International Space Centre
facilityCrawley, Western Australia, Australia
Research output, citation impact, and the most-cited recent papers from International Space Centre (Australia). Aggregated across the NobleBlocks index of 300M+ scholarly works.
Top-cited papers from International Space Centre
Using automated additive construction (AAC), low-fidelity large-scale compressive structures can be produced out of a wide variety of materials found in the environment. Compression-intensive structures need not utilize materials that have tight specifications for internal force management, meaning that the production of the building materials do not require costly methods for their preparation. Where a certain degree of surface roughness can be tolerated, lower-fidelity numerical control of deposited materials can provide a low-cost means for automating building processes, which can be utilized in remote or extreme environments on Earth or in space. For space missions where every kilogram of mass must be lifted out of Earth’s gravity well, the promise of using in situ materials for the construction of outposts, facilities, and installations could prove to be enabling if significant reduction of payload mass can be achieved. In a 2015 workshop sponsored by the Keck Institute for Space Studies, on the topic of three dimensional (3D) additive construction for space using in situ resources, was conducted with additive construction experts from around the globe in attendance. The workshop explored disparate efforts, methods, and technologies and established a proposed framework for the field of additive construction using in situ resources. This paper defines the field of automated additive construction using in situ resources, describes the state-of-the-art for various methods, establishes a vision for future efforts, identifies gaps in current technologies, explores investment opportunities, and proposes potential technology demonstration missions for terrestrial, International Space Station (ISS), lunar, deep space zero-gravity, and Mars environments.
Spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS) is common amongst astronauts on long duration space missions and is associated with signs consistent with elevated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure. Additionally, CSF pressure has been found to be elevated in a significant proportion of astronauts in whom lumbar puncture was performed after successful mission completion. We have developed a retinal photoplethysmographic technique to measure retinal vein pulsation amplitudes. This technique has enabled the development of a non-invasive CSF pressure measurement apparatus. We tested the system on healthy volunteers in the sitting and supine posture to mimic the range of tilt table extremes and estimated the induced CSF pressure change using measurements from the CSF hydrostatic indifferent point. We found a significant relationship between pulsation amplitude change and estimated CSF pressure change (p < 0.0001) across a range from 2.7 to 7.1 mmHg. The increase in pulse amplitude was highest in the sitting posture with greater estimated CSF pressure increase (p < 0.0001), in keeping with physiologically predicted CSF pressure response. This technique may be useful for non-invasive measurement of CSF pressure fluctuations during long-term space voyages.
Field expeditions in support of planetary science are important to advance our understanding of planetary processes and enhance the science community through training and close, often interdisciplinary collaborative efforts. Still, field work faces unique safety risks and barriers to entry, due to the physical nature of the field but also from team behavior and sometimes inhospitable communities near common field sites. Field teams need to be resilient to fieldsite hazards and self-supportive to improve safety and accessibility. We call on NASA, the NSF, and the planetary science community to foster resilient field teams by 1) requiring field safety plans from funded field teams; 2) providing both physical and mental safety field training; 3) developing a NASA/NSF-wide, field-specific code of conduct; 4) supporting field experiences for students and early career researchers; 5) engaging with scientists and communities local to field sites of interest; 6) holding NASA and NSF funded field teams accountable for providing safe workplace environments in the field; and finally 7) thinking critically about institutional safety requirements that are designed for traditional workplaces and not the field.
< 0.001) territories. Simulations revealed patterns of WSS and lumen pressure that uniformly decreased following HE. Under ecologically valid thermal challenge, different responses occur in distinct conduit and microvascular territories, with blood flow distribution favoring systemic thermoregulation, while flow may redistribute within the brain.
The carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) method is used clinically to determine degrees of stiffness and other indices of disease. It is believed PWV measurement in retinal vessels may allow early detection of diseases. In this paper we present a new non-invasive method for estimating PWVs in retinal vein segments close to the optic disc centre, based on the measurement of blood column pulsation in retinal veins (reflective of vessel wall pulsation), using modified photoplethysmography (PPG). An optic disc (OD) PPG video is acquired spanning three cardiac cycles for a fixed ophthalmodynamometric force. The green colour channel frames are extracted, cropped and aligned. A harmonic regression model is fitted to each pixel intensity time series along the vein centreline from the centre to the periphery of the OD. The phase of the first harmonic is plotted against centreline distance. A least squares line is fitted between the first local maximum phase and first local minimum phase and its slope used to compute PWV. Five left eye inferior hemi-retinal veins from five healthy subjects were analysed. Velocities were calculated for several induced intraocular pressures ranging from a mean baseline of 14 mmHg (SD 5) to 56 mmHg in steps of approximately 5 mmHg. The median PWV over all pressure steps and subjects was 20.77 mm/s (IQR 29.27). The experimental results show that pulse wave propagation direction was opposite to flow in this initial venous segment.
