Human Exploration Using Real-Time Robotic Operations (HERRO)- Crew Telerobotic Control Vehicle (CTCV) Design

The HERRO concept allows real time investigation of planets and small bodies by sending astronauts to orbit these targets and telerobotically explore them using robotic systems. Several targets have been put forward by past studies including Mars, Venus, and near Earth asteroids. A conceptual design study was funded by the NASA Innovation Fund to explore what the HERRO concept and it's vehicles would look like and what technological challenges need to be met. This design study chose Mars as the target destination. In this way the HERRO studies can define the endpoint design concepts for an all-up telerobotic exploration of the number one target of interest Mars. This endpoint design will serve to help planners define combined precursor telerobotics science missions and technology development flights. A suggested set of these technologies and demonstrator missions is shown in Appendix B. The HERRO concept includes a crewed telerobotics orbit vehicle as well three Truck rovers, each supporting two teleoperated geologist robots Rockhounds (each truck/Rockhounds set is landed using a commercially launched aeroshell landing system.) Options include a sample ascent system teamed with an orbital telerobotic sample rendezvous and return spacecraft (S/C) (yet to be designed). Each truck rover would be landed in a science location with the ability to traverse a 100 km diameter area, carrying the Rockhounds to 100 m diameter science areas for several week science activities. The truck is not only responsible for transporting the Rockhounds to science areas, but also for relaying telecontrol and high-res communications to/from the Rockhound and powering/heating the Rockhound during the non-science times (including night-time). The Rockhounds take the place of human geologists by providing an agile robotic platform with real-time telerobotics control to the Rockhound from the crew telerobotics orbiter. The designs of the Truck rovers and Rockhounds will be described in other publications. This document focuses on the CTCV design

Progress of the Mars Array Technology Experiment (MATE) on the 2001 Lander

NASA is planning missions to Mars every two years until 2010, these missions will rely on solar power. Sunlight on the surface of Mars is altered by airborne dust and fluctuates from day to day. The MATE flight experiment was designed to evaluate solar cell performance and will fly on the Mars 2001 surveyor Lander as part of the Mars In-Situ Propellant Production Precursor (MIP) package. MATE will measure several solar cell technologies and characterize the Martian environment's solar power. This will be done by measuring full IV curvers on solar cells, direct and global insolation, temperature, and spectral content. The lander is scheduled to launch in April 2001 and arrive on Mars in January of 2002. The site location has not been identified but will be near the equator, is a powered landing, and is baselined for 90 sols. The intent of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the MATE experiment and progress to date. The MATE Development Unit (DU) hardware has been built and has completed testing, work is beginning in the Qualification Unit which will start testing later this year, Flight Hardware is to be delivered next spring

Crop pests and predators exhibit inconsistent responses to surrounding landscape composition

The idea that noncrop habitat enhances pest control and represents a win–win opportunity to conserve biodiversity and bolster yields has emerged as an agroecological paradigm. However, while noncrop habitat in landscapes surrounding farms sometimes benefits pest predators, natural enemy responses remain heterogeneous across studies and effects on pests are inconclusive. The observed heterogeneity in species responses to noncrop habitat may be biological in origin or could result from variation in how habitat and biocontrol are measured. Here, we use a pest-control database encompassing 132 studies and 6,759 sites worldwide to model natural enemy and pest abundances, predation rates, and crop damage as a function of landscape composition. Our results showed that although landscape composition explained significant variation within studies, pest and enemy abundances, predation rates, crop damage, and yields each exhibited different responses across studies, sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing in landscapes with more noncrop habitat but overall showing no consistent trend. Thus, models that used landscape-composition variables to predict pest-control dynamics demonstrated little potential to explain variation across studies, though prediction did improve when comparing studies with similar crop and landscape features. Overall, our work shows that surrounding noncrop habitat does not consistently improve pest management, meaning habitat conservation may bolster production in some systems and depress yields in others. Future efforts to develop tools that inform farmers when habitat conservation truly represents a win–win would benefit from increased understanding of how landscape effects are modulated by local farm management and the biology of pests and their enemies

Solar Powered Flight on Venus

Solar powered flight within the Venus environment from the surface to the upper atmosphere was evaluated. The objective was to see if a station-keeping mission was possible within this environment based on a solar power generating system. Due to the slow rotation rate of Venus it would be possible to remain within the day light side of the planet for extended periods of time. However the high wind speeds and thick cloud cover make a station-keeping solar powered mission challenging. The environment of Venus was modeled as a function of altitude from the surface. This modeling included density, temperature, solar attenuation and wind speed. Using this environmental model flight with both airships and aircraft was considered to evaluate whether a station-keeping mission is feasible. The solar power system and flight characteristics of both types of vehicles was modeled and power balance was set up to determine if the power available from the solar array was sufficient to provide enough thrust to maintain station over a fixed ground location

