Mars Sample Return Earth Entry Vehicle Design:can the Reliability Requirement Be Met by Emerging New Technologies?

This proposed presentation will review past efforts and assess what emerging technologies could be used to address the reliability requirements for a Mars Sample Return Mission

COTSAT Small Spacecraft Cost Optimization for Government and Commercial Use

Cost Optimized Test of Spacecraft Avionics and Technologies (COTSAT-1) is an ongoing spacecraft research and development project at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC). The prototype spacecraft, also known as CheapSat, is the first of what could potentially be a series of rapidly produced low-cost spacecraft. The COTSAT-1 team is committed to realizing the challenging goal of building a fully functional spacecraft for $500K parts and$2.0M labor. The project's efforts have resulted in significant accomplishments within the scope of a limited budget and schedule. Completion and delivery of the flight hardware to the Engineering Directorate at NASA Ames occurred in February 2009 and a cost effective qualification program is currently under study. The COTSAT-1 spacecraft is now located at NASA Ames Research Center and is awaiting a cost effective launch opportunity. This paper highlights the advancements of the COTSAT-1 spacecraft cost reduction techniques

Written information about individual medicines for consumers.

Medicines are the most common intervention in most health services. As with all treatments, those taking medicines need sufficient information: to enable them to take and use the medicines effectively, to understand the potential harms and benefits, and to allow them to make an informed decision about taking them. Written medicines information, such as a leaflet or provided via the Internet, is an intervention that may meet these purposes

Anatomy of the high-frequency ambient seismic wave field at the TCDP borehole.

International audienceThe Taiwan Chelungpu-fault Drilling Project (TCDP) installed a vertical seismic array between 950 and 1270 m depth in an active thrust fault environment. In this paper we analyze continuous noise records of the TCDP array between 1 and 16 Hz. We apply multiple array processing and noise correlation techniques to study the noise source process, properties of the propagation medium, and the ambient seismic wave field. Diurnal amplitude and slowness patterns suggest that noise is generated by cultural activity. The vicinity of the recording site to the excitation region, indicated by a narrow azimuthal distribution of propagation directions, leads to a predominant ballistic propagation regime. This is evident from the compatibility of the data with an incident plane wave model, polarized direct arrivals of noise correlation functions, and the asymmetric arrival shape. Evidence for contributions from scattering comes from equilibrated earthquake coda energy ratios, the frequency dependent randomization of propagation directions, and the existence of correlation coda waves. We conclude that the ballistic and scattered propagation regime coexist, where the first regime dominates the records, but the second is weaker yet not negligible. Consequently, the wave field is not equipartitioned. Correlation signal-to-noise ratios indicate a frequency dependent noise intensity. Iterations of the correlation procedure enhance the signature of the scattered regime. Discrepancies between phase velocities estimated from correlation functions and in-situ measurements are associated with the array geometry and its relative orientation to the predominant energy flux. The stability of correlation functions suggests their applicability in future monitoring efforts

Perceptual face processing in developmental prosopagnosia is not sensitive to the canonical location of face parts

Individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) are strongly impaired in recognizing faces, but it is controversial whether this deficit is linked to atypical visual-perceptual face processing mechanisms. Previous behavioural studies have suggested that face perception in DP might be less sensitive to the canonical spatial configuration of face parts in upright faces. To test this prediction, we recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to intact upright faces and to faces with spatially scrambled parts (eyes, nose, and mouth) in a group of ten participants with DP and a group of ten age-matched control participants with normal face recognition abilities. The face-sensitive N170 component and the vertex positive potential (VPP) were both enhanced and delayed for scrambled as compared to intact faces in the control group. In contrast, N170 and VPP amplitude enhancements to scrambled faces were absent in the DP group. For control participants, the N170 to scrambled faces was also sensitive to feature locations, with larger and delayed N170 components contralateral to the side where all features appeared in a non-canonical position. No such differences were present in the DP group. These findings suggest that spatial templates of the prototypical feature locations within an upright face are selectively impaired in DP

Overview of Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET) Project

The objective of the Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET) projects is to mature a 3-D Woven Thermal Protection System (TPS) to Technical Readiness Level (TRL) 6 to support future NASA missions to destinations such as Venus and Saturn. Destinations that have extreme entry environments with heat fluxes up to 5000 watts per square centimeter and pressures up to 5 atmospheres, entry environments that NASA has not flown since Pioneer-Venus and Galileo. The scope of the project is broad and can be split into roughly four areas, Manufacturing/Integration, Structural Testing and Analysis, Thermal Testing and Analysis and Documentation. Manufactruing/Integration covers from raw materials, piece part fabrication to final integration on a 1-meter base diameter 45-degree sphere cone Engineering Test Unit (ETU). A key aspect of the project was to transfer as much of the manufacturing technology to industry in preparation to support future mission infusion. The forming, infusion and machining approaches were transferred to Fiber Materials Inc. and FMI then fabricated the piece parts from which the ETU was manufactured. The base 3D-woven material consists of a dual layer weave with a high density outer layer to manage recession in the system and a lower density, lower thermal conductivity inner layer to manage the heat load. At the start of the project it was understood that due to weaving limitations the heat shield was going to be manufactured from a series of tiles. And it was recognized that the development of a seam solution that met the structural and thermal requirements of the system was going to be the most challenging aspect of the project. It was also recognized that the seam design would drive the final integration approach and therefore the integration of the ETU was kept in-house within NASA. A final seam concept has been successfully developed and implemented on the ETU and will be discussed. The structural testing and analysis covers from characterization of the different layers of the infused material as functions of weave direction and temperature, to sub-component level testing such as 4-pt bend testing at sub-ambient and elevated temperature. ETU test results are used to validate the structural models developed using the element and sub-component level tests. Given the seam has to perform both structurally and aerothermally during entry a novel 4-pt bend test fixture was developed allowing articles to be tested while the front surface is heated with a laser. These tests are intended to establish the system's structural capability during entry. A broad range of aerothermal tests (arcjet tests) are being performed to develop material response models for predicting the required TPS thickness to meet a mission's needs and to evaluate failure modes. These tests establish the capability of the system and assure robustness of the system during entry. The final aspect of the project is to develop a comprehensive Design and Data Book such that a future mission will have the information necessary to adopt the technology. This presentation will provide an overview and status of the project and describe the status of the tehnology maturation level for the inner and outer planet as well as earth entry sample return missions

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions to treat orthostatic hypotension in elderly people and people with a neurological condition

Acceptance date approximate, given by author