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The Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railroad Depot, constructed in 1917, is a locally significant example of standardized, functional railroad architecture in Sparta, Tennessee. The depot is associated with a pattern of railroad growth and monopoly that shaped economic and settlement trends in the southeast during the early twentieth century. Between 1902 and 1921, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, the parent company of the Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis, expanded its miles of track from 3,327 to 5,041 miles, representing an increase of 57%. Some of this new construction took place in White County as the railroad extended its 1884 Bon Air spur line to the new coal towns of Clifty, DeRossett, and Ravenscroft, near the border between White and Cumberland counties, in an attempt to better exploit coal and mineral ores. As historian Maury Klein observed in his study of the Louisville and Nashville, "it is significant that none of the new trackage tried to extend the L & N's territory but rather sought to exploit the existing territory more fully. What might be called a more mature phase of interterritorial strategy had arisen and was flourishing...[in the] cultivation of the sources of coal and ore traffic." (pp. 397-98)
White County was a significant producer of raw materials, especially coal and timber products, during the early twentieth century. After the coal company built an underground shaft at Bon Air in 1902, that single mine produced an average daily tonnage of 350 tons for the next twenty years. The adjacent Eastland Mine also opened in 1902 and produced an average of 350 tons daily for the next thirty years. Demand for raw materials increased even more dramatically during the First World War and great amounts of Cumberland Plateau coal and timber was shipped out of Sparta. White County walnut was especially in demand for use in gun stocks, first in orders from Allied nations and then, in late 1917 and 1918, for the U.S. Army.
Due to the increased traffic and demand for railroad services, the company in 1917 decided to replace the original frame Sparta depot, which housed only an office and freight room, with a new much larger brick depot. The new depot reflected the importance of the railroad, and the county's coal mines, to the economic life of Sparta. As the town's "gateway", it symbolized local prosperity and confidence at the height of the wartime boom in demand for raw materials. Moreover, the depot served Sparta itself as the town's major contact point between the national corporate economy and the local market economy.
The Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railroad Depot also embodies a trend in early twentieth century railroad architecture that balanced the cost-saving strategies of the railroads against the demands of a more sophisticated local community. The design achieved economy, functionalism and comfort under one roof. The waiting rooms accommodated more passenger traffic on the line, while the spacious freight room and loading platforms handled the increased volume of timber, mineral, and agricultural products being shipped out of the county. Although a standardized design lay at the heart of the depot's plan, its roof line and minimal Craftsman-style exterior detailing reflected the use of minor architectural features and varying roof shapes to give uniqueness to the building. Particularly distinctive were the wide, overhanging, unbracketed roof eaves. The square bay window of the business office also helped to add variety to the form while the functionally-placed windows on east and west elevations, along with the decorative band of bricks, added rhythm to the building's appearance.
The Nashville, Chattanooga, and St. Louis Railroad Depot is associated with and physically represents the peak of railroad influence in White County during the early twentieth century. Even after a period of decline due to the popularity of the automobile and the building of the Memphis to Bristol Highway, this small-town depot has survived and was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on December 7, 1992. All of the information above (and a bit more) was found on the original documents submitted for listing consideration and can be viewed here:
npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail/9ea0e226-5cd8-49c3-9e5...
Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image. Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6.
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11
The best way to view my photostream is through Flickriver with the following link: www.flickriver.com/photos/photojourney57/
HMS Example, one of a number of Archer class patrol boats doing a Scottish tour. These vessels are assigned to universities around the country and used as training ships for those interested in a career at sea.
Another example of turning around when everyone focuses on one subject. The group was feeding baby deer, when i happened to turn around and spot this great Stag grazing behind us. The ramshackle farmhouse adds a perfect backdrop to show how the Reindeer herders live day to day.
For more pictures and photography tips, follow me here www.facebook.com/MrcImagery
There are six examples of Enviro 400MMCs painted in this attractive two tone pink livery, for the 600 route to Edinburgh airport. Numbers 33443 & 444 were the initial ones adorned in November 2018, followed by an additional quartet in the late spring of 2019 (33445/447/448 & 449). The service was extended to begin at Whitburn earlier in the year and is the location of the photograph.
With grateful thanks to the kind and most welcoming driver for his assistance in this view.
Yeah, I'm taking myself for a little too wise 'n' awesome once more. However, here's a more or less full shot of the current Batcave! Please COMMENT!
A tree on Coochiemudlo Island in Moreton Bay, QLD, Australia.
Canon 5D Mk III with Canon EF 200mm F2.8L Mk II lens. 1/200th sec at F4, ISO 1600. Processed with Photoshop Elements 12.
