Mission Definition Research Articles

Overview of hands-on satellite development training of local companies in the Philippines as a means to develop a space workforce

The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) initiated the InDUS3US project, a Collaborative Satellite Development Project-inspired training program offered for free to engineers from the country's promising “space-adjacent” sector, to support the establishment of a domestic satellite manufacturing capability. The first phase of the project, which covered the satellite mission definition phase to the Preliminary Design Review (PDR), saw the involvement of 20 Industry Engineers (IEs) from 10 different Filipino companies. The participants' active participation and positive feedback suggest the viability of this approach to space workforce capacity building. This paper examines the contributing factors that shaped the training program design, followed by an evaluation of the strong points and areas of improvement taken from the perspective of PhilSA and the industry participants. Finally, recommendations are presented for the next phase of the InDUS3US project, which could also be applied to similar space workforce development programs that might be undertaken in the future.

NASA's Use of MBSE and SysML Modeling to Architect the Future of Human Exploration

AbstractOne of the key roles of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is to help mitigate the risk and lower expenses associated with space exploration, science, and discovery to the point where industry and international partners are willing and able to profitably take on larger, more complex missions. To do this, the Agency must undertake a transformation to a more modern integrated Digital Engineering approach to mission definition and planning. This paper highlights NASA's journey in understanding what this Digital Engineering Transformation means for the Agency, the benefits of this transformation to human exploration definition and planning, and the benefits to the current Artemis campaign engineering capability portfolio.

Ariane 6 – in-flight safety and space debris mitigation

Ariane 6 is the future large European Launcher launched from the Guiana Space Center (CSG). Besides, Ariane 6 launcher program corresponds to the first full application of the French Space Operations Act from the beginning of an European Launch System development.This paper summarizes how French Space Operations Act requirements have been finally implemented in the Ariane 6 Launcher System. It addresses hardware systems as well as software solutions, but also specific analysis performed to support compliance with the French Space Operations Act requirements. This paper identifies the definition and design of these different on-board systems contributing to flight safety and space debris mitigation along with their validation. Moreover it details the studies that have been performed to assess Ariane 6 compliance to the requirements of French Space Operations Act.This document addresses more specifically safety in flight beginning at lift-off and ending with launcher disposal after its main mission. Afterwards it covers also solutions implemented on Ariane 6 launcher and its mission definition in order to mitigate space debris generation.

Establishing a Pregnancy Lyme Disease Biobank.

Availability of relevant biological samples supports both basic science research and patient-centered clinical studies. Establishing a biorepository faces challenges at multiple levels. These tasks include defining mission definition and scope; selection of subjects and sample types; recruitment strategies; timing of collection in the patient's journey; sample logistics and processing; determining what clinical data to collect; ensuring sample integrity on transport, processing, and storage; defining governance structures and oversight responsibilities; clarifying sample provenance and ownership; establishing procedures for sample and data access; selecting testing to be performed routinely versus upon request, and management of results; data security; funding sources; and regulatory compliance. Establishing and maintaining a biorepository therefore requires careful planning, diligent and sustained execution, technical and financial resources, stakeholder support, and flexible and resilient management to respond to changing environments and needs.

Mission Transformation in the Millennial Era

Christians generally understand mission as an attempt to preach the gospel to people who do not yet believe in Jesus. If someone has accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, then the mission to that person is considered complete. With this understanding, some Christians then possibly misrepresent Christianity, they are trapped by religious worship traditions and put aside the essence of self as the “image” and “likeness” of God. Using a qualitative descriptive method this study raises facts in the lives of Christians In Jakarta, Indonesia. Through this study’s results, Christians are expected to understand their essence as followers of Jesus. Changing the paradigm of Christianity and salvation is very important for transforming every Christian’s mission definition. In this millennial era, the church must focus on mature faith to teach the purpose of human life in the world and eternity..

