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The POLAR-2 mission consists of 3 instruments designed with the combined aim of producing a deeper understanding of Gamma-Ray Bursts. To achieve this, POLAR-2 relies on polarisation measurements and, for the first time will provide these…
Wheeled planetary rovers such as the Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) and Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) have provided unprecedented, detailed images of the Mars surface. However, these rovers are large and are of high-cost as they need to…
Small-scale robots hold great potential for targeted cargo delivery in minimally-inv asive medicine. However, current robots often face challenges to locomote efficiently on slip pery biological tissue surfaces, especially when loaded with…
Regular, low-cost Decadal-class science missions to planetary destinations will be enabled by high-{\Delta}V small spacecraft, such as the high-energy Photon, and small launch vehicles, such as Electron, to support expanding opportunities…
This paper introduces novel air actuated spherical robot called "RollRoller". The RollRoller robot consists of two essential parts: tubes covered with a shell as a frame and mechanical controlling parts to correspond movements. The…
We present the results of a high angular resolution study of the BL Lac object Markarian 501 in the radio band. We consider data taken at 14 different epochs, ranging between 1.6 GHz and 22 GHz in frequency, and including new Space VLBI…
The Center for Astrophysics,Space Physics, and Engineering Research (CASPER) has completed construction and calibration of a Light Gas Gun (LGG), which is used for low velocity impact studies. At geosynchronous orbit, space debris can…
To date, insect scale robots capable of controlled flight have used flapping wings for generating lift, but this requires a complex and failure-prone mechanism. A simpler alternative is electrohydrodynamic (EHD) thrust, which requires no…
The next generation of high power targets will use more complex geometries, novel materials, and new concepts (like flowing granular materials); however, the current numerical approaches will not be sufficient to converge towards a reliable…
In lunar and planetary exploration, legged robots have attracted significant attention as an alternative to conventional wheeled robots, which struggle to traverse rough and uneven terrain. To enable locomotion over highly irregular and…
The Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Sub-millimetre Telescope (BLAST) will operate on a Long Duration Balloon platform with large format bolometer arrays at 250, 350 and 500 microns, initially using a 2m mirror, with plans to increase to 2.5m.…
Micro-X is a NASA-funded, sounding rocket-borne X-ray imaging spectrometer that will allow high precision measurements of velocity structure, ionization state and elemental composition of extended astrophysical systems. One of the biggest…
As part of University College Dublin's MSc in Space Science & Technology curriculum, student teams, over the course of a single term, design, build, launch (on a meteorological balloon), operate and recover their own payload on a…
Jumping and hopping locomotion are efficient means of traversing unstructured rugged terrain with the former being the focus of roboticists; a focus that has recently been changing. This focus has led to significant performance and…
We develop a novel next generation light-weight highly flexible pediatric coil array, combine it with a high-density pediatric posterior array or conventional posterior phased array, and determine feasibility of pediatric clinical use. A…
This paper presents the results of a mission concept study for an autonomous micro-scale surface lander also referred to as PANIC - the Pico Autonomous Near-Earth Asteroid In Situ Characterizer. The lander is based on the shape of a regular…
We report the first-time recovery of a fresh meteorite fall using a drone and a machine learning algorithm. A fireball on the 1st April 2021 was observed over Western Australia by the Desert Fireball Network, for which a fall area was…
The Next Generation Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST-TNG) is a submillimeter mapping experiment planned for a 28 day long-duration balloon (LDB) flight from McMurdo Station, Antarctica during the 2018-2019 season.…
An aerial vehicle powered by flapping feathered wings was designed, developed and fabricated. Different from legacy flapping-wing aerial vehicles with membrane wings, the new design uses authentic bird feathers to fabricate wings. In field…
This paper introduces SCALER, a quadrupedal robot that demonstrates climbing on bouldering walls, overhangs, ceilings and trotting on the ground. SCALER is one of the first high-degrees of freedom four-limbed robots that can free-climb…