Another fine example of what Labor Day in America is all about...the fine men and women of the industrial age when Henry Ford was the chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. This forever changed the idea & process of manufacturing and allowed Ford to create the first automobile that middle-class Americans could afford, and resulted in his conversion of the automobile from an expensive luxury item into an accessible conveyance profoundly impacting the landscape of the 20th century. Happy Labor Day...
Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image. Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6.
"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11
The best way to view my photostream is through Flickriver with the following link: www.flickriver.com/photos/photojourney57/
More than 2-years after the withdrawal from main-line service a visit to Swindon Works on 11 April 1979 found a few partially cut Westerns, including this example, which my notes indicate as being the remains of D1001, formerly named 'Western Pathfinder' (now you can see from the title of this image how quick and sharp is my sense of humour).
Also seen awaiting cutting that day were some brake-tenders and some 6-wheeled milk tankers.
VV 340, also known as Arp 302, provides a textbook example of colliding galaxies seen in the early stages of their interaction. The edge-on galaxy near the top of the image is VV 340 North and the face-on galaxy at the bottom of the image is VV 340 South. Millions of years later these two spirals will merge -- much like the Milky Way and Andromeda will likely do billions of years from now. Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) are shown here along with optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, blue). VV 340 is located about 450 million light years from Earth.
Because it is bright in infrared light, VV 340 is classified as a Luminous Infrared Galaxy (LIRG). These observations are part of the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey (GOALS) combining data from Chandra, Hubble, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and ground-based telescopes. The survey includes over two hundred LIRGs in the local Universe. A chief motivation of this study is to understand why LIRGs emit so much infrared radiation. These galaxies generate energy at a rate this is tens to hundreds of times larger than that emitted by a typical galaxy. An actively growing supermassive black hole or an intense burst of star formation is often invoked as the most likely source of the energy.
Work on the full GOALS survey is ongoing, but preliminary analysis of data for VV 340 provides a good demonstration of the power of observing with multiple observatories. The Chandra data show that the center of VV 340 North likely contains a rapidly growing supermassive black hole that is heavily obscured by dust and gas. The infared emission of the galaxy pair, as observed by Spitzer, is dominated by VV 340 North, and also provides evidence for a growing supermassive black hole. However, only a small fraction of the infrared emission is generated by this black hole.
By contrast most of the ultraviolet and short wavelength optical emission in the galaxy pair -- as observed by GALEX and HST -- comes from VV 340 South. This shows that VV 340 South contains a much higher level of star formation. (The Spitzer and GALEX images are not shown here because they strongly overlap with the optical and X-ray images, but they are shown in a separate composite image.) VV 340 appears to be an excellent example of a pair of interacting galaxies evolving at different rates.
These results on VV 340 were published in the June 2009 issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The lead author was Lee Armus from the Spitzer Science Center in Pasadena, CA.
Credit: X-ray NASA/CXC/IfA/D.Sanders et al; Optical NASA/STScI/NRAO/A.Evans et al
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/vv340/
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
Constructed between 1847 and 1849 by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, (MS&LR - later became the Great Central), this is Torksey railway Viaduct, which crosses the River Trent between Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire, roughly half way between Lincoln and Gainsborough. Designed by John Fowler (1817-1898), who later was one of the two engineers for the Forth Rail Bridge, Torksey Viaduct is a rare, and early surviving example of a tubular girder bridge.
There are two 130-foot spans over the River Trent, each consisting of two massive wrought iron girders - as seen here.
These are supported on stone piers - one in the centre and one at each side. On the Lincolnshire side is a 570-foot approach viaduct of 20 spans, and the bridge proper starts over a small natural island in the river. The position of the Bridge was chosen to use this island to simplify the task.
Captain Lintorn Simmons, the Board of Trade’s inspector, refused to grant permission for the viaduct to be opened, having “entertained doubts as to the ultimate security” of the bridge. After much argument, Fowler, supported by the Engineering profession, won the day, and the first train passed over in April 1850.
The bridge was twice strengthened - in 1877 & 1897, because increasing traffic and train loads. A conventional steel lattice girder (again, seen in this photograph) was inserted centrally into both main spans in the 1897 works, whilst the northern girders were moved out to maintain track clearances.
The "Leverton Branch", as this line (which ran between Sykes Junction near Lincoln and Clarborough, just West of Gainsborough), was known, was closed on November 3rd 1959, with Lincoln-Sheffield trains taking the only slightly less direct route through Gainsborough Lea Road. However, the line to the West of the Trent was reinstated in 1969 to serve the new power station at Cottam's need for coal, whilst on the Lincolnshire side, the line was run from Sykes Junction to the Shell petrol depot at Torksey. Only the viaduct itself remained closed.