The time for humans to return to the Moon is upon us. This time we will not just go to the moon to collect some rocks and to leave only footprints. This time we will build permanent settlements and colonize the Moon. Our plan is to enable the building of international Moon settlements. There are numerous space agencies, companies and research institutions working on building rockets that will carry payload to the moon but what we do when we get there has mainly been focused on small scale rover based exploration. It is high time we started the work of designing and building human lunar settlements. The idea is to gather all of the space agencies, companies and research institutions to work in one place where they can combine forces and robotically build prototype Moon structures and landing pads on Earth, with the goal of creating robots that will be sent to the Moon to create human settlements. The group of participants who will carry out the Research &amp; Development is called the IMA (the International MoonBase Alliance).&#160;Accomplishments to date:&#160;HI-SEAS (the Hawai&#8217;i - Space Exploration Analog and Simulation):&#160;We held five long duration Mars missions with NASA and the University of Hawaii in a habitat we designed and built on Mauna Loa, an active volcano and the biggest mountain in the world (by volume) on the Big Island of Hawaii. Each mission comprised of 6 crew staying in a 110 sq m (1,200&#8217; sq. ft.) dome to test crew selection and crew psychology (Figure 1). If during the mission crew members left the habitat, that was considered an &#8220;Extra Vehicular Activity&#8221; (EVA). EVAs were conducted according to strict EVA rules with crew wearing analog spacesuits. All communications from the habitat to the rest of the world were delayed 20 minutes each way to simulate the lag in communicating with Mars. The missions varied between 4 to 12 months in length.&#160;Figure 1:&#160; The HI-SEAS habitat.&#160;In the last few years, we have pivoted from NASA Mars missions to IMA Moon missions, which are shorter in duration (from weeks or days). These missions are more about giving a larger group of people practical &#8220;off-world&#8221; experience and about testing research experiments and technologies needed to build a lunar settlement (Figure 2). We have built a &#8220;Mission Control&#8221; facility. We are testing new and much improved EVA suits equipped with 3D cameras and head-up displays to better communicate with Mission Control.&#160;Figure 2:&#160; HI-SEAS lunar mission crewmembers performing an EVA in a lava tube.&#160;PISCES (the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems):&#160;PISCES is a State of Hawaii R&amp;D group. We have worked with NASA to sinter powdered Hawaii lava rock (96% the same chemistry as lunar regolith) into building materials stronger than specialty concrete. We created &#8220;pavers&#8221; which we deployed into a landing pad using a rover and tested it with a mounted rocket engine (Figures 3 &amp; 4). Rodrigo Romo who heads up PISCES, spent 6 months in Biosphere 2 giving us a wealth of information about sealed self-sustaining environments.&#160;Figure 3:&#160; PISCES rover testing.&#160;Figure 4:&#160; PISCES rocket engine test.&#160;IMS (the International MoonBase Summit):&#160;We held the first IMS in October of 2017. 100 scientists, engineers, designers, economists, legislators, astronauts and students, gathered in Hawaii to brainstorm the first permanent lunar settlement. Out of this gathering was created the IMA. We published our findings in a book called &#8220;Mahina&#8221;, the word for Moon in Hawaiian. It is our plan to build a first Moon Settlement and call it &#8220;Mahina Lani&#8221; or &#8220;Moon Heaven&#8221;.&#160;The plan going forward:&#160;IMA (the International MoonBase Alliance):&#160;The IMA plan calls for a 1,000 acre &#8220;lunar landscape&#8221; campus on which we will build lunar structure prototypes. We are now in phase one on a much smaller scale. We are building a sealed windowless 12 meter (40&#8217;) diameter dome with an airlock. Our plan is to build it out of layers of &#8220;radiation proof&#8221; cement and use spherical projection systems to simulate windows and other desirable features. We plan to conduct a series of experiments with different internal configurations to simulate crew quarters, mission control, engineering bays, food growing facilities, meeting rooms, common areas, mess halls, recycling centers and entertainment spaces.&#160;The IMA vision is to send robots to the Moon that will 3D print structures that will be occupied by humans when the time comes. The focus will be on using ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization) to build self sustaining lunar settlements (Space Ports). The oceanic rock of Hawaii ideal because it is the closest simile to lunar regolith that's we can find on Earth. Hawaii is also a melting pot of Asian and American cultures, so it&#8217;s the perfect place for cooperation by and between American and Asian space settlement efforts.&#160;Let&#8217;s all work together and build a permanent lunar settlement, a MoonBase, by the end of this decade, &#8220;not because it&#8217;s easy, but because it&#8217;s hard&#8221; (quote by John F. Kennedy).