Special Section Guest Editorial: Lynx X-Ray Observatory

The <i>Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems</i> (JATIS) publishes peer-reviewed papers reporting on original research in the development, testing, and application of telescopes, instrumentation, techniques, and systems for ground- and space-based astronomy.

The Propulsion Instrumentation Working Group - Introduction and discussion of subteam activities

The article reveals the topicality of child behaviour observation in the context of social education. Also, the focus is directed towards the ideas by Prof. Bronislovas Bitinas concerning the possibilities of the development of educational science and practice by relying on diagnostic results of child behaviour and activities. The actual problem is related to the application of observation as a working instrument while implementing social pedagogical activities of child behaviour correction.&#x0D; The aim of the article is to describe the possibilities of the application of child behavior observation as a tool of social pedagogue correctional activities for children from risk groups. The research was conducted by applying retrospective analysis, research data analysis and synthesis.&#x0D; The article defines the prerequisites of the development of the behaviour observation instrument devoted to the solution of delinquency prevention problems. The attention is paid to the argument by Prof. B. Bitinas that sporadic educational activities directed to individual work with children from risk groups are not effective. On the contrary, systematic activities including deviant child behaviour observation are necessary.&#x0D; Behaviour observation is analyzed not only as an instrument but also as a purposeful directed and organized cognitive process which creates the conditions to improve social pedagogical activities with children and the collection of the necessary information.&#x0D; Generally speaking about the behaviour observation instrument suggested by Prof. B. Bitinas and active participation in the development of the instrument and its application, it should be stressed that it is the first focused attempt to develop a scientifically based working instrument for social pedagogues. The appropriate and consistent application of the behaviour observation instrument in social education provides prerequisites for sensitively diagnosing the behavior and choosing well-timed, purposeful, directive and pedagogically sound behaviour correction strategies. Meaningful application of the behaviour observation instrument in social pedagogue work provides the background for more effective psycho-pedagogical work with children from risk groups.

Consultants (N = 8) and teachers (N = 25) participated in the development and application of a self-assessment instrument for formation, the Catholic School Formation Index (CSFI). This instrument supported formation within a graduate certificate program offered by Australian Catholic University. The content validity of the CSFI was established from a review of Catholic school mission and identity literature, and from consultant commentary. Research outcomes confirmed the validity of the CSFI through implementation at the commencement and conclusion of the program. Results indicated statistically significant increases in teacher competency for mission across formation fields (Personal, Relational, Professional, and Communal) and mission capabilities (Knowledge, Skills, Behaviours, and Dispositions). The instrument is a useful resource for formation planning, delivery and monitoring by teachers, mentors and lecturers.

Based on summarizing the essential procedures and elements of traditional manipulation techniques of warming needle moxibustion and determining the quantitative parameters and indicators for evaluating the operation of this acupuncture technique, a training instrument of warming needle moxibustion was developed and adopted in the curriculum teaching of practice. It showed that this instrument could quantify the speed of fixing mugwort ball on the needle handle, the number of the prepared mugwort ball, the duration for anti-vibration, the frequency of anti-vibration and the burning time of mugwort ball. The instrument could objectively evaluate the skills of warming needle moxibustion and the effects of fixing mugwort ball. Besides, it may provide the references to improve the protocol of the future research. The development and application of the practical training instrument of warming needle moxibustion is conductive to cultivate the standardization and accuracy of the technique operation in students, and it is significant for objectif-ying the teaching course of warming needle and teaching assessment, as well as for diversifying the teaching modes. Moreover, it plays an exemplary role in the practical training of other acupuncture and moxibustion techniques.

