Journal articles on the topic 'Manned undersea research stations'

As the nation’s premiere ocean science agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has a variety of programs that require research below the ocean’s surface. This research is conducted using a variety of diving methodologies, including wet diving, seafloor habitats, remotely operated vehicles, and manned submersibles. For almost fifty years NOAA and its predecessors, the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries and the Coast and Geodetic Survey, have been actively involved in undersea research. Many of the lessons learned and technologies developed during this time have been adopted by the recreational, scientific, and military diving communities, thus benefiting divers everywhere. This paper traces the history of NOAA’s two major diving programs; the NOAA Diving Program and the National Undersea Research Program, and highlights some of the significant accomplishments of each program.

The evolution of undersea vehicles and the research they enable have been mutually interactive ever since the first research submersible appeared in the 1930s. As scientists gained access to deep water they made new demands of the technology—to go deeper, stay longer, and accomplish more. Succeeding generations of vehicles, which were additionally influenced by commercial and military needs, grew in complexity, diversity, and size. In concert, scientific utilization progressed from observation, to survey, to intervention. Three distinct vehicle types have evolved, with each at a different level of development. Manned submersibles have reached a critical juncture created by cost and logistical requirements. The next generation is developing as a class of smaller, more sophisticated vehicles that are less demanding of their support systems. ROVs are also a mature technology but their use for research is still ramping up. Development is proceeding toward combining the diverse capabilities of full-scale systems, with the small size of low-cost vehicles. AUVs are the most recent evolutionary line, with the greatest potential for rapid technological advancement and unique research applications.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is balancing multi-manned assembly lines with load-balancing constraints in addition to conventional ones Most research works about the multi-manned assembly line balancing problems are focused on the conventional industrial measures that minimize total number of workers, number of multi-manned workstations or both. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides a remedial constraint for the model to balance task load density for each worker in workstations. Findings – Comparisons between the proposed mathematical model and the existing multi-manned mathematical model show a quite promising better task load density performance for the proposed approach. Originality/value – In this paper, a mathematical model that combines the minimization of multi-manned stations, worker numbers and difference of task load density of workers is proposed for the first time.

The paper presents a brief history of preparation for and execution of the first manned flight into space in the Vostok spacecraft. The main tasks and challenges which were solved to make this historical event possible are discussed. Further achievements of Russian manned cosmonautics are presented, including the first world’s orbital station Salyut which was constructed and launched in orbit 50 years ago. The human role in executing a space flight is studied. The tasks in the space orbit are discussed, the solutions to which with the participation of the crew have improved the space flight safety and efficiency. Examples of cosmonauts’ operations during the flights of the orbital stations Salyut, the orbital facility Mir, and the International Space Station are given to illustrate such tasks. The importance of cosmonauts’ participation in the research and experiments on the orbital stations is demonstrated, and positive examples of such participation are provided.

Many people, including Wernher von Braun, have drawn an analogy between the manned exploration of the solar system and scientific stations in Antarctica. Some of the Space/Antarctic parallels are quite obvious, such as the necessity to select small groups of highly trained individuals who can work together in isolation for extended periods, or in the case of the Moon/Antarctic comparison, the long day/night cycle. However, the parallel can be carried considerably further to include the types of science to be done, and, in some cases, there is even a strong similarity in environmental conditions. It may be worth while to build a new Antarctic station just to learn more about how to do planetary exploration.

Intensive development of Near-Earth Space is accompanied by its microbiological contamination. Viable bacteria have been already detected on external structures of the International Space Station. A thin gaseous envelope and a layer of organic deposits are formed around a manned spacecraft. They can serve as a substrate for the evolution of some forms of microorganisms. As a result, the simplest natural-technical system is emerged in the near-Earth space. Biological objects can penetrate this system from the Earth’s atmosphere, or as gas leakage from the manned spacecrafts. In the nearest future the number of orbital space stations will increase many times. Some of them will be created by private firms for the purpose of space tourism development. Between the orbital stations and the Earth will be a constant transport of large numbers of people and cargos. Together with them microscopic biological objects will move in both directions. As a result of this, the natural-technical systems of space vehicles will integrate in the global natural-technical system — biotechnosphere. New strains of microorganisms which are hazardous to human may occur in the near-Earth space. The exploitation of a large number of manned stations in the Space hypothetically creates conditions for the penetration of alien life forms to the Earth. For timely identification of such threats it has been proposed to create an interdisciplinary scientific research complex. Its purpose is monitoring the appearance of new organisms at all stages of their movement from the near-Earth space to the Earth. Special attention should be paid to the study of biological objects detected on the Earth in areas hardly suitable for terrestrial microorganisms, for example, in different technological environments or clusters of toxic waste.

The Federal State Budgetary Organization “Yu.A. Gagarin Research &Test Cosmonaut Training Center” is the world-recognized institution that provides the selection and training of cosmonauts and astronauts for space missions aboard manned spacecraft and stations. In 1971, the Cosmonaut Training Center named after Yu.A. Gagarin was awarded the Order of Lenin for success in training cosmonauts, and in 1982 – the Order of Friendship of People for success in training cosmonauts within the framework of the “Intercosmos” program.

Recently, unmanned vehicle (UV) research has increased its popularity around the globe not only for military applications but also for civilian uses. For military fields, UVs can enhance homeland defense, carry out coast and air surveillance, counter terrorists and most importantly, reduce harm to the manned force when certain mission may contain threat. As a consequence, UVs become an inevitable part of the Navy Force and extend the Navy mission handling capabilities. When it comes to research, UVs can be used to observe the climate, deliver goods, perform undersea testing, etc. But the open environment is dynamic, unforeseen and fast changing. Thus, a UV which has the ability to choose the optimal path autonomously based on the current situation not only can increase the efficiency of the UV, but also can save costs and time for the users. As a result, increasing the autonomy of the UV has attracted the attention of many researchersin recent years. Our research is based on the Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation model. We develop a simulation model architecture so as to realize collision free path planning and path optimization of an unmanned vehicle.

