Prospects of brain–machine interfaces for space system control

The dream of controlling and guiding computer-based systems using human brain signals has slowly but steadily become a reality. The available technology allows real-time implementation of systems that measure neuronal activity, convert their signals, and translate their output for the purpose of controlling mechanical and electronic systems. This paper describes the state of the art of non-invasive brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) and critically investigates both the current technological limits and the future potential that BMIs have for space applications. We present an assessment of the advantages that BMIs can provide and justify the preferred candidate concepts for space applications together with a vision of future directions for their implementation. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE : survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

Funding for the WEAVE facility has been provided by UKRI STFC, the University of Oxford, NOVA, NWO, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), the Isaac Newton Group partners (STFC, NWO, and Spain, led by the IAC), INAF, CNRS-INSU, the Observatoire de Paris, Région Île-de-France, CONCYT through INAOE, Konkoly Observatory (CSFK), Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Lund University, the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), the Swedish Research Council, the European Commission, and the University of Pennsylvania.WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366-959 nm at R ∼ 5000, or two shorter ranges at R ∼ 20,000. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for ∼ 3 million stars and detailed abundances for ∼ 1.5 million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey ∼ 0.4 million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey  ∼ 400 neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in z 1 million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at z > 2. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator.PostprintPeer reviewe

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366$-$959\,nm at $R\sim5000$, or two shorter ranges at $R\sim20\,000$. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for $\sim$3 million stars and detailed abundances for $\sim1.5$ million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey $\sim0.4$ million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey $\sim400$ neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in $z<0.5$ cluster galaxies; (vi) survey stellar populations and kinematics in $\sim25\,000$ field galaxies at $0.3\lesssim z \lesssim 0.7$; (vii) study the cosmic evolution of accretion and star formation using $>1$ million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at $z>2$. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator.Comment: 41 pages, 27 figures, accepted for publication by MNRA

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

WEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366−959\,nm at R∼5000, or two shorter ranges at R∼20000. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for ∼3 million stars and detailed abundances for ∼1.5 million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey ∼0.4 million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey ∼400 neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in z1 million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at z>2. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator

Augmenting astronaut’s capabilities through brain-machine interfaces

Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs) transform the brain activity of a human operator into executable commands that can be sent to a machine, usually a computer or robot, to perform intended tasks. In addition to current biomedical applications, available technology could also make feasible augmenting devices for space applications that could be promising means to improve astronauts ’ efficiency and capabilities. The implementation of artificial intelligence algorithms into the software architecture of present BMIs will be of crucial importance to guarantee a proper functionality of the device in the highly dynamic and unpredictable space environment.

Biblos: building blocks for earth observation mission performance simulators

End-to-end mission performance simulators for Earth Observation missions are one of the prominent tools for system design and scientific validation in early mission phases. The European Space Agency (ESA)has promoted efforts to exploit synergies between activities and reduce engineering costs. Some of these activities are the ARCHEO study, the BIBLOS project, the OpenSF frameworkandthe EO CFI library, the. The main goal of BIBLOS is to provide a library of software units called “Building Blocks”, or simply “Blocks”,that can be used to build an end-to-end simulator. Many Blocks are common across simulators, for example the geometry-related ones. Some Blocks are common for a certain type of instrument, like the Radiative Transfer Model, or parts of theInstrument model. BIBLOS targets the Blocks mostfrequently used by the engineering and scientific community. The user can access the library through the BIBLOS website, download the Blocks and use them directly, in combination with their own developments, or modify them. All of the Blocks are provided with the source code, and are under ESA Software Community License. The first stage of this activity focused on Passive Optical instruments, mainly imagers, which are one of the most frequent types of instrument on Earth Observation satellites. The models already developedinclude the geometry, scene generation and instrument modelling of an optical imager. These Blocks can be combined into a full chain that produces raw data. ESA is currently developing the Level-1 processing, which may be includedinto BIBLOS in the future. Themodels, documentation and demos can be downloaded from the BIBLOS website: https://gmv-biblos.gmv.com/.A second stage of the activity is currently ongoing with the purpose of expanding this library to include Passive Microwave instruments and Active Microwave instruments. Severalsimulators for Passive and Active Microwave payloads are currently being developed for ESA missions and it is foreseen that more will follow in the near future. Therefore, BIBLOS has the potential of supporting these developments.Additionally, as part of a continuous improvement process, this second stage of BIBLOS will also update some of the most computationalperformance intensive blocks for Passive Optical instruments with parallel implementation for Graphic Processing Units.This paper presents the work carried out for the second stage of the BIBLOSactivityPeer Reviewe