Pluto orbits the Sun at a mean distance of 39.5 AU (astronomical units; 1 AU is the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun), with an orbital period of 248 Earth years. Its orbit is just eccentric enough to cross that of Neptune. They never collide thanks to a 2:3 mean-motion resonance: Pluto completes two orbits of the Sun for every three by Neptune. The Pluto system consists of Pluto and its large satellite Charon, plus four small satellites: Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. Pluto and Charon are spherical bodies, with diameters of 2,377 and 1,212 km, respectively. They are tidally locked to one another such that each spins about its axis with the same 6.39-day period as their mutual orbit about their common barycenter. Pluto’s surface is dominated by frozen volatiles nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide. Their vapor pressure supports an atmosphere with multiple layers of photochemical hazes. Pluto’s equator is marked by a belt of dark red maculae, where the photochemical haze has accumulated over time. Some regions are ancient and cratered, while others are geologically active via processes including sublimation and condensation, glaciation, and eruption of material from the subsurface. The surfaces of the satellites are dominated by water ice. Charon has dark red polar stains produced from chemistry fed by Pluto’s escaping atmosphere. The existence of a planet beyond Neptune had been postulated by Percival Lowell and William Pickering in the early 20th century to account for supposed clustering in comet aphelia and perturbations of the orbit of Uranus. Both lines of evidence turned out to be spurious, but they motivated a series of searches that culminated in Clyde Tombaugh’s discovery of Pluto in 1930 at the observatory Lowell had founded in Arizona. Over subsequent decades, basic facts about Pluto were hard-won through application of technological advances in astronomical instrumentation. During the progression from photographic plates through photoelectric photometers to digital array detectors, space-based telescopes, and ultimately, direct exploration by robotic spacecraft, each revealed more about Pluto. A key breakthrough came in 1978 with the discovery of Charon by Christy and Harrington. Charon’s orbit revealed the mass of the system. Observations of stellar occultations constrained the sizes of Pluto and Charon and enabled the detection of Pluto’s atmosphere in 1988. Spectroscopic instruments revealed Pluto’s volatile ices. In a series of mutual events from 1985 through 1990, Pluto and Charon alternated in passing in front of the other as seen from Earth. Observations of these events provided additional constraints on their sizes and albedo patterns and revealed their distinct compositions. The Hubble Space Telescope’s vantage above Earth’s atmosphere enabled further mapping of Pluto’s albedo patterns and the discovery of the small satellites. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flew through the system in 2015. Its instruments mapped the diversity and compositions of geological features on Pluto and Charon and provided detailed information on Pluto’s atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind.

Space Telescope Antenna Pointing System Analysis and Test

SPACE TELESCOPE ANTENNA POINTING SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND TEST*

The Full-sun Ultraviolet Rocket SpecTrograph (FURST) is a sounding rocket designed to acquire the first full-disk integrated high resolution vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectra of the Sun. The data enable analysis of the Sun comparable to stellar spectra measured by astronomical instruments such as those on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The mission is jointly operated by teams at Montana State University (MSU), developing the instrument, and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), developing the camera and calibration systems, and is scheduled to launch from White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in 2022. This mission requires the development of a pre- and post-launch calibration plan for absolute radiometric and wavelength calibration to reliably generate Hubble analogue spectra. Absolute radiometric calibration, though initially planned to be performed at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) calibration facilities, is now planned to be completed with a portable VUV calibration system provided by MSFC, due to instrument incompatibilities with NIST infrastructure. The portable calibration system is developed to provide absolute wavelength calibration and track changes in calibration over the duration of the mission. The portable calibration system is composed mainly of a VUV collimator equipped with an extreme ultraviolet line source and calibrated photodiodes. The calibration system is developed to accommodate both repeatable wavelength and radiometric testing of the FURST instrument at various test sites before and after launch. Presented here are the requirements, design, and implementation of this portable calibration system with a focus on those features most significant to radiometric measurements.

The purpose of this research is to produce a test instrument to measure mathematical problem solving abilities on quadrilaterals and triangles in class VII SMP/MTs students. The test developed is in the form of a description that meets the criteria for logical and empirical validity, level of difficulty and good discriminating power. This research uses a development studies development model which consists of pleminary and formative evaluation stages. The formative evaluation stage consists of self-evaluation, expert review, one-to-one, small group and field test activities. The research instruments used were validation sheets, student response questionnaires and KPMM test questions. The research subjects were 33 students of class VIII.3 of SMPN 8 Pekanbaru. Research data was obtained by validating the test instrument with three validators and testing the test instrument with research subjects at the small group and field test stages. The results of the research show that the average score of test instrument validators for content, construction and language aspects is 87.82%, from the 20 questions developed, 20 questions were logically valid, and 17 questions were empirically valid with a reliability value of 0.90 in the category very high, while the level of difficulty obtained was 13 questions with a medium level of difficulty, 2 questions with an easy level of difficulty and 1 question with a difficult level of difficulty, and the distinguishing power was 9 questions in the good category, 6 questions in the sufficient category, and 2 questions in the poor category . Of the 20 questions developed, there were 17 questions that met the criteria for being logically and empirically valid and had a good level of difficulty and differentiating power.

This study aims to produce a test instrument for the quality of motion for physical fitness activities and to determine the feasibility of a test instrument for the quality of movement for physical fitness activities in junior high school students. This type of research is research and development (research &amp; development) of the Borg and Gall model, which is simplified by Puslitjaknov involving five steps, namely: 1) analysis of the product being developed, 2) product development, 3) expert validation and revision, 4) group trials small scale and revision, 5) final product. The results of the research are in the form of a test instrument for the quality of movement for physical fitness activities, suitable for use and has been validated by experts for valid and reliable criteria, where the validity criteria are high, namely 0.80, with moderate expert consistency, namely 0.562, and based on the results of product trials of motion quality test instruments obtained valid and reliable criteria, where the results of the product Cobe test received an average value of r count 0.78 &gt; 0.70, the validity was classified as high, and the reliability test received a score of 0.943 from 12 students the data is valid thus the instrument is in the high criteria. So the resulting motion quality test instrument is suitable for a learning evaluation tool on physical fitness activity material.

