252 research outputs found
FIREBALL: Detector, data acquisition and reduction
The Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon (FIREBALL) had its first scientific flight in June 2009. The instrument combines microchannel plate detector technology with fiber-fed integral field spectroscopy on an unstable stratospheric balloon gondola platform. This unique combination poses a series of calibration and data reduction challenges that must be addressed and resolved to allow for accurate data analysis. We discuss our approach and some of the methods we are employing to accomplish this task
FIREBALL: Instrument pointing and aspect reconstruction
The Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon (FIREBALL) had its first scientific flight in June 2009. The instrument is a 1 meter class balloon-borne telescope equipped with a vacuum-ultraviolet integral field spectrograph intended to detect emission from the inter-galactic medium at redshifts 0.3 < z < 1.0. The scientific goals and the challenging environment place strict constraints on the pointing and tracking systems of the gondola. In this manuscript we briefly review our pointing requirements, discuss the methods and solutions used to meet those requirements, and present the aspect reconstruction results from the first successful scientific flight
An innovative approach to select the prediction model in the development of NIR spectroscopy methods
Collaborative Virtual Training with Physical and Communicative Autonomous Agents
International audienceVirtual agents are a real asset in collaborative virtual environment for training (CVET) as they can replace missing team members. Collaboration between such agents and users, however, is generally limited. We present here a whole integrated model of CVET focusing on the abstraction of the real or virtual nature of the actor to define a homogenous collaboration model. First, we define a new collaborative model of interaction. This model notably allows to abstract the real or virtual nature of a teammate. Moreover, we propose a new role exchange approach so that actors can swap their roles during training. The model also permits the use of physically based objects and characters animation to increase the realism of the world. Second, we design a new communicative agent model, which aims at improving collaboration with other actors using dialog to coordinate their actions and to share their knowledge. Finally, we evaluated the proposed model to estimate the resulting benefits for the users and we show that this is integrated in existing CVET applications
FIREBALL: the Faint Intergalactic medium Redshifted Emission Balloon: overview and first science flight results
FIREBALL (the Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon) is a balloon-borne 1m telescope coupled to an ultraviolet fiber-fed spectrograph. FIREBALL is designed to study the faint and diffuse emission of the intergalactic medium, until now detected primarily in absorption. FIREBALL is a path finding mission to test new technology and make new constraints on the temperature and density of this gas. We report on the first successful science flight of FIREBALL, in June 2009, which proved every aspect of the complex instrument performance, and provided the strongest measurements and constraints on IGM emission available from any instrument
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