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Recent research using Reinforcement Learning (RL) to learn autonomous control for spacecraft operations has shown great success. However, a recent study showed their performance could be improved by changing the action space, i.e. control…
There are many ways of interpreting the world and they are highly interdependent. We exploit such complex dependencies and introduce a powerful multi-task hypergraph, in which every node is a task and different paths through the hypergraph…
The Telescope to Observe Planetary Systems (TOPS) is a proposed space mission to image in the visible (0.4-0.9 micron) planetary systems of nearby stars simultaneously in 16 spectral bands (resolution R~20). For the ~10 most favorable…
In this State of the Profession Consideration, we will discuss the state of hands-on observing within the profession, including: information about professional observing trends; student telescope training, beginning at the undergraduate and…
Future SAE Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous vehicles will require novel applications of localization, perception, control and artificial intelligence technology in order to offer innovative and disruptive solutions to current mobility…
We propose a general self-supervised learning approach for spatial perception tasks, such as estimating the pose of an object relative to the robot, from onboard sensor readings. The model is learned from training episodes, by relying on: a…
Introductory astronomy is one of the most widely-taken university science courses and a common means of satisfying general education requirements. This course is frequently taught in large sections by a variety of instructors, some with…
Object placement is a fundamental task for robots, yet it remains challenging for partially observed objects. Existing methods for object placement have limitations, such as the requirement for a complete 3D model of the object or the…
The number of small satellites has grown dramatically in the past decade from tens of satellites per year in the mid-2010s to a projection of tens of thousands in orbit by the mid-2020s. This presents both problems and opportunities for…
We present a description of a new instrument development, HARPS3, planned to be installed on an upgraded and roboticized Isaac Newton Telescope by end-2018. HARPS3 will be a high resolution (R = 115,000) echelle spectrograph with a…
This research was a qualitative transcendental phenomenological exploration of astronomy identity formation among astronomy majors and physics majors engaged in astronomy research. Participants (N=10), all of whom identified with…
The NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP) provides a year-long authentic astronomy research project by partnering a research astronomer with small groups of educators. NITARP has worked with a total of 103 educators since…
Despite the large budgets spent annually on astronomical research equipment such as telescopes, instruments and supercomputers, the general trend is to analyse and view the resulting datasets using small, two-dimensional displays. We report…
The field of time-domain astronomy has experienced unprecedented growth due to the increasing deployment of robotic telescopes capable of autonomous, round-the-clock sky monitoring. These instruments have revolutionized the detection and…
We present a description of the automated system used by RoboNet to prioritise follow up observations of microlensing events to search for planets. The system keeps an up-to-date record of all public data from OGLE and MOA together with any…
We present the first public release of our generic neural network training algorithm, called SkyNet. This efficient and robust machine learning tool is able to train large and deep feed-forward neural networks, including autoencoders, for…
We present the results of a large scale simulation, reproducing the behavior of a data center for the build-up and maintenance of a complete catalog of space debris in the upper part of the low Earth orbits region (LEO). The purpose is to…
Background: Dataset skills are used in STEM fields from healthcare work to astronomy research. Few fields explicitly teach students the skills to analyze datasets, and yet the increasing push for authentic science implies these skills…
Global citizenship plays an important role in today's schools. Many subjects taught in schools have already incorporated such ideas. Science and physics have also followed suit. However, when dealing with astronomy - a topic so seemingly…
The main goal of the MASTER-Net project is to produce a unique fast sky survey with all sky observed over a single night down to a limiting magnitude of 19 - 20mag. Such a survey will make it possible to address a number of fundamental…