During longtime space fights and interplanetary missions among numerous outboard risks, the crew faces onboard microbiological intruders as well. There is no way to send biological tests for the analysis to the Earth in such missions, so special onboard system of methods and activities must solve two different problems: sampling different types of bacteria and fungus and perform independent analysis of collected material without professional microbiologist among the crew and any help from the Earth. So we meet an interesting task to create system that would minimize human factor and rely mostly on computing machinery. In order to use pattern recognition method, we need to perform proper tests sampling and prepare them for the machine analysis. Stereoscopy and spectrometry is the only way to achieve our goal. Apart from tests sampling it is necessary to develop modified mathematical model for pattern recognition of bacteria and fungus, which were found during the flight. For that reason we are making mathematical model, describing microbiological samples. Still, we have a lot of work to do but the result of our research could become common use not only in space sector, but also in clinical medicine as well.

AbstractStudents with Santa Clara University (SCU) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) are developing an innovative platform for shallow water bathymetry. Bathymetry data is used to analyze the geography, ecosystem, and health of marine habitats. Current methods for shallow water measurements typically involve large manned vessels that are costly to operate and that may pose a danger to themselves and the environment in shallow, semi-navigable waters. Small vessels, however, are prone to disturbances by shallow water waves, tides, and currents, thereby requiring more instrumentation and computation to accurately process bathymetric data. The SCU/MBARI autonomous surface vessel, SeaWASP, is designed to operate safely and stably in waters as shallow as 1 m without significant manned support in order to produce cost-effective and high-quality bathymetric maps.The SeaWASP design introduces several key design innovations in order to provide high-quality maps with a platform that is safe, stable, and inexpensive. A small waterplane area twin hull (SWATH) design features a submerged dual hull, a small waterplane area, and a high mass-to-damping ratio, thereby making the craft less prone to disturbances. Precision sensing, autonomous control, and platform-level configuration planning and control algorithms are used to navigate the boat along desirable trajectories in support of efficient map generation and to implement low-cost unpiloted operations. Bathymetry is measured with multibeam sonar in concert with Doppler Velocity Logger and GPS sensors.The vessel has been operated successfully in several open water test environments, including Elkhorn Slough, Steven’s Creek Reservoir, and Lake Tahoe, all in California. It is currently in the final stages of integration and test for its first major science mission at Orcas Island, San Juan Islands, WA, in 2009. Final deployment will be at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA’s) Kasitsna Bay Laboratory in Alaska as one element of a multi-system remote observatory.SeaWASP has been developed in partnership with SCU, MBARI, the University of Alaska‐Fairbanks, and NOAA’s West Coast and Polar Regions Undersea Research Center.

Maritime transport plays an important role in global economic development but also inevitably faces increasing pressures from all sides, such as ship operating cost reduction and environmental protection. An ideal innovation to address these pressures is electric ships, which are more environmentally friendly than conventional manned fuel oil ships. The electric ship is in its early stages. To provide high-quality transportation services, the service network needs to be designed carefully. Therefore, this research simultaneously studies the location of charging stations, charging plans, route planning, ship scheduling, and ship deployment under service time requirements. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming model with the objective of minimizing total cost comprised of charging cost, construction cost of charging stations, and fixed cost of ships. A case study using the data of the shipping network along the Yangtze River is conducted in order to evaluate the performance of the model. Valuable managerial insights are also derived from sensitivity analyses.

Nowadays, the planning on manned mission to Mars from NASA and other institutions have brought interest to Mars again. People wonder if Mars can be the first colony of humanity. To provide an insight to this question, this essay focus on various prospective to discuss whether it is possible for humans to colonize Mars now, or perhaps in the near future. The essay first identifies essential technology needed for a success Mars colonization. Then, examine the past researches to check whether current technology can meet the requirements for Mars colonization. The research finds that the transportation between Earth and Mars is not hard to do, but the efficiency is extremely low by now. Building space stations as intermediates and developing recyclable rocket may help on this problem. When building a settlement on Mars, the life support system will not be a big issue because there are already functional technologies to produce oxygen and plant food on Mars, while water can be extracted from ice sheets on Mars. Meanwhile, requirement for energy can be easily solved by relying on solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy and nuclear energy. Reconstructing Martian environment is not hard when it comes to altering the atmosphere, but is constructing an artificial magnetosphere is currently unpractical. Mars colonization is still not feasible now, but might be possible within one or two decades.

Abstract. The measurement of water-vapour concentration in the atmosphere is an ongoing challenge in environmental research. Satisfactory solutions are present for ground-based meteorological stations and measurements of mean values. However, advanced research of thermodynamic processes also aloft, above the surface layer and especially in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), requires the resolution of small-scale turbulence. Sophisticated optical instruments are used in airborne meteorology with manned aircraft to achieve the necessary fast response measurements in the order of 1 Hz (e.g. LiCor 7500). Since these instruments are too large and heavy for the application on the promising platforms of small remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), a method is presented in this study, that enhances small capacitive humidity sensors to be able to resolve turbulent eddies in the order of 10 m. For this purpose a physical and dynamical model of such a sensor is described and inverted in order to restore original water vapour fluctuations from sensor measurements. Examples of flight measurements show how the method can be used to correct vertical profiles and resolve turbulence spectra up to about 3 Hz.

Abstract. The Arctic marine climate system is changing rapidly, which is seen in the warming of the ocean and atmosphere, decline of sea ice cover, increase in river discharge, acidification of the ocean, and changes in marine ecosystems. Socio-economic activities in the coastal and marine Arctic are simultaneously changing. This calls for the establishment of a marine Arctic component of the Pan-Eurasian Experiment (MA-PEEX). There is a need for more in situ observations on the marine atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean, but increasing the amount of such observations is a pronounced technological and logistical challenge. The SMEAR (Station for Measuring Ecosystem–Atmosphere Relations) concept can be applied in coastal and archipelago stations, but in the Arctic Ocean it will probably be more cost-effective to further develop a strongly distributed marine observation network based on autonomous buoys, moorings, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). These have to be supported by research vessel and aircraft campaigns, as well as various coastal observations, including community-based ones. Major manned drifting stations may occasionally be comparable to terrestrial SMEAR flagship stations. To best utilize the observations, atmosphere–ocean reanalyses need to be further developed. To well integrate MA-PEEX with the existing terrestrial–atmospheric PEEX, focus is needed on the river discharge and associated fluxes, coastal processes, and atmospheric transports in and out of the marine Arctic. More observations and research are also needed on the specific socio-economic challenges and opportunities in the marine and coastal Arctic, and on their interaction with changes in the climate and environmental system. MA-PEEX will promote international collaboration; sustainable marine meteorological, sea ice, and oceanographic observations; advanced data management; and multidisciplinary research on the marine Arctic and its interaction with the Eurasian continent.

