A Neural Network Approach to Fault Detection in Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control Systems

This thesis proposes a method of performing fault detection and isolation in spacecraft attitude determination and control systems. The proposed method works by deploying a trained neural network to analyze a set of residuals that are dened such that they encompass the attitude control, guidance, and attitude determination subsystems. Eight neural networks were trained using either the resilient backpropagation, Levenberg-Marquardt, or Levenberg-Marquardt with Bayesian regularization training algorithms. The results of each of the neural networks were analyzed to determine the accuracy of the networks with respect to isolating the faulty component or faulty subsystem within the ADCS. The performance of the proposed neural network-based fault detection and isolation method was compared and contrasted with other ADCS FDI methods. The results obtained via simulation showed that the best neural networks employing this method successfully detected the presence of a fault 79% of the time. The faulty subsystem was successfully isolated 75% of the time and the faulty components within the faulty subsystem were isolated 37% of the time

Sexual selection, automata and ethics in George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss and Olive Schreiner's Undine and From Man to Man

This paper brings together two related areas of debate in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The first concerns how the courtship plot of the nineteenth-century novel responded to, and helped to shape, scientific ideas of sexual competition and selection. In The Mill on the Floss (1860), George Eliot strikingly prefigures Darwin's later work on sexual selection, drawing from her own extensive knowledge of the wider debates within which evolutionary theory developed. Maggie Tulliver's characterisation allows Eliot to explore the ethical complexities raised by an increasingly powerful scientific naturalism, where biology is seen to be embedded within morality in newly specific ways. The second strand of the paper examines the extension of scientific method to human mind and motivation which constituted the new psychology. It argues that there are crucial continuities of long-established ethical and religious ideas within this increasingly naturalistic view of human mind and motivation. The contention that such ideas persist and are transformed, rather than simply jettisoned, is illustrated through the example of Thomas Henry Huxley's 1874 essay on automata. Turning finally to focus on Olive Schreiner's Undine (1929) and From Man to Man (1926), the paper explores the importance of these persistent ethical and religious ideas in two novels which remained unpublished during her lifetime. It argues that they produce both difficulty and opportunity for imagining love plots within the context of increasingly assertive biological and naturalistic accounts of human beings

Next Generation Universal Ground Control System HMI Design

The existing Human Machine Interface (HMI) for the Army’s Universal Ground Control Station (UGCS) represents a 1980s, windows-based technology which is neither intuitive nor scalable for operators. It creates high levels of cognitive load on the operators, and its closed architecture limits its adaptability for UAS missions as technologies evolve. This research presents a methodology for creating and evaluating next generation HMI designs while leveraging GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) and TELLUS flight simulation software in the creation of five HMI prototype designs. A proof of concept approach in the evaluation of prototypes was performed with five UAS Aircraft Operators (15W MOS) and five USMA cadets; examination of the impact of age and experience on the perceived value of new HMI designs will influence recommendations on full experimental design. The value-focused approach to design presented in this paper and prototype designs provide a basis for full prototype development and experimental testing through PM UAS with the Intelligence and Maneuver Centers of Excellence. Results include a trade space and sensitivity analysis towards development of improved HMI designs. The methodology and high performing prototypes for HMI design will be integrated by the PM UAS CSI Project Office for further development and full experimental analysis

Improving Requirements Engineering within the European Space Industry

International audienceThe Next Generation Requirements Engineering (NextGenRE) (ESA/ESTEC Contract 4000101353/10/NL/SFe) project seeks to identify possibilities to improve the requirements engineering process within the European Space industry in connection with Model-based System Engineering (MBSE)

Seasonal Dynamics of Mineral Uptake and Allocation in Whole Pinot noir Vines in a Red-Hill Soil Over 2 Years 2002-2003

Objectives of Research : 1) Construct a whole-vine dry matter and mineral allocation budget for mature grapevines grown in Jory (basaltic parent material) soil. 2) Determine the associated seasonal dynamics of plant-available soil minerals. 3) Model the timing of uptake and allocation of mineral nutrients in different vine tissues

Seasonal Dynamics of Mineral Uptake and Allocation in Whole Pinot noir Vines in a Red Hill Soil 2001-2002

Objectives of Research: 1) Construct a whole-vine dry matter and mineral allocation budget for mature grapevines grown in Jory (basaltic parent material) soil. 2) Determine the associated seasonal dynamics of plant-available soil minerals. 3) Model the timing of uptake and allocation of mineral nutrients in different vine tissues

Limited contribution of ancient methane to surface waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea shelf

