Searching for biosignatures using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analysis of manganese oxides

Manganese oxide (Mn oxide) minerals from bacterial sources produce electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectral signatures that are mostly distinct from those of synthetic simulants and abiogenic mineral Mn oxides. Biogenic Mn oxides exhibit only narrow EPR spectral linewidths (～500 G), whereas abiogenic Mn oxides produce spectral linewidths that are 2-6 times broader and range from 1200 to 3000 G. This distinction is consistent with X-ray structural observations that biogenic Mn oxides have abundant layer site vacancies and edge terminations and are mostly of single ionic species [i.e., Mn(IV)], all of which favor narrow EPR linewidths. In contrast, abiogenic Mn oxides have fewer lattice vacancies, larger particle sizes, and mixed ionic species [Mn(III) and Mn(IV)], which lead to the broader linewidths. These properties could be utilized in the search for extraterrestrial physicochemical biosignatures, for example, on Mars missions that include a miniature version of an EPR spectrometer.     

Bone metabolism and formation of mice bred in a 2 G environment.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the effect of chronic hypergravity exposure on the bone formation and the bone metabolism when mammals produce offspring in a 2 G environment. We measured the length and width of the thighbone, the length of the pelvis, the width of the pelvic cavity and the width of the fourth cervical vertebra on the second (F2) and the third (F3) generation mice bred in a 2 G environment every ten days from 20 days old to 60 days old in an experiment on bone formation. In an experiment on bone metabolism, we measured calcium and phosphorus in the bones of the F3 in the 2 G group. Ratios of the thighbone length, pelvis length, pelvic cavity width, and fourth cervical vertebra width versus the body length were calculated. These ratios were higher in the 2 G group than the control group during all measuring periods. Calcium and phosphorus concentrations in the thighbone and the lumbar vertebra were lower in the 2 G group than in the control group. However, the calcium and phosphorus concentrations in the cervical vertebrae of the 2G group were higher. These results suggest that the influence of gravity load may vary in the bones.     

Buried small objects detected by UWB GPR

A ground penetrating radar (GPR) using short-pulse is developed to detect small and shallow metal objects buried underground. A bistatic mode in which the GPR system uses separate transmitting and receiving antennas is applied. A modified fat dipole antenna is developed for the transmitting and receiving antennas. The prototype of the system is tested in the real environment and 2D visualization of raw data is achieved. We show that the developed system has a good ability to detect underground metal objects, and even small targets of several centimeters.     

Solar Wind Electron Observations Near Solar Maximum at High Latitudes From Thermal Noise Spectroscopy

The Ulysses spacecraft is reaching high heliolatitudes during the approach to solar maximum. We show preliminary in situ electron observations from the URAP experiment, using thermal noise spectroscopy. This method is especially suited to measure accurately the electron density and thermal temperature. The data acquired in the period June–September 2000 are compared to those obtained at similar heliolatitudes near solar activity minimum and in the ecliptic plane near both solar maximum and minimum. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Determining the Absolute Abundances of Natural Radioactive Elements on the Lunar Surface by the Kaguya Gamma-ray Spectrometer

The Kaguya gamma-ray spectrometer (KGRS) has great potential to precisely determine the absolute abundances of natural radioactive elements K, Th and U on the lunar surface because of its excellent spectroscopic performance. In order to achieve the best performance of the KGRS, it is important to know the spatial response function (SRF) that describes the directional sensitivity of the KGRS. The SRF is derived by a series of Monte Carlo simulations of gamma-ray transport in the sensor of the KGRS using the full-fledged simulation model of the KGRS, and is studied in detail. In this paper, the method for deriving absolute abundance of natural radioactive elements based on the SRF is described for the analysis of KGRS data, which is also applicable to any gamma-ray remote sensings. In the preliminary analysis of KGRS data, we determined the absolute abundances of K and Th on the lunar surface without using any previous knowledge of chemical information gained from Apollo samples, lunar meteorites and/or previous lunar remote sensings. The results are compared with the previous measurements and the difference and the correspondence are discussed. Future detailed analysis of KGRS data will provide new and more precise maps of K, Th and U on the lunar surface.     