Human–robot interaction is a vital part of human–robot collaborative space exploration, which bridges the high-level decision and path planning intelligence of human and the accurate sensing and modelling ability of the robot. However, most conventional human–robot interaction approaches rely on video streams for the operator to understand the robot’s surrounding, which lacks situational awareness and force the operator to be stressed and fatigued. This research aims to improve efficiency and promote the natural level of interaction for human–robot collaboration. We present a human–robot interaction method based on real-time mapping and online virtual reality visualization, which is implemented and verified for rescue robotics. At the robot side, a dense point cloud map is built in real-time by LiDAR-IMU tightly fusion; the resulting map is further transformed into three-dimensional normal distributions transform representation. Wireless communication is employed to transmit the three-dimensional normal distributions transform map to the remote control station in an incremental manner. At the remote control station, the received map is rendered in virtual reality using parameterized ellipsoid cells. The operator controls the robot with three modes. In complex areas, the operator can use interactive devices to give low-level motion commands. In the less unstructured region, the operator can specify a path or even a target point. Afterwards, the robot follows the path or navigates to the target point autonomously. In other words, these two modes rely more on the robot’s autonomy. By virtue of virtual reality visualization, the operator can have a more comprehensive understanding of the space to be explored. In this case, the high-level decision and path planning intelligence of human and the accurate sensing and modelling ability of the robot can be well integrated as a whole. Although the method is proposed for rescue robots, it can also be used in other out-of-sight teleoperation-based human–robot collaboration systems, including but not limited to manufacturing, space, undersea, surgery, agriculture and military operations.

Abstract. Nowadays, several operational ocean wave forecasts are available for a same region. These predictions may considerably differ, and to choose the best one is generally a difficult task. The super-ensemble approach, which consists in merging different forecasts and past observations into a single multi-model prediction system, is evaluated in this study. During the DART06 campaigns organized by the NATO Undersea Research Centre, four wave forecasting systems were simultaneously run in the Adriatic Sea, and significant wave height was measured at six stations as well as along the tracks of two remote sensors. This effort provided the necessary data set to compare the skills of various multi-model combination techniques. Our results indicate that a super-ensemble based on the Kalman Filter improves the forecast skills: The bias during both the hindcast and forecast periods is reduced, and the correlation coefficient is similar to that of the best individual model. The spatial extrapolation of local results is not straightforward and requires further investigation to be properly implemented.

AbstractNear-surface wind speed observations from 30 manned meteorological stations and 26 automatic weather stations over the Antarctic Ice Sheet are used to examine the robustness of wind speed climatology in six recent global reanalysis products: the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2), the Japan Meteorological Agency 55-Year Reanalysis (JRA-55), the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR), the National Centers for Environmental Prediction–U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Reanalysis 2 (NCEP2), and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) interim reanalysis (ERA-Interim) and fifth-generation reanalysis (ERA5). Their skills for representing near-surface wind speeds vary by season, with better performance in summer than in winter. At the regional scale, all reanalysis datasets perform more poorly for the magnitude, but better for their year-to-year changes in wind regimes in the escarpment than the coastal and plateau regions. By comparison, ERA5 has the best performance for the monthly averaged wind speed magnitude and the interannual variability of the near-surface wind speed from 1979 onward. Intercomparison exhibits high and significant correlations for annual and seasonal wind speed Antarctic-wide averages from different datasets during their overlapping timespans (1980–2018), despite some regional disagreements between the different reanalyses. Furthermore, all of the reanalyses show positive trends of the annual and summer wind speeds for the 1980–2018 period, which are linked with positive polarity of the southern annular mode.

China has built four stations in Antarctica so far, and Zhongshan Station is the largest station among them. Continuous power supply for manned stations mainly relies on fuel. With the gradual increase in energy demand at the station and cost of fuel traffic from China to Zhongshan station in Antarctica, reducing fuel consumption and increasing green energy utilization are urgent problems. This research considers a standalone renewable energy system. The polar environments and renewable energy distribution of area of Zhongshan station are analyzed. The physical model, operation principle, and mathematical modeling of the proposed power system were designed. Low-temperature performance and state of charge (SOC) estimation method of the lead–acid battery were comprehensively tested and evaluated. A temperature control strategy was adopted to prevent the battery from low-temperature loss of the battery capacity. Energy management strategy of the power system was proposed by designing maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control strategies for wind turbine and PV array. The whole power system is broadly composed of a power generator (wind turbine and PV array), an uploading circuit, a three-phase rectifier bridge, an interleaved Buck circuit, a DC/DC conversion circuit, a switch circuit, a power supply circuit, an amplifier, a driver circuit, a voltage and current monitoring, a load, battery units and a control system. A case study in Antarctica was applied and can examine the technical feasibility of the proposed system. The results of the case study reveal that the scheme of standalone renewable energy system can satisfy the power demands of Zhongshan Station in normal operation.

Abstract. The measurement of water vapour concentration in the atmosphere is an ongoing challenge in environmental research. Satisfactory solutions exist for ground-based meteorological stations and measurements of mean values. However, carrying out advanced research of thermodynamic processes aloft as well, above the surface layer and especially in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL), requires the resolution of small-scale turbulence. Sophisticated optical instruments are used in airborne meteorology with manned aircraft to achieve the necessary fast-response measurements of the order of 10 Hz (e.g. LiCor 7500). Since these instruments are too large and heavy for the application on small remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), a method is presented in this study that enhances small capacitive humidity sensors to be able to resolve turbulent eddies of the order of 10 m. The sensor examined here is a polymer-based sensor of the type P14-Rapid, by the Swiss company Innovative Sensor Technologies (IST) AG, with a surface area of less than 10 mm2 and a negligible weight. A physical and dynamical model of this sensor is described and then inverted in order to restore original water vapour fluctuations from sensor measurements. Examples of flight measurements show how the method can be used to correct vertical profiles and resolve turbulence spectra up to about 3 Hz. At an airspeed of 25 m s−1 this corresponds to a spatial resolution of less than 10 m.

