Search

A 21-day continuous monitoring of a highly tridimensional forest of the black coral Antipathella subpinnata (Ellis and Solander 1786) was carried out in the NW Mediterranean Sea at 63 m depth using an autonomous lander to investigate the diel short-term dynamics of the vagile fauna associated to the forest. The survey allowed to assess several aspects of the forest attractiveness and its use, especially by the ichthyofauna, including (i) the diversity and shifts of the fish community inhabiting three layers of the environment (seafloor, canopy, water column) between four light phases (dawn, day, dusk, night), (ii) the diel rhythm in forest use of the red swallowtail perch Anthias anthias (Linnaeus 1758) and its sleeping behaviour in terms of fidelity towards resting sites, duration of rests, and awakenings triggers, and, finally, (iii) the influence of biotic and abiotic variables on the fish behaviour. Considering that, so far, only spot censuses have been carried out in these habitats, this study provides a dynamic approach to the study of biodiversity in temperate mesophotic coral forests and offers an insight into the functioning of these complex and vulnerable ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A free-fall baited camera lander was launched for the first time on the Cosmonaut Sea shelf of East Antarctica at a depth of 694 m during the 38th Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) in 2022. We identified 31 unique taxa (23 were invertebrates and eight were fish) belonging to eight phyla from 2403 pictures and 40 videos. The Antarctic jonasfish (Notolepis coatsi) was the most frequently observed fish taxa. Ten species of vulnerable marine ecosystem (VME) taxa were observed, accounting for 32% of all species. The maximum number (MaxN) of Natatolana meridionalis individuals per image frame was ten, and they were attracted to the bait. The macrobenthic community type were sessile suspension feeders with associated fauna (SSFA), which was shaped by the muddy substrata with scattered rocks. Rocks served as the best habitats for sessile fauna. The study reveals the megafauna community and their habitat by image survey in the Cosmonaut Sea for the first time. It helped us obtain Antarctic biodiversity baselines and monitoring data for future ecosystem health assessment and better protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the reproductive behavior of bluntnose sixgill sharks in the deep sea. The researchers used remote deep-sea camera systems to observe the sharks and found evidence of mating scars on one female shark. However, they acknowledge that there could be other explanations for the scarring. The study emphasizes the need for further research on the reproductive habitats of deep-sea sharks and the importance of conservation efforts in these areas. Additionally, the article discusses the capture of a pregnant bluntnose sixgill shark in the Gulf of Tunis and highlights the importance of deep diving by large marine predators. It also emphasizes the need for diverse perspectives in deep-sea ocean field programs. [Extracted from the article]

India's third Moon mission Chandrayaan-3, has successfully deployed a lander and a rover at a high-latitude location on the Moon to conduct in situ scientific studies that will potentially improve our understanding on the primary crust formation and subsequent modification processes. While the primary landing site (PLS) was situated at 69.367621°S lat., 32.348126°E long., an alternate landing site (ALS) was selected at nearly the same latitude but ~450 km west of PLS, as a contingency. We carried out a detailed study of the geomorphology, composition and temperature characteristics of ALS using the best-ever high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) and ortho-images, and datasets obtained from Chandrayaan-1 and the on-going Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter along with a well-established thermophysical model. Results indicate that like PLS, ALS is also an interesting site for carrying out in situ scientific studies from any future lunar-landing mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Baden-Württemberg has positioned itself as a leader in German efforts to recognize the colonial past and pursue reconciliation with Namibia. Restitution projects in the 2010s shaped the Namibia Initiative Baden-Württemberg. My analysis of Landtag documents reveals a gradual transformation of this debate about German colonial responsibility and adoption of calls for Aufarbeitung. State-level arguments reflected broader national and European discussions about restitution while emphasizing the influence of local initiatives. Following the 2019 restitution of Hendrik Witbooi's possessions, Baden-Württemberg's cultural ministry and most political parties embraced Aufarbeitung as part of future work at state institutions. This close examination of Baden-Württemberg's initiative could serve as a model for other German Länder as they work toward decolonizing their institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the decolonial production of Edgardo Lander and Ramón Grosfoguel. It will focus on a historiographical reconstruction of the characteristics presented by the Coloniality-Modernity network. The methodological approach applied here is that of the History of the Latin-American Ideas. It concludes that the network fractures due to the publication of a political document authored by some of the decolonial intellectuals, who are critics of Nicolas Maduro’s government. These theoretical-political dissidences allow to disarticulate the myth of the Modernity-Coloniality group.