Biblos: building blocks for earth observation mission performance simulators

End-to-end mission performance simulators for Earth Observation missions are one of the prominent tools for system design and scientific validation in early mission phases. The European Space Agency (ESA)has promoted efforts to exploit synergies between activities and reduce engineering costs. Some of these activities are the ARCHEO study, the BIBLOS project, the OpenSF frameworkandthe EO CFI library, the. The main goal of BIBLOS is to provide a library of software units called “Building Blocks”, or simply “Blocks”,that can be used to build an end-to-end simulator. Many Blocks are common across simulators, for example the geometry-related ones. Some Blocks are common for a certain type of instrument, like the Radiative Transfer Model, or parts of theInstrument model. BIBLOS targets the Blocks mostfrequently used by the engineering and scientific community. The user can access the library through the BIBLOS website, download the Blocks and use them directly, in combination with their own developments, or modify them. All of the Blocks are provided with the source code, and are under ESA Software Community License. The first stage of this activity focused on Passive Optical instruments, mainly imagers, which are one of the most frequent types of instrument on Earth Observation satellites. The models already developedinclude the geometry, scene generation and instrument modelling of an optical imager. These Blocks can be combined into a full chain that produces raw data. ESA is currently developing the Level-1 processing, which may be includedinto BIBLOS in the future. Themodels, documentation and demos can be downloaded from the BIBLOS website: https://gmv-biblos.gmv.com/.A second stage of the activity is currently ongoing with the purpose of expanding this library to include Passive Microwave instruments and Active Microwave instruments. Severalsimulators for Passive and Active Microwave payloads are currently being developed for ESA missions and it is foreseen that more will follow in the near future. Therefore, BIBLOS has the potential of supporting these developments.Additionally, as part of a continuous improvement process, this second stage of BIBLOS will also update some of the most computationalperformance intensive blocks for Passive Optical instruments with parallel implementation for Graphic Processing Units.This paper presents the work carried out for the second stage of the BIBLOSactivityPeer Reviewe

The wide-field, multiplexed, spectroscopic facility WEAVE: Survey design, overview, and simulated implementation

International audienceWEAVE, the new wide-field, massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey facility for the William Herschel Telescope, will see first light in late 2022. WEAVE comprises a new 2-degree field-of-view prime-focus corrector system, a nearly 1000-multiplex fibre positioner, 20 individually deployable 'mini' integral field units (IFUs), and a single large IFU. These fibre systems feed a dual-beam spectrograph covering the wavelength range 366-959 nm at R ~ 5000, or two shorter ranges at R ~ 20 000. After summarising the design and implementation of WEAVE and its data systems, we present the organisation, science drivers and design of a five- to seven-year programme of eight individual surveys to: (i) study our Galaxy's origins by completing Gaia's phase-space information, providing metallicities to its limiting magnitude for ~3 million stars and detailed abundances for ~1.5 million brighter field and open-cluster stars; (ii) survey ~0.4 million Galactic-plane OBA stars, young stellar objects and nearby gas to understand the evolution of young stars and their environments; (iii) perform an extensive spectral survey of white dwarfs; (iv) survey ~400 neutral-hydrogen-selected galaxies with the IFUs; (v) study properties and kinematics of stellar populations and ionised gas in z 1 million spectra of LOFAR-selected radio sources; (viii) trace structures using intergalactic/circumgalactic gas at z > 2. Finally, we describe the WEAVE Operational Rehearsals using the WEAVE Simulator