Identification of the Beagle 2 lander on Mars

The 2003 Beagle 2 Mars lander has been identified in Isidis Planitia at 90.43° E, 11.53° N, close to the predicted target of 90.50° E, 11.53° N. Beagle 2 was an exobiology lander designed to look for isotopic and compositional signs of life on Mars, as part of the European Space Agency Mars Express (MEX) mission. The 2004 recalculation of the original landing ellipse from a 3-sigma major axis from 174 km to 57 km, and the acquisition of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) imagery at 30 cm per pixel across the target region, led to the initial identification of the lander in 2014. Following this, more HiRISE images, giving a total of 15, including red and blue-green colours, were obtained over the area of interest and searched, which allowed sub-pixel imaging using super high-resolution techniques. The size (approx. 1.5 m), distinctive multilobed shape, high reflectivity relative to the local terrain, specular reflections, and location close to the centre of the planned landing ellipse led to the identification of the Beagle 2 lander. The shape of the imaged lander, although to some extent masked by the specular reflections in the various images, is consistent with deployment of the lander lid and then some or all solar panels. Failure to fully deploy the panels-which may have been caused by damage during landing-would have prohibited communication between the lander and MEX and commencement of science operations. This implies that the main part of the entry, descent and landing sequence, the ejection from MEX, atmospheric entry and parachute deployment, and landing worked as planned with perhaps only the final full panel deployment failing

Dancing horses and reflecting humans

In October 2012, German dancer and philosopher Aurelia Baumgartner presented her 90-minute production Tanzende Pferde: Spiegelungen im Raum/Dancing Horses: Reflections in Space. Set in an arena, with a raised stage and a projection screen in the background, it provided a performed anthology of the relationship between human and horse. In the article, Meyer-Dinkgräfe discusses the production based on viewing a 40-minute DVD edited by Baumgartner from footage from two cameras recorded during the two 90-minute performances. The author’s testimony is complemented by Baumgartner’s comments and the context of critical literature exploring the relation of performance and animals that has emerged over the past fifteen to twenty years

Howden Moss: a study of vegetational history in Upper Teesdale

The peat deposits at Howden Moss, Upper Teesdale, have been examined stratigraphically and pollen analytically. The present state of the bog in described and pollen diagrams are presented for three sites. The results show that peat formation had begun by the early post-glacial period, zone V, and growth apparently continued up to the present time. The area was colonised by birch trees early in its development. Open birchwood persisted on the site during the expansion of mixed oak forest into the valley bottom. This dichotomous situation continued until the birch wood on the fell was replaced by blanket bog communities. The late-glacial rolict flora which is associated with some sites in Upper Teesdale is not found at Howden Moss. The pollen record provides no evidence for its past existence in the area

Finding Words: The Ligatus Glossary Project

All crafts, trades and disciplines sooner or later develop their own specialist vocabularies to allow their practitioners to communicate quickly, easily and clearly when going about their everyday activities. In the more literate areas of life – medicine and law for instance – these vocabularies have survived and remain, if not in use, at least in older records, but the more artisan trades have often lost their words as techniques have changed and new ways of doing things have evolved. This is certainly the case with bookbinding, where our current, inherited vocabulary has shown itself quite unable to cope with the description of the detailed techniques and structures of books sometimes no more than two hundred years old. Even where terms have survived, the same terms have sometimes been used to mean different things, or different things have been included under the same term. As the study of the history of bookbinding develops, and its value as an essential but hitherto largely disregarded part of the history of the book becomes ever clearer, so the need for a consistent glossary of terms becomes ever more apparent. The Ligatus Glossary project is trying to supply this need, working with the old terms and inventing new ones in equal measure, and delivering the result on-line in a new, hierarchical schema designed around the structure of the book itself, in an attempt to pin down the extraordinary diversity of technique used over two millennia to make the tens of millions of books that fill our libraries

Iron Age to Medieval entomogamous vegetation and Rhinolophus hipposideros roost in south-eastern Wales (UK)