A free-fall baited camera lander was launched for the first time on the Cosmonaut Sea shelf of East Antarctica at a depth of 694 m during the 38th Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition (CHINARE) in 2022. We identified 31 unique taxa (23 were invertebrates and eight were fish) belonging to eight phyla from 2403 pictures and 40 videos. The Antarctic jonasfish (Notolepis coatsi) was the most frequently observed fish taxa. Ten species of vulnerable marine ecosystem (VME) taxa were observed, accounting for 32% of all species. The maximum number (MaxN) of Natatolana meridionalis individuals per image frame was ten, and they were attracted to the bait. The macrobenthic community type were sessile suspension feeders with associated fauna (SSFA), which was shaped by the muddy substrata with scattered rocks. Rocks served as the best habitats for sessile fauna. The study reveals the megafauna community and their habitat by image survey in the Cosmonaut Sea for the first time. It helped us obtain Antarctic biodiversity baselines and monitoring data for future ecosystem health assessment and better protection.

The third lunar exploration mission of ISRO Chandrayaan-3 has both robotics and lunar exploration and focuses on important terms such as "lunar exploration", "robotic technology","ISRO", and "Chandrayaan-3", which emphasizes the mission's goals, scientific endeavors, and technical advancements. This work's goal is to monitor ISRO's effort to perform a soft landing near the lunar South Pole, which is of significant scientific interest due to its potential for water ice deposits and constantly shadowed craters. An integrated orbiter, lander, and rover system called Chandrayaan-3 will be outfitted with state-of-theart scientific tools to investigate the lunar surface, identify elements, and research the geology and chemistry of the moon. The development of robotic technology crucial to strengthening the mission's capabilities is emphasized. The rover can navigate hard terrain with the help of cuttingedge autonomous navigation technologies, eliminating the need for direct human interaction. Additionally, artificial intelligence and machine learning are combined to promote intelligent decision-making, mission planning optimization, and increased mission success. This review article explores the ISRO's dedication to global cooperation, and building alliances to exchange materials, information, and experience about lunar exploration. This collaboration improves India's standing in the international space community and adds to our developing understanding of the moon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Confluenze. Rivista di Studi Iberoamericani is the property of Universita di Bologna, Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Moderne and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Astronauts may pilot a future lunar lander in a standing or upright/reclined seated posture. This study compared kinematics and injury risk for the upright/reclined (30°; 60°) seated vs. standing postures for lunar launch/landing using human body modeling across 30 simulations. While head metrics for standing and upright seated postures were comparable to 30 cm height jumps, those of reclined postures were closer to 60 cm height jumps. Head linear acceleration for 60° reclined posture in the 5 g/10 ms pulse exceeded NASA's tolerance (10.1 g; tolerance: 10 g). Lower extremity metrics exceeding NASA's tolerance in the standing posture (revised tibia index: 0.36–0.53; tolerance: 0.43) were lowered in seated postures (0.00–0.04). Head displacement was higher in standing vs. seated (9.0 cm vs. 2.4 cm forward, 7.0 cm vs. 1.3 cm backward, 2.1 cm vs. 1.2 cm upward, 7.3 cm vs. 0.8 cm downward, 2.4 cm vs. 3.2 cm lateral). Higher arm movement was seen with seated vs. standing (40 cm vs. 25 cm forward, 60 cm vs. 15 cm upward, 30 cm vs. 20 cm downward). Pulse-nature contributed more than 40% to the injury metrics for seated postures compared to 80% in the standing posture. Seat recline angle contributed about 22% to the injury metrics in the seated posture. This study established a computational methodology to simulate the different postures of an astronaut for lunar landings and generated baseline injury risk and body kinematics data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of space technology, the functions of lunar