Applications of satellite data relay to problems of field seismology

A seismic signal processor was developed and tested for use with the NOAA-GOES satellite data collection system. Performance tests on recorded, as well as real time, short period signals indicate that the event recognition technique used is nearly perfect in its rejection of cultural signals and that data can be acquired in many swarm situations with the use of solid state buffer memories. Detailed circuit diagrams are provided. The design of a complete field data collection platform is discussed and the employment of data collection platforms in seismic network is reviewed

NASA Human Spaceflight Architecture Team Lunar Destination Activities

NASA's Human Spaceflight Architecture Team (HAT) Lunar Destination Team has been developing a number of "Design Reference Missions" (DRM) to inform exploration architecture development, transportation approaches, and destination elements and operations. There are four destinations being considered in the HAT studies: Cis-Lunar, Lunar, Near Earth Asteroids and Mars. The lunar destination includes all activities that occur on the moon itself, but not low lunar orbit operations or Earth Moon LaGrange points which are the responsibility of the HAT Cis-Lunar Team. This paper will review the various surface DRMs developed as representative scenarios that could occur in a human lunar return. The approaches have been divided into two broad categories: a seven day short stay mission with global capabilities and a longer extended duration stay of 28 days which is limited to the lunar poles as a landing zone. The surface elements, trade studies, traverses, concept of operations and other relevant issues and methodologies will be presented and discussed in the context and framework of the HAT ground rules and assumptions which are constrained by NASA's available transportation systems. An international collaborative effort based on the 2011 Global Exploration Roadmap (GER) will also be examined and evaluated

Advancing understanding on industrial relations in multinational companies: key research challenges and the INTREPID contribution

peer-reviewedThis paper has three principal aims. It firstly provides some theoretical background on the key current research issues and challenges in regard to industrial relations in multinational companies. It then presents a concise review of scholarship to date on industrial relations in multinational companies using INTREPID (Investigation of Transnationals Employment Practices: an International Database) data. Finally, the paper identifies some of the main industrial relations issues that remain to be addressed, in effect charting a form of research agenda for future work using the INTREPID data, with particular focus on the potential contribution from ‘late joiners’ to the INTREPID project.ACCEPTEDpeer-reviewe

Space Station Freedom environmental control and life support system phase 3 simplified integrated test detailed report

A description of the phase 3 simplified integrated test (SIT) conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Core Module Integration Facility (CMIF) in 1989 is presented. This was the first test in the phase 3 series integrated environmental control and life support systems (ECLSS) tests. The basic goal of the SIT was to achieve full integration of the baseline air revitalization (AR) subsystems for Space Station Freedom. Included is a description of the SIT configuration, a performance analysis of each subsystem, results from air and water sampling, and a discussion of lessons learned from the test. Also included is a full description of the preprototype ECLSS hardware used in the test

Onboard Evolution of Understandable Swarm Behaviors

Designing the individual robot rules that give rise to desired emergent swarm behaviors is difficult. The common method of running evolutionary algorithms off‐line to automatically discover controllers in simulation suffers from two disadvantages: the generation of controllers is not situated in the swarm and so cannot be performed in the wild, and the evolved controllers are often opaque and hard to understand. A swarm of robots with considerable on‐board processing power is used to move the evolutionary process into the swarm, providing a potential route to continuously generating swarm behaviors adapted to the environments and tasks at hand. By making the evolved controllers human‐understandable using behavior trees, the controllers can be queried, explained, and even improved by a human user. A swarm system capable of evolving and executing fit controllers entirely onboard physical robots in less than 15 min is demonstrated. One of the evolved controllers is then analyzed to explain its functionality. With the insights gained, a significant performance improvement in the evolved controller is engineered

How energy and water availability constrain vegetation water-use along the North Australian Tropical Transect

© 2016, Gorgan Univ Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. All rights reserved. Energy and water availability were identified as the first order controls of evapotranspiration (ET) in ecohyrodrology. With a ~1,000 km precipitation gradient and distinct wet-dry climate, the North Australian Tropical Transect (NATT) was well suited for evaluating how energy and water availabilities constrain water use by vegetation, but has not been done yet. In this study, we addressed this question using Budyko framework that quantifies the evapotranspiration as a function of energy-limited rate and precipitation. Path analysis was adopted to evaluate the dependencies of water and carbon fluxes on ecohydrological variables. Results showed that the major drivers of water and carbon fluxes varied between wet and dry savannas: down-welling solar radiation was the primary driver of the wet season ET in mesic savanna ecosystems, while soil water availability was the primary driver in inland dryland ecosystems. Vegetation can significantly regulate water and carbon fluxes of savanna ecosystems, as supported by the strong link of LAI with ET and GPP from path analysis. Vegetation structure (i.e. the tree:grass ratio) at each site can regulate the impact of climatic constraint on ET and GPP. Sites with a low tree:grass ratio had ET and GPP that exceeded sites with high a tree:grass ratio when the grassy understory was active. Identifying the relative importance of these climate drivers and vegetation structure on seasonal patterns of water use by these ecosystems will help us decide our priorities when improving the estimates of ET and GPP

Stationkeeping, Orbit Determination, and Attitude Control for Spacecraft in Near Rectilinear Halo Orbits

Final document is attached. From a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO), NASA's Gateway at the Moon is planned to serve as a proving ground and a staging location for human missions beyond Earth. Stationkeeping, Orbit Determination (OD), and attitude control are examined for uncrewed and crewed Gateway configurations. Orbit maintenance costs are investigated using finite maneuvers, considering skipped maneuvers and perturbations. OD analysis assesses DSN tracking and identifies OD challenges associated with the NRHO and crewed operations. The Gateway attitude profile is simulated to determine an effective equilibrium attitude. Attitude control propellant use and sizing of the required passive attitude control system are assessed