A Mission Planning Framework for Fleets of Connected UAVs

Currently, several platforms offer solutions for the management and control of fleets of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), addressing a wide range of scenarios, each with its own particular set of objectives. Some of these solutions are mission planning platforms for broader usage, without aiming to solve a single scenario. However, these often either do not support multi-UAV collaboration or generate a static flight trajectory, which does not facilitate the coordination of a fleet of several UAVs in a mission that may need to adapt to the current environment. Through the development of a domain-specific language (DSL) - EasyMission - for UAV mission definition and control, we introduce a mission planning framework that makes it possible to describe mission plans that also enable the user to define adjustments and constraints that may have to be taken into account in real-time according to sensor readings or other events. This framework enables inexperienced users to design missions with low or moderate complexity levels, while still being a useful tool for advanced users due to its versatility in addressing multiple scenarios through a single platform. We show how the mission framework is able to easily define differentiated mission examples with distinct purposes and scenarios, and with real-time decisions and constraints.

Mission Specification Patterns for Mobile Robots: Providing Support for Quantitative Properties

With many applications across domains as diverse as logistics, healthcare, and agriculture, service robots are in increasingly high demand. Nevertheless, the designers of these robots often struggle with specifying their tasks in a way that is both human-understandable and sufficiently precise to enable automated verification and planning of robotic missions. Recent research has addressed this problem for the functional aspects of robotic missions through the use of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mission specification patterns</i> . These patterns support the definition of robotic missions involving, for instance, the patrolling of a perimeter, the avoidance of unsafe locations within an area, or reacting to specific events. Our paper introduces a catalog of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">QUantitAtive RoboTic mission spEcificaTion patterns</i> (QUARTET) that tackles the complementary and equally important challenge of specifying the reliability, performance, resource usage, and other key quantitative properties of robotic missions. Identified using a methodology that included the analysis of 73 research papers published in 17 leading software engineering and robotics venues between 2014–2021, our 22 QUARTET patterns are defined in a tool-supported domain-specific language. As such, QUARTET enables: (i) the precise definition of quantitative robotic-mission requirements and (ii) the translation of these requirements into probabilistic reward computation tree logic (PRCTL), supporting their formal verification and automated planning of robotic missions. We demonstrate the applicability of QUARTET by showing that it supports the specification of over 95% of the quantitative robotic mission requirements from a systematically selected set of recent research papers, of which 75% can be automatically translated into PRCTL for the purposes of verification through model checking and mission planning.

It’s complicated: Exploring the internal land-grant brand at Oklahoma State University

Land-grant institutions (LGIs) are tasked with providing accessible education to the common man and improving their quality of life. This study examined faculty members’ interpretations of the land-grant mission and opinions about its future. The theory of branding guided this study. Faculty members are the primary deliverers university missions. Past studies have indicated some personnel are unaware of pieces of the land-grant mission. This is troublesome as a strong internal brand increases the likelihood of a positive public image. A purposive sampling method was used to recruit participants for 11 focus groups conducted in the summer of 2020. The audio was transcribed and imported into MAXQDA20 and analyzed using Glaser’s constant comparative method to identify themes, which were confirmed by assistant moderators. Participants had multiple definitions of the land-grant mission and interpreted in their work differently. There was a general state of concern for the future, but faculty members had an overall positive outlook on the land-grant mission. Faculty should view their work and behaviors as true building block of the OSU and land-grant brand. Future research should explore the internal brand at other LGIs and university staff, administration, and student perceptions should also be explored.

Definition of urban culture mission in a modern city (as exemplified by the city district of Tolyatti of Samara region)

The study considers the modern vector of development of modern city culture. An attempt is made to define its mission exemplified by the foresight-session materials of Togliatti Culture-2030: a New Dimension organized on the base on the Zhigulevskaya Dolina Economic Cluster. According to the author, innovative ways and technologies of cultural development of the city are connected with the change in perception of the provincial industrial metropolis as a synthesis of a historical place and a creativity territory and are conditioned by the integration of innovative ideas into the sphere of cross-cultural communication.

Social Clock and Social Sun as Adaptive Strategies of Human Behavior Without Time Cues and Sunlight in an Underground Environment

This research action focuses on the multifunctional adaptation of a small social group composed of men and women from different backgrounds living in extreme conditions. An anomic environment is a situation encountered during 40 days in underground cavities. That is the definition of the DEEP TIME mission. In this environmental and experimental framework, the ethological approach was implemented. It offers complementarity and enriches the knowledge resulting from the investigations in the space domain but also from the wide range of analogous situations that are confined and isolated environments. The first object of the study is to follow day after day, cycle after cycle, relevant behavioral indicators through a quantitative description of the social dynamics of the "timonauts".