The Oil traffic ceased in the late 1980s, and the track is now all lifted (and the road bridge on the Gainsborough-Lincoln road was removed).
Until the early 1990s it was possible the walk across the viaduct - this was no longer possible by the 1990s as the track bed had been removed on the bridge itself, and that part was fenced off. Happily, this was resolved during the las 12 months. The cycling and footpath charity Sustrans have installed the required safety fencing and reinstated the bridge bed on the North side. There is now a fine footpath over the impressive bridge to the riverbank on the Western (Nottinghamshire) side of the river. This shot shows the (still without a track bed) South side of the bridge.
The viaduct is rightly covered by a Grade II* listing but worryingly, also features on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk register.
Camera: Nikon F5
Lens: Nikkor 28-80mm zoom
Film: Kodak Ektar 100
Cool rocks that feel soapy smooth. Ref: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chert
The stone to the right is probably:
Cloverly and Morrison Formations (N,S) or Cloverly Formation, Inyan Kara Group, and Morrison Formation (Phanerozoic | Mesozoic | Jurassic-Late Cretaceous-Early) at surface, covers < 0.1 % of this area
CLOVERLY FORMATION and MORRISON FORMATION. CLOVERLY FORMATION--Rusty sandstone at top, underlain by brightly variegated bentonitic claystone; chert-pebble conglomerate locally at base. MORRISON FORMATION--Dully variegated claystone, nodular limestone, and gray silty sandstone. In southern Yellowstone and Jackson Hole areas the presence of Morrison is questionable; CLOVERLY FORMATION (Hartville uplift) or INYAN KARA GROUP (Black Hills) and MORRISON FORMATION. CLOVERLY FORMATION--Rusty to light-gray sandstone containing lenticular chert-pebble conglomerate interbedded with variegated bentonitic claystone. INYAN KARA GROUP--Rusty to light-gray sandstone containing lenticular chert-pebble conglomerate interbedded with variegated bentonitic claystone. Includes Fall River and Lakota Formations. MORRISON FORMATION, in northeast Wyoming, dully variegated siliceous claystone, nodular white limestone, and gray silty sandstone.
Lithology: sandstone; claystone; conglomerate; limestone
I've uploaded pictures of this building before, but I had never seen it at night. I could say my photos are bad because I didn't have a tripod, but they would turn out bad anyways. As I really want to share them with you, here they go. This night it was lit to mark "Pink October".
According to the National Park Service:
"The Niagara Hudson Building in Syracuse is an outstanding example of Art Deco architecture and a symbol of the Age of Electricity. Completed in 1932, the building became the headquarters for the nation’s largest electric utility company and expressed the technology of electricity through its modernistic design, material, and extraordinary program of exterior lighting. The design elements applied by architects Melvin L. King and Bley & Lyman transformed a corporate office tower into a widely admired beacon of light and belief in the future. With its central tower and figurative winged sculpture personifying electric lighting, the powerfully sculpted and decorated building offered a symbol of optimism and progress in the context of the Great Depression."
This was not done with AI - AI tools hadn't been invented yet. I made this video several years ago. The song in the video is my own original creation (it was not made with AI either).
I posted it to show an example of the kinds of things you can find on my other Flickr account, which is here: www.flickr.com/photos/josh-rokman/
- Josh
For all those swamp enthusiasts out there <3 - Small update to verdant is up! www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/60220/?
This example seems to have originally come from the UK.
It was registered (in August 1990) as G441WPM, which means it comes from Guildford, on the outskirts of London...
It probably came to Australia in 1995, as UK reg indicates it was last taxed on the 11th April 1995...
Last V5C was issued 6th October 1992.
It was in originally in NSW (at least until 2011) before it came down south to Victoria. VicRoads lists it as a 1989, for whatever reason...
G441 WPM
✗ Untaxed
Tax due:
11 April 1995
MOT
No details held by DVLA
Vehicle details
Vehicle make: AUDI
Date of first registration: August 1990
Year of manufacture: 1990
Cylinder capacity (cc): 2300 cc
CO₂Emissions: Not available
Fuel type: PETROL
Export marker: Yes
Vehicle status: Not taxed
Vehicle colour: WHITE
Vehicle type approval: Not available
Wheelplan: 2-AXLE-RIGID BODY
Revenue weight: Not available
Does anyone what dealer it would've sold in if it was originally registered in Guildford?
