利用天体特征和恒星自主跟踪技术（AFAST）创建自主航天器

本文介绍建造自主航天器所必须的AFAST技术，这是探测太阳系天体的自主航天器所需掌握的一项关键技术。文中针对几种可能的飞行任务方案提出了构成AFAST系统的结构体系和信息处理要求。重点介绍天体特征的识别技术，这种识别技术对AFAST的重大意义，以及AFAST的当前技术状态。     

太空监视飞行器（Inspector）

对“和平号”(Mir)和国际空间站(ISS)这类轨道站进行遥控视觉监视和环境测量，这是站上操作人员求之不得的。本文介绍一种按小型航天器家族克隆的太空监视器(Inspector)，1997年12月和平号空间站执行的一次验证飞行中证明了Inspector的这种监视能务，按照计划，Inspector将成为ISS的组成部分。     

首次利用机器人研究智利阿塔卡马沙漠上的生命的实验

智刺北部的阿塔卡马沙漠可能是地球上生命最稀少的地区，但是，目前已探明，在阿塔卡马沙漠与太平洋海岸山脉的交会区存在耐干旱的微生物。但对阿塔卡马亚区的生物多样性梯度及其生长环境仍未探明。这两方面是“阿塔卡马沙漠生命”这一科研项目的重点。为了开展这项研究，必须携带相关仪器设备穿越长长的阿塔卡马沙漠，进行地质和生物测量。 在本文中，我们从天体生物学和机器人学角度探索“阿塔卡马沙漠上的生命”这一课题。我们需着重解决目前面临的一些研究难题，以便在该沙漠上实现持续导航，探明其资源，从而实现在沙漠上长期生存。我们利用移动机器人“土卫七”，在智利开展了首次科学研究和技术试验，介绍了这些实验，最后发表了我们的分析结果。这些分析结果使我们能深入了解一位著名机器人天体生物学家的设计和我们在下一个野外实验阶段进行科学研究所使用的方法。     

Preparation and storage stability of dried salted mutton

Minced (8 or 18 mm plate) mutton with salt (25%) and sorbate (0·4%) was pressed into cakes about 11 cm in diameter and 3 cm high. The cakes were partially dried in an air oven at 40°C for 48 h to a water activity of about 0·75. The cakes were packed, either in vacuo or in air, and stored at 30 or 2°C for up to 60 days. Objective assessment of quality showed that these dried salted meats can be kept for up to 60 days at 30°C with little loss of textural or nutritional quality although some fading, due to haemoprotein breakdown, occurs. Packaging in vacuum, however, minimises this loss of colour and would be recommended for centralised manufacture prior to distribution in developing, tropical countries.     

Extraction technique for the determination of oxygen-18 in water using preevacuated glass vials

The need for a rapid, inexpensive technique for routine 18O/16O extraction from water has arisen recently through applications in the medical sciences and in hydrology. The traditional experimental technique for determining the oxygen isotope composition of water, the CO2-H2O equilibration method, is tedious, time consuming, and involves the use of custom-made glass apparatus. Furthermore, because of potential memory effects from one sample to the next, the glassware needs to be thoroughly cleaned between runs. A few attempts have been made to improve upon the method. Attempts to analyze water directly in the source of the mass spectrometer produced large memory effects and questionable results. Commercially available apparatus for automated extraction of 18O/16O from water is generally prohibitively expensive and often is designed to interface only with the manufacturer's own mass spectrometer. The method described in this paper utilizes inexpensive, off-the-shelf, preevacuated, glass vials. Preevacuated vials have been used by others for the isotopic analysis of breath CO2 and are well tested. The vials can be purchased in bulk from scientific apparatus suppliers at a relatively low cost. These are coupled with a simplified extraction line consisting of a stainless steel syringe needle and a glass cold trap. Vials are filled with CO2 and H2O and shaken in a constant-temperature water bath for at least 90 min. Since the vials are discarded after use, no cleaning is necessary, essentially eliminating any memory effect. Reproducibility is generally better than +/- 0.05%. The only reagents required are gaseous CO2 for equilibration, a dry ice/alcohol mixture for trapping water, and liquid nitrogen for transferring the CO2.     

Cooled, ultrahigh Q, sapphire dielectric resonators for low-noise, microwave signal generation

Ultra-high Q, X-band resonators, used in a frequency discriminator for stabilization of a low-noise signal generator, can provide a means of obtaining significant reduction in phase noise levels. Resonator unloaded Qs on the order of 500 K can be obtained in sapphire dielectric resonator (DR) operating on a low-order (i.e. TE(01)) mode at 77 K and employing high-temperature superconducting (HTS) films installed in the DR enclosure covers. Rigorous analysis for the determination of resonator frequency, modes, and unloaded Q have been carried out using mode matching techniques. Trade-off studies have been performed to select resonator dimensions for the optimum mode yielding highest unloaded Q and widest spurious mode separation. Field distributions within the resonator have been computed to enable practical excitation of the required mode. The results of both analysis and prototype device evaluation experiments are compared for resonators fabricated using enclosures consisting of conventional, metal sidewalls and covers employing HTS films as a function of cover conductivity.