The Stanford equivalence principle program

The Stanford Equivalence Principle Program (Worden, Jr. 1983) is intended to test the uniqueness of free fall to the ultimate possible accuracy. The program is being conducted in two phases: first, a ground-based version of the experiment, which should have a sensitivity to differences in rate of fall of one part in 10(exp 12); followed by an orbital experiment with a sensitivity of one part in 10(exp 17) or better. The ground-based experiment, although a sensitive equivalence principle test in its own right, is being used for technology development for the orbital experiment. A secondary goal of the experiment is a search for exotic forces. The instrument is very well suited for this search, which would be conducted mostly with the ground-based apparatus. The short range predicted for these forces means that forces originating in the Earth would not be detectable in orbit. But detection of Yukawa-type exotic forces from a nearby large satellite (such as Space Station) is feasible, and gives a very sensitive and controllable test for little more effort than the orbiting equivalence principle test itself

Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle (STEP)

This grant provided support for the STEP (Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle) program between October 1991 and September 1993. STEP, previously supported by NASA under Grant NAG8-837 'A Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle,' was selected by the European Space Agency for a Phase A study as a candidate for ESA's next medium size mission (M2). STEP was conceived as a joint NASA/ESA mission with equal participation by both agencies. ESA's contribution to the program would be the spacecraft; NASA would provide the launcher and half of the instrument, while the other half of the instrument would be provided by various European agencies. STEP was in competition with three other programs, INTEGRAL, PRISMA, and MARSNET. The final selection of a single mission for M2 took place in April 1993. STEP was not selected for M2 but made a very close second. The program is continuing in modified form

A cryogenic liquid-mirror telescope on the moon to study the early universe

We have studied the feasibility and scientific potential of zenith observing liquid mirror telescopes having 20 to 100 m diameters located on the moon. They would carry out deep infrared surveys to study the distant universe and follow up discoveries made with the 6 m James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), with more detailed images and spectroscopic studies. They could detect objects 100 times fainter than JWST, observing the first, high-red shift stars in the early universe and their assembly into galaxies. We explored the scientific opportunities, key technologies and optimum location of such telescopes. We have demonstrated critical technologies. For example, the primary mirror would necessitate a high-reflectivity liquid that does not evaporate in the lunar vacuum and remains liquid at less than 100K: We have made a crucial demonstration by successfully coating an ionic liquid that has negligible vapor pressure. We also successfully experimented with a liquid mirror spinning on a superconducting bearing, as will be needed for the cryogenic, vacuum environment of the telescope. We have investigated issues related to lunar locations, concluding that locations within a few km of a pole are ideal for deep sky cover and long integration times. We have located ridges and crater rims within 0.5 degrees of the North Pole that are illuminated for at least some sun angles during lunar winter, providing power and temperature control. We also have identified potential problems, like lunar dust. Issues raised by our preliminary study demand additional in-depth analyses. These issues must be fully examined as part of a scientific debate we hope to start with the present article.Comment: 35 pages, 11 figures. To appear in Astrophysical Journal June 20 200

4th ASEE/AaeE Global Colloquium on Engineering Education

The Faculty of Engineering and Surveying at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) has introduced a series of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) courses as part of the curriculum1-3. Engineering Problem Solving 2 (ENG2102) was introduced in 2002 as part of this change and has been delivered successfully for three consecutive years. About 250 students enrol in this course annually, with over 100 students studying externally. One of the major challenges faced by examiners in such team-based problem-solving courses is how to assess individual student performance for grading 4. While some argue that teamwork should be evaluated by outcomes and that individual students should receive equal shares, there are others who believe that individual students must be rewarded based on their contribution to the teamwork. There are different evaluation techniques proposed in the literature to assess individual performance in a team-based project. Rating individual performance within and by the team members is the method evaluated in this paper. This team rating was verified by peer evaluation carried out individually by the team members. This paper evaluates the performance of teams and individual students in three different projects in the 2004 delivery of this course. There was evidence that the majority of the 40 teams (260 students) appreciated and made use of the opportunity to participate the allocation of assessment marks. Similar performance patterns were observed in all the three projects. The implementation of this rating system significantly reduced the individual complaints from the students on the assessments for this course. It is concluded that this rating method, with minor refinement is effective in evaluating individual student performance in team-based learning courses

Prediction of landing gear loads using machine learning techniques

This article investigates the feasibility of using machine learning algorithms to predict the loads experienced by a landing gear during landing. For this purpose, the results on drop test data and flight test data will be examined. This article will focus on the use of Gaussian process regression for the prediction of loads on the components of a landing gear. For the learning task, comprehensive measurement data from drop tests are available. These include measurements of strains at key locations, such as on the side-stay and torque link, as well as acceleration measurements of the drop carriage and the gear itself, measurements of shock absorber travel, tyre closure, shock absorber pressure and wheel speed. Ground-to-tyre loads are also available through measurements made with a drop test ground reaction platform. The aim is to train the Gaussian process to predict load at a particular location from other available measurements, such as accelerations, or measurements of the shock absorber. If models can be successfully trained, then future load patterns may be predicted using only these measurements. The ultimate aim is to produce an accurate model that can predict the load at a number of locations across the landing gear using measurements that are readily available or may be measured more easily than directly measuring strain on the gear itself (for example, these may be measurements already available on the aircraft, or from a small number of sensors attached to the gear). The drop test data models provide a positive feasibility test which is the basis for moving on to the critical task of prediction on flight test data. For this, a wide range of available flight test measurements are considered for potential model inputs (excluding strain measurements themselves), before attempting to refine the model or use a smaller number of measurements for the prediction

Towards risk-informed PBSHM: Populations as hierarchical systems

The prospect of informed and optimal decision-making regarding the operation and maintenance (O&M) of structures provides impetus to the development of structural health monitoring (SHM) systems. A probabilistic risk-based framework for decision-making has already been proposed. However, in order to learn the statistical models necessary for decision-making, measured data from the structure of interest are required. Unfortunately, these data are seldom available across the range of environmental and operational conditions necessary to ensure good generalisation of the model. Recently, technologies have been developed that overcome this challenge, by extending SHM to populations of structures, such that valuable knowledge may be transferred between instances of structures that are sufficiently similar. This new approach is termed population-based structural heath monitoring (PBSHM). The current paper presents a formal representation of populations of structures, such that risk-based decision processes may be specified within them. The population-based representation is an extension to the hierarchical representation of a structure used within the probabilistic risk-based decision framework to define fault trees. The result is a series, consisting of systems of systems ranging from the individual component level up to an inventory of heterogeneous populations. The current paper considers an inventory of wind farms as a motivating example and highlights the inferences and decisions that can be made within the hierarchical representation.Comment: Submitted to IMAC-XLI conference (2023), Austin, Texas, US

Searching for a Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves with LIGO

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has performed the fourth science run, S4, with significantly improved interferometer sensitivities with respect to previous runs. Using data acquired during this science run, we place a limit on the amplitude of a stochastic background of gravitational waves. For a frequency independent spectrum, the new limit is $\Omega_{\rm GW} < 6.5 \times 10^{-5}$. This is currently the most sensitive result in the frequency range 51-150 Hz, with a factor of 13 improvement over the previous LIGO result. We discuss complementarity of the new result with other constraints on a stochastic background of gravitational waves, and we investigate implications of the new result for different models of this background.Comment: 37 pages, 16 figure