Article III by Default: Constitutional Requirements for the Capital Prosecution of Unprivileged Enemy Belligerents

In light of President Obama’s and Attorney General Eric Holder Jr.’s monumental decision, this Comment explores the constitutional requirements for the capital prosecution of unprivileged enemy belligerents accused of committing or aiding hostilities against America. This Comment argues that, by default and largely thanks to false starts on behalf of the Bush Administration, courts-martial proceedings and military commissions cannot procure a constitutionally sound capital conviction of a detainee in the War on Terror

Increasing Flight Software Reuse with OpenSatKit

In January 2015 the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) released the Core Flight System (cFS) as open source under the NASA Open Source Agreement (NOSA) license. The cFS is based on flight software (FSW) developed for 12 spacecraft spanning nearly two decades of effort and it can provide about a third of the FSW functionality for a low-earth orbiting scientific spacecraft. The cFS is a FSW framework that is portable, configurable, and extendable using a product line deployment model. However, the components are maintained separately so the user must configure, integrate, and deploy them as a cohesive functional system. This can be very challenging especially for organizations such as universities building cubesats that have minimal experience developing FSW. Supporting universities was one of the primary motivators for releasing the cFS under NOSA. This paper describes the OpenSatKit that was developed to address the cFS deployment challenges and to serve as a cFS training platform for new users. It provides a fully functional out-of-the box software system that includes NASA's cFS, Ball Aerospace's command and control system COSMOS, and a NASA dynamic simulator called 42. The kit is freely available since all of the components have been released as open source. The kit runs on a Linux platform, includes 8 cFS applications, several kit-specific applications, and built in demos illustrating how to use key application features. It also includes the software necessary to port the cFS to a Raspberry Pi and instructions for configuring COSMOS to communicate with the target. All of the demos and test scripts can be rerun unchanged with the cFS running on the Raspberry Pi. The cFS uses a 3-tiered layered architecture including a platform abstraction layer, a Core Flight Executive (cFE) middle layer, and an application layer. Similar to smart phones, the cFS application layer is the key architectural feature for users to extend the FSW functionality to meet their mission-specific requirements. The platform abstraction layer and the cFE layers go a step further than smart phones by providing a platform-agnostic Application Programmer Interface (API) that allows applications to run unchanged on different platforms. OpenSatKit can serve two significant architectural roles that will further help the adoption of the cFS and help create a community of users that can share assets. First, the kit is being enhanced to automate the integration of applications with the goal of creating a virtual cFS "App Store".. Second, a platform certification test suite can be developed that would allow users to verify the port of the cFS to a new platform. This paper will describe the current state of these efforts and future plans

Disconnecting Solar Magnetic Flux

Disconnection of open magnetic flux by reconnection is required to balance the injection of open flux by CMEs and other eruptive events. Making use of recent advances in heliospheric background subtraction, we have imaged many abrupt disconnection events. These events produce dense plasma clouds whose distinctie shape can now be traced from the corona across the inner solar system via heliospheric imaging. The morphology of each initial event is characteristic of magnetic reconnection across a current sheet, and the newly-disconnected flux takes the form of a "U"-shaped loop that moves outward, accreting coronal and solar wind material. We analyzed one such event on 2008 December 18 as it formed and accelerated at 20 m/s^2 to 320 km/s, expanding self-similarly until it exited our field of view 1.2 AU from the Sun. From acceleration and photometric mass estimates we derive the coronal magnetic field strength to be 8uT, 6 Rs above the photosphere, and the entrained flux to be 1.6x10^11 Wb (1.6x10^19 Mx). We model the feature's propagation by balancing inferred magnetic tension force against accretion drag. This model is consistent with the feature's behavior and accepted solar wind parameters. By counting events over a 36 day window, we estimate a global event rate of 1/day and a global solar minimum unsigned flux disconnection rate of 6x10^13 Wb/y (6x10^21 Mx/y) by this mechanism. That rate corresponds to ~0.2 nT/y change in the radial heliospheric field at 1 AU, indicating that the mechanism is important to the heliospheric flux balance.Comment: preprint is 20 pages with 8 figures; accepted by APJ for publication in 201

Will treatment facilitate learning of a problem solving strategy by persons with Alzheimer’s disease?

