3,028 research outputs found

    Moon-Based Non-Gaussian Multi-Object Tracking for Cislunar Space Domain Awareness

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    Object tracking in cislunar space has become an area of interest within many communities where cislunar space domain awareness (SDA) is critical to operations. Due to the influence of both the Earth and Moon on objects in this domain, the classical two body problem does not accurately describe the dynamics of the state. Legacy tracking capabilities fall short in providing accurate state estimates due to the large volume of space and the highly non-linear dynamics involved. In order to advance SDA in cislunar space, tracking capabilities must be updated for this domain. Both the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and Gaussian Mixture Extended Kalman Filter (GM-EKF) are used for orbit determination in this thesis along side the Circular Restricted Three Body Problem (CR3BP) to model the non-linear dynamics. The filters are utilized to determine the best estimate of the state as well as its covariance. The two filter's performances are compared to highlight areas in which the assumptions surrounding the EKF are violated resulting in failed tracking, as well as to highlight the power of the GM-EKF for non-linear systems using splitting and merging techniques. This thesis presents single and multiple object tracking of objects in a multitude of cislunar orbits using a Moon ground-based sensor. Multiple object tracking is accomplished using a novel Lyapunov-based scheduler in order to reduce the total system uncertainty. The environment is modeled to include exclusion zones which preclude measurements. These zones consist of conjunction from the Earth and Sun, brightness constraints, and camera field of regard (FOR). When measurements are unavailable the uncertainty in the state estimation rises significantly.An investigation of varied sensor placements and Sun-Earth-Moon geometries provides results to inform locations and trends which are able to confidently track both single and multiple objects in cislunar orbits. </p

    Letter to F.D. Moon from A. Mitchell Salone regarding information about and photos of the Colored School in Wewoka

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    Letter to F.D. Moon regarding a book being written on African American schools. The author asks for photos of the school and shows appreciation for how he runs the school

    We Reach the Moon. Title page inscribed by the author.

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    On 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on the moon. The achievement inspired a host of products and memorabilia. On display from the publishing collection of Seymour Lawrence is both the German and American editions of the children’s 1969 picture book Journey to the Moon by artist Erich Fuchs who depicts the eight-day voyage with cubist modernism. The author of We Reach the Moon was the New York Times science reporter, and he inscribed his paperback to Mississippi writer Willie Morris and family.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/space_exhibit_2020/1012/thumbnail.jp

    On lunar collision orbits: New methodologies for Moon-to-Moon transfer design

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    Many interplanetary missions massively leverage the lunar gravitational pull in the so-called low-energy regime to converge to their aim, saving consistent amount of fuel. Among these, two future Japanese spacecraft are expected to repeatedly encounter the Moon along their trajectories to either facilitate the escape from the Earth–Moon system or opportunely target a specific region in its neighbourhood. Although never actively employed for preliminary trajectory design, lunar collision orbits have shown a rich dynamical structure and an applicability for both medium- and low-energy regimes. These characteristics, together with their intrinsic nature of being close to trajectories experiencing lunar fly-by, have encouraged this research. In this work, lunar collision orbits are employed to delineate a method for obtaining ballistic transfers between two successive lunar encounters, briefly addressed as Moon-to-Moon. This study is first carried out with the assumptions of the autonomous Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem, subsequently extended to the nonautonomous Bi-circular Restricted Four-Body Problem, including the solar gravitational influence.Poincaré cuts are extensively used as a dimensionality reductant for lunar collision orbits: this allows to ascertain their similar behaviour with trajectories flybying the Moon, whose characteristics are partly foreseen by determining the associated intersection with the same cut. A patching is performed at the cut to obtain both single and multiple ballistic Moon-to-Moon transfers. The strict bond of lunar collision orbits with the invariant manifolds of simple periodic orbits about Lagrangian points is confirmed and exploited to design ballistic itineraries connecting highly elliptic orbits about the Earth to horizontal Lyapunov orbits of the Earth–Moon system, via a single Moon-to-Moon transfer. With the usage of the lunar collision orbits and the Poincaré cut, a simple optimization technique is implemented to retrieve a properly defined Moon-to-Moon transfer from a trajectory missing a second fly-by with the Moon. Including the presence of the Sun, a similar method for obtaining single and multiple Moon-to-Moon transfers is developed. A classification of lunar double-collision transfers is then performed within the same framework, highlighting their similarity with other studies in past literature, eventually leading to the construction of a database of Moon-to-Moon transfers. The latter, conceived as an improvement with respect to the former version by adding the lunar gravitational influence, shows its applicability in real preliminary trajectory design.Aerospace Engineerin

    Moon Dog [Translation]

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    A Japanese to English translation of the poem Moon Dog originally written by Mizuho Ishid

    New solar-sail orbits for polar observation of the earth and moon

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    In this paper, a new family of solar-sail periodic orbits with adequate properties for polar observation of the Earth and moon is developed under the simplified but nonautonomous dynamics of the solar-sail augmented Earth–moon circular restricted three-body problem. The novel orbits, termed “distant-circular orbits,” are found through differential correction and continuation and employ a simple sun-facing steering law for the solar sail. A basic coverage analysis shows that one of the distant-circular orbits is capable of providing continuous coverage of both the Earth’s and lunar north (or south) poles with just a single sailcraft at a minimum elevation angle of 14 deg and an average range of six Earth–moon distances. Moreover, simple transfer trajectories between orbits of the family are found, so that the sailcraft can switch between observing the northern and southern latitudes of the Earth and moon during a single mission. Subsequently, using multiple-shooting differential correction, all results are migrated to a higher-fidelity dynamic framework that considers, among others, the eccentricity of the moon’s orbit. The perturbations cause the periodicity of the orbits to break, turning them into seemingly quasi-periodic orbits, but it is shown that the coverage capabilities are maintained. Finally, an active control strategy is developed to counteract part of the perturbing effects such that, by appropriately steering the sail, the apparent quasi-periodicity of the orbits is enhanced and the deviation from the unperturbed orbits is reduced.Accepted Author ManuscriptAstrodynamics & Space Mission

    Boosted dark matter at neutrino experiments

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    Current and future neutrino experiments can be used to discover dark matter, not only in searches for dark matter annihilating to neutrinos, but also in scenarios where dark matter itself scatters off standard model particles in the detector. In this work, we study the sensitivity of different neutrino detectors to a class of models called boosted dark matter, in which a subdominant component of a dark sector acquires a large Lorentz boost today through annihilation of a dominant component in a dark matter-dense region, such as the galactic Center or dwarf spheroidal galaxies. This analysis focuses on the sensitivity of different neutrino detectors, specifically the Cherenkov-based Super-K and the future argon-based DUNE to boosted dark matter that scatters off electrons. We study the dependence of the expected limits on the experimental features, such as energy threshold, volume and exposure in the limit of constant scattering amplitude. We highlight experiment-specific features that enable current and future neutrino experiments to be a powerful tool in finding signatures of boosted dark matter

    Brief article about Maine\u27s moon rocks which were received as gifts from the Apo

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    Brief article about Maine\u27s moon rocks which were received as gifts from the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 missions and are safely displayed in the Maine State Museum\u27s Cabinet of Curiosities exhibit

    Half Moon Lake School District No. 2785

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    Photograph - Students, likely at Half Moon Lake School, near Waugh, Alberta. Teacher is P. Kowalski. ATS 4-59-23-W
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