vehicles are constantly enriched, and the structure is constantly complicated, which puts forward more stringent requirements for its ground micro-low-gravity simulation test technology. This paper puts forward a high-precision and high-dynamic landing buffer test method based on the principle of magnetic quasi-zero stiffness. Firstly, the micro-low-gravity simulation system for the lunar vehicle was designed. The dynamic model of the system and a position control method based on fuzzy PID parameter tuning were established. Then, the dynamic characteristics of the system were analyzed through joint simulation. At last, a prototype of the lunar vehicle's vertical constant force support system was built, and a micro-low-gravity landing buffer test was carried out. The results show that the simulation results were in good agreement with the test results. The sensitivity of the system was better than 0.1%, and the constant force deviation was 0.1% under landing impact conditions. The new method and idea are put forward to improve the micro-low-gravity simulation technology of lunar vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Article 21 of the recast Reception Conditions Directive 2013/33/EU (RCD) stipulates that member states shall consider the special needs of asylum seekers with, inter alia, mental illnesses. Similar to other member states, Germany failed to transpose the RCD into national law within the two years prescribed. Due to the inactivity of the federal legislator, the Directive became directly applicable. In the German system of cooperative federalism, this means that the application of the RCD moved downstream to the responsibility of the German Länder (states), which have since found themselves with vague responsibilities, lacking a clear regulation cascade from the federal level. How do Länder implement the RCD and how is its implementation in Germany affected by the federal institutional setting? The objective of this article is to analyse and systematise the patterns of the RCD’s implementation on the subnational level in Germany. On the one hand, the findings suggest that the open formulation of the RCD and the federal government’s inactivity allow for a higher degree of liberty in applying the Directive on the subnational level. On the other hand, most measures taken hitherto have been rather small and ad‐hoc and some Länder have even failed to adopt any significant changes at all. The RCD’s implementation in Germany has consisted of a “tinkering” process, generating an incoherent patchwork of policy outputs. The resulting unequal standards in the reception of asylum seekers displaying mental illnesses present far‐reaching consequences for the people affected.

In 2019, the Deep Submergence Support Vessel Pressure Drop embarked on the third leg of the Five Deeps Expedition. Over the course of 10 days, the full ocean depth submersible Deep Submergence Vehicle Limiting Factor made a record five dives to the bottom of the Mariana Trench: four to the Challenger Deep, one to the Sirena Deep. The submersible was supported by three scientific landers, one of which became stuck on the seafloor at 10,925 m depth. Here we describe how, during the third dive of the campaign, the expedition utilized the submersible to rescue this lost asset from full ocean depth. The expedition was not only significant for its operational jump from single full ocean depth dives to multiple dives in a short space of time, but demonstrated that assets lost in the deepest 45% of the oceans are no longer irretrievable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genus Etmopterus is the most speciose group of small bodied deep-sea sharks found throughout the tropical and subtropical Western Atlantic. Despite exhibiting a global distribution at the genus-level, the blurred lantern shark (Etempoterus bigelowi) is known only from a few records in the Western and Southern Atlantic Ocean. Through in-situ video observations using deep-sea landers, we provide two new locality records of the blurred lantern shark from the deep waters off the Cayman Islands, Caribbean Sea. Three unique individuals were recorded across two separate deployments between 653m – 668m. These observations provide the first records of this species in the Caribbean Sea, adding to the minimal knowledge of the species’ distribution throughout the Western Atlantic Ocean.