Karst cave systems are well developed in Wales (UK) and, in some instances, constitute important bat roosts. Ogof Draenen, near Blaenavon in south-east Wales, is the most recent major cave discovery (1994) with already > 70 km of passages explored spanning a vertical range of 148 m. With the exception of one small chamber (Siambre Ddu) located directly above the main Ogof Draenen system, very few bats have been noticed inside. Extensive accumulations of guano, attributable to Rhinolophus hipposideros, are however found in parts of the Ogof Draenen system. In places covering many square meters and sometimes building heaps > 0.5 m thick, these represent volumes not yet found in any other cave system in the British Isles. Although the date of the abandonment of the main Ogof Draenen system as a bat roost remains unknown, six radiocarbon dates on guano from Ogof Draenen place the occupation in the Iron Age to Medieval period at least. Palynological analysis was undertaken on ten samples distributed through the cave. Comparisons were made with a moss polster and a lake mud sample from the area to provide a first approximation of the regional modern pollen rain and with two modern guano samples, one from Siambre Ddu and one from Agen Allwedd cave (5 km to the north-west) to provide a temporal comparison with the fossil guano. Agen Allwedd cave currently is one of the largest active roosts for Lesser Horseshoe bats in Britain and lies close to the present northern limit of this endangered species in Europe. The main results are that the cave appears to have been used both as a summer and a winter roost; most of the Ogof Draenen guano is formed within c.1600 14C years and, if the largest heap is continuous, it has accumulated within 750 14C years, i. e. 0.16 mm.year-1; the fossil guano samples reflect a relatively closed oak forest with more abundant ivy (Hedera) and holly (Ilex) than at present; insect-pollinated plants such as Ilex, Acer, Hedera and Impatiens glandulifera are over–represented in the guano samples; in addition to the usual causes of bat roost decline (pesticides, pollution), in the case of Ogof Draenen, we may add entrance blocked by rock collapse and decline of the local forest cover as well as change in its composition

Relationships between gamma-ray attenuation and soils in SW England

Soil studies using radiometric data typically employ one or more of the main, naturally occurring radioelement estimates (Potassium, Thorium and Uranium) to undertake a variety of soil property assessments. This study concerns an attenuation assessment of high-resolution radiometric data obtained by a recent airborne geophysical survey in SW England. These data provide continuous measurements over a wide-range of region-specific soils and their parent bedrock materials. A prime motivation for this study is the observed complexity of the spatial variance in the radiometric signal level. Although such data may be jointly classified according to soil and bedrock type, variable attenuation levels in the signal levels remain to be explained. The data appear to carry information on soil properties additional to that of texture or other available soil descriptors. Existing gamma-ray theory indicates that the attenuation behaviour of radiometric data is jointly controlled by soil density and wetness in the upper ~60 cm of the soil profile. Low density, highly organic soils (e.g. peat) produce readily identifiable and variable attenuation zones. All soil types are predicted to attenuate radiometric signal levels but at lower density-wetness sensitivities. The broad radiometric response level is, as expected, found to be controlled by bedrock. Clay mineral soils provide the most uniform response behaviour with respect to bedrock type. Peat soils display the lowest amplitude and most variable signal levels. The data from similar bedrock formations, even with the same lithological descriptor (e.g. argillaceous), can display distinctly different geostatistical behavior when the same soil type is considered. A variety of inferred attenuation zones are discussed in relation to supporting information on soil property and soil and land-use classifications. Spatial inconsistencies in existing database descriptors of organic rich zones are demonstrated and it is evident that the radiometric data can assist in resolving such ambiguities. The supporting control information has been found to be often ambiguous or unavailable at a scale appropriate to the field-of-view of the airborne measurements. Within this wider context, it is suggested that an observational database, such as that supplied by the radiometric data, may assist in providing enhanced spatial assessments of the soils and soil properties encountered

Medium practices

In this essay I develop a topic addressed in my book, Film Art Phenomena: the question of medium specificity. Rosalind Krauss's essay 'Art In the Age of the Post-Medium Condition' has catalysed a move away from medium specificity to hybridity. I propose that questions of medium cannot be ignored, since they carry their own history and give rise to specific formal traits and possibilities. The research involves close critical analysis of four moving image works that have not previously been written about: two made with film, and one each with computer and mobile phone. The analyses are conducted by reference to my ideas about how technological peculiarities inform and inflect practice: I see the work's material composition, its form and final meaning as intricately bound up with each other. Film, video and the computer give rise to specific forms of moving image, partly because artists exploit a medium’s peculiarities, and because certain media lend themselves to some methodologies and not others. I do not seek hard distinctions between these media, but discuss them in terms of predispositions. For example, I discuss a 16mm cine film in which the shifting visibility of grain raises ideas around movement and stillness. The aim is to develop a definition of medium specificity, in relation to the moving image, that is not essentialist in the way previous versions were criticised for being, that is, based on ideas of "material substrate" (Wollen). I argue that film is a medium of stages, in contrast to the modern tapeless camcorder, in which all functions of recording, storage, playback and even editing are contained in a single device. Supported by a travel grant, I presented a version of this essay at the International Conference of Experimental Media Congress, Toronto, in April 2011, along with a selection of works: http://www.experimentalcongress.org/full-schedule