UAS Literary and Arts Journal 2019

Tidal Echoes presents an annual showcase of writers and artists who share one thing in common: a life surrounded by the rainforests and waterways of Southeast Alaska.Dedication Dr. Sol Neely -- Little Salmon Lake -- Distorted Self-Reflection -- Of Alderaan -- Beachcomber -- The babysitter’s special -- Lichen -- I Grew Up Shelving Tackle -- Housekeeping -- Untitled -- Hydrangea -- Evergreen Cemetery, mid-Spring -- Holy Rivers -- Up The Stream -- Syncing Salmon -- Salmon Yunomi -- Sunset Solitaire -- Abbreviated Formalities -- Ritual -- Landfalls: Dedications to Alaskan Women Writers and Storytellers: There are moments that keep themselves in our memories (for Ernestine Saankalaxt' Hayes) -- Artist Biographies -- With it, we are joined, and continue (for Joan Naviyuk Kane) Ambient Noise (for Vivian Faith Prescott) -- Untitled -- They prefer oatmeal -- A baked potato -- Veil of Secrets -- Bury These Stories -- The Spoken Forest -- Tree of Life—a rewrite -- The Spoken Neighborhood Christopher “LC” Gonzales, -- Untitled --What God Said on the Radio Today -- Vegetarian Alaskan -- Chasing Raindrops -- Who Are You -- Recipe for Catching Starlight -- Southeast Mountain -- Untitled -- Typewriters and Tobacco -- Above Gastineau Channel -- Beaches -- The Monster -- Canal Beginning -- What if my rapist was a Supreme Court Justice? -- Hong Kong Club -- Where I’m From -- Dandelion Friends -- One Square Inch -- Native Love Poem -- Bear Mask and Raven Headress -- Wilbur Window -- Untitled -- Still They Shine -- Bringing Her to The Shrine of St. Therese -- Featured Writer X'unei Lance Twitchell Interview -- Cutting the Fog -- Headlands Center for the Arts in the Marin Park -- Release -- Ax Tláa Ax Een Akanik Noojín -- Láx’ Haa Kináa Wdikeen -- X'unei Lance Twitchell -- Kill All Natives (K.A.N.) -- Lynx -- Frequently asked questions about Climate Change -- Featured Artist Wayne Price, Master Carver Interview -- Fifty Shades of Gray -- Broken Bridge at the End of the Perseverance Trail -- Grey Areas -- Fixated on the Lights --Braid of Recognition -- My Dad Taught Me -- My Escape --I am From -- Yaakoosgé Daakahídi -- Kake -- Winner of the 2019 Mac Behrend’s Award for Creative Writing -- Trash to Treasure -- Beach Home -- Gathering Again -- Visit With My Mother -- Mixed Bouquet of Flowers -- Take a Good Look -- Mud Shark Evolving -- I Was Raped Yesterday -- Artist Biographies -- Squid Contact -- Port Town -- Visitation -- The Mountains Are Alive Elise Tomlinson, Misty Lupine Forest -- Traveling in Korea with Walt Whitman -- Rainy State Haikus -- Tweety -- Where We Intersect -- Tenakee Springs -- 10 Ways of Looking at the Sea -- Skiff in Orange and Blue -- Sunbathing -- Changing Lanes -- Proper Attire -- Forty Years -- Forgery -- Seasons of Color -- Eat More (W)hole Foods -- When It’s Raining -- Skinny Dipping -- Our Yellow Kitchen -- Gratitude must not be hurried (On the occasion of your twenty-first birthday) -- Sunrise Poppies -- Liberating Silverware -- You Are Precious (Plaque at Sayéik, Gastineau Community School, Douglas) - Writer Biographies -- Tree of Life—a rewrite -- Artist Biographies -- The Eye of the Fox -- Editor's Note -- Writer Biographies -- Acknowledgement

Habitat Management to Suppress Pest Populations: Progress and Prospects

Habitat management involving manipulation of farmland vegetation can exert direct suppressive effects on pests and promote natural enemies. Advances in theory and practical techniques have allowed habitat management to become an important subdiscipline of pest management. Improved understanding of biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships means that researchers now have a firmer theoretical foundation on which to design habitat management strategies for pest suppression in agricultural systems, including landscape-scale effects. Supporting natural enemies with shelter, nectar, alternative prey/hosts, and pollen (SNAP) has emerged as a major research topic and applied tactic with field tests and adoption often preceded by rigorous laboratory experimentation. As a result, the promise of habitat management is increasingly being realized in the form of practical worldwide implementation. Uptake is facilitated by farmer participation in research and is made more likely by the simultaneous delivery of ecosystem services other than pest suppression

Recommendations for environmental risk assessment of gene drive applications for malaria vector control.

Building on an exercise that identified potential harms from simulated investigational releases of a population suppression gene drive for malaria vector control, a series of online workshops identified nine recommendations to advance future environmental risk assessment of gene drive applications