Nanotechnology and preventive arms control

"Nanotechnology (NT) is about analysis and engineering of structures with size between 0.1 and 100 nanometres (1 nm = 10 -9 m). At this scale, new effects occur and the boundaries between physics, chemistry and biology vanish. NT is predicted to lead to stronger but lighter materials, markedly smaller computers with immensely increased power, large and small autonomous robots, tools for manipulation of single molecules, targeted intervention within cells, connections between electronics and neurones, and more. In recent years military research and development (R&D) of NT has been expanded markedly, with the USA far in the lead. US work spans the full range from electronics via materials to biology. While much of this is still at the fundamental level, efforts are being made to bring applications to the armed forces soon. One quarter to one third of the Federal funding for NT goes to military R&D, and the USA outspends the rest of the world by a factor 4 to 10. NT applications will likely pervade all areas of the military. Very small electronics and computers will be used everywhere, e.g. in glasses, uniforms, munitions. Large-scale battle-management and strategy-planning systems will apply human-like reasoning at increasing levels of autonomy, integrating sensors, communication devices and displays into an ubiquitous network. Stronger but light-weight materials, more efficient energy storage and propulsion will allow faster and more agile vehicles in all media. NT-based materials and explosives can bring faster and more precise projectiles. Small arms, munitions and anti-personnel missiles without any metal can become possible. Systems worn by soldiers could monitor the body status and react to injury. Systems implanted into the body could monitor the biochemistry and release drugs, or make contacts to nerves and the brain to reduce the reaction time, later possibly to communicate complex information. Autonomous land vehicles, ships and aircraft would become possible mainly through strongly increased computing power. By using NT to miniaturise sensors, actuators and propulsion, autonomous systems (robots) could also become very small, principally down to below a millimetre - fully artificial or hybrid on the basis of e.g. insects or rats. Satellites and their launchers could become small and cheap, to be used in swarms for earth surveillance, or for anti-satellite attack. Whereas no marked change is expected concerning nuclear weapons, NT may lead to various new types of chemical and biological weapons that target specific organs or act selectively on a certain genetic or protein pattern. On the other hand, NT will allow cheap sensors for chemical or biological warfare agents as well as materials for decontamination. Most of these applications are ten or more years away. Using criteria of preventive arms control, potential military NT applications are evaluated. New conventional, chemical and biological weapons would jeopardise existing arms-control treaties. Armed autonomous systems would endanger the law of warfare. Military stability could decrease with small distributed battlefield sensors and in particular with armed autonomous systems. Arms racing and proliferation have to be feared with all applications. Strong dangers to humans would ensue from armed mini-/ micro-robots and new chemical/ biological weapons used by terrorists. Negative effects on human integrity and human rights could follow indirectly if body manipulation were applied in the military before a thorough societal debate on benefits, risks and regulation." (excerpt)"Die Nanotechnologie (NT) befasst sich mit der Untersuchung und Gestaltung von Strukturen, die sich in Größen zwischen 0,1 and 100 Nanometer (1 nm = 10 -9 m) bewegen. Bei dieser Größenordnung treten neue Effekte auf, und die Grenzen zwischen Physik, Chemie und Biologie verschwinden. Die Experten sagen voraus, dass NT festere und gleichzeitig leichtere Materialien, erheblich kleinere Computer mit unermesslich gesteigerter Leistung, große und kleine autonome Roboter, Werkzeuge für die Handhabung einzelner Moleküle, gezielte Eingriffe in Zellen, Verbindungen zwischen Elektronik und Neuronen und anderes mehr hervorbringen wird. In den letzten Jahren ist die militärische Forschung und Entwicklung (FuE) im Bereich der NT erheblich ausgeweitet worden. Im weltweiten Vergleich liegen die USA deutlich in Führung. Dort wird die gesamte Bandbreite von Elektronik über Materialien bis hin zur Biologie bearbeitet. Auch wenn vieles davon noch Grundlagenforschung ist, gibt es dort doch heute schon Vorbereitungen, den Streitkräften bald Anwendungsmöglichkeiten zur Verfügung zu stellen. Ein Viertel bis ein Drittel der Regierungsausgaben für NT auf Bundesebene steht für militärische FuE zur Verfügung, und die USA geben 4 bis 10 mal so viel dafür aus wie der Rest der Welt. NT-Anwendungen werden alle Bereiche des Militärs durchdringen. Hierzu zählt der umfassende Einsatz sehr kleiner Elektronik und Computer, z.B. in Brillen, Uniformen, Munition. Komplexe Schlachtführungs- und Strategieplanungssysteme werden zunehmend autonom funktionieren und menschenähnliche Überlegungen anstellen, wobei sie Sensoren, Kommunikationsgeräte und Anzeigeeinheiten zu einem allgegenwärtigen Netzwerk verbinden. Festere und dabei leichtere Materialien, effizientere Energiespeicher und Antriebe ermöglichen den Bau schnellerer und beweglicherer Land-, Wasser-, Luft- und Raumfahrzeuge. Des weiteren können NT-basierte Materialien und Sprengstoffe zur Herstellung schnellerer und genauerer Geschosse verwendet werden. Denkbar sind metallfreie Kleinwaffen, Munition und Antipersonen-Flugkörper. Zwar ist bei Kernwaffen keine große Veränderung zu erwarten, NT kann aber zu verschiedenen neuen Arten von chemischen und biologischen Waffen führen, die auf spezifische Organe zielen oder selektiv auf eine bestimmte Eiweißstruktur oder auf ein genetisches Muster hin aktiv werden. Andererseits wird NT billige Sensoren für chemische oder biologische Waffen sowie Materialien zur Entgiftung zur Verfügung stellen. Mit den meisten dieser Anwendungen ist erst in einem Zeitraum von zehn oder mehr Jahren zu rechnen. Mögliche militärische NT-Anwendungen müssen unter den Kriterien der Präventiven Rüstungskontrolle bewertet werden." (Textauszug