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Science Advances 4 (2018): eaao4842, doi:10.1126/sciadv.aao4842.In response to warming climate, methane can be released to Arctic Ocean sediment and waters from thawing subsea permafrost and decomposing methane hydrates. However, it is unknown whether methane derived from this sediment storehouse of frozen ancient carbon reaches the atmosphere. We quantified the fraction of methane derived from ancient sources in shelf waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea, a region that has both permafrost and methane hydrates and is experiencing significant warming. Although the radiocarbon-methane analyses indicate that ancient carbon is being mobilized and emitted as methane into shelf bottom waters, surprisingly, we find that methane in surface waters is principally derived from modern-aged carbon. We report that at and beyond approximately the 30-m isobath, ancient sources that dominate in deep waters contribute, at most, 10 ± 3% of the surface water methane. These results suggest that even if there is a heightened liberation of ancient carbon–sourced methane as climate change proceeds, oceanic oxidation and dispersion processes can strongly limit its emission to the atmosphere.The National Science Foundation (PLR-1417149; awarded to J.D.K.) primarily supported this work with additional support provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-FE0028980; awarded to J.D.K.). Atmospheric 14C-CH4 measurements were funded by NASA via the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Earth Ventures project “Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment”) to the University of Colorado under contract 1424124. K.M.S. acknowledges support from the University of Minnesota Grant-in-Aid program

Limb sounders tracking topographic gravity wave activity from the stratosphere to the ionosphere around midlatitude Andes

Several studies have shown that the surroundings of the highest Andes mountains at midlatitudes in the Southern Hemisphere exhibit gravity waves (GWs) generated by diverse sources which may traverse the troposphere and then penetrate the upper layers if conditions are favorable. There is a specific latitude band where that mountain range is nearly perfectly aligned with the north‐south direction, which favors the generation of wavefronts parallel to this orientation. This fact may allow an optimization of procedures to identify topographic GW in some of the observations. We analyze data per season to the east and west of these Andes latitudes to find possible significant differences in GW activity between both sectors. GW effects generated by topography and convection are expected essentially on the eastern side. We use satellite data from two different limb sounding methods: the Global Positioning System radio occultation (RO) technique and the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry instrument, which are complementary with respect to the height intervals, in order to study the effects of GW from the stratosphere to the ionosphere. Activity becomes quantified by the GW average potential energy in the stratosphere and mesosphere and by the electron density variance content in the ionosphere. Consistent larger GW activity on the eastern sector is observed from the stratosphere to the ionosphere (night values). However, this fact remains statistically significant at the 90% significance level only during winter, when GWs generated by topography dominate the eastern sector. On the contrary, it is usually assumed that orographic GWs have nearly zero horizontal phase speed and will therefore probably be filtered at some height in the neutral atmosphere. However, this scheme relies on the assumption that the wind is uniform and constant. Our results also suggest that it is advisable to separate night and day cases to study GWs in the ionosphere, as it is more difficult to find significant statistical differences during daytime. This may happen because perturbations induced by GWs during daytime are more likely to occur in a disturbed environment that may hinder the identification of the waves.Fil: Alexander, Pedro Manfredo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: de la Torre, Alejandro. Universidad Austral. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Schmidt, T.. German Research Centre for Geosciences; AlemaniaFil: Llamedo Soria, Pablo Martin. Universidad Austral. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Hierro, Rodrigo Federico. Universidad Austral. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Esmeralda Energy Company Final Scientific Technical Report, January 2008, Emigrant Slimhole Drilling Project, DOE GRED III (DE-FC36-04GO14339)

The Emigrant Slimhole Drilling Project (“ESDP”) was a highly successful, phased resource evaluation program designed to evaluate the commercial geothermal potential of the eastern margin of the northern Fish Lake Valley pull-apart basin in west-central Nevada. The program involved three phases: (1) Resource evaluation; (2) Drilling and resource characterization; and (3) Resource testing and assessment. Efforts included detailed geologic mapping; 3-D modeling; compilation of a GIS database; and production of a conceptual geologic model followed by the successful drilling of the 2,938 foot deep 17-31 slimhole (core hole), which encountered commercial geothermal temperatures (327⁰ F) and exhibits an increasing, conductive, temperature gradient to total depth; completion of a short injection test; and compilation of a detailed geologic core log and revised geologic cross-sections. Results of the project greatly increased the understanding of the geologic model controlling the Emigrant geothermal resource. Information gained from the 17-31 core hole revealed the existence of commercial temperatures beneath the area in the Silver Peak Core Complex which is composed of formations that exhibit excellent reservoir characteristics. Knowledge gained from the ESDP may lead to the development of a new commercial geothermal field in Nevada. Completion of the 17-31 core hole also demonstrated the cost-effectiveness of deep core drilling as an exploration tool and the unequaled value of core in understanding the geology, mineralogy, evolutional history and structural aspects of a geothermal resource