Hoy presento el proyecto Nº 27. Estos días me parece que mi flickr va en caida abajo, o tal vez son etapas de no tanta repercución de mis fotogafías. En fin, los días soleados llegaron. Con un sol muy fuerte. Que dejan reflejos en todas las fotografías como a mi me gustan. Esta fotografía es un claro ejemplo, ente un pequeño bosque y una luz pueden dejar una interesante fotografía. Espero que les guste. Que tengan un buen fin de semana. Saludos!
Today I present the project No. 27. These days I think my flickr drop goes down, or perhaps are not as many stages of my fotogafías repercussion. In short, sunny days arrive. With a hot sun. Reflexes left in all the pictures as I like. This photograph is a clear example, between a small forest and a light can leave an interesting photograph. I hope you like it. Have a good weekend. Greetings!
A fine example of Brutalist architecture in Southampton. A well timed passenger jet made an appearance also.
Stocks are devices used internationally, in medieval, Renaissance and colonial American times as a form of physical punishment involving public humiliation. The stocks partially immobilized its victims and they were often exposed in a public place such as the site of a market to the scorn of those who passed by.
The stocks are similar to the pillory and the pranger, as each consists of large, hinged, wooden boards; the difference, however, is that when a person is placed in the stocks, their feet are locked in place, and sometimes as well their hands or head, or these may be chained.
With stocks, boards are placed around the ankles and the wrists in some cases, whereas in the pillory they are placed around the arms and neck and fixed to a pole, and the victim stands. However, the terms can be confused, and many people refer to the pillory as the stocks.
Since stocks served an outdoor public form of punishment its victims were subjected to the daily and nightly weather. As a consequence it was not uncommon for people kept in stocks over several days to die from exposure.[citation needed]
The practice of using stocks continues to be cited as an example of torture, cruel and unusual punishment. Insulting, kicking, tickling, spitting and in some cases urinating and defecating on its victims could be applied at the free will of any of those present. The hapless feet were also taken advantage of by such savage cruelties as inserting burning materials between the toes or by such nuisances as carefully rubbing feces all over the feet and hair.
One of the earliest reference to the stocks in literature appears in the Bible. Paul and Silas, disciples of Jesus, were arrested. Their treatment by their jailer was detailed in the Book of Acts: "Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks." The Old Testament's book of Job also describes the stocks, referring to God: "He puts my feet in the stocks, he watches all my paths."
The stocks were also popular among civil authorities from medieval to early modern times, and have also been used as punishment for military deserters or for dereliction of military duty. In the stocks, an offender's hands and head, or sometimes their ankles, would be placed and locked through two or three holes in the center of a board. Offenders were forced to carry out their punishments in the rain, during the heat of summer, or in freezing weather, and generally would receive only bread and water, plus anything brought by their friends.
The stocks were popular during the Colonial days in America. Public punishment in the stocks was a common occurrence from around 1500 until at least 1748. The stocks were especially popular among the early American Puritans, who frequently employed the stocks for punishing the "lower class."
In the American colonies, the stocks were also used, not only for punishment, but as a means of restraining individuals awaiting trial.
Photo taken at Bewdley Museum, Bewdley Worcstershire.
I think most of us squeeze off two or more of each train we shoot. We hope, of course, that at least one will come out great. Here's pairs of pictures of each of three trains. I'm sure many of you have lots of examples.
1. and 2. ATSF 634, 637, 7412, and 5072 at Ludlow, CA in the Mojave on October 30, 1994. Bonnets butt to butt and nose to nose.
The Valley Inn is a fine example an old Milwaukee tavern. It has many charms...the ambiance created by the faded wood that surrounds you in a venerable building, the simple and unpretentious food, the honest ales and the honest host who serves them come easily to mind. With a little more delving another, more subtle advantage appears: it's inaccessability. The place is tucked and hidden away in "Piggsville". This quaint area, though in the very center of Milwaukee, is stubbornly difficult to find. Although I have lived no more than seven miles away from this enclave for the past 25 years, I came across it for the first time by accident a few weeks ago. Entranced, I vowed to return to sample what it offered.
The southern border of this neighborhood is a major highway. Those who use this elevated road to get home to the dreary western suburbs can have no knowledge of the rich and varied streets that lie below to the north. The patrons of The Valley Inn, I suspect, prefer it that way. They are mostly working folk who, after a shift at the gigantic brewery that forms the northern border of the area, come in to drink a few pours of what they spend their days making. This place is not for people who work downtown on Kilbourn Street and drive home to Brookfield.