The objectives of this research were to mimic the gradient irradiances to which wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. SuperDwarf) plants were exposed aboard the Russian space station Mir, and to determine whether these irradiances inhibit growth and floral development. SuperDwarf wheat plants were exposed to irradiances of 20–40, 60–80, 100–120, and 140–180 (PPF = μmol·cm–2·s–1) and grown to maturity. Twenty plants were randomly selected from each irradiance level and chlorophyll, total leaf area, shoot biomass, and total soluble leaf and plasma membrane (PM) proteins were recorded. Irradiance at increasing levels of intensity increased the fresh biomass, leaf area, chlorophyll content, and the total soluble PM and leaf proteins of wheat tissue. There were significant differences between the abaxial and adaxial sides of the wheat leaves in stomatal density, stomatal index, stomatal length and width, and number of stomata along 1-mm length of leaf. These data may be uniquely valuable for further studies of relationships between chlorophyll content, photosynthetic rate, and productivity of wheat grown aboard the Russian space station Mir, space missions of long duration, or future manned space stations to generate oxygen, purify water, remove carbon dioxide, produce food and recycle waste materials. (Supported by NASA Grant NCC 2-831 and the Utah Agr. Expt. Station.)

Medical support is one of the essential safety conditions for isolation or confinement experiments, as it enables the timely arrangement of actions to preserve the health of crew members and volunteers. Such analog experiments allow the testing of prospective medical technologies and methods for health support in long-term space missions and on-planet stations. In the current paper, we report the results of the medical control within the medical support system of the two model isolation experiments of the SIRIUS series, lasting for 4 and 8 months, respectively. The results indicate the prevalence of headache complaints, skin inflammatory reactions, and sleep disturbance during the longer confinement experiment. In addition, signs of vitamin D deficiency were revealed in 10 of the 12 objects. The data exchange with the scientific branch of the experiments provides for the in-time detection of early symptoms of disease, using samples of blood, urine, saliva, epithelia, etc. However, the issues of medical data confidence and, subsequently, of the crew members’ compliance with the medical staff, become pointed. In general, the work demonstrates the expediency of the investigations, including the data collection and analysis of the medical control indicators in further experiments, for the optimization of the medical support of both the analogous research projects and the development of the recommendations for the medical support of small autonomous groups, such as manned space missions.

Along with the increase of electricity consumption in society, it means that the quality of power inspection gives higher requirements. The traditional manual inspection method is difficult to ensure the stability of checking quality. Without the popularization of manned distribution stations and smart grid methods, replacing manual inspection with electric power inspection robots can improve the inspection quality and inspection efficiency to a certain extent. Along with theimage processing process which is widely used in the robot system, visual impact is not only an effective way for us to obtain information but also the key reflection of the robot system intelligence. Unmanned aircraft as an extremely important robot has long been widely used in all walks of life. Power inspection is the most common use of unmanned aircraft robot inspection. However, due to extreme criteria such as bad weather, relative motion, and shaking of imaging equipment, inspection images are obtained ambiguously. The quality of the inspection image is related to the timely understanding, analysis, and judgment of the power engineering quality inspection database. In the paper, the unmanned aircraft power inspection robot as a scientific research foothold, according to explore the key technology of anti-internet technology to clear the image ambiguity, proposed a complete disambiguation optimization calculation method. The image denoising optimization calculation method based on the directional characteristics of time-frequency analysis and edge maintenance is selected to carry out the finding of the image, which reasonably solves the image resolution bottleneck problem of GIS in unmanned aircraft robot line inspection. Meanwhile, with the emergence of nanorobots in the 21st century, the application and analysis of remote sensing image processing technology in the field of robotic power inspection in this paper will also bring new vitality and vigor to the research of nanopower inspection robots and solve the problem of unclear images existing in nanorobots.

Abstract. Detailed information on the spatiotemporal snow depth distribution is a crucial input for numerous applications in hydrology, climatology, ecology and avalanche research. Today, snow depth distribution is usually estimated by combining point measurements from weather stations or observers in the field with spatial interpolation algorithms. However, even a dense measurement network like the one in Switzerland, with more than one measurement station per 10 km2 on average, is not able to capture the large spatial variability of snow depth present in alpine terrain.Remote sensing methods, such as laser scanning or digital photogrammetry, have recently been successfully applied to map snow depth variability at local and regional scales. However, in most countries such data acquisition is costly if manned airplanes are involved. The effectiveness of ground-based measurements on the other hand is often hindered by occlusions, due to the complex terrain or acute viewing angles. In this paper, we investigate the application of unmanned aerial systems (UASs), in combination with structure-from-motion photogrammetry, to map snow depth distribution. Compared to manual measurements, such systems are relatively cost-effective and can be applied very flexibly to cover terrain not accessible from the ground. In this study, we map snow depth at two different locations: (a) a sheltered location at the bottom of the Flüela valley (1900 m a.s.l.) and (b) an exposed location on a peak (2500 m a.s.l.) in the ski resort Jakobshorn, both in the vicinity of Davos, Switzerland. At the first test site, we monitor the ablation on three different dates. We validate the photogrammetric snow depth maps using simultaneously acquired manual snow depth measurements. The resulting snow depth values have a root mean square error (RMSE) of less than 0.07 to 0.15 m on meadows and rocks and a RMSE of less than 0.30 m on sections covered by bushes or tall grass, compared to manual probe measurements. This new measurement technology opens the door for efficient, flexible, repeatable and cost-effective snow depth monitoring over areas of several hectares for various applications, if the national and regional regulations permit the application of UASs.

