An Approach to the Design of a Lightweight Lunar Spacecraft

The Quicksat study, undertaken at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), had as its goal the development of low mass, low cost spacecraft that can be implemented within a relatively short time span. As part of this effort, JPL studied a lunar mission referred to as Lunar Prospector (LP). The LP spacecraft carries a spare Apollo gamma ray spectrometer (GRS) in a 100 km polar orbit about the moon in order to obtain a global map of surface composition. The primary mission objective is to search for water in the form of ice trapped within polar craters; this is viewed as an essential precursor to the establishment of permanent lunar colonies. In addition, satellite tracking data will be used to develop a nearly global gravity map of the moon. The planned mission life is 1 year. The LP spacecraft, as it is currently configured, is a simple spinner with an estimated total mass of less than 600 kg and an estimated dry mass of less than 300 kg. The planned launch vehicle is an Atlas rocket, and trans-lunar injection energy is to be provided by an SGS II upper stage. Trajectory correction maneuvers and lunar orbit insertion will be executed by a 100 lb hydrazine thruster (main engine), which is an integral part of the LP spacecraft. Attitude control will be accomplished using three 5 lb hydrazine thrusters, two for spin control and one for precession maneuvers. Spacecraft power will be supplied by a 20 Amp-hour, 28 volt DC, Nickel-Cadmium battery system, charged from a 4 m² silicon solar array. The spacecraft will be equipped with a NASA standard near Earth S-band transponder and two omni-directional low gain antennas. An on-board digital computer will be used for command and data handling, and for performing attitude control computations

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

Champernownes Number, Strong Normality, and the X Chromosome

Champernowne’s number is the best-known example of a normal number, but its digits are far from random. The sequence of nucleotides in the human X-chromosome appears non-random in a similar way. We give a new test of pseudorandomness, strong normality, based on the law of the iterated logarithm. Almost all numbers are strongly normal, and we show that a strongly normal number must necessarily be normal. However, Champernowne’s number fails to be strongly normal