Workers, cops on their lunch break, and people who are fortunate enough to live within walking distance of the Valley Inn are its customers. Today I sat at the bar valiantly struggling to disguise myself as a "local" and enjoyed the five dollar nachos and the Riverwest Stein that you see in the picture above. To my right was gentleman who, he told me matter-of-factly, has been a customer of the place for 30 years. Unlike the geographic location of this pub, he was not the least bit inaccessible. We both celebrated together as we watched on the "big screen" the Milwaukee Brewers absolutely decimate the Miami Marlins 12-3.
The Valley Inn ornaments Milwaukee with conviviality and damned good nachos.
Ex-GER LNER J15 0-6-0 65460 at Stratford shed in around 1962. The loco had been embellished with GE-style red lining for its appearance in the film comedy 'Postmans Knock' starring Spike Milligan, and the railway scenes were shot on the Buntingford Branch.
65460 had entered service in 1912, and was withdrawn in September 1962, and scrapped at the end of that year. One example has been preserved.
Stratford shed - which was once the largest in the UK - closed to steam in September 1962, and closed completely in 1997, and today (2019) all traces have vanished, and this is the site of the 2012 Olympic complex, and 'Stratford International' station, and shopping centres..
Restored from an under-exposed very grainy cyan/purple-colour-shifted original..
Original slide - photographer unknown
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~~~Janet Murphy Photography ©2009~~~
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Spirals
For how long have people depicted spiral designs in their art and architecture, and why does the image have such a provocative effect?
From magnetic fields to vast galaxies swirling in space, spirals can be seen in every aspect in nature. We see them in the physical forces which shape the Earth - the tides of the ocean, the winds in the atmosphere - and within life itself. Plants and the horns and shells of animals grow in spiral formations and some animals, especially aquatic species, possess a twisting locomotion.
The spiral phenomenon within natural forms can be explained through mathematics - the pattern is a result of complex sequences, equations and algorithms which nature utilises in her designs of the Universe. But mathematics alone cannot justify the lure of the spiral to the human mind.
Some of the oldest examples of human art are depictions of spirals, painted or carved into rock, often found in burial sites. Later, the Romans and Greeks used spirals as designs for vases and the columns in temples. The Celtic and Norse people were well known for the mysterious and repetitive designs found on their jewellery, clothing, weapons, objects of worship and everyday items. The Celts even painted spirals on their bodies with blue dye to intimidate enemies during battle. They also created forms of animals and plants twisting into impossible spirals, sometimes interlocking with other elements of the picture.
The spiral has left no human culture untouched. It is an important feature in some Australian Aboriginal works, where it is often drawn as a coiled snake. The Islamic tradition prohibits depictions of people or animals, so spirals feature as an important element in the mathematically-governed Islamic designs. Spirals also feature in oriental and Indian clothing and pottery.
Today, the spiral still runs deep within our culture. It forms the logos of a large number of companies, and has come to symbolise magic, dreams, desires and, most importantly, eternity.
It is perhaps this never-ending quality of the spiral which intrigues and draws us so greatly. When a spiral is drawn or made using paper and then turned, it creates the illusion that it is twisting forever away or towards us. The repetitive animation of a twisting spiral also evokes deep relaxation and calm, which accounts for the spiral's close association with the art of hypnotism. In some cases, people even create spirals themselves in order to ease the constantly active mind. If a person is left to "doodle" on a piece of paper in a relaxed state, it is very likely that they will draw spirals and swirls as their subconscious mind controls the pen.
As a representative of the eternal forces of nature, or simply as an attractive and interesting pattern, spirals shall always remain within the cultures of man. For as long as they surround us in every aspect of nature, the spiral will imprint itself within our unconscious psyche, and shall be reflected in our arts for all time.
Written by Megan Balanck
www.ancientspiral.com/spirals.htm
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Adobe has given permission to share images I have processed with Photoshop CS5 Beta release test software. I can not discuss the details or features. I will let the image say it all! Check out the LARGER Size:
www.flickr.com/photos/howardignatius/4484187525/sizes/o/
Adobe also encourages comments, good or bad.
one of the many examples of meaningful crap in our backyard. i think it has something to do with moses.
A compact experiment aimed at enhancing cybersecurity for future space missions is operational in Europe’s Columbus module of the International Space Station, running in part on a Raspberry Pi Zero computer costing just a few euros.
“Our CryptIC experiment is testing technological solutions to make encryption-based secure communication feasible for even the smallest of space missions,” explains ESA software product assurance engineer Emmanuel Lesser. “This is commonplace on Earth, using for example symmetric encryption where both sides of the communication link share the same encryption key.
“In orbit the problem has been that space radiation effects can compromise the key within computer memory causing ‘bit-flips’. This disrupts the communication, as the key on ground and the one in space no longer match. Up to now this had been a problem that requires dedicated – and expensive – rad-hardened devices to overcome.”