Cybersecurity in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: a Review

Abstract Context With the rapid advancement of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology, ensuring these autonomous systems’ security and integrity is paramount. UAVs are susceptible to cyberattacks, including unauthorized access, control, or manipulation of their systems, leading to potential safety risks or unauthorized data retrieval. Moreover, UAVs encounter limited computing resources, wireless communication and physical vulnerabilities, evolving threats and techniques, necessity for compliance with regulations, and human factors. Methods This review explores the potential cyberthreats faced by UAVs, including hacking, spoofing, and data breaches, and highlights the critical need for robust security measures. It examines various strategies and techniques used to protect UAVs from cyberattacks, e.g., encryption, authentication, and intrusion detection systems using cyberthreat analysis and assessment algorithms. The approach to assess the UAVs’ cybersecurity hazards included STRIDE (a model for identifying computer security-related threats) connected with the threats considered. Findings Emphasis was laid on the evaluation highly depending on the accuracy of UAV mission definition, potential intruders, and social and other human-related situations. The review discovered that most studies focused on possible intruders’ portraits, which can be crucial when conducting a cybersecurity assessment. Based on a review, future research directions to mitigate cybersecurity risks are presented. Significance Protecting UAVs from cyberthreats ensures safe operations and data integrity and preserves public trust in autonomous systems.

How to stretch system reliability exploiting mission constraints: A practical roadmap for industries

Reliability analysis can be committed to companies by customers willing to verify whether their products comply with the major international standards or simply to verify the design prior of market deployment. Nevertheless, these analyses may be required at the very preliminary stages of design or when the design is already in progress due to low organizational capabilities or simple delay in the project implementation process. The results sometime maybe be far from the market or customer target with a subsequent need to redesign the whole asset. Of course, not all the cases fall in the worst scenario and maybe with some additional consideration on mission definition it is possible to comply with the proposed reliability targets. In this paper the author will provide an overview on the approach which could be followed to achieve the reliability target even when the project is still on-going providing a practical case study.

Formation of a New Mission of Higher School in the Transforming World Innovation Space. The Economics of Science

The article purpose was to determine the place of modern higher education in the structure of the global innovative space, considering the preservation of itself as a national identification center, which required understanding and formalization of its new mission for conditions of high geo-economic instability caused by the processes of deglobalization in the world economy.As a research methodology, the work uses a nonlinear method synthesizing systemic and evolutionary approaches. This allows, on the one hand, to determine the place of higher education in the structure of the global innovation space. On the other hand, to reflect the qualitative, evolutionary transformations taking place in it against the background of increasing destabilization within this broader system, respectively, to show the evolution the missions of the higher school under the influence of the changes that have arisen.An important result of the research was the definition of a new mission of the higher school, which consists not only in its acquisition of subjectivity in the creation and promotion of innovations at the global level, but also in its formation as a sovereign (independent) center of national identity with a certain share of its own supranational influence on the world innovation space, including in terms of eliminating the global innovation separation.

Technology roadmapping methodology for future hypersonic transportation systems

This paper discloses an innovative methodology for the generation and update of technology roadmaps to support strategic decisions for future hypersonic transportation systems, specifically targeting non-profit oriented R&D. The methodology is fully integrated into up-to-date conceptual design activity flows. It consists of five main steps that through mathematical and logical models moves from stakeholders’ analysis up to planning definition and results evaluation. Complementary to the traditional experts-based methodologies, the rational process here presented allows for a well-structured logical definition of activities and/or missions required to enhance the readiness level of technologies, including a more accurate and reliable budget and time resources estimation to support the technology development plan. This methodology is exploited in the framework of the H2020 STRATOFLY Project to assess the potential of hypersonic civil vehicles to reach Technology Readiness Level 6 by 2035 with respect to key technological, societal and economical aspects. The paper discloses a unique assessment of the readiness level of the European air-breathing propulsive technologies. The final results confirm the crucial role of air-breathing propulsive technologies in the development of future hypersonic transportation system and highlight the urgent need to invest in in-flight demonstration missions with increasing functionalities, to target 2050 as entry in to service of the first Mach 8 civil transport.

