Earth orbiting satellites come in a wide range of shapes and sizes to meet a diverse variety of uses and applications. Large satellites with masses over 1000 kg support high-resolution remote sensing ...of the Earth, high bandwidth communications services, and world-class scientific studies but take lengthy developments and are costly to build and launch. The advent of commercially available, high-volume, and hence low-cost microelectronics has enabled a different approach through miniaturization. This results in physically far smaller satellites that dramatically reduce timescales and costs and that are able to provide operational and commercially viable services. This paper charts the evolution and rise of small satellites from being an early curiosity with limited utility through to the present where small satellites are a key element of modern space capabilities.
Abstract
Robotics and autonomous systems are reshaping the world, changing healthcare, food production and biodiversity management. While they will play a fundamental role in delivering the UN ...Sustainable Development Goals, associated opportunities and threats are yet to be considered systematically. We report on a horizon scan evaluating robotics and autonomous systems impact on all Sustainable Development Goals, involving 102 experts from around the world. Robotics and autonomous systems are likely to transform how the Sustainable Development Goals are achieved, through replacing and supporting human activities, fostering innovation, enhancing remote access and improving monitoring. Emerging threats relate to reinforcing inequalities, exacerbating environmental change, diverting resources from tried-and-tested solutions and reducing freedom and privacy through inadequate governance. Although predicting future impacts of robotics and autonomous systems on the Sustainable Development Goals is difficult, thoroughly examining technological developments early is essential to prevent unintended detrimental consequences. Additionally, robotics and autonomous systems should be considered explicitly when developing future iterations of the Sustainable Development Goals to avoid reversing progress or exacerbating inequalities.
Issue Small Satellites Gao, Steven; Sweeting, Martin N.; Nakasuka, Shinichi ...
Proceedings of the IEEE,
03/2018, Volume:
106, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Small satellite is a disruptive technology in space industries. Traditionally, space industries were dominated by satellites which have thousands of kilograms and are bulky and expensive. Small ...satellites denote a new generation of miniaturized satellites which, by taking advantages of modern technologies (e.g., integrated circuits, digital signal processing, MEMS, and additive manufacturing), can achieve a significant reduction in volume, mass, development time, and cost of satellites. During recent decades, small satellites, including CubeSats, NanoSats, MiniSats, and MicroSats, have undergone rapid developments, and are playing an increasingly larger role in exploration, technology demonstration, scientific research, and education. These miniature satellites provide a low-cost platform for missions, including planetary space exploration, Earth observations, fundamental Earth and space science, and developing precursor science instruments like laser communications and millimeter-wave communications for intersatellite and intrasatellite links, and autonomous movement capabilities. They also allow educators an inexpensive means to engage students in all phases of satellite development, operation, and exploitation through real-world, hands-on research and development experience on rideshare launch opportunities. A number of miniaturized satellites can form spaceborne wireless sensor networks in the space, which are also going to play an important role in Internet of Space (IoS) of the future.
A wide range of emerging applications is driving the development of wireless sensor node technology towards a monolithic system-on-a-chip implementation. Of particular interest are hostile ...environment scenarios where radiation and thermal extremes exist. Radiation hardening by design has been recognized for over a decade as an alternative open-source circuit design approach to mitigate a spectrum of radiation effects, but has significant power and area penalties. Similarly, asynchronous logic design offers potential power savings and performance improvements, with a tradeoff in design complexity and a lesser area penalty. These side effects have prevented wider acceptance of both design approaches. A case study supporting the development of monolithic system-on-a-chip wireless sensor nodes is presented. Synchronous, hardened, and asynchronous/hardened implementations of a textbook microprocessor in 0.35 mum austriamicrosystems SiGe BiCMOS technology are compared. The synergy of this novel asynchronous/hardened design approach is confirmed by simulation and hardware results.
This paper is concerned with a satellite sensor network, which applies the concept of terrestrial wireless sensor networks to space. Constellation design and enabling technologies for picosatellite ...constellations such as distributed computing and intersatellite communication are discussed. The research, carried out at the Surrey Space Centre, is aimed at space weather missions in low Earth orbit (LEO). Distributed satellite system scenarios based on the flower constellation set are introduced. Communication issues of a space based wireless sensor network (SB-WSN) in reference to the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) networking scheme are discussed. A system-on-a-chip computing platform and agent middleware for SB-WSNs are presented. The system-on-a-chip architecture centred around the LEON3 soft processor core is aimed at efficient hardware support of collaborative processing in SB-WSNs, providing a number of intellectual property cores such as a hardware accelerated Wi-Fi MAC and transceiver core and a Java co-processor. A new configurable intersatellite communications module for picosatellites is outlined.
To determine the role of race and gender in the career experience of Black/AA academic surgeons and to quantify the prevalence of experience with racial and gender bias stratified by gender.
Compared ...to their male counterparts, Black/African American women remain significantly underrepresented among senior surgical faculty and department leadership. The impact of racial and gender bias on the academic and professional trajectory of Black/AA women surgeons has not been well-studied.
A cross-sectional survey regarding demographics, employment, and perceived barriers to career advancement was distributed via email to faculty surgeon members of the Society of Black American Surgeons (SBAS) in September 2019.
Of 181 faculty members, 53 responded (29%), including 31 women (58%) and 22 men (42%). Academic positions as a first job were common (men 95% vs women 77%, P = 0.06). Men were more likely to attain the rank of full professor (men 41% vs women 7%, P = 0.01). Reports of racial bias in the workplace were similar (women 84% vs men 86%, not significant); however, reports of gender bias (women 97% vs men 27%, P < 0.001) and perception of salary inequities (women 89% vs 63%, P = 0.02) were more common among women.
Despite efforts to increase diversity, high rates of racial bias persist in the workplace. Black/AA women also report experiencing a high rate of gender bias and challenges in academic promotion.
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