The deep-sea lander is an important equipment for in-situ detection and monitoring. It is of great significance to understand the benthic boundary layer’s physical, chemical, and ecological environment. A 6000-meter double decelerating lander was created to meet the deployment requirements of underwater detection and monitoring, allowing for long-term in-situ monitoring of several benthic boundary layer components. Protection of the installed ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) is required due to the lander’s and OBS’s different impact resistances. The double decelerating unit enables the OBS to avoid colliding with the seabed when the lander lands and then collides with the seabed at a slow speed rather than the speed at which the lander falls, which is intended to safeguard OBS from damage. To ensure a safe deployment, the lander’s static analysis and simulation were performed using ANSYS, and the motion characteristics of the application process were derived. Numerous data have been obtained after the lander’s successful application in the South China Sea. The lander provides an investigation approach for marine science and geochemistry, complementing a technical approach to marine environmental investigations.

In this White Paper, submitted to ESA in response to the Voyage 2050 Call, we advocate for establishing key scientific priorities for the future of Mercury exploration, including the development of specific science goals for a landed mission. We support the Mercury science community in fostering closer collaboration with ongoing and planned exoplanet investigations. The continued exploration of Mercury should be conceived as a multi-mission, multi-generational effort, and the landed exploration of Mercury should be a high scientific priority in the coming decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Article 21 of the recast Reception Conditions Directive 2013/33/EU (RCD) stipulates that member states shall consider the special needs of asylum seekers with, inter alia, mental illnesses. Similar to other member states, Germany failed to trans‐ pose the RCD into national law within the two years prescribed. Due to the inactivity of the federal legislator, the Directive became directly applicable. In the German system of cooperative federalism, this means that the application of the RCD moved downstream to the responsibility of the German Länder (states), which have since found themselves with vague responsibilities, lacking a clear regulation cascade from the federal level. How do Länder implement the RCD and how is its implementation in Germany affected by the federal institutional setting? The objective of this article is to analyse and systematise the patterns of the RCD’s implementation on the subnational level in Germany. On the one hand, the findings suggest that the open formulation of the RCD and the federal government’s inactivity allow for a higher degree of liberty in applying the Directive on the subnational level. On the other hand, most measures taken hitherto have been rather small and ad‐hoc and some Länder have even failed to adopt any significant changes at all. The RCD’s implementation in Germany has consisted of a “tinkering” process, generating an incoherent patchwork of policy outputs. The resulting unequal standards in the reception of asylum seekers displaying mental illnesses present far‐reaching consequences for the people affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the direct and quantitative measurement of five significant near-inertial waves (NIWs) events observed by Lander at water depths of 600 m to 1100 m at 119°17′ E and 22°06′ N in the northern South China Sea from July to November 2017. We found that these five NIWs events lead to strong shearing, which plays an important role in deep water mixing. Each event corresponds to several different NIWs generation mechanisms. The results show that the NIWs events generated by typhoons were the most regular. This was caused by dispersive NIWs propagation over long periods of time and over long distances. NIWs formed by spontaneous generation do not have this feature. The strongest NIWs events during the observation period were caused by a combination of shelf wave attenuation and monsoon. This time, the signal was transmitted to the seabed, and the upward signal reflected in the meridional direction was found. The reflected signal was anisotropically affected by the seabed topography. A horizontally propagated NIWs event with relatively weak dispersion was also found in this study. Based on the topography, we suspect it was formed by the Lee wave, but we cannot provide any more useful evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional deep-sea landers lack maneuverability during the diving process, making it difficult to effectively regulate the diving trajectory and velocity. In this paper, a novel deep-sea lander with flapping hydrofoils is proposed, and the simplified geometric model and typical flapping modes are introduced. Through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, the effectiveness of the flapping hydrofoils in regulating the diving trajectory and velocity of the lander is verified, and the influence