The challenges of the Dust-Field-Plasma (DFP) instrument onboard ESA Comet Interceptor mission

<p>The flyby of a dynamically new comet by ESA-F1 Comet Interceptor spacecraft offers unique multi-point opportunities for studying the comet's dusty and ionised cometary  environment in ways that were not possible with previous missions, including Rosetta. As Comet Interceptor is an F-class mission, the payload is limited in terms of mass, power, and heritage. Most in situ science sensors therefore have been tightly integrated into a single Dust-Field-Plasma (DFP) instrument on the main spacecraft A and on the ESA sub-spacecraft B2, while there is a Plasma Package suite on the JAXA second sub-spacecraft B1. The advantage of tight integration is an important reduction of mass, power, and especially complexity, by keeping the electrical and data interfaces of the sensors internal to the DFP instrument.</p><p>The full diagnostics located on the board of the 3 spacecrafts will allow  to modeling the comet environment and described the complex physical processes around the comet and on their surface including also the  description of wave particle  interaction in dusty cometary plasma. </p><p>The full set of DFP instrument on  board the Comet Interceptor  spacecraft will allow to model  the comet plasma environment and its interaction with the solar wind. It will also allow to describe the complex physical processes taking place including wave particle  interaction in dusty cometary plasma . </p><p>On spacecraft A, DFP consists of a magnetometer, a Langmuir and multi impedance probe/electric field instrument, an ion and an electron analyzer, a dust sensor, and a central data processing unit and electronics box. On spacecraft B2, the instrumentation is limited to a magnetometer and a dust sensor. The choice of sensors and their capabilities are such that it maximizes synergies and complementarities. </p><p>To give one example: While the dust instrument aims at establishing the dust spectrum for millimeter to micrometer sized particles, the Langmuir probes aided by the data processing unit will analyze the signatures of micrometer to nanometer sized particles.</p><p>Moreover, unique multi-point measurements will be obtained from magnetometers on the three spacecraft, from dust sensors on A and B2, and from ion measurements on A and B1.</p><p>The tight integration of dust-field-plasma sensor hardware and science targets embodied by DFP promises an optimized science return for the available resources.</p>

Design and Testing of a Sensor Data Processing Unit for Dual-Control Missile Demonstrator

The article discusses aspects of the design and testing of a sensor data processing unit whose function relates to the static and dynamic stabilization of a missile airframe. The authors present a mathematical model of dual-control missile dynamics, along with the autopilot implemented on the basis of two feedback loops – from acceleration and from angular rate of the airframe. The draft of the sensor data processing unit is presented in the form of three PCB packages, with connections for the installation of electronic components. In addition, a laboratory stand used in the experimental research, as well as selected results for the device are described.

Michelson Interferometer Mirror Shift Method for Femtosecond Pulse Studies

In this paper is considered the autocorrelator of ultrashort pulses based a Michelson interferometer, his schemes and operating principles. The method of measuring ultrashort pulses is given. The schemes and principles of operation of the main nodes of the autocorrelation receiver are presented: the optical-mechanical part (the construction of the Michelson interferometer) and the electronic part, which includes a photodetector module, a control and data processing unit with a speaker amplifier, and a personal computer.