Space Research Centre

About: Space Research Centre is a facility organization based out in Warsaw, Poland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Heliosphere & Solar wind. The organization has 331 authors who have published 421 publications receiving 8445 citations.

Challenges in transforming manufacturing organisations into product‐service providers

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present challenges experienced by UK manufacturing companies undergoing a servitization journey to becoming product‐service providers.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an exploratory single‐case study approach based on semi‐structured interviews, and archival data. A total of 22 senior managers were interviewed from the product‐service provider and its two suppliers, resulting in more than 400 pages of interview data. Data were analysed through an inductive research analysis by an emergent identification of patterns.Findings – This research identifies critical and frequent challenges experienced by UK manufacturing companies undergoing a servitization journey to becoming product‐service system (PSS) providers. They are condensed into five pillars, which constitute the architecture of challenges in servitization. The architecture of challenges in servitization provides a full description of the strategy and operations of PSSs.Research limitations/implica...

Habitability on Early Mars and the Search for Biosignatures with the ExoMars Rover

Abstract: The second ExoMars mission will be launched in 2020 to target an ancient location interpreted to have strong potential for past habitability and for preserving physical and chemical biosignatures (as well as abiotic/prebiotic organics). The mission will deliver a lander with instruments for atmospheric and geophysical investigations and a rover tasked with searching for signs of extinct life. The ExoMars rover will be equipped with a drill to collect material from outcrops and at depth down to 2 m. This subsurface sampling capability will provide the best chance yet to gain access to chemical biosignatures. Using the powerful Pasteur payload instruments, the ExoMars science team will conduct a holistic search for traces of life and seek corroborating geological context information. Key Words: Biosignatures-ExoMars-Landing sites-Mars rover-Search for life. Astrobiology 17, 471-510.

First results of electric field and density observations by Cluster EFW based on initial months of operation

Abstract: Highlights are presented from studies of the electric field data from various regions along the CLUS- TER orbit. They all point towards a very high coherence for phenomena recorded on four spacecraft that are sepa- rated by a few hundred kilometers for structures over the whole range of apparent frequencies from 1 mHz to 9 kHz. This presents completely new opportunities to study spatial- temporal plasma phenomena from the magnetosphere out to the solar wind. A new probe environment was con- structed for the CLUSTER electric field experiment that now produces data of unprecedented quality. Determination of plasma flow in the solar wind is an example of the capability of the instrument.

A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL

Abstract: Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbital parameters of a planet to the nature of its parent star. We have little idea whether the chemistry of a planet is linked to its formation environment, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s birth, and evolution. ARIEL was conceived to observe a large number (~1000) of transiting planets for statistical understanding, including gas giants, Neptunes, super-Earths and Earth-size planets around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the 1.25–7.8 μm spectral range and multiple narrow-band photometry in the optical. ARIEL will focus on warm and hot planets to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres which should show minimal condensation and sequestration of high-Z materials compared to their colder Solar System siblings. Said warm and hot atmospheres are expected to be more representative of the planetary bulk composition. Observations of these warm/hot exoplanets, and in particular of their elemental composition (especially C, O, N, S, Si), will allow the understanding of the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation during the nebular phase and the following few million years. ARIEL will thus provide a representative picture of the chemical nature of the exoplanets and relate this directly to the type and chemical environment of the host star. ARIEL is designed as a dedicated survey mission for combined-light spectroscopy, capable of observing a large and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. Transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy methods, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allow us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of 10–100 part per million (ppm) relative to the star and, given the bright nature of targets, also allows more sophisticated techniques, such as eclipse mapping, to give a deeper insight into the nature of the atmosphere. These types of observations require a stable payload and satellite platform with broad, instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect many molecular species, probe the thermal structure, identify clouds and monitor the stellar activity. The wavelength range proposed covers all the expected major atmospheric gases from e.g. H2O, CO2, CH4 NH3, HCN, H2S through to the more exotic metallic compounds, such as TiO, VO, and condensed species. Simulations of ARIEL performance in conducting exoplanet surveys have been performed – using conservative estimates of mission performance and a full model of all significant noise sources in the measurement – using a list of potential ARIEL targets that incorporates the latest available exoplanet statistics. The conclusion at the end of the Phase A study, is that ARIEL – in line with the stated mission objectives – will be able to observe about 1000 exoplanets depending on the details of the adopted survey strategy, thus confirming the feasibility of the main science objectives.

Search for Photon-Linelike Signatures from Dark Matter Annihilations with H.E.S.S.

Abstract: Gamma-ray line signatures can be expected in the very-high-energy (VHE; E_\gamma > 100 GeV) domain due to self-annihilation or decay of dark matter (DM) particles in space. Such a signal would be readily distinguishable from astrophysical \gamma-ray sources that in most cases produce continuous spectra which span over several orders of magnitude in energy. Using data collected with the H.E.S.S. \gamma-ray instrument, upper limits on line-like emission are obtained in the energy range between ~500 GeV and ~25 TeV for the central part of the Milky Way halo and for extragalactic observations, complementing recent limits obtained with the Fermi-LAT instrument at lower energies. No statistically significant signal could be found. For monochromatic \gamma-ray line emission, flux limits of (2x10^-7 - 2x10^-5) m^-2 s^-1 sr^-1 and (1x10^-8 - 2x10^-6) m^-2 s^-1 sr^-1 are obtained for the central part of the Milky Way halo and extragalactic observations, respectively. For a DM particle mass of 1 TeV, limits on the velocity-averaged DM annihilation cross section (\chi\chi -> \gamma\gamma) reach ~10^-27 cm^3 s^-1, based on the Einasto parametrization of the Galactic DM halo density profile.