Variations in polar rain flux according to IMF geometries observed by STSAT-1

We examined polar rain flux observed by STSAT-1 in the northern polar cap and compared it with solar wind parameters. We found that the differential energy spectrum of polar rain was similar to that of the solar wind for the energy range 100 eV – 1 keV, although we cannot rule out the possibility of a small amount of acceleration. On the other hand, the low-energy component of the solar wind showed no correlation and, naturally, the solar wind density had only a weak correlation with the polar rain flux. Polar rain flux in the northern hemisphere is most significant for the condition of the interplanetary magnetic field components Bz < 0, Bx < 0, and By > 0, and in this case it correlated well with the magnitude of By and Bz. For other interplanetary magnetic field conditions, the correlation was insignificant. The results are consistent with those reported previously.     

Integrated orbit and attitude hardware-in-the-loop simulations for autonomous satellite formation flying

Development and experiment of an integrated orbit and attitude hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulator for autonomous satellite formation flying are presented. The integrated simulator system consists of an orbit HIL simulator for orbit determination and control, and an attitude HIL simulator for attitude determination and control. The integrated simulator involves four processes (orbit determination, orbit control, attitude determination, and attitude control), which interact with each other in the same way as actual flight processes do. Orbit determination is conducted by a relative navigation algorithm using double-difference GPS measurements based on the extended Kalman filter (EKF). Orbit control is performed by a state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE) technique that is utilized as a nonlinear controller for the formation control problem. Attitude is determined from an attitude heading reference system (AHRS) sensor, and a proportional-derivative (PD) feedback controller is used to control the attitude HIL simulator using three momentum wheel assemblies. Integrated orbit and attitude simulations are performed for a formation reconfiguration scenario. By performing the four processes adequately, the desired formation reconfiguration from a baseline of 500–1000 m was achieved with meter-level position error and millimeter-level relative position navigation. This HIL simulation demonstrates the performance of the integrated HIL simulator and the feasibility of the applied algorithms in a real-time environment. Furthermore, the integrated HIL simulator system developed in the current study can be used as a ground-based testing environment to reproduce possible actual satellite formation operations.     

General direction-of-arrival estimation: a signal subspace approach

A high-resolution algorithm is presented for resolving multiple incoherent and coherent plane waves that are incident on an array of sensors. The incident sources can be a mixture of narrowband and broadband sources, and, the geometry of the array is unrestricted. The algorithm makes use of a fundamental property possessed by those eigenvectors of the array spectral density matrix that are associated with eigenvalues that are larger than the sensor noise level. Specifically, it is shown that these eigenvectors can each be represented as linear combinations of the steering vectors identifying the incident plane waves. This property is then used to solve the important special cases of incoherent sources incident on a general array and coherent sources incident on an equispaced linear array. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the high-resolution performance achieved with this approach relative to that obtained with MUSIC and spatial smoothed MUSIC in which the coherent-signal-subspace focusing method is used     

An Adaptive Model Following Control of Industrial Manipulators

Using the adaptive model following control (AMFC) technique, a control system is developed to obtain high performance of an industrial manipulator that has wide variations in its payload and spatial configuration. The main advantage of this technique over other methods is simplicity in computation, which provides the capability of real-time control calculation with today's microprocessors. Moreover, it guarantees automatically the stability of the overall system without requiring any additional stability analysis. In order to demonstrate the capability of this technique, we have conducted a computer simulation for the Unimation PUMA 600 series manipulator. The simulation results agree well with the expected high performance of the control system: (1) computational requirements are much less than other existing ones, and (2) it provides the capability of adapting to large variations in payload and spatial configuration. Also presented is a comparison of the amount of its required computation with that of other methods.