This book covers the topic of Astronomy in the context of STEM Education. Astronomy is the branch of Science that deals with other objects in the Universe. At night, we can see other stars, the moon, sometimes planets, and, if we are lucky, comets. Astronomy dates back far in the history of mankind, starting with observations of the sky, and the development of theories of what it all meant, and how it all worked. The initial assumption was that the Earth was the center of the Universe, and...

This book is targeted to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) educators and administrators. It is intended to show how robots in particular, and engineering projects in general can be applied to their STEM program. It is a train-the-trainer document, pointing out sources of information and support to the teaching professional who knows how to present the material at the appropriate level.This book covers the topic of small mobile robotic sensor platforms for env...

This book covers the topic of weather in space, which is defined by our Sun. It interacts with our atmosphere and magnetic field (actually the atmosphere and magnetic fields (if any) of all the planets and moons), to influence our weather. It can impact our technology as well.The study of Space Weather depends on space physics. All of our Space Weather originates with the Sun. The first serious study's of the subject were undertaken in the International Geophysical Year, in 1957. A...

In the last 11 years, a lot has changed in this field. That's to be expected in a technology that is driven by Moore's Law, where complexity doubles every 18 months or so. So we have a factor of 7 or so, but actually the rate of change is increasing.Where we are today is machines built with multiple cores on one chip, each core being a complete computer. The same communication schemes discussed in this book are used, with the same trade-off's, shared memory or communication channel....

This book is about the Personal Robots from the 1980's that inspired hopes for the future. This was triggered, in part, by the robots of the Star War series. R2D2 was based on the three service droids of the early Science Fiction movie, Silent Running. They were named Huey, Louie, and Dewey. At the same time, personal computers were emerging as affordable and easier to use. The excitement and the technology reached a tipping point. Before this time, robotics mainly meant large hydraulic un...

This is a book on energy storage. Most electrical energy is AC, and is used when generated. Direct current is stored in battery, but there is no such things as an AC battery. There are other ways to store the energy. Solar cells only produce electricity during the day, and we might need the energy at night. Hydro power system generate power when there is a sufficient amount of water flow. Nuclear plants generate power as needed. Power from geothermal wells is generally available 24x7.

This book documents the development of missile and spacecraft guidance computers from the earliest efforts to the current Space Station and satellite onboard systems. This book developed from the author's presentation at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in 2009 for the Workshop on Flight Software. The second and third editions were expanded with new material and references. The fourth edition updated the material to the state of the art in 2014, with discussions of...

Apollo was built in the era of “big iron” computer mainframes. The concept of an onboard computer for space missions was radically new. There was only one place in the world that could design the Apollo Guidance Computers, and that was MIT. It took most of the U.S.’s production of integrated circuits, another radical idea replacing individual vacuum tubes, to build the AGC’s. It took 2,000 person-years of independent code review and validation to ensure that they would operate properly.

This book is intended as an introduction to the topics of computer virtualization and the cloud. We will see how the topics come together.The book includes extensive reference and background material. It will not teach you to be an expert in virtualization or cloud technologies. It will teach you to understand and appreciate these topics, and how they fit into the big picture of computing. The best way to learn these technologies is to use them.

This book starts with the British Army's attempt to take Fort Duquesne (currentl day Pittsburgh). Along the way is Fort Cumberland, the staging area. The expedition went horribly wrong, with the British taking massive causalitys and loosing their payroll in gold. It has never been found. Those are the facts. This is historical fiction, exploring verious threads about what could have happened. The author is a native of Cumberland, Maryland, the location of Fort Cumberland. This is a tale of...

This book discusses the application of Cubesat Clusters, Constellations, and Swarms in the exploration of the solar systems. This includes the Sun, the 8 primary planets and Pluto, many moons, the asteroid belt, comets, the ring systems of the four gas giants, and comets. There is a lot to explore. U.S. Spacecraft have been to all of the planets in the solar system. Although the planets (and Pluto) have been visited by spacecraft, Earth's moon has been somewhat explored, and many of the ot...

This book introduces and formalizes the topic of using increasingly capable autonomous robotic explorers on our home planet. We have long used robotic spacecraft to explore space, our moon, the other planets of our solar system, and their moons. At least one of our spacecraft, Voyager, has left the solar system, and is still returning data on interstellar space. Unmanned explorers precede human ventures into space, and have been to many more distant locations than we have.Our own p...