Biological Effects and Physics of Solar and Galactic Cosmic Radiation Part B (Nato Science Series A: (243B))

Space missions subject human beings or any other target of a spacecraft to a radiation environment of an intensity and composition not available on earth. Whereas for missions in low earth orbit (LEO), such as those using the Space Shuttle or Space Station scenario, radiation exposure guidelines have been developed and have been adopted by spacefaring agencies, for exploratory class missions that will take the space travellers outside the protective confines of the geomagnetic field sufficient guidelines for radiation protection are still outstanding. For a piloted Mars mission, the whole concept of radiation protection needs to be reconsidered. Since there is an increasing interest of many nations and space agencies in establishing a lunar base and lor exploring Mars by manned missions, it is both, timely and important to develop appropriate risk estimates and radiation protection guidelines which will have an influence on the design and structure of space vehicles and habitation areas of the extraterrestrial settlements. This book is the result of a multidisciplinary effort to assess the state of art in our knowledge on the radiation situation during deep space missions and on the impact of this complex radiation environment on the space traveller. It comprises the lectures by the faculty members as well as short contributions by the students given at the NATO Advanced Study Institute "Biological Effects and Physics of Solar and Galactic Cosmic Radiation" held in Armacao de Pera, Portugal, 12-23 October, 1991.

Dedication. Preface. Acknowledgments. Clifford Geometric Algebras in Multilinear Algebra and Non-Euclidean Geometries.- Geometric algebra Projective Geometries; Affine and other geometries; Affine Geometry of pseudo-euclidean space; Conformal Geometry and the Horosphere; References. Content-Based Information Retrieval by Group Theoretical Methods.- Introduction; Motivating Examples; General Concept; Fault Tolerance.- Applications, Prototypes, and Test Results; Related Work and Future Research; References.- Four Problems in Radar.-Introduction; Radar Fundamentals; Radar Waveforms; Signal Processing; Space-Time Adaptive Processing; Four Problems in Radar; Conclusions. Introduction to Generalized Classical and Quantum Signal and System Theories on Groups and Hypergroups.-Generalized classical signal/system theory on hypergroups; Generalized quantum signal/system theory on hypergroups; Conclusion; References. Lie Groups and Lie Algebras in Robotics.- Introduction -- Rigid Body Motions; Lie Groups; Finite Screw Motions; Mechanical Joints; Invisible Motion and Gripping; Forward Kinematics; Lie Algebra; The Adjoint Representation; The Exponential Map Derivatives of Exponentials; Jacobians; Concluding Remarks; References. Quantum/Classical Interface: a Geometric Approach from the Classical Side.- Introduction Paravector Space as Spacetime; Eigenspinors; Spin; Dirac Equation; Bell's Theorem; Qubits and Entanglement; Conclusions; References. PONS, Reed-Muller Codes, and Group Algebras.- Introduction; Analytic Theory of One-Dimensional PONS (Welti); Shapiro Sequences, Reed-Muller Codes, and Functional Equations; Group Algebras; Reformulation of Classical PONS; Group Algebra of Classical PONS; GroupAlgebra Convolution; Splitting Sequences; Historical Appendix on PONS; References. Clifford Algebras as a Unified Language.- Introduction; Clifford algebras as models of physical spaces; Clifford Algebras as Models of Perceptual Multicolor Spaces; Hypercomplex-Valued invariants of nD multicolor images; Conclusions; Acknowledgments; References. Recent Progress and Applications in Group FFTs.-Introduction; Finite group FFTs; FFTs for compact groups; Noncompact groups; References. Group Filters and Image Processing.- Introduction: Classical Digital Signal Processing; Abelian Group DSP; Nonabelian Groups; Examples; Group Transforms; Group Filters; Line-like Images; Acknowledgments; References. A Geometric Algebra Approach to Some Problems of Robot Vision.- Introduction; Local Analysis of Multi-dimensional Signals; Knowledge Based Neural Computing; Acknowledgments; References. Group Theory in Radar and Signal Processing.- Introduction; How a Radar Works; Representations; Representations and Radar; Ambiguity Functions; The Wide Band Case; References. Geometry of Paravector Space with Applications to Relativistic Physics.- Clifford Algebras in Physics; Paravector Space as Spacetime; Interpretation; Eigenspinors; Maxwell's Equation; Conclusions; References. A Unified Approach to Fourier-Clifford-Prometheus Transforms- Introduction; New construction of classical and multiparametric Prometheus transforms; PONS associated with Abelian groups; Fast Fourier-Prometheus Transforms; Conclusions; Acknowledgments; References. Fast Color Wavelet Transforms.- Introduction; Color images; Color Wavelet-Haar-Prometheus transforms; Edge detection and compression of color images; Conclusion; Acknowledgments; References. Selected Problems; Various Authors.- Transformations of Euclidean Space and Clifford Geometric; Algebra; References; On the Distribution of Kloosterman Sums on Polynomials over Quaternions; References; Harmonic Sliding Analysis Problems; References; Spectral Analysis under Conditions of Uncertainty; A Canonical Basis for Maximal Tori of the Reductive Centrizer of a Nilpotent Element; References; 6 The Quantum Chaos Conjecture References; Four Problems in Radar; Topic Index; Author Index

Gerda Horneck and Petra Rettberg are the leading astrobiologists of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and have outstanding renommee on both sides of the Atlantic.
Gerda Horneck and Petra Rettberg serve as heads of the photo- und exobiology group at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine of the DLR.
Their research interests focus on exo-/astrobiology, radiation/photo biology, e.g. including the effects of radiation of various kind on biological systems.

Dr. Horneck has been principal investigator of several radiobiological and exobiology experiments in space on Spacelab, LDEF, EURECA, FOTON and ISS as well as coordinator of research projects for both ESA and NASA.

Petra Rettberg's research activities included research projects at NASA Ames and in Japan and investigations of past and future space missions.
Numerous board memberships and publications round off their portfolio.
Extensive teaching experience make them ideal editors for this book.