In Greece, a new bi-polar high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission system with a ground return was designed with nominal characteristics of ±500 kV, 1 GW, between Attica in the continental country and the island of Crete, which is an autonomous power system based on thermal diesel units. The interconnection line has a total length of about 380 km. The undersea section is 330 km long. In this paper, the use of the Aegean Sea as an active part of the ground return, based on shoreline pond electrodes, was proposed to avoid EUR 200 Μ of expenses. According to the general guidelines for HVDC electrode design by the International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE) working group B4.61/2017, the electric field and ground potential rise of shoreline electrodes should be studied to analyze safety, electrical interference and corrosion impacts related to the operation of the electrodes. Two kinds of studies are available; one is a simplified approach based on a spherical/pointed electrode centered at the edge of the seashore and seabed, assuming it to be sloping to the horizontal, and the other is a detailed simulated model using a suitable electric field software package. The first approach usually gives more unfavorable results than the second one, especially in the near electric field, while it can not take into account obstacles, i.e., dams, near to electrode position. The second approach demands a detailed description of the wider installation area, which cannot be available during the preliminary study, significant computational time and considerable financial resources for the purchase of a reliable specialized software package. In this research, a two-step modification of the CIGRE simplified model was proposed. The first modification deals with the obstacles in the near electric field, and the second modification deals with the use of a linear current source (instead of a point one), which can give more accurate results. Additionally, the electric field for complex electrode formation is calculated by applying the superposition method, which can be easily achieved using a common software package, i.e., MATLAB. The proposed simplified approaches were applied on shoreline pond electrode locations for the Attica–Crete HVDC interconnection line (between Stachtoroi island in Attica and Korakia beach in Crete), allowing the preliminary study to be conducted swiftly, giving satisfactory results about electric field gradient, ground potential rise and resistance to remote earth of electrodes stations for the near and far electric field.

The article briefly discusses the key achievements of the enterprise over 75 years from the formation of OKB-1 headed by S.P. Korolev for producing intercontinental range missiles to the current status of RSC Energia being the country’s and world leader in manned space flight. The developed intercontinental missiles R-7 and a closed-loop oxygen-hydrocarbon liquid-propellant rocket engine provided the basis for developing integrated launch vehicles which were used to launch the world's first Earth satellite, the first cosmonaut on the Earth, automatic interplanetary stations to the Moon, Venus, Mars. The diversification of the enterprise impeded S.P. Korolev to concentrate on manned space flights, and he initiated the transfer of development and manufacture of combat missiles to Makeyev DB, integrated launch vehicles to TsSKB Progress, communication and other satellites to M.F. Reshetnev ISS, lunar and interplanetary stations to S.A.Lavochkin NPO. In the 1980s under the guidance of V.P. Glushko the Energia super-heavy launch vehicle and Energia-Buran system in unmanned configuration were developed and successfully launched on the first try. The Salyut manned single-module orbital stations, Mir multifunctional multi-module space laboratory and successfully operating upgraded manned transportation (Soyuz) and logistics (Progress) spacecraft were developed. In the hard times of 1990s, RSC Energia under the guidance of Yu.P. Semenov saved the national cosmonautics through commercial research performed on the Mir station. At present, by launching three additional modules RSC Energia is completing assembly and integration of the Russian Segment into the International Space Station. Keywords. ОKB-1, S.P.Korolev RSC Energia, V.P. Glushko, Yu.S. Semenov, integrated launch vehicle, orbital station, crew transportation spacecraft, logistics transportation spacecraft, International Space Station.

The article briefly discusses the key achievements of the enterprise over 75 years from the formation of OKB-1 headed by S.P. Korolev for producing intercontinental range missiles to the current status of RSC Energia being the country’s and world leader in manned space flight. The developed intercontinental missiles R-7 and a closed-loop oxygen-hydrocarbon liquid-propellant rocket engine provided the basis for developing integrated launch vehicles which were used to launch the world's first Earth satellite, the first cosmonaut on the Earth, automatic interplanetary stations to the Moon, Venus, Mars. The diversification of the enterprise impeded S.P. Korolev to concentrate on manned space flights, and he initiated the transfer of development and manufacture of combat missiles to Makeyev DB, integrated launch vehicles to TsSKB Progress, communication and other satellites to M.F. Reshetnev ISS, lunar and interplanetary stations to S.A.Lavochkin NPO. In the 1980s under the guidance of V.P. Glushko the Energia super-heavy launch vehicle and Energia-Buran system in unmanned configuration were developed and successfully launched on the first try. The Salyut manned single-module orbital stations, Mir multifunctional multi-module space laboratory and successfully operating upgraded manned transportation (Soyuz) and logistics (Progress) spacecraft were developed. In the hard times of 1990s, RSC Energia under the guidance of Yu.P. Semenov saved the national cosmonautics through commercial research performed on the Mir station. At present, by launching three additional modules RSC Energia is completing assembly and integration of the Russian Segment into the International Space Station. Keywords. ОKB-1, S.P.Korolev RSC Energia, V.P. Glushko, Yu.S. Semenov, integrated launch vehicle, orbital station, crew transportation spacecraft, logistics transportation spacecraft, International Space Station.

The space station and other long-term manned spacecrafts will experience the risk of microbial corrosion, especially mold, which will be harmful to the platform system and astronauts. Aspergillus sp. has been widely reported to produce organic acids that corrode and destroy materials, and the ability of these crafts to fly through space can be significantly affected. Research on the mechanism that causes enhanced corrosion ability of fungi in space stations is important to control their growth.

As activities in space rapidly evolve, the International Space Station (ISS) is approaching its retirement date. Since decommissioning of the ISS is scheduled for 2030, the United States (US) must identify paths forward for space station operations in low-earth orbit (LEO). Having a manned LEO space station after the conclusion of the ISS program will allow the US to continue possessing a platform to conduct scientific research, advance technology, and investigate the effects of microgravity on biological physiology. Options to continue LEO operations include having private entities construct and operate commercial space stations, reusing components of the ISS, directing NASA to spearhead efforts in building a new space station, or abandoning US-led space stations in LEO altogether. We recommend that commercial firms build and operate space stations, permitting multiple platforms to be created while maintaining the legacy of the ISS. The US will have facilities in LEO for research and development, thus advancing technological and scientific knowledge for Earth-based applications and future space missions.