of the amplitude of flapping angle and flapping frequency of the hydrofoils on the maneuverability of the lander and the propulsion efficiency and deceleration ratio of the flapping hydrofoil is explored. The relationship between the thrust generated by flapping hydrofoils and the maneuverability of the lander, as well as the relationship between the vortex topology and the propulsion efficiency and deceleration ratio of the hydrofoil are explained, respectively. And the diving trajectory of the lander is predicted based on Gaussian process (GP). The results show that the lander can have a certain degree of maneuverability through flapping hydrofoils, and the prediction error of the diving trajectory is within 4%. This paper provides reference for the design and application of the novel deep-sea lander with flapping hydrofoils. • A novel deep-sea lander with flapping hydrofoils is proposed in this paper, and the lander can have a certain degree of maneuverability through the flapping hydrofoils. • The maneuverability of the lander and the propulsion efficiency and deceleration ratio of the flapping hydrofoil are closely related to the amplitude of flapping angle θ 0 and flapping frequency f of the hydrofoil, and high maneuverability conflicts with high propulsion efficiency and high deceleration ratio. • The hydrodynamic mechanism of the flapping hydrofoil is revealed and the relationship between the vortex topology and the propulsion efficiency and deceleration ratio of the hydrofoil is explained. • A diving trajectory predictive method is proposed and verified based on the GP prediction model, with high prediction accuracy and strong generalizability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of space technology, the functions of lunar vehicles are constantly enriched, and the structure is constantly complicated, which puts forward more stringent requirements for its ground micro-low-gravity simulation test technology. This paper puts forward a high-precision and high-dynamic landing buffer test method based on the principle of magnetic quasi-zero stiffness. Firstly, the micro-low-gravity simulation system for the lunar vehicle was designed. The dynamic model of the system and a position control method based on fuzzy PID parameter tuning were established. Then, the dynamic characteristics of the system were analyzed through joint simulation. At last, a prototype of the lunar vehicle’s vertical constant force support system was built, and a micro-low-gravity landing buffer test was carried out. The results show that the simulation results were in good agreement with the test results. The sensitivity of the system was better than 0.1%, and the constant force deviation was 0.1% under landing impact conditions. The new method and idea are put forward to improve the micro-low-gravity simulation technology of lunar vehicles.

The autonomous robots consisting of an immovable lander and a rover are widely deployed to explore extraterrestrial planets. Two main drawbacks limit the development of this cooperative work mode: (1) it cannot perform soft-landing missions repeatedly on the planet, owing to the damage of buffer structure during soft-landing. (2) the rover's detection area is restricted to the vicinity of the immovable lander. To overcome these problems, we have designed an innovative six-legged mobile lander with repetitive landing capacity, called "HexaMRL", which integrates the functions of a lander and a rover including folding, deploying, repetitive landing, and walking. This novel robot's legs adopted hybrid mechanism with active and passive compliance. Therefore, it remains to be a great challenge to analyze the robot soft-landing capacity which is determined by the parameters such as spring stiffness coefficient, damper damping coefficient, and initial tiptoe position. In order to solve the problem, the dynamic modeling and assessment criteria were established. The soft-landing process was analyzed through three numerical simulations using three sets of representative parameters based on dynamic model and the set of best effective parameters was chosen to apply in soft-landing experiment on a 5-DOF lunar gravity testing platform (5-DOF LGTP). The experiments were further verified that the selected parameters met the requirement of soft landing on the lunar surface. The HexaMRL provides novel insight for the next generation equipment for lunar exploration, which may be an efficient solution to the extraterrestrial planet exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the European Union has gradually overcome its «federal blindness» (Landes-blindheit), the participation of peripheral territorial authorities has yet to be perfected. This paper shows a comparative study of the bottom-up participation of Lander and autonomous communities in the European Union. While the German legal system encourages and facilitates internal (or indirect) participation, in Spain, the channels of external (or direct) participation essentially prevail. After exposing the existing ways of participation in both States, a critical conclusion is drawn to evaluate the interest and adaptation of the mechanisms and responses of one system in