The Boston University Photonics Center annual report 2015-2016

This repository item contains an annual report that summarizes activities of the Boston University Photonics Center in the 2015-2016 academic year. The report provides quantitative and descriptive information regarding photonics programs in education, interdisciplinary research, business innovation, and technology development. The Boston University Photonics Center (BUPC) is an interdisciplinary hub for education, research, scholarship, innovation, and technology development associated with practical uses of light.This has been a good year for the Photonics Center. In the following pages, you will see that this year the Center’s faculty received prodigious honors and awards, generated more than 100 notable scholarly publications in the leading journals in our field, and attracted $18.9M in new research grants/contracts. Faculty and staff also expanded their efforts in education and training, and cooperated in supporting National Science Foundation sponsored Sites for Research Experiences for Undergraduates and for Research Experiences for Teachers. As a community, we emphasized the theme of “Frontiers in Plasmonics as Enabling Science in Photonics and Beyond” at our annual symposium, hosted by Bjoern Reinhard. We continued to support the National Photonics Initiative, and contributed as a cooperating site in the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics) which began this year as a new photonics-themed node in the National Network of Manufacturing Institutes. Highlights of our research achievements for the year include an ambitious new DoD-sponsored grant for Development of Less Toxic Treatment Strategies for Metastatic and Drug Resistant Breast Cancer Using Noninvasive Optical Monitoring led by Professor Darren Roblyer, continued support of our NIH-sponsored, Center for Innovation in Point of Care Technologies for the Future of Cancer Care led by Professor Cathy Klapperich, and an exciting confluence of new grant awards in the area of Neurophotonics led by Professors Christopher Gabel, Timothy Gardner, Xue Han, Jerome Mertz, Siddharth Ramachandran, Jason Ritt, and John White. Neurophotonics is fast becoming a leading area of strength of the Photonics Center. The Industry/University Collaborative Research Center, which has become the centerpiece of our translational biophotonics program, continues to focus onadvancing the health care and medical device industries, and has entered its sixth year of operation with a strong record of achievement and with the support of an enthusiastic industrial membership base