A review of the reports of the last two Moscow International Symposia on Solar System Research has been completed. In the first part of the review, 43 reports of the main session of the "Mars" section are considered. The works of leading experts in the field of planetary science cover a wide range of scientific and applied problems - from the study of the geological history and climate of Mars, the search for traces of life and subsurface water reserves, to new technologies in planetary research, mission planning, as well as monitoring solar activity and radiation conditions in the interplanetary space, orbit and the surface of Mars. The data obtained in the last two decades has made it possible to significantly advance in understanding the nature of Mars, but many unresolved questions remain regarding the climate in the early era, the existence of the Martian oceans in the past, biological and geological activity. The scientific results obtained by unmanned spacecraft should be fully taken into account in the development of manned deep space exploration programs. Key words: Solar system, planetology, international symposium, deep space, automatic interplanetary stations, Mars, Moon, reports review

Interoperability allows seamless data exchange among the heterogeneous networks and is a crucial problem for the growth of forthcoming 6G networks. The research has focussed on the interoperability issues in the Internet of Things (IoT) related to cross-domain and cross-platform applications. However, the future 6G communication networks are not limited to interoperating with IoT. The 6G networks must interoperate with the Wearable IoT (WIoT), brain abstracted Internet of Thinking (IoTk), Internet of Everything, and other space and undersea networks. The network softwarization, slicing, and intelligentization techniques are envisioned to support seamless data exchange between 6G and other heterogeneous networks. However, to successfully achieve the goal of global 360∘∘ connectivity in 3D space, interoperability issues with heterogeneous services, applications, protocols, networks, etc., must be solved. The integration and interoperability of 6G networks with all aforementioned heterogeneous networks are inevitable to realize the goals of 3D communication successfully. The paper proposes a taxonomy to provide deep insights into interoperability issues, challenges, and possible solutions for 6G interoperability with WIoT, IoTk, IoE, and other networks. Though the techniques mentioned above in 6G networks will allow interoperable solutions, the integration and interoperability issues persist due to heterogeneities in high-frequency bands, base stations, technologies, device identities, protocols, and interfaces. The paper summarizes significant challenges regarding interoperability issues in various areas related to 6G and highlights the broad scope to further research.