The objective of this study is to create a misconception test instrument for identifying and understanding misconceptions in students regarding Bernoulli's Principle, particularly during hybrid learning. The validity and reliability of the test instrument are described in order to assess its effectiveness. Descriptive analysis techniques were employed to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the test instrument exhibits high validity (94.16%) and reliability (0.72%). On average, 34.9% of students were found to possess misconceptions regarding the sub-topic of Bernoulli's Principle. Item number 5 was identified as having the highest misconception rate (53%), specifically in relation to determining the speed of airflow above and below an aircraft's wings. These findings indicate that some students lack a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental concepts underlying Bernoulli's Principle, relying solely on its equations. Consequently, this research suggests that teachers can mitigate misconceptions and identify their causes by employing a four-tier diagnostic test, especially in the context of the sub-topic of Bernoulli's Principle

When NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe announced the cancellation of Servicing Mission 4 (SM4) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), scientists and politicians were outraged. A decision that could shorten the lifetime of this enormously successful observatory initially seems difficult to justify. However, a close examination of the history of the HST and its linkage to the Space Shuttle reveals that the decision was the right one for the future of both space-based astronomy and human spaceflight. By avoiding the pitfalls of connecting these two separate enterprises, NASA will be better able to implement the Vision for Space Exploration. Using Hubble as a case study, this paper demonstrates from a programmatic and a scientific perspective the weaknesses inherent in linking space-based astronomy to human spaceflight. Although the four servicing missions conducted so far have greatly augmented the scientific value of the HST, the telescope has encountered numerous setbacks because of its dependence on the Shuttle. Furthermore, with or without the SM4 upgrades made, Hubble will not survive long enough to serve as an adequate complement to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). A Next-generation Hubble Space Telescope (NHST) will be needed when the JWST’s planned five-year mission ends in 2016. The cancellation of SM4 could spur the development of such a telescope. Even if efforts to service Hubble robotically are not fully successful before the telescope goes dark, robotic servicing capabilities will have been developed for the NHST and other future space telescopes. The cancellation of Hubble Servicing Mission 4 signifies the end of an unnecessary linkage between human spaceflight and space-based astronomy. By removing this dependency as soon as possible, NASA will be able to reserve the costs and risks associated with human spaceflight for those activities for which humans are best suited – the exploration and development of the inner solar system.

The background to this research is based on the need to improve students' mathematical literacy skills, which are integrated with character formation based on Pancasila values. This research aims to analyze the validity of the mathematics literacy test implemented with the Pancasila student profile in developing test instruments. This research uses the ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) development model, with a focus on validation of the instruments developed. The instrument consists of 20 questions that were validated by media experts, material experts, and language experts. The research results show that media validation, material validation, and language validation are in the very valid category. Of the 20 questions, 1 question item was declared valid in the very high category, 2 questions were valid in the high category, 14 questions were valid in the medium category, and 3 questions were valid in the low category. The reliability of the instrument is classified as high with a value of 0.783. Apart from that, 7 questions have good differentiating power, while 13 questions have sufficient differentiating power. Based on the level of difficulty, 4 questions are in the difficult criteria, 14 questions are in the medium criteria, and 4 questions are in the easy criteria. These results indicate that the mathematical literacy test instrument developed generally has good validity and reliability and can be used as an effective measuring tool in evaluating students' mathematical literacy abilities, as well as integrating the values ​​of the Pancasila student profile.

Parametric cost models can be used by designers and project managers to perform relative cost comparisons between major architectural cost drivers and allow high-level design trades; enable cost-benefit analysis for technology development investment; and, provide a basis for estimating total project cost between related concepts. This paper reports on recent revisions and improvements to our ground telescope cost model and refinements of our understanding of space telescope cost models. One interesting observation is that while space telescopes are 50X to 100X more expensive than ground telescopes, their respective scaling relationships are similar. Another interesting speculation is that the role of technology development may be different between ground and space telescopes. For ground telescopes, the data indicates that technology development tends to reduce cost by approximately 50% every 20 years. But for space telescopes, there appears to be no such cost reduction because we do not tend to re-fly similar systems. Thus, instead of reducing cost, 20 years of technology development may be required to enable a doubling of space telescope capability. Other findings include: mass should not be used to estimate cost; spacecraft and science instrument costs account for approximately 50% of total mission cost; and, integration and testing accounts for only about 10% of total mission cost.