Perception and Conceptualization of the Land-Grant Mission at a Land-Grant Institution

While the three-part mission of the land-grant university has been a pivotal component of agriculture and natural resources in the U.S., the land-grant mission is not always well understood by all audiences, including faculty members who are the key deliverers of the land-grant mission. As such, it is important to understand how faculty members view the land-grant brand identity. A series of focus groups were conducted with tenure and non-tenure track faculty members at [university]. Faculty members’ perceptions of the university’s brand came out in four themes: overall description of the brand identity, connections to [City], university values, and increased emphasis on research. How faculty members conceptualized the land-grant mission presented two themes: aware but uninformed about the land-grant mission (subthemes: concerns about public awareness and stakeholder priorities, and unawareness of Extension) and having varying definitions of the land-grant mission (subthemes: land-grant is about the land, the land-grant mission is for more than agriculture, the land-grant is successful when serving the state, the land-grant mission is intended to improve society, and the land-grant mission is delivering equal opportunity education). Recommendations for universities included providing faculty members with a full understanding of the land-grant missions and ensuring students are taught about the land-grant mission. Future research was recommended to assess perceptions of faculty members at other land-grant universities and perceptions of non-faculty audiences such as students and external stakeholders. A quantitative survey was also recommended to provide a more generalizable view of faculty perceptions of the brand of land-grant universities.

Model-based fully coupled propulsion-aerodynamics optimization for hybrid electric aircraft energy management strategy

Hybrid electric aircraft concepts are high in future aviation agenda to enabling reduced fuel consumption and emissions. However, the additional weight of the introduced battery and electrical components and sizing cascading effects will impact aircraft mission analysis performance. Therefore, the potential benefit of adopting hybrid electric aircraft will highly depend on the applied energy management strategy (EMS). This paper presents a three-layer propulsion-mission analysis-EMS integrated multi-objective optimization scheme for hybrid electric aircraft identifying feasible design aspects considering fully coupled propulsion-aerodynamics effects. The ‘propulsion’ layer comprises the propulsion system modelling, integration approaches, and performance synthesis using an Artificial Neural Network (ANN)-based gas turbine surrogate model. The ‘mission-analysis’ layer is designed for multi-energy sources hybrid electric aircraft mission analysis considering fully coupled propulsion-aerodynamic effects. The ‘EMS’ layer utilizes non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) addressing the design trade-off, i.e., block fuel burn, energy consumption, emissions. The proposed scheme is applied to a typical narrow-body aircraft, Boeing 737–800, equipped with mechanically integrated hybrid electric parallel propulsion configuration to explore flight electrification in civil aviation. Moreover, sensitivity analysis of battery technology level and flight mission definition is followed providing insights to hybrid electric aircraft application scenarios. The EMS optimization results indicate that for short/medium haul aircrafts which operate in high altitude with long flight durations, fuel as consumable energy source is prone to be used in initial stages to reduce aircraft weight and lift-dependent drag, while battery as non-consumable energy is optimally allocated in final flight stages of descent and landing. The design of hybrid electric aircraft is highly sensitive to both flight mission definition and battery specific energy projections. With battery specific energy projections of 1500 Wh/kg for the year 2035, optimal block fuel burn reduction by −44.62%, −31.47% and −21.86% can be obtained at the flight range design of 1000 nmi, 1250 nmi and 1500 nmi respectively.

Performance-Optimized Quantization for SAR and InSAR Applications

For the design of present and next-generation spaceborne SAR missions, constantly increasing data rates are being demanded, which impose stringent requirements in terms of onboard memory and downlink capacity. In this scenario, the efficient quantization of SAR raw data is of primary importance, since the utilized compression rate is directly related to the volume of data to be stored and transmitted to the ground and, at the same time, it affects the resulting SAR imaging performance. In this paper, we introduce the performance-optimized block-adaptive quantization (PO-BAQ), a novel approach for SAR raw data compression which aims at optimizing the resource allocation and, at the same time, the quality of the resulting SAR and InSAR products. This goal is achieved by exploiting the a priori knowledge of the local SAR backscatter statistics, which allows for the generation of high-resolution bitrate maps that can be employed to fulfill a predefined performance requirement. Analyses on experimental TanDEM-X interferometric data are presented, which demonstrate the potentials of the proposed method as a helpful tool for performance budget definition and data rate optimization of present and future SAR missions.

