Uses of lunar sulfur

Sulfur and sulfur compounds have a wide range of applications for their fluid, electrical, chemical, and biochemical properties. Although known abundances on the Moon are limited (approximately 0.1 percent in mare soils), sulfur is relatively extractable by heating. Coproduction of sulfur during oxygen extraction from ilmenite-rich mare soils could yield sulfur in masses up to 10 percent of the mass of oxygen produced. Sulfur deserves serious consideration as a lunar resource

Development of aluminum alloy compounds for electroluminescent light sources

Aluminum alloy compounds as wide band gap semiconductors for electroluminescent light source

Cluster Analysis of Thermal Icequakes Using the Seismometer to Investigate Ice and Ocean Structure (SIIOS): Implications for Ocean World Seismology

Ocean Worlds are of high interest to the planetary community due to the potential habitability of their subsurface oceans. Over the next few decades several missions will be sent to ocean worlds including the Europa Clipper, Dragonfly, and possibly a Europa lander. The Dragonfly and Europa lander missions will carry seismic payloads tasked with detecting and locating seismic sources. The Seismometer to Investigate Ice and Ocean Structure (SIIOS) is a NASA PSTAR funded project that investigates ocean world seismology using terrestrial analogs. The goals of the SIIOS experiment include quantitatively comparing flight-candidate seismometers to traditional instruments, comparing single-station approaches to a small-aperture array, and characterizing the local seismic environment of our field sites. Here we present an analysis of detected local events at our field sites at Gulkana Glacier in Alaska and in Northwest Greenland approximately 80 km North of Qaanaaq, Greenland. Both field sites passively recorded data for about two weeks. We deployed our experiment on Gulkana Glacier in September 2017 and in Greenland in June 2018. At Gulkana there was a nearby USGS weather station which recorded wind data. Temperature data was collected using the MERRA satellite. In Greenland we deployed our own weather station to collect temperature and wind data. Gulkana represents a noisier and more active environment. Temperatures fluctuated around 0C, allowing for surface runoff to occur during the day. The glacier had several moulins, and during deployment we heard several rockfalls from nearby mountains. In addition to the local environment, Gulkana is located close to an active plate boundary (relative to Greenland). This meant that there were more regional events recorded over two weeks, than in Greenland. Greenlands local environment was also quieter, and less active. Temperatures remained below freezing. The Greenland ice was much thicker than Gulkana (~850 m versus ~100 m) and our stations were above a subglacial lake. Both conditions can reduce event detections from basal motion. Lastly, we encased our Greenland array in an aluminum vault and buried it beneath the surface unlike our array in Gulkana where the instruments were at the surface and covered with plastic bins. The vault further insulated the array from thermal and atmospheric events

Republicanism and the political economy of democracy

Europe is experiencing rapidly accelerating poverty and social exclusion, following half a decade of financial crisis and austerity politics. The key problem behind Europe's malaise, in our view, is the economic disenfranchisement of large parts of its population in the winner-takes-all-society. This article proposes that we examine the contribution of republican political theory as a distinctive approach that provides us with the conceptual and normative resources to reclaim what we call the political economy of democracy, the constellation of political and economic institutions aimed at promoting broad economic sovereignty and individuals' capacities to govern their own lives. This article identifies three key ideas that together constitute a distinctively republican approach to political economy: (1) establish an economic floor; (2) impose an economic ceiling to counter excess economic inequality; and (3) democratize the governance and regulation of the main economic institutions

Emergence: Key physical issues for deeper philosophical inquiries

A sketch of three senses of emergence and a suggestive view on the emergence of time and the direction of time is presented. After trying to identify which issues philosophers interested in emergent phenomena in physics view as important I make several observations pertaining to the concepts, methodology and mechanisms required to understand emergence and describe a platform for its investigation. I then identify some key physical issues which I feel need be better appreciated by the philosophers in this pursuit. I end with some comments on one of these issues, that of coarse-graining and persistent structures.Comment: 16 pages. Invited Talk at the Heinz von Foerster Centenary International Conference on Self-Organization and Emergence: Emergent Quantum Mechanics (EmerQuM11). Nov. 10-13, 2011, Vienna, Austria. Proceedings to appear in J. Phys. (Conf. Series

Emergence: Key physical issues for deeper philosophical inquiries

A sketch of three senses of emergence and a suggestive view on the emergence of time and the direction of time is presented. After trying to identify which issues philosophers interested in emergent phenomena in physics view as important I make several observations pertaining to the concepts, methodology and mechanisms required to understand emergence and describe a platform for its investigation. I then identify some key physical issues which I feel need be better appreciated by the philosophers in this pursuit. I end with some comments on one of these issues, that of coarse-graining and persistent structures.Comment: 16 pages. Invited Talk at the Heinz von Foerster Centenary International Conference on Self-Organization and Emergence: Emergent Quantum Mechanics (EmerQuM11). Nov. 10-13, 2011, Vienna, Austria. Proceedings to appear in J. Phys. (Conf. Series

Portable Electron Microscopy for ISS and Beyond

Advances in space exploration have evolved in lockstep with key technology advances in diverse fields such as materials science, biological science, and engineering risk management. Research in these areas, where structure and physical processes come together, can proceed rapidly in part due to sophisticated ground-based analytical tools that help re-searchers develop technologies and engineering processes that push frontiers of human space exploration. Electron microscopes (EM) are an example of such a workhorse tool, lending a unique blend of strong optical scattering, high native resolution, large depth of focus, and spectroscopy via characteristic X-ray emission, providing exquisite high-magnification structural imaging and chemical analysis. Ground-based EMs have been essential in NASA research for many years. In particular, in mineralogy and petrology, EM is used to understand the origin and evolution of the solar system, particularly rocky bodies. In microbiology, EM has helped visualize the architecture of tissues and cells. In engineering/materials science, EM has been used to characterize particulate debris in air and water samples, determine pore sizes in ceramics/catalysts, understand the nature of fibers, determine composition and morphology of new and existing materials, and characterize micro-textures of vapor deposited films. EM is highly effective at investigating a wide variety of nanoscale materials/biomaterials at the core of many of NASAs inquiries. Despite exquisite optical performance and versatility, EMs are traditionally large, heavy, and have high power consumption. They are also expensive so they tend to be housed at universities and large research institutions, or at major industrial laboratory sites with support staff, supplies, and skilled operators. Since most organizations cannot support their own EM, samples are often sent to these large institutions and service centers to be imaged, at great expense and of-ten with delay of weeks to months for complex analyses. Complexity, high cost, and maintenance associated with collecting EM image data has until now severely limited fields in which EM is used. Making EM accessible outside constrained terrestrial laboratory environments will bring EMs performance and versatility to a much broader range of scientific and engineering endeavors, including in space