Comparative assessment of human–Mars-mission technologies and architectures

We compare a variety of mission scenarios to assess the strengths and weaknesses of options for Mars exploration. The mission design space is modeled along two dimensions: trajectory architectures and propulsion system technologies. We examine direct, semi-direct, stop-over, semi-cycler, and cycler architectures, and we include electric propulsion, nuclear thermal rockets, methane and oxygen production on Mars, Mars water excavation, aerocapture, and reusable propulsion systems in our technology assessment. The mission sensitivity to crew size, vehicle masses, and crew travel time is also examined. Many different combinations of technologies and architectures are applied to the same Mars mission to determine which combinations provide the greatest potential reduction in the injected mass to LEO. We approximate the technology readiness level of a mission to rank development risk, but omit development cost and time calculations in our assessment. It is found that Earth–Mars semi-cyclers and cyclers require the least injected mass to LEO of any architecture and that the discovery of accessible water on Mars has the most dramatic effect on the evolution of Mars exploration.     

Application of the Volterra Series to the Analysis and Design of an Angle Track Loop

A typical function of an angle tracking loop is to keep a radar antenna pointed at a target. The error in pointing is directly related to successful operation of the tracking device; therefore, its behavior is of interest. For a tracker with a general polynomial nonlinearity, an arbitrary initial pointing error, and a bounded deterministic input, a method is developed for finding upper bounds on the magnitude of the tracking error using Volterra series techniques. Convergence regions of the Volterra series are also obtained. Applications of these results are made to a second-order tracking device.     

Perception,object kind,and object naming

Spatial Cognition and Computation - We investigated whether certain perceptual properties of objects could support children's and adults' judgments of the range of shape changes permissible...     

Volterra Series Synthesis of Nonlinear Stochastic Tracking Systems

One of the most important objectives of a radar angle-tracking loop is to keep the target within the beamwidth of the radar antenna. Thus, the behavior of the antenna pointing error is of vital interest in determination of tracking performance. For a tracker with a general polynomial linearity (representing nonlinear receiver characteristics), subjected to constant line-of-sight rate inputs, random initial antenna pointing errors, and white Gaussian receiver noise, a method to obtain approximations to the transient mean and variance of the antenna pointing error as explicit functions of time is presented.