Structural requirements and launcher validation process for MECSE CubeSat

MECSE is the first CubeSat being developed at UBI - University da Beira Interior, and it is an under development nanosatellite, resulting from the collaboration between C-MAST - Center for Mechanical and Aerospace Science and Technologies and CEiiA - Centre of Engineering and Product Development. MECSE’s mission, aside from the education aims to provide hands-on experience to universitary students in space projects, it intends to demonstrate that is possible the manipulation of plasma layer using an electromagnetic field that will mitigate the RF - Radio Frequency blackout, which occurs when a space vehicle re-enter in the Earth’s Atmosphere. In this dissertation, an overview of the requirements for a structural configuration, design, dimensioning, verification and validation are presented, using several references. Nevertheless, the ECSS - European Cooperation for Space Standardization documents was where the most of the information was consulted, in order to identify and present the requirements from a systems engineering and structural perspective. Therefore, it was initially identified the main structural requirements, such as the mechanical environment, the interconnection between CubeSat and launcher, and the minimum natural frequency required for the satellite structure. Followed by the main structural requirements are the conditions under which the verifications and validations must be performed in a satellite structure. This led to the definition of the verification methods and to the organization, planning and methodology of the verification processes, which are normally used for a CubeSat validation. Knowing that the validation is only granted if the verifications and validation conditions are followed, applied and accomplished in the numerical and experimental verifications, such as for ROD’s - Reviews of Design and inspections. In a final phase of this work, a set of launchers was analysed with the objective of identifying a suitable proposal for MECSE project. The launchers Bloostar, Electron, LauncherOne and Vector-R were the launchers with better performance for the analysed parameters. The analysis of the various launchers was also carried out in order to recognize the most demanding mechanical environment among the cases taken into account, so that MECSE project could be designed and analysed according to the worst case scenario, while the final launcher is not selected. In this same phase a proposal is made for a possible approach to the verification process, with the main focus on the numerical models to be developed, on the experimental test methodology which was defined by a hybrid approach with a structural model, an engineering qualification model and a protoflight model, as well as identified the levels and duration of the tests and analyses to be performed in these same numerical and experimental models.MECSE é o primeiro CubeSat desenvolvido na UBI - Universidade da Beira Interior e é um nanosatélite em desenvolvimento resultante de uma parceria entre o C-MAST - Center for Mechanical and Aerospace Science and Technologies e o CEiiA - Centre of Engineering and Product Development. O objectivo do MECSE, além de ser educacional e de providenciar experiência prática a alunos universitários em projetos espaciais, tem como missão demonstrar que é possível manipular a camada de plasma, usando um campo electromagnético que irá permitir a mitigação da perda de sinal de rádio frequência que ocorre quando um veículo espacial reentra na atmosfera terrestre. Nesta dissertação, uma visão geral dos requisitos para a configuração, design, dimensionamento, verificação e validação são apresentados usando diversas referências, sendo dos documentos da ECSS - European Cooperation for Space Standardization que a maior parte da informação foi consultada, de forma a identificar e apresentar os requisitos de uma perspetiva da engenharia de sistemas e estrutural. Posto isto, foi inicialmente identificado os principais requisitos estruturais, tais como o ambiente mecânico, a interconexão entre CubeSat e lançador e a frequência natural mínima exigida à estrutura do satélite. De seguida foram assinaladas as condições pelas quais as verificações e validações se devem realizar numa estrutura espacial. Tendo as condições de verificação e validação levado à definição dos métodos de verificação e à organização, planeamento e metodologia dos processos de verificação que normalmente são aplicados num CubeSat para a sua validação. Sabendo que a validação só é obtida se forem seguidas as condições definidas para a realização das verificações numéricas e experimentais, tal como das ROD’s - Reviws of Design e das inspeções a proceder. Numa fase final deste trabalho, foi analisado um conjunto de lançadores com o objetivo de identificar uma proposta adequada para o projeto MECSE, tendo sido os lançadores Bloostar, Electron, LauncherOne e o Vector-R com melhor desempenho para os parâmetros analisados. A análise dos vários lançadores foi realizada também com o intuito de reconhecer qual o ambiente mecânico mais exigente de entre os casos tidos em conta, de forma a que o projeto MECSE possa ser desenhado e analisado segundo esse mesmo caso, enquanto o lançador final não é selecionado. Também nesta fase é realizada uma proposta para uma possível abordagem ao processo de verificação, com o principal foco para os modelos numéricos a desenvolver, para a metodologia de testes experimentais, foi definida uma abordagem híbrida com o intuito de ser construido um modelo estrutural, um modelo de qualificação de engenharia e um modelo protoflight, tal como é definido os níveis e duração dos testes a realizar nesses mesmos modelos numéricos e experimentais

Development and Test of Low Cost Solar Panel Technologies for Small Satellites

This paper presents the activities carried out in collaboration between the University of Pisa and Alta SpA for the development, testing and integration of an efficient, yet inexpensive photovoltaic panel for microsatellite applications. The approach adopted, aimed at reducing cost and developing “low tech” techniques to assembly and qualify solar panels for small satellite applications, uses a printed circuit board designed to optimize the use of external surfaces partially occupied for power generation, where bare cells are installed by means of a double-sided insulating adhesive tape and each cell is covered with cerium doped borosilicate glass, using a controlled volatility silicone. Bonding was performed with a dedicated vacuum bag technique, developed in-house. This method achieves a significant cost reduction with respect to traditional techniques, while retaining high performance and reliable repeatability and avoiding complex technological procedures during the integration. A prototype solar panel was manufactured, tested and integrated on the UniSat-5 small spacecraft by GAUSS Srl in preparation of a flight scheduled for late 2013. Thorough mechanical testing was performed as a part of the integration with UniSat-5. The panels manufactured during the development programme were subject to electrical characterization to evaluate the current-voltage characteristic curve and the efficiency of the array and to thermal vacuum tests according to ECSS standards to estimate the outgassing properties of the protoflight model. For both tests, a low cost experimental setup was developed on purpose. The recorded flight unit total mass loss (TML) is well under the acceptable limits, so that the panel was accepted for space flight. In-orbit validation of the panel is expected with the upcoming flight of UniSat-5. The techniques and procedures developed under this programme allow for quick and inexpensive manufacture of reliable solar arrays, specially suited for micro- and nano-satellites. To improve the thermal and mechanical properties of the solar array, a substrate in carbon fibre composite laminate is under investigation. A thermal analysis is developed to characterize and compare the thermal response of the solar array with different substrate subjected to space heat flux

