Development of methods for the assessment of vulnerability of the receiver input of free-space optical communication from the effects of radiation, as the effects of the destruction of radiation hazardous objects

Object of research: Free-space optical communication (FSO). Investigated problem: Significant advantages of free-space optical communication in comparison with the existing networks of useful data transmission justify their use in various complex environmental conditions, which require the organization of fast and reliable digital communication when it is impossible or limitation to use wired or radio lines. Main scientific results: One of the factors that can considerably affect the FSO efficiency is radioactive radiation produced by various sources and phenomena of ionizing effects. In the research the issues of the assessment of the vulnerability of the FSO receivers of input signal from the effects of gamma radiation are directly considered. The analysis of the design of the receiving path of the input signal of FSO is conducted and the list and the partial attenuation coefficients of radioactive radiation by the FSO components that separate the receiver of input signal from the external environment are determined. The area of practical use of research results: The methods has been developed and with its help the assessment of the vulnerability of the FSO receivers of input signal from the effects of gamma radiation, as the effects of the destruction of the radiation-hazardous object has been conducted. Innovative technological product: The nature of the influence of gamma radiation as the effects of the destruction of the radiation-hazardous object on the FSO receiver of input signal is determined. Scope of application of an innovative technological product: The results allow to develop a set of measures aimed at reducing the effects of gamma radiation, as the effects of the destruction of the radiation-hazardous object, on the FSO efficiency.

Thermography of Asteroid and Future Applications in Space Missions

The Near-Earth Asteroid 162173 Ryugu is a C-type asteroid which preserves information about the ancient Solar System and is considered enriched in volatiles such as water and organics associated with the building blocks of life, and it is a potentially hazardous object that might impact Earth. Hayabusa2 is the asteroid explorer organized by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to rendezvous with the asteroid and collect surface materials to return them to Earth. Thermography has been carried out from Hayabusa2 during the asteroid proximity phase, to unveil the thermophysical properties of the primitive Solar System small body, which offered a new insight for understanding the origin and evolution of the Solar System, and demonstrated the technology for future applications in space missions. Global, local, and close-up thermal images taken from various distances from the asteroid strongly contributed to the mission success, including suitable landing site selection, safe assessment during descents into the thermal environments and hazardous boulder abundance, and the detection of deployable devices against the sunlit asteroid surface. Potential applications of thermography in future planetary missions are introduced.

Identifying Earth-impacting asteroids using an artificial neural network

By means of a fully connected artificial neural network, we identified asteroids with the potential to impact Earth. The resulting instrument, named the Hazardous Object Identifier (HOI), was trained on the basis of an artificial set of known impactors which were generated by launching objects from Earth’s surface and integrating them backward in time. HOI was able to identify 95.25% of the known impactors simulated that were present in the test set as potential impactors. In addition, HOI was able to identify 90.99% of the potentially hazardous objects identified by NASA, without being trained on them directly.

Vision-Based Navigation of Autonomous Vehicles in Roadway Environments with Unexpected Hazards

Vision-based navigation of autonomous vehicles primarily depends on the deep neural network (DNN) based systems in which the controller obtains input from sensors/detectors, such as cameras, and produces a vehicle control output, such as a steering wheel angle to navigate the vehicle safely in a roadway traffic environment. Typically, these DNN-based systems in the autonomous vehicle are trained through supervised learning; however, recent studies show that a trained DNN-based system can be compromised by perturbation or adverse inputs. Similarly, this perturbation can be introduced into the DNN-based systems of autonomous vehicles by unexpected roadway hazards, such as debris or roadblocks. In this study, we first introduce a hazardous roadway environment that can compromise the DNN-based navigational system of an autonomous vehicle, and produce an incorrect steering wheel angle, which could cause crashes resulting in fatality or injury. Then, we develop a DNN-based autonomous vehicle driving system using object detection and semantic segmentation to mitigate the adverse effect of this type of hazard, which helps the autonomous vehicle to navigate safely around such hazards. We find that our developed DNN-based autonomous vehicle driving system, including hazardous object detection and semantic segmentation, improves the navigational ability of an autonomous vehicle to avoid a potential hazard by 21% compared with the traditional DNN-based autonomous vehicle driving system.

Validating Ice Impacts Using Adaptive Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics for Planetary Defense

Understanding how a potentially hazardous object (PHO) responds to a kinetic impactor is of great interest to the planetary defense community. Target response depends upon the detailed material properties of the PHO, which may not be well constrained ahead of time. Hence, it is useful to explore a variety of target compositions for kinetic impact deflection. Previous validation efforts have focused primarily on understanding the behavior of common rocky materials, though PHOs are not exclusively composed of such material. Water ice is one material for which there has been only limited code validation against cratering experiments. It is known that comets consist of primarily icy material and some asteroids likely contain some amount of ice. Therefore, it is useful to understand the model sensitivities for ice in deflection simulations. Here we present Adaptive Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics simulations of impacts into water ice by an aluminum projectile. We explore the sensitivities to the damage model within our code and find that the best-fit simulations of ice occur with a Weibull modulus of 12, though results can be obtained with values of the Weibull modulus near the published value of 9.59. This work demonstrates the efficacy of using an adaptive smoothed particle hydrodynamics code to simulate impacts into ice.

To the issue of civil liability insurance of navigable hydraulic structures

The conditions of insurance of civil liability for causing damage as a result of an accident of a hydraulic structure, stipulated by the legislation of the Russian Federation on compulsory insurance of civil liability of the owner of a hazardous object, do not fully comply with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation on the safety of hydraulic structures. For example, the size of insurance sums is established regardless of the amount of financial security of civil liability, which the owner of a hydraulic structure or operating organization must have (the construction is in state ownership). Some insurance companies are taking steps to develop their own rules for assessing the risk of accidents and the size of the harm caused. It does not take into account the fact that such industry-specific methods for determining the amount of probable harm to hydraulic structures for various purposes exist and are used for a long time. This article discusses the implementation of the compulsory insurance procedure in relation to navigable hydraulic structures, which refer to the objects of state ownership. The results of the author’s comparative analysis of certain provisions of the legislation of the Russian Federation on the safety of hydraulic structures and compulsory insurance of civil liability of the owner of a hazardous object, as well as the data of operating organizations indicate the presence of a number of inconsistencies and the need for their settlement.