Characterization and Analysis of Plasma Instabilities in a 600 W Permanent Magnet Hall Thruster

Electric propulsion is an important technology for the future of space operations and exploration. Within the range of electric propulsion devices, Hall Effect Thrusters provide a balance of thrust and specific impulse well-suited for many Earth-centric missions. Hall Effect Thrusters have been studied since their development in the 1960s and have been flown on hundreds of spacecraft, but the intimate details of the plasma behavior within the thruster exhaust plume are still not well understood. Furthering this knowledge may be key to improving thruster design to yield better performance and longer lifetimes. To this end, experiments were conducted to measure visible emissions, plasma potential, and Hall Current from a 600 W permanent magnet Hall Effect Thruster in operation modes that exhibited two well-known plasma behaviors—breathing and azimuthal spokes. Multiple delays and issues with the thruster and laboratory equipment severely limited data collection during the present research, but a number of visible emissions data samples were collected. Data revealed the breathing mode exhibited in the permanent magnet thruster is similar to that in a previously studied electromagnet thruster. Additionally, a trend in the breathing mode was observed that appears to lead to discharge extinction. An azimuthally-varying mode was also identified and compared to the spoke mode exhibited by the electromagnet thruster

Tumor-promoting phorbol esters stimulate C3b and C3b' receptor-mediated phagocytosis in cultured human monocytes

Monocytes were isolated in high yield (approximately 80%) and purity (greater than 90%) by Percoll gradient centrifugation and incubated in Teflon culture vessels. Using this culture method, we routinely recovered 80% of the cells originally placed into culture. Studies of the C3b and C3b' receptors of these monocytes showed that the function of both receptors could be dramatically altered by treating the cells with tumor-promoting phorbol esters. Both C3b and C3b' receptors of human monocytes efficiently mediate attachment of erythrocytes coated with the corresponding ligands, but do not promote their ingestion. However, monocytes treated with phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) or phorbol didecanoate ingest C3b- and C3b'-coated erythrocytes. Phorbol esters that are inactive as tumor promoters do not stimulate C3 receptor-mediated phagocytosis. The ability of monocytes to respond to PMA by activation of C3 receptors is developmentally regulated. Freshly isolated monocytes do not take up C3b- or C3b'-coated erythrocytes in response to PMA, but after 3 d of culture they show strong PMA-stimulated uptake. The stimulatory effect of PMA on monocyte C3b and C3b' receptor function occurs within minutes, is stable for hours, is cycloheximide insensitive, and can be inhibited with colchicine. Several lines of evidence indicates that phagocytosis of C3b or C3b'-coated erythrocytes is specifically mediated by the monocytes' C3b and C3b' receptors. First, erythrocytes attached to monocytes with concanavalin A are not ingested when the monocytes are treated with PMA. Second, monocytes plated on IgG-bearing substrates lose Fc receptor activity on their nonadherent surfaces but retain the capacity to ingest C3b- or C3b'-coated erythrocytes after PMA treatment. Third, PMA-treated monocytes plated on C3b-coated surfaces lose C3b receptor activity on their nonadherent surfaces but retain the capacity to ingest C3b'-coated erythrocytes. Conversely, PMA-treated monocytes plated on C3b'-coated surfaces show reduced C3b' receptors activity on their nonadherent surfaces but retain the capacity to ingest C3b-coated erythrocytes

Receptors for C3b and C3bi promote phagocytosis but not the release of toxic oxygen from human phagocytes

We have measured the release of H2O2 from granulocytes, monocytes, and macrophages during spreading on ligand-coated culture surfaces. While IgG-coated surfaces stimulate vigorous release of H2O2, neither C3b- nor C3bi-coated surfaces promoted appreciable release of H2O2 despite full ligation of C3b and C3bi receptors. We also measured release of H2O2 from cultured monocytes spreading on surfaces coated with both fibronectin and C3. Under such circumstances, the C3 receptors elicit a strong phagocytic response, but no H2O2 release was recorded. We conclude that the C3b and C3bi receptors of monocytes and granulocytes do not signal the generation of toxic oxygen intermediates from these cells

Panoramic optical and near-infrared SETI instrument: prototype design and testing