Deficits in problem solving are a prominent feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The present study aimed to determine whether or not persons with AD could learn to use a strategy for solving problems. Four individuals with AD were taught to use a reduction strategy to solve twenty questions problems (20Q). Although results of this study indicate that individuals did not learn to use the stressed strategy, participants did improve their ability to solve problems using strategies already familiar to them. This suggests that treatment should focus on skills the person with AD is already using rather than teaching new strategies

The average magnetic field draping and consistent plasma properties of the Venus magnetotail

A new technique has been developed to determine the average structure of the Venus magnetotail (in the range from −8 Rv to −12 Rv) from the Pioneer Venus magnetometer observations. The spacecraft position with respect to the cross-tail current sheet is determined from an observed relationship between the field-draping angle and the magnitude of the field referenced to its value in the nearby magnetosheath. This allows us statistically to remove the effects of tail flapping and variability of draping for the first time and thus to map the average field configuration in the Venus tail. From this average configuration we calculate the cross-tail current density distribution and J × B forces. Continuity of the tangential electric field is utilized to determine the average variations of the X-directed velocity which is shown to vary from −250 km/s at −8 Rv to −470 km/s at −12 Rv. From the calculated J × B forces, plasma velocity, and MHD momentum equation the approximate plasma acceleration, density, and temperature in the Venus tail are determined. The derived ion density is approximately ∼0.07 p+/cm³ (0.005 O+/cm³) in the lobes and ∼0.9 p+/cm³ (0.06 O+/cm³) in the current sheet, while the derived approximate average plasma temperature for the tail is ∼6×106 K for a hydrogen plasma or ∼9×107 K for an oxygen plasma

Design of multihundredwatt DIPS for robotic space missions

Design of a dynamic isotope power system (DIPS) general purpose heat source (GPHS) and small free piston Stirling engine (FPSE) is being pursued as a potential lower cost alternative to radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG's). The design is targeted at the power needs of future unmanned deep space and planetary surface exploration missions ranging from scientific probes to SEI precursor missions. These are multihundredwatt missions. The incentive for any dynamic system is that it can save fuel which reduces cost and radiological hazard. However, unlike a conventional DIPS based on turbomachinery converions, the small Stirling DIPS can be advantageously scaled to multihundred watt unit size while preserving size and weight competitiveness with RTG's. Stirling conversion extends the range where dynamic systems are competitive to hundreds of watts (a power range not previously considered for dynamic systems). The challenge of course is to demonstrate reliability similar to RTG experience. Since the competative potential of FPSE as an isotope converter was first identified, work has focused on the feasibility of directly integrating GPHS with the Stirling heater head. Extensive thermal modeling of various radiatively coupled heat source/heater head geometries were performed using data furnished by the developers of FPSE and GPHS. The analysis indicates that, for the 1050 K heater head configurations considered, GPHS fuel clad temperatures remain within safe operating limits under all conditions including shutdown of one engine. Based on these results, preliminary characterizations of multihundred watt units were established

Can Streamer Blobs prevent the Buildup of the Interplanetetary Magnetic Field?

Coronal Mass Ejections continuously drag closed magnetic field lines away from the Sun, adding new flux to the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). We propose that the outward-moving blobs that have been observed in helmet streamers are evidence of ongoing, small-scale reconnection in streamer current sheets, which may play an important role in the prevention of an indefinite buildup of the IMF. Reconnection between two open field lines from both sides of a streamer current sheet creates a new closed field line, which becomes part of the helmet, and a disconnected field line, which moves outward. The blobs are formed by plasma from the streamer that is swept up in the trough of the outward moving field line. We show that this mechanism is supported by observations from SOHO/LASCO. Additionally, we propose a thorough statistical study to quantify the contribution of blob formation to the reduction of the IMF, and indicate how this mechanism may be verified by observations with SOHO/UVCS and the proposed NASA STEREO and ESA Polar Orbiter missions.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures; accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Letters; uses AASTe