In the contemporary urban environment of mass transit, it falls to a small group of public officers to keep large number of travellers safe. The small size of their force and the often limited powers they exert mean that these public safety ‘transit officers’ must project more authority and control than they really have. It is this ambience of authority and control which, in most situations they encounter and seek to influence, is enough to keep the public safe. This paper examines the ambience of a group of transit officers working on the railway lines of an Australian capital city. We seek to show how transit officers are both influenced by, and seek to influence, the ambience of their workplace and the public spaces they inhabit whilst on duty, and here we take ambience to apply to the surrounding atmosphere, the aura, and the emotional environment of a place or situation: the setting, tone, or mood. For these transit officers to keep the public safe, they must themselves remain safe. A transit officer who is disabled in a confrontation with a violent offender is unable to provide protection to his or her passengers. Thus, in the culture of the transit officers, their own workplace safety takes on a higher significance. It affects not just themselves. The ambience exuded by transit officers, and how transit officers see their relationship with the travelling public, their management and other organisational work groups, is an important determinant of their work group’s safety culture. Researching the Working Lives of Transit Officers in Perth Our discussion draws on an ethnographic study of the working lives and communication cultures of transit officers (TOs) employed by the Public Transport Authority (PTA) of Western Australia (WA). Transit officers have argued that to understand fully the challenges of their work it is necessary to spend time with them as they undertake their daily duties: roster in, roster out. To this end, the research team and the employer organisation secured an ARC Linkage Grant in partnership with the PTA to fund doctoral candidate and ethnographer Christine Teague to research the workers’ point of view, and the workers’ experiences within the organisation. The two-hundred TOs are unique in the PTA. Neither of the other groups who ride with them on the trains, the drivers and revenue protection staff (whose sole job is to sell and check tickets), experiences the combination of intense contact with passengers, danger of physical injury or group morale. The TOs of the PTA in Perth operate from a central location at the main train station and the end stations on each line. Here there are change lockers where they can lock up their uniforms and equipment such as handcuffs and batons when not on duty, an equipment room where they sign out their radios, and ticket-checking machines. At the main train station there is also a gym, a canteen and holding cells for offenders they detain. From these end stations and central location, the TOs fan out across the network to all suburbs where they either operate from stations or onboard the trains. The TOs also do ‘delta van’ duty providing rapid, mobile back-up support for their colleagues on stations or trains, and providing transport for arrested persons to the holding cell or police lock up. TOs are on duty whenever the trains are running–but the evenings and nights are when they are mainly rostered on. This is when trouble mostly occurs. The TOs’ work ends only after the final train has completed its run and all offenders who may require detaining and charging have been transferred into police custody. While the public perceive that security is the TOs’ most frequent role, much of the work involves non-confrontational activity such as assisting passengers, checking tickets and providing a reassuring presence. One way to deal with an ambiguous role is to claim an ambience of power and authority regardless. Various aspects of the TO role permit and hinder this, and the paper goes on to consider aspects of ambience in terms of fear and force, order and safety, and role confusion. An Ambience of Fear and Force The TOs are responsible for front-line security in WA’s urban railway network. Their role is to offer a feeling of security for passengers using the rail network after the bustle of the work day finishes, and is replaced by the mainly recreational travels of the after hours public. This is the time when some passengers find the prospect of evening travel on the public transport rail network unsettling–so unsettling that it was a 2001 WA government election promise (WA Legislative Council) that every train leaving the city centre after 7pm would have two TOs riding on it. Interestingly, recruitment levels have never been high enough for this promise to be fully kept. The working conditions of the TOs reflect the perception, and to an extent, the reality that some late night travel on public transport involves negotiating an edgy ambience with an element of risk, rubbing shoulders with people who may be loud, rowdy, travelling in a group, and or drug and alcohol affected. As Fred (all TO names are pseudonyms) comments: You’re not dealing with rational people, you’re not dealing with ‘people’: most of the people you’re dealing with are either drunk or under the influence of drugs, so they’re not rational, they don’t hear you, they don’t understand what you’re saying, they just have no sense of what’s right or wrong, you know? Especially being under the influence, so I mean, you can talk till you’re blue in the face with somebody who’s drunk or on drugs, I mean, all you have to say is one thing. ‘Oh, can I see your ticket please’, ‘oh, why do I need a fucking ticket’, you know? They just don’t get simple everyday messages. Dealing with violence and making arrest is a normal part of this job. Jo described an early experience in her working life as a TO:Within the first week of coming out of course I got smacked on the side of the head, but this lady had actually been certified, like, she was nuts. She was completely mental and we were just standing on the train talking and I’ve turned around to say something to my partner and she was fine, she was as calm as, and I turned around and talked to my partner and the next thing I know I ended up with her fist to the side of my head. And I went ‘what the hell was that’? And she went off, she went absolutely ballistic. I ended up arresting her because it was assault on an officer whether she was mental or not so I ended up arresting her.Although Jo here is describing how she experienced an unprovoked assault in the early days of her career as a TO, one of the most frequent precursors to a TO injury occurs when the TO is required to make an arrest. The injury may occur when the passenger to be arrested resists or flees, and the TO gives chase in dark or treacherous circumstances such as railway reserves and tunnels, or when other passengers, maybe friends or family of the original person of concern, involve themselves in an affray around the precipitating action of the arrest. In circumstances where capsicum spray is the primary way of enforcing compliance, with batons used as a defence tool, group members may feel that they can take on the two TOs with impunity, certainly in the first instance. Even though there are security cameras on trains and in stations, and these can be cued to cover the threatening or difficult situations confronting TOs, the conflict is located in the here-and-now of the exchanges between TOs and the travelling public. This means the longer term consequence of trouble in the future may hold less sway with unruly travellers than the temptation to try to escape from trouble in the present. In discussing the impact of remote communications, Rubert Murdoch commented that these technologies are “a powerful influence for civilised behaviour. If you are arranging a massacre, it will be useless to shoot the cameraman who has so inconveniently appeared on the scene. His picture will already be safe in the studio five thousand miles away and his final image may hang you” (Shawcross 242). Unfortunately, whether public aggression in these circumstances is useless or not, the daily experience of TOs is that the presence of closed circuit television (CCTV) does not prevent attacks upon them: nor is it a guarantee of ‘civilised behaviour’. This is possibly because many of the more argumentative and angry members of the public are dis-inhibited by alcohol or other drugs. Police officers can employ the threat or actual application of stun guns to control situations in which they are outnumbered, but in the case of TOs they can remain outnumbered and vulnerable until reinforcements arrive. Such reinforcements are available, but the situation has to be managed through the communication of authority until the point where the train arrives at a ‘manned’ station, or the staff on the delta vehicle are able to support their colleagues. An Ambience of Order and Safety Some public transport organisations take this responsibility to sustain an ambience of order more seriously than others. The TO ethnographer, Christine Teague, visited public transport organisations in the UK, USA and Canada which are recognised as setting world-class standards for injury rates of their staff. In the USA particularly, there is a commitment to what is called ‘the broken windows’ theory, where a train is withdrawn from service promptly if it is damaged or defaced (Kelling and Coles; Maple and Mitchell). According to Henry (117): The ‘Broken Windows’ theory suggests that there is both a high correlation and a causal link between community disorder and more serious crime: when community disorder is permitted to flourish or when disorderly conditions or problems are left untended, they actually cause more serious crime. ‘Broken windows’ are a metaphor for community disorder which, as Wilson and Kelling (1982) use the term, includes the violation of informal social norms for public behaviour as well as quality of life offenses such as littering, graffiti, playing loud radios, aggressive panhandling, and vandalism.This theory implies that the physical ambience of the train, and by extension the station, may be highly influential in terms of creating a safe working environment. In this case of ‘no broken window’ organisations, the TO role is to maintain a high ‘quality of life’ rather than being a role predominantly about restraining and bringing to justice those whose behaviour is offensive, dangerous or illegal. The TOs in Perth achieve this through personal means such as taking pride in their uniforms, presenting a good-natured demeanour to passengers and assisting in maintaining the high standard of train interiors. Such a priority, and its link to reduced workforce injury, suggests that a perception of order impacts upon safety. It has long been argued that the safety culture of an organisation