The Pulsed All-sky Near-infrared Optical Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (PANOSETI) is an instrument program that aims to search for fast transient signals (nano-second to seconds) of artificial or astrophysical origin. The PANOSETI instrument objective is to sample the entire observable sky during all observable time at optical and near-infrared wavelengths over 300 - 1650 nm$^1$. The PANOSETI instrument is designed with a number of modular telescope units using Fresnel lenses ($\sim$0.5m) arranged on two geodesic domes in order to maximize sky coverage$^2$. We present the prototype design and tests of these modular Fresnel telescope units. This consists of the design of mechanical components such as the lens mounting and module frame. One of the most important goals of the modules is to maintain the characteristics of the Fresnel lens under a variety of operating conditions. We discuss how we account for a range of operating temperatures, humidity, and module orientations in our design in order to minimize undesirable changes to our focal length or angular resolution.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

Fibronectin and serum amyloid P component stimulate C3b- and C3bi-mediated phagocytosis in cultured human monocytes

Fibronectin (FN) and serum amyloid P component (SAP) markedly enhance phagocytosis mediated by the C3b and C3bi receptors of cultured human monocytes but not of granulocytes. (The C3b and C3bi receptors of granulocytes can be activated by treatment of these phagocytes with PMA.) Activation of monocyte C3 receptors by FN is developmentally regulated: Freshly explanted monocytes respond to FN with a small increase in C3 receptor-mediated phagocytosis while monocytes matured in culture exhibit a much greater response. The mechanism of action of FN on C3 receptors of cultured monocytes is unique in two respects. First, while substrate-bound FN or SAP activate monocyte C3 receptors, soluble FN does not. Second, stimulation of the basal surface of monocyte plasma membranes by substrate-bound FN activates C3b and C3bi receptors on the apical surface of the plasma membrane, i.e., at sites remote from the segments of membrane in contact with the FN or SAP

An L Band Spectrum of the Coldest Brown Dwarf

The coldest brown dwarf, WISE 0855, is the closest known planetary-mass, free-floating object and has a temperature nearly as cold as the solar system gas giants. Like Jupiter, it is predicted to have an atmosphere rich in methane, water, and ammonia, with clouds of volatile ices. WISE 0855 is faint at near-infrared wavelengths and emits almost all its energy in the mid-infrared. Skemer et al. 2016 presented a spectrum of WISE 0855 from 4.5-5.1 micron (M band), revealing water vapor features. Here, we present a spectrum of WISE 0855 in L band, from 3.4-4.14 micron. We present a set of atmosphere models that include a range of compositions (metallicities and C/O ratios) and water ice clouds. Methane absorption is clearly present in the spectrum. The mid-infrared color can be better matched with a methane abundance that is depleted relative to solar abundance. We find that there is evidence for water ice clouds in the M band spectrum, and we find a lack of phosphine spectral features in both the L and M band spectra. We suggest that a deep continuum opacity source may be obscuring the near-infrared flux, possibly a deep phosphorous-bearing cloud, ammonium dihyrogen phosphate. Observations of WISE 0855 provide critical constraints for cold planetary atmospheres, bridging the temperature range between the long-studied solar system planets and accessible exoplanets. JWST will soon revolutionize our understanding of cold brown dwarfs with high-precision spectroscopy across the infrared, allowing us to study their compositions and cloud properties, and to infer their atmospheric dynamics and formation processes.Comment: 19 pages, 21 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

First radial velocity results from the MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA)

The MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA) is a dedicated observatory of four 0.7m robotic telescopes fiber-fed to a KiwiSpec spectrograph. The MINERVA mission is to discover super-Earths in the habitable zones of nearby stars. This can be accomplished with MINERVA's unique combination of high precision and high cadence over long time periods. In this work, we detail changes to the MINERVA facility that have occurred since our previous paper. We then describe MINERVA's robotic control software, the process by which we perform 1D spectral extraction, and our forward modeling Doppler pipeline. In the process of improving our forward modeling procedure, we found that our spectrograph's intrinsic instrumental profile is stable for at least nine months. Because of that, we characterized our instrumental profile with a time-independent, cubic spline function based on the profile in the cross dispersion direction, with which we achieved a radial velocity precision similar to using a conventional "sum-of-Gaussians" instrumental profile: 1.8 m s$^{-1}$ over 1.5 months on the RV standard star HD 122064. Therefore, we conclude that the instrumental profile need not be perfectly accurate as long as it is stable. In addition, we observed 51 Peg and our results are consistent with the literature, confirming our spectrograph and Doppler pipeline are producing accurate and precise radial velocities.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, submitted to PASP, Peer-Reviewed and Accepte