STRATEGIZING IN THE MANAGEMENT OF MARKET CAPITALIZATION OF CORPORATE AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISES

The essence of strategizing in the management of market capitalization of corporate agricultural enterprises has been studied. It has been shown that the strategy of managing the market capitalization of a corporate agricultural enterprise is a component of the overall economic strategic policy for sustainable development of the company. It has been determined that the purpose of the strategy is maximizing the market capitalization of the enterprise, and the strategic goal is to ensure a sufficient amount of capital for socio-economic, environmental and production development. The principles of strategy are systematic, transparent, competent, efficient and planned adaptability. The subjects of market capitalization management of corporate agricultural enterprises are top management and financial management of the corporation, underwriters and shareholders. The objects of market capitalization management have been defined as shares and their rates, dividends, investment risks, value of company assets, financial results, capital, corporate image, etc. The separation of financial and non-financial goals in the strategy of market capitalization management have been substantiated, which follows from the establishment of target strategic parameters for maximizing the market value of an enterprise and ensuring its sustainable development. The financial, administrative and legal methods of strategic market capitalization management have been allocated. The main stages of strategizing in the management of market capitalization include analysis of the state of development of a corporate enterprise, definition of mission and vision, setting goals and objectives, development of substrategies for managing the value of the units of an agricultural corporation, implementation of strategy, monitoring and reasonable adjustment of strategic goals and plans. It has been shown that the instruments and levers of strategic management of market capitalization of corporate agricultural enterprises are underwriting, corporate financial management and strategic marketing.

PLANTATIO ECCLESIAE DAN PAROKI MISIONER DALAM ARDAS KEUSKUPAN SURABAYA 2020-2030

Plantatio Ecclesiae is a particular term elaborated in missiology in the first half of the 20th century, and then used by the Vatican Council II in the decree on the mission activity of the Church Ad Gentes (1965) to designate the definition of mission and its goal, as well. From this perspective, it is believed that mission is not merely a question about converting souls and, therefore, bringing them to eternal salvation, but especially a “plantation of the Church” in the lands not yet touched by christian faith. Thus, mission is not only about individual salvation, but particularly about the formation of new christian communities comprised of indigenous people with their own hierarchical leaders, who live their own native values and culture contributing themselves for the local development and the good of their own society, enlightened by christian faith and strengthened by christian love. Being used to determine the ideal of a missionary parish in the Basic Orientation (Arah Dasar) of the Diocese of Surabaya 2020-2030, this term is important to be studied. This study tries to learn how the ideal of a missionary parish, seen from the perspective of plantatio Ecclesiae theology, could be realized by the Catholic Church of the Diocese of Surabaya in the years to come.

LICIACube - The Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids In support of the NASA DART mission towards asteroid (65803) Didymos

“LICIACube – the Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids” is managed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and will be part of the NASA DART mission, with the aim of i) documenting the DART impact’s effects on the secondary member of the (65803) Didymos binary asteroid system, ii) characterizing the shape of the target, and iii) performing dedicated scientific investigations on it. DART probe will be launched at the end of 2021 and LICIACube will be hosted as piggyback during the interplanetary cruise, then released 10 days before the impact, and autonomously guided along its fly-by trajectory. The LICIACube payload is composed by LEIA, a narrow FoV camera, and LUKE, a wide FoV imager with an RGB Bayer pattern filter, that will collect and transmit to Earth several unique images of the effects of the DART impact on the asteroid, such as the formation and the development of the plume potentially determined by the impact.LICIACube will be the first deep space mission developed and autonomously managed by an Italian team: the design, integration and test of the CubeSat have been assigned by ASI to the aerospace company Argotec, while the LICIACube Ground Segment has a complex architecture based on the Argotec Mission Control Center, antennas of the NASA Deep Space Network and data archiving and processing, managed at the ASI Space Science Data Center. The LICIACube team includes a wide Italian scientific community, involved in the definition of all the aspects of the mission: trajectory design; mission definition (and real-time orbit determination during operations); impact, plume and imaging simulation and modelling, in preparation of a suitable framework for the analysis and interpretation of in-situ data. The major technological mission challenge, i.e. the autonomous targeting and imaging of such a small body during a fast fly-by, to be accomplished with the limited resources of a CubeSat, is affordable thanks to a strong synergy of all the mentioned teams in support of the engineering tasks.