affects the safety performance of that organisation (Pidgeon; Leplat); but it has been more recently established that different cultural groupings in an organisation conceive and construct their safety culture differently (Leith). The research on ‘safety culture’ raises a problematic which is rarely addressed in practice. That problematic is this: managers frequently engage with safety at the level of instituting systems, while workers engage with safety in terms of behaviour. When Glendon and Litherland comment that, contrary to expectations, they could find no relationship between safety culture and safety performance, they were drawing attention to the fact that much managerial safety culture is premised upon systems involving tick boxes and the filling in of report forms. The broken window approach combines the managerial tick box with managerial behaviour: a dis-ordered train is removed from service. To some extent a general lack of fit between safety culture and safety performance endorses Everett’s view that it is conceptually inadequate to conceive organisations as cultures: “the conceptual inadequacy stems from the failure to distinguish between culture and behavioural features of organizational life” (238). The general focus upon safety culture as a way of promoting improvements in safety performance assumes that compliance with a range of safety systems will guarantee a safe workplace. Such an assumption, however, risks positioning the injured worker as responsible for his or her own predicament and sets up an environment in which some management officials are wont to seek ways in which that injured worker’s behaviour failed to conform with safety rules or safety processes. Yet there are roles which place workers in harm’s way, including military duties, law enforcement and some emergency services. Here, the work becomes dangerous as it becomes disorderly. An Ambience of Roles and Confusion As the research reported here progressed, it became clear that the ambience around the presentation of the self in the role of a TO (Goffman) was an important part of how ‘safety’ was promoted and enacted in their work upon the PTA (WA) trains, face to face with the travelling public. Goffman’s view of all people, not specifically TOs, is that: Regardless of the particular objective which the individual has in mind and of his motive for having this objective, it will be in his interests to control the conduct of the others, especially their responsive treatment of him. This will largely be through influencing the perception and definition that others will come to formulate of him. He will influence them by expressing himself in such a way that the kind of impression given off will lead them to act voluntarily in accordance with his own plan. (3)This ‘influencing of perception’ is an important element of performing the role of a TO. This task of the TOs is made all the more difficult because of confusions about their role in relation to two other officers: police (who have more power to act in situations of public safety) and revenue project officers (who have less), as we now discuss. The aura of the TO role borrows somewhat from those quintessential law and order officers: the police. TOs work in pairs, like many police, to support each other. They have a range of legal powers including the power of arrest, and they carry handcuffs, a baton and capsicum spray as a means of helping ensure their safety and effectiveness in circumstances where they might be outnumbered. The tools of their trade are accessibly displayed on heavy leather belts around their waists and their uniforms have similarities with police uniforms. However, in some ways these similarities are problematic, because TOs are not afforded the same respect as police. This situation underlines of the ambiguities negotiated within the ambience of what it is to be a TO, and how it is to conduct oneself in that role. Notwithstanding the TOs’ law and order responsibilities, public perceptions of the role and some of the public’s responses to the officers can position these workers as “plastic cops” (Teague and Leith). The penultimate deterrent of police officers, the stun gun (Taser), is not available to TOs who are expected to control all incidents arising on duty through the fact that they operate in pairs, with capsicum spray available and, as a last resort, are authorised to use their batons in self defence. Furthermore, although TOs are the key security and enforcement staff in the PTA workforce, and are managed separately from related staff roles, they believe that the clarity of this distinction is compromised because of similarities in the look of Revenue Protection Officers (RPOs). RPOs work on the trains to check that passengers have tickets and have paid the correct fares, and obtain names and addresses to issue infringement notices when required. They are not PTA employees, but contracted staff from an outside company. They also work in pairs. Significantly, the RPO uniform is in many respects identical to that of the TO, and this appears to be a deliberate management choice to make the number of TOs seem greater than it is: extending the TO ambience through to the activities of the RPOs. However, in the event of a disturbance, TOs are required and trained to act, while RPOs are instructed not to get involved; even though the RPOs appear to the travelling public to be operating in the role of a law-and-order-keeper, RPOs are specifically instructed not to get involved in breaches of the peace or disruptive passenger behaviour. From the point of view of the travelling public, who observe the RPO waiting for TOs to arrive, it may seems as if a TO is passively standing by while a chaotic situation unravels. As Angus commented: I’ve spoken to quite a few members of public and received complaints from them about transit officers and talking more about the incident have found out that it was actually [RPOs] that are dealing with it. So it’s creating a bad image for us …. It’s Transits that are copping all the flak for it … It is dangerous for us and it’s a lot of bad publicity for us. It’s hard enough, the job that we do and the lack of respect that we do get from people, we don’t need other people adding to it and making it harder. Indeed, it is not only the travelling public who can mistake the two uniforms. Mike tells of an “incident where an officer [TO] has called for backup on a train and the guys have got off [the train at the next station] and just stood there, and he didn’t realise that they are actually [revenue protection] officers, so he effectively had no backup. He thought he did, but he didn’t.” The RPO uniform may confer an ambience of power borrowed from TOs and communicated visually, but the impact is to compromise the authority of the TO role. Unfortunately, what could be a complementary role to the TOs becomes one which, in the minds of the TO workforce, serves to undermine their presence. This effect of this role confusion is to dilute the aura of authority of the TOs. At one end of a power continuum the TO role is minimised by those who see it as a second-rate ‘Wannabe cop’ (Teague and Leith 2008), while its impact is diluted at the other end by an apparently deliberate confusion between the TO broader ‘law and order’ role, and the more limited RPO revenue collection activities. Postlude To the passengers of the PTA in Perth, the presence and actions of transit officers appear as unremarkable as the daily commute. In this ethnographic study of their workplace culture, however, the transit officers have revealed ways in which they influence the ambience of the workplace and the public spaces they inhabit whilst on duty, and how they are influenced by it. While this ambient inter-relationship is not documented in the organisation’s occupational safety and health management system, the TOs are aware that it is a factor in their level at safety at work, both positively and negatively. Clearly, an ethnography study is conducted at a certain point in time and place, and culture is a living and changing expression of human interaction. The Public Transport Authority of Western Australia is committed to continuous improvement in safety and to the investigation of all ways and means in which to support TOs in their daily activities. This is evident not only in their support of the research and their welcoming of the ethnographer into the workforce and onto the tracks, but also in their robust commitment to change as the findings of the research have progressed. In particular, changes in the ambient TO culture and in the training and daily practices of TOs have already resulted from this research or are under active consideration. Nonetheless, this project is a cogent indicator of the fact that a safety culture is critically dependent upon intangible but nonetheless important factors such as the ambience of the workplace and the way in which officers are able to communicate their authority to others. References Everett, James. “Organizational Culture and Ethnoecology in Public Relations Theory and Practice.” Public Relations Research Annual. Vol. 2. Eds. Larissa Grunig and James Grunig. Hillsdale, NJ, 1990. 235-251. Glendon, Ian, and Debbie Litherland. “Safety Climate Factors, Group Differences and Safety Behaviour in Road Construction.” Safety Science 39.3 (2001): 157-188. Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin, 1959. Henry, Vincent. The Comstat Paradigm: Management Accountability in Policing, Business and the Public Sector. New York: Looseleaf Law Publications, 2003. Kelling, George, and Catherine Coles. Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities. New York: Touchstone, 1996. Leith, David. Workplace Culture and Accidents: How Management Can Communicate to Prevent Injuries. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag, 2008. Leplat, Jacques. “About Implementation of Safety Rules.” Safety Science 29.3 (1998): 189-204. Maple, Jack, and Chris Mitchell. The Crime Fighter: How You Can Make Your Community Crime-Free. New York: Broadway Books, 1999. Pidgeon, Nick. “Safety Culture and Risk Management in Organizations.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 22.1 (1991): 129-140. Shawcross, William. Rupert Murdoch. London: Chatto & Windus, 1992. Teague, Christine, and David Leith. “Men of Steel or Plastic Cops? The Use of Ethnography as a Transformative Agent.” Transforming Information and Learning Conference Transformers: People, Technologies and Spaces, Edith Cowan University, Perth, WA, 2008. ‹http://conferences.scis.ecu.edu.au/TILC2008/documents/2008/teague_and_leith-men_of_steel_or_plastic_cops.pdf›. Wilson, James, and George Kelling. “Broken Windows.” The Atlantic Monthly (Mar. 1982): 29-38. WA Legislative Council. “Metropolitan Railway – Transit Guards 273 [Hon Ed Dermer to Minister of Transport Hon. Simon O’Brien].” Hansard 19 Mar. 2009: 2145b.