Nebula Public Library

Gaps in existing radiation environment and effects standards adversely affect human spaceflight developments. The most important drivers in the domain of interplanetary and planetary radiation environments were investigated, identifying appropriate data sources and modelling methods to address the needs of future interplanetary manned mission design and operation.

While most Earth Observation missions based on passive optical methods are intended to measure the light “reflected” by the surface, FLEX uses a completely innovative approach based on the measurement of the light “emitted” as fluorescence by terrestrial vegetation. Such fluorescence emission by vegetation has never been measured from space, which makes FLEX a true Explorer mission providing a type of information never available before.

The space debris environment poses an ever-increasing risk to spacecraft particularly in low Earth orbits (LEO). Due to limitations of existing vulnerability models, increasing the overall survivability of a spacecraft by enhancing the protection of sensitive parts was not possible in the past. The aim of this study was to adopt and develop methodologies that allow increasing the survivability of a spacecraft by varying individual parameters, e.g. the position of sensitive components or the thickness of component casings.

Chlorophyll fluorescence (CF) is a natural spectral emission resulting from the interaction of plant chlorophyll pigment with visible light (typically 400‐700 nm). In photosynthesizing tissues, red and far‐red light can be emitted from any chlorophyll‐containing plant tissues which are exposed to light: primarily foliage, but also green stems, green exposed roots, floral structures, many fruits, and green seeds.