Low gravity is one of the most challenging aspects of robot space exploration. Due to changing gravitational force, the locomotion performance of a legged robot tends to reduce when the gravity decreases. Recently, quadrupedal robots have increasingly been promoted for space exploration. Most existing studies have mainly developed robot locomotion with an erect posture and focused on the use of leg functionality. However so far, the robot locomotion with a sprawling posture and a flexible spine has not been fully investigated. According to this research gap, we present here the sprawling posture robot with a flexible spine inspired by geckos for low-gravity locomotion enhancement. The gecko-inspired robot is constructed with the 3-DOF spine and the 4-DOF legs. The movement of the robot is controlled by a central pattern generator (CPG). The experiments were performed in a physical simulation under the gravities of Earth, Mar, and the Moon. The experimental results show that, due to the lateral bending movement of the flexible spine with a C-Shaped standing wave pattern, the locomotion speed of the robot is increased by 100%, compared to the one with a traditional fixed spine under each gravity. Based on these results, a sprawling-type quadruped robot with a flexible spine will shed a new light for the future study of robot space exploration under low-gravity conditions.

This paper proposes the study of the lightweight dynamic algorithm of a power management for a small LEO-orbit satellite application such as CubeSat. The proposed work was designed in connection with a rule-based decision method and real-time scheduling. Here, the functional payloads of the satellite tasks were considered consisting of an electric power unit, attitude controller module, and environmental space system. The main system functions of the satellite operation were scheduled at the work process and the scheduling of the mission tasks were based on decision-making rules. It shows that the lightweight dynamic algorithm was aimed to optimize the efficiency and performance. The study of the proposed work was based on a simulation to understand the energy behavior and also consider the task priority.

The novel dynamic algorithm was proposed in order to deal with the power condition and distribution modules. It allows the strategy of a power management depending on a linear decision rule approach. The factors of power management consist of a design of the state of charge (SoC) of batteries and the consumption characteristics of the payload satellite interfaces. The energy profile was modeled according to the LEO operation based on the orbital period. The satellite payloads were concerned energy budgets including a telecommunication, attitude controller and functional loads in action. As a result, the efficiency and performance of battery can contribute to the lifespan of a satellite, and also design of a miniaturized satellite.

Abstract: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which plunging the entire aviation industry into a deep crisis and putting hundreds of thousands of airline jobs at risk, affects Thai Airways flight attendants, with high stressors towards their job insecurity. As human factors are considered critical aspects that influence safety in aviation, this study aimed to 1) examine the impact of job insecurity on Thai Airways flight attendants’ mental health during COVID-19 disruption, 2) investigate how they managed themselves to regain life satisfaction during the indefinite suspension of all scheduled flights, and 3) measure psychological distress development, a year after the airline announcement to halt all air services. The GHQ-12 (General Health Questionnaire-12), a self-administered instrument, was adopted to screen flight attendants’ psychological well-being. Five male and seven female flight attendants, who had the highest scores, indicating worse conditions between 9 to 11 of total scores 12, were selected for the in-depth online interviews in February 2020 and a year later in January 2021. The result showed psychological strains caused by prolonged stress that can lead to safety-related performance decrements when flight attendants need to perform safety-critical roles in emergencies. Hence, the flight attendants should have a mental health check-up before resuming regular commercial flight operations.

LoRa is a Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) technology for Internet of Things (IoTs) application. Its advantages are low power consumption, inexpensive equipment cost, highly- secure access, and most importantly, good for long-range communication. Currently, LoRa network are extensively deployed worldwide. In the near future, that LoRa gateway may not be able to provide sufficient coverage for the ever-increasing deployment. A solution is to move the LoRa gateway up high to the satellite. The objective of this study was to theoretically investigate the feasibility of successful communication between ground sensor and LoRa gateway mounted in a satellite. In this study, sets of transmission parameters were analyzed whether, in principles, they would be able to support such kind of communication setup. For example, LoRa communicated in the frequency band 923 – 925 MHz in Thailand. Modified mathematical expressions were derived for link budget calculation. Using certain assumptions and this mathematical model, we discovered that, in principles, a suitable set of transmission parameters would be able to make the link budget sufficiently high so that this communication scheme would be feasible. The findings from this study may directly benefit developers of new applications of LoRa and IoTs satellite in their effort to design a communication scheme for their system. Nevertheless, the discovered feasibility was from the standpoints of theoretical matters. A valid experiment is needed in a future research to actually confirm this feasibility.

Innovation enhancement strategies in middle-income countries are usually limited by several challenges including knowledge attainment, business opportunities, and information infrastructure. These limitations seem to explain the situation in Thai space technological development as well. The country has not been able to concretize any space-oriented innovation, regardless of the fact that the National Astronomical Research Institute has the vision to be a world-renowned organization in astronomy, technology, and innovation. This research investigated the struggles of Thailand in the space economy as a case study of deep technological development in middle-income states. With the rise of telecommunication that facilitates distance learning, the study utilized online-class as a method to eliminate the limitation of insufficient knowledge and further investigate other constraints. The findings indicate that online lessons effectively respond to the lack of space-related knowledge. Additionally, a financial concern of having hands-on experiences in deep technology is diminished by the curricular design that is built from the understanding of local context. However, online learning addresses a new communication issue. The absence of a communication platform that leads to a low rate of peer discussion, especially after lessons, becomes the main obstacle to nourish R & D. The study suggests that communication infrastructure is a key element to instigate inspiration and implementation of knowledge in practice. This can be mutually supported by course-content providers and state authorities.