the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of robotic systems (e.g. landers and rovers) involved in sampling operations on planetary bodies is crucial to ensure mission success, since those operations generate forces that could affect the stability of the robotic system. This paper presents MISTRAL (MultIdisciplinary deSign Tool for Robotic sAmpLing), a novel tool conceived for trade space exploration during early conceptual and preliminary design phases, where a rapid and broad evaluation is required for a very high number of configurations and boundary conditions. The tool rapidly determines the preliminary design envelope of a sampling apparatus to guarantee the stability condition of the whole robotic system. The tool implements a three-dimensional analytical model capable to reproduce several scenarios, being able to accept various input parameters, including the physical and geometrical characteristics of the robotic system, the properties related to the environment and the characteristics related to the sampling system. This feature can be exploited to infer multidisciplinary high-level requirements concerning several other elements of the investigated system, such as robotic arms and footpads. The presented research focuses on the application of MISTRAL to landers. The structure of the tool and the analysis model are presented. Results from the application of the tool to real mission data from NASA's Phoenix Mars lander are included. Moreover, the tool was adopted for the definition of the high-level requirements of the lander for a potential future mission to the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus, currently under investigation at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This case study was included to demonstrate the tool's capabilities. MISTRAL represents a comprehensive, versatile, and powerful tool providing guidelines for cognizant decisions in the early and most crucial stages of the design of robotic systems involved in sampling operations on planetary bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the direct and quantitative measurement of five significant near-inertial waves (NIWs) events observed by Lander at water depths of 600 m to 1100 m at 119°17′ E and 22°06′ N in the northern South China Sea from July to November 2017. We found that these five NIWs events lead to strong shearing, which plays an important role in deep water mixing. Each event corresponds to several different NIWs generation mechanisms. The results show that the NIWs events generated by typhoons were the most regular. This was caused by dispersive NIWs propagation over long periods of time and over long distances. NIWs formed by spontaneous generation do not have this feature. The strongest NIWs events during the observation period were caused by a combination of shelf wave attenuation and monsoon. This time, the signal was transmitted to the seabed, and the upward signal reflected in the meridional direction was found. The reflected signal was anisotropically affected by the seabed topography. A horizontally propagated NIWs event with relatively weak dispersion was also found in this study. Based on the topography, we suspect it was formed by the Lee wave, but we cannot provide any more useful evidence.

Ballistic landers enable orbiting asteroid missions to perform surface science at limited additional cost and risk. Due to asteroids' weak gravity and irregular terrain, lander deployment trajectories will consist of several chaotic bounces. Although impacts on regolith-covered asteroids are numerically expensive to model, impacts on rocky asteroids can be modeled with simpler, impulsive contact models. One such model is that by Stronge, which was successfully used in large-scale Monte Carlo studies of asteroid lander deployment. This model parameterizes impacts with (fixed) material restitution and friction coefficients, but has not been validated for the low-velocity regime of an assembled, nonspherical body. This paper uses an air-bearing setup to perform 2D experiments of a rectangular floating assembly impacting a concrete block with V ⩽ 25 cm/s. The impact velocity, assembly attitude, and block attitude are varied across 2,400 experimental runs of both normal and tangential impacts. Optical tracking is used to extract the pre- and post-impact velocities of the assembly. In a majority of cases, Stronge's model can be fit to the experiments to extract the corresponding restitution and friction coefficients. We find that the coefficients are not fixed with respect to the impact velocity and attitude, but that their variation is seemingly random. In some tangential impact cases, the model even fails to reproduce the observed behavior althogether. This suggests that there may not be a simple way to reconcile Stronge's fixed-material-coefficient model with reality, although it may retain practical use if the coefficients are randomly varied in each impact of a simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of nonspherical bodies is complex, even at low velocities where contacting bodies are assumed to be rigid. Models of varying complexity (e.g. finite element methods) can be used to evaluate such impacts, but it is advantageous