At the same time, the method can be implemented using existing satellite systems and promising Russian developments, so its implementation can be considered economically profitable," said Yuri Titchenko, co—executor of the project supported by an RNF grant, Deputy head of the Scientific Department of the Department of Radiophysical Methods in Hydrophysics at the IPF RAS.
The area of the ice sheet plays an important role in regulating the Earth's climate, as it affects air temperature, as well as the movement of oceanic and air masses, that is, current and wind.
Practical tests in the Sea of Okhotsk have shown the high efficiency of the method, demonstrating reliable operation even in difficult weather conditions.
Multilayer barriers are more effective against space debris
Every year, there is more and more space debris in Earth's orbit: currently there are more than 30 thousand tracked objects, including fragments of old satellites and rocket fragments. They pose a threat to existing vehicles, as they travel distances of up to 15 km per second. At this speed, even a small particle can penetrate the satellite's body and damage the equipment, thereby causing it to malfunction or completely fail.
Therefore, special barriers are used to protect satellites, which can be either monolithic — in the form of a single sheet of metal, or spaced, that is, multilayer with gaps between the layers. However, the question still remains which ones are the most effective.
Scientists from the Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Tomsk) have used modeling to determine which protective structures are better able to cope with the threat of damage to spacecraft. Using their own software, the scientists designed a collision of aluminum particles ranging in size from 3.2 to 5 mm, moving at speeds from 3 to 15 km/s, with monolithic and spaced aluminum screens. The authors chose this metal because it is widely used in spacecraft designs.
The simulation allowed us to reproduce the conditions of a hyperspeed collision and evaluate how the screens behave upon impact. The results showed that spaced, i.e. multi-layered, barriers protect better.
— Such barriers can be especially useful for low-orbit satellites, which are more likely to encounter space debris. For example, communication satellites used for Internet coverage operate in such orbits and require special protection. In addition, the proposed approach to collision modeling using the finite element method makes it possible to explore other materials, paving the way for the creation of lightweight and durable protective structures for aerospace applications," said Pavel Radchenko, head of the project supported by a grant from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor at the Postgraduate Department of the Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Solving the "muon riddle"
Elementary particles with enormous energy, called cosmic rays, are constantly flying to Earth from space. Once in the atmosphere, they collide with air molecules, generating a large number of secondary particles (protons, neutrons, pions, and others). Those, in turn, continue to interact or decay, giving rise to new generations of particles. As a result, a so—called broad atmospheric downpour develops - an avalanche of particles that can be detected on the Earth's surface using detectors.
At the same time, the products of a wide atmospheric shower — particles that have reached the Earth's surface — carry information about all the reactions that occurred before their formation in the upper atmosphere. Therefore, with their help, it is possible to study the properties and features of the propagation of cosmic rays, as well as the laws of physics of elementary particles at high energies. However, researchers are faced with the so—called muon mystery, a situation where terrestrial detectors detect much more of one of the products of widespread atmospheric showers, muons, in the atmosphere than computer simulations predict.
Scientists from the Institute of Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov noticed that experimenters calculate the energy of primary particles in cosmic rays based on the number of electrons on Earth. The authors suggested that this approach could lead to incorrect estimates.
— The energy of the primary particle may be underestimated, because physics on the scale of the highest-energy cosmic rays deviates from the predictions of the Special Theory of Relativity. That is, standard calculation methods with generally accepted ratios between the energy and momentum of particles restore energy incorrectly," said Andrey Sharofeev, a participant in the project supported by an RNF grant, a graduate student at Moscow State University, a researcher intern at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Therefore, scientists have suggested that it is necessary to adjust this ratio in the case of high-energy particle fluxes, he added.
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