The ParaShield Entry Vehicle Concept: Basic Theory and Flight Test Development

With the emergence of microsatellite launch vehicle technology and the development of interest in space commercialization, there is a renewed need for entry vehicle technology to return mass from low earth orbit. This paper documents the ParaShield concept of the Space Systems Laboratory, which is an ultra-low ballistic coefficient (ULβ) entry vehicle. Trajectory simulations show that as the ballistic coefficient is lowered into the range of 100-150 Pa (2-3lb/ft2) the total heat load and peak heating flux drop markedly due to primary deceleration in regions of extremely low dynamic pressure. In this range any of a number of ceramic or glass-based fabrics can withstand the entry dynamic pressures and heat loads. Incorporating an offset of the center of gravity from the symmetrical axis of the shield allows L/D, and thus peak deceleration loads, to be controlled. By using a titanium support truss and deployment mechanism, a very large heat shield can be deployed from an entry capsule prior to deorbit; since the shield survives entry the same rib-braced fabric structure results in aerodynamic deceleration to a nominal landing velocity of 10-15 m/sec. Thus the same structure that provides heating protection for hypersonic entry is also the terminal decelerator in the subsonic regime and either water splashdown or a mechanical decelerator is used for landing impact attenuation. Since the same structure acts as both the heat shield and the landing parachute, the term ParaShield has been adopted to describe this concept Results presented show the application of the ParaShield concept to a variety of entry capsules including advanced manned spacecraft. A test vehicle was prepared to take data on ULβ entry from a suborbital trajectory. This paper also summarizes the experience gained from the design construction, and integration of the Space Systems Laboratory ParaShield test vehicle on the American Rocket Company launch vehicle. With the failure of the launch vehicle, no flight test data was obtained; the test vehicle survived the launch incident, and is flight-capable for future suborbital missions. The development experience summarized in this paper has resulted in a sufficient knowledge base to allow the design and development of orbital ParaShield vehicles

In our own image: Do images of endangered apes with humans, and human artifacts, negatively impact perception regarding their conservation status?

All four nonhuman Great Ape species, bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, are endangered in the wild. Their greatest threat is human activity resulting in habitat destruction, poaching, and the illegal pet trade. In response, there are a number of sanctuaries and other organizations that are dedicated to Great Ape conservation. Social media platforms provide these organizations with a fast and effective formula for displaying information to many individuals. Photographs and videos of Great Apes are often used to promote awareness of the species. Frequently, however, these images portray individual apes with human artifacts or in human contexts (e.g. wearing hats or sunglasses, laying on a couch, etc.). Images such as these can be engaging to an audience and can serve individual organizations\u27 missions by motivating people to care and thereby increasing resources for much-needed conservation efforts. However, preliminary research has suggested that displaying nonhuman apes in human contexts or with human artifacts may, in fact, give the impression that they make good pets and are not endangered, promoting the illegal trading of the Apes. This project aims to determine if individuals\u27 perceptions of the conservation of Great Apes are influenced by the images of Great Apes that they see. Human subjects will be presented with images of chimpanzees in human/nonhuman contexts as well as with, and without, human artifacts and asked to respond to a number of questions regarding their suitability as pets and conservation status. The goal is to determine if some imagery of nonhuman great apes, used by the very organizations that aim to conserve them, may actually be detrimental to Great Ape conservation

Colonialism, Maasina Rule, and the Origins of Malaitan Kastom

This book is a political history of the island of Malaita in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate from 1927, when the last violent resistance to colonial rule was crushed, to 1953 and the inauguration of the island’s first representative political body, the Malaita Council. At the book’s heart is a political movement known as Maasina Rule, which dominated political affairs in the southeastern Solomons for many years after World War II. The movement’s ideology, kastom, was grounded in the determination that only Malaitans themselves could properly chart their future through application of Malaitan sensibilities and methods, free from British interference. Kastom promoted a radical transformation of Malaitan lives by sweeping social engineering projects and alternative governing and legal structures. When the government tried to suppress Maasina Rule through force, its followers brought colonial administration on the island to a halt for several years through a labor strike and massive civil resistance actions that overflowed government prison camps

Project Artemis

The goals of Project Artemis are designed to meet the challege of President Bush to return to the Moon, this time to stay. The first goal of the project is to establish a permanent manned base on the Moon for the purposes of scientific research and technological development. The knowledge gained from the establishment and operations of the lunar base will then be used to achieve the second goal of Project Artemis, the establishment of a manned base on the Martian surface. Throughout both phases of the program, crew safety will be the number one priority. There are four main issues that have governed the entire program: crew safety and mission success, commonality, growth potential, and costing and scheduling. These issues are discussed in more detail