DESIGN MODULAR COMMAND AND DATA HANDLING SUBSYSTEM HARDWARE ARCHITECTURES

Over the past few years, On-Board Computing Systems for satellites have been facing a limited level of modularity. Modularity is the ability to reuse and reconstruct the system from a set of predesigned units, with minimal additional engineering effort. CDHS hardware systems currently available have a limited ability to scale with mission needs. This thesis addresses the integration of smaller form factor CDHS modules used for nanosatellites with the larger counterparts that are used for larger missions. In particular, the thesis discusses the interfacing between Modular Computer Systems based on Open Standard commonly used in large spacecrafts and PC/104 used for nanosatellites. It also aims to create a set of layers that would represent a hardware library of COTS-like modules. At the beginning, a review of related and previous work has been done to identify the gaps in previous studies and understand more about Modular Computer Systems based on Open Standard commonly used in large spacecrafts, such as cPCI Serial Space and SpaceVPX. Next, the design requirements have been set to achieve this thesis objectives, which included conducting a prestudy of system alternatives before creating a modular CDHS hardware architecture which was later tested. After, the hardware suitable for this architecture based on the specified requirements was chosen and the PCB was designed based on global standards. Later, several functional tests and communication tests were conducted to assess the practicality of the proposed architecture. Finally, thermal vacuum testing was done on one of the architecture’s layers to test its ability to withstand the space environment, with the aim to perform the vibration testing of the full modular architecture in the future. The aim of this thesis has been achieved after going through several tests, comparing between interfaces, and understanding the process of interfacing between different levels of the CDHS. The findings of this study pave the way for future research in the field and offer valuable insights that could contribute to the development of modular architectures for other satellite subsystems

Risk, responsibility, rights, regulation and representation in the value chain of nano-products

This chapter reports on a research project which addresses one key question and a number of sub-questions. The key question is, what are the salient dimensions of the commercialisation and governance of nano-enabled products, covering regulation, risks, responsibilities, consumer rights, and representations to the consumer? The sub-question, and the particular focus of this paper is, how are nano-enabled products destined for consumer markets labelled and marketed? Within this more specifically, how do producers perceive and strategically target consumers, and communicate with them (or not) about the nano-component of their products? Then, does the way that consumers are conceived of and understood by different actors along the value chain change in terms of how the product is marketed? Finally, what are the ethical, governance and regulatory implications of the answers to these questions? The chapter builds on an ongoing collaborative project between SIFO (Norway's National Institute for Consumer Research) and the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research at Manchester Business School, UK. The work is a comparison of ethical aspects in the marketing of nanoproducts in Norway and the UK. This chapter provides preliminary findings and some reflections based on empirical material; an analysis of web-based and other communications, interviews along the value chain, i.e. with producers, importers , retailers and other 'intermediaries'; and eight group discussions across the two countries focussing on cosmetics and textiles. © 2009 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved

Preparation and optimisation of transparent conducting patterns using inkjet printing

Transparent conducting patterns (TCPs) are critical components that are required to be integrated into photovoltaic (PV) cells for energy harvesting. Among the manufacturing processes that are available for the deposition of TCPs onto various substrates, inkjet printing which can be categorised as an additive dispensing process has demonstrated its competitiveness by offering numerous advantages, including non-contact, high resolution, high printing speed, low cost and low material consumption. However, the present bottlenecks to be overcome for further take-up of inkjet printing technology imperatively demand the understanding of materials behaviour involved in the ink formulation and printing process. This thesis is dedicated to the elaboration of fundamental aspects of technical challenges that have been encountered in the uses of inkjet printing technology for the generation of TCPs, thereby optimisation of functional properties of the printed patterns can be achievable through the modification of inks and optimum parameters used in the printing process. [Continues.