to use impulsive models such as that by Stronge , which are computationally inexpensive and governed by (fixed) material interaction coefficients. Stronge's model parameterizes nonspherical rigid-body impacts with energetic restitution and Coulomb friction coefficients. This model was successfully used in large-scale simulations of ballistic lander deployment to asteroids and comets, whose trajectories involve dozens of chaotic bounces. To better understand the complex dynamics of these bouncing trajectories, this paper performs a dedicated study of idealized bouncing in two dimensions and on a flat plane, in order to limit the involved degrees of freedom. Using a numerical implementation of Stronge's model, the motion of a bouncing square is simulated with different impact conditions: the square's impact attitude, velocity, and mass distribution as well as the surface restitution and friction coefficients. The simulation results are used to investigate how these conditions affect the bouncing motion of the square, with a distinction between first impacts with zero angular velocity and successive impacts in which the square is spinning. This reveals how a single "macroscopic" bounce that separates two ballistic arcs may often consist of multiple micro-impacts that occur in quick succession. For the different impact conditions, we show how the number of micro-impacts per macro-bounce varies, as well as the normal, tangential, and total kinematic restitution coefficients. These are different from the energetic material restitution coefficient that parameterizes the impact. Finally, we examine how the settling time and distance of the bouncing trajectories change. These trends provide insight into the bouncing motion of ballistic lander spacecraft in small-body microgravity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Administración Pública is the property of Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A new approach to synthesize a robust controller for the angular motion of the Earth lander by decomposition method of output modal control is proposed. A universal analytical solution for the problem of stabilizing the angular position of the lander is obtained. A comparative analysis of the presented algorithm with the currently used onboard algorithm for descent control of the manned spacecraft Soyuz is carried out. The advantages of the new algorithm relative to the existing algorithm are presented, both in terms of stabilization accuracy and the consumption of the working fluid of the control motors.

Copyright of Revista Española de Derecho Constitucional is the property of Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is a lunar lander that demonstrates pinpoint guidance to the target site. From mission requirements such as landing on rough terrain and slopes, SLIM adapt a landing method called the two-step landing. In this study, we explored landing leg arrangements suitable for the constraints from launch to touchdown in the SLIM mission and then realized stable touchdown on the lunar surface. For this challenge, simulation was constructed for the touchdown dynamics of SLIM, and Monte Carlo analysis was conducted to understand the tendencies. Moreover, the obtained leg arrangement was confirmed as making stable touchdown possible within the range guided by the guidance and navigation control system. In the process of these studies, we also revealed that it is possible to analyze touchdown dynamics efficiently by focusing and considering the critical results derived from a statistical analysis using the Monte Carlo method even in complex boundary conditions for the realistic spacecraft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The hadal zone remains one of the least studied environments because of its inaccessibility, in part because of hydrostatic pressures extending to 110 MPa. Few instruments are capable of sampling from such great depths. We have developed a full-ocean-depth-capable lander that can be fit with sampling packages for the collection of still images, video, motile megafauna, and hadal seawater. One payload includes a pressure-retaining sampler (PRS) able to maintain seawater samples under in situ pressure during recovery. We describe the technical specifications of the lander and the PRS and preliminary results from three deployments at depths in excess of 10,700 m in the Mariana Trench. Seawater from full-ocean depth was recovered at 81% of the in situ pressure. This facilitated the collection of microbial genomes affiliated with the family Flavobacteriaceae within the Bacteroidetes and the phylum Marinimicrobia. We show that these microbes are specifically enriched in hadal zones, representing novel trench lineages, and describe their adaptations for living in hadal environments. These findings highlight the utility of this lander system, which facilitates scientific inquiry at depths greater than 6000 m. Highlights • Description of a hadal lander capable of collecting video, megafauna, and water. • Water obtained from the Mariana Trench with 81% of the in situ pressure retained. • Genomes related to the Flavobacteriaceae and Marinimicrobia show hadal adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]