Structural Assembly Demonstration Experiment (SADE)

The purpose of the Structural Assembly Demonstration Experiment (SADE) was to create a near-term Shuttle flight experiment focusing on the deployment and erection of structural truss elements. The activities of the MIT Space Systems Laboratory consist of three major areas: preparing and conducting neutral buoyancy simulation test series; producing a formal SADE Experiment plan; and studying the structural dynamics issues of the truss structure. Each of these areas is summarized

Assessment of Fitts' Law for Quantifying Combined Rotational and Translational Movements

Objective: To develop a model for human performance in combined translational and rotational movements based on Fitts' law. Background: Fitts' law has been successfully applied to translational movements in the past, providing generalization beyond a specific task as well as performance predictions. For movements involving both translations and rotations, no equivalent theory exists, making comparisons of input devices for these movements more ambiguous. Method: The study consisted of three experiments. In the first two, participants performed either pure translational or pure rotational movements of 1 degree of freedom. The third experiment involved the same movements combined. Results: On average, the performance times for combined movements were equal to the sum of the times for equivalent separate rotational and translational movements. A simple Fitts' law equivalent for combined movements with a similar slope as the separate components was proposed. In addition, a significant degree of coordination of the combined movements was found. This had a strong bias toward a parallel execution in 12 out of 13 participants. Conclusion: Combined movements with rotations and translations of 1 degree of freedom can be approximated using a simple Fitts' law equivalent. The rotational and translational components appear to be coordinated by the central nervous system to generate a parallel execution. Application: The results may help drive human interface designs and provide insights into the coordination of combined movements. Future extensions may be possible for the movements of higher degrees of freedom used in robot teleoperation and virtual reality applications.This work was supported by the Institute for Dexterous Space Robotics (Grant No. NNX06AD23G).Publicad

Development of an interchangeable end effector mechanism for the Ranger telerobotic vehicle

The Ranger program at the Space Systems Laboratory (SSL) at the University of Maryland is a demonstration of an extremely low cost, space flight experiment. The Ranger vehicle is designed to perform teleoperated spacecraft maintenance. Completing the various tasks included in spacecraft maintenance requires several specific tools. This paper describes the Ranger interchangeable end effector mechanism (IEEM). Its design allows Ranger to change end effectors to utilize the appropriate tool for the various tasks. The Ranger vehicle is designed with four manipulators. A seven degree-of-freedom (DOF) grappling manipulator securely attaches the vehicle to the work site. A 6 DOF camera positioning manipulator allows the operator to position a stereo pair of video cameras for visual feedback. The two remaining manipulators are the 7 DOF dexterous arms. They are the primary means by which Ranger accomplishes its required tasks. At the end of each of these dexterous manipulators is an IEEM. This paper begins with a brief overview of the Space Systems Laboratory and the Ranger program. The constraints leading to the requirements for an IEEM are described. The following section then describes the design strategies and the down selection process resulting in two candidate designs, taper and pneumatic connector type. Next, the leading candidate design is described in detail, followed by a preliminary discussion of failure modes and planned testing. The paper concludes with a brief review and a section discussing future work

Environmental mastery and depression in older adults in residential care

This study investigated the association between environmental mastery and depression in a sample of 96 older adults (aged 64&ndash;98 years) in residential care. The participants completed a scale that assessed depression along with measures for risk factors for depression such as functional capacity, self-evaluated physical health, bereavement experiences and environmental mastery. The results showed that 49 per cent of the variance in participants&rsquo; scores in depression could be attributed to their self-reported level of environmental mastery. Given the complexity of depression and the likelihood of reduced environmental mastery among older adults in residential care, the construct was further assessed as a mediating variable between the risk factors and depression. With environmental mastery taken as such, the explained variance in depression increased to 56 per cent. It was concluded that environmental mastery may be one of the more important factors affecting the mental health of older adults living in residential care and that strategies for increasing the residents&rsquo; environmental mastery are important to their psychological wellbeing. The discussion notes that among the questions needing further investigation are whether older adults who experience high environmental mastery make the transition from community living to residential nursing home care more successfully than others, and whether perceived mastery diminishes over time or occurs at the point of transition from community independent living to dependent supported living.<br /

NHC Node Health Check

David Akin Senior Systems Analyst OU Supercomputing Center for Education and Research (OSCER)Why NHC? Currently no standard -- Most sites use custom, home-grown scripts Often site-specific Usually lacking portability Unreliable execution, reporting, parent performance Need a simple, robust framework easy to understand/apply. What NHC does Simply: Prevents jobs from running on unhealthy nodesUniversity of Oklahoma Linux Cluster Institute OU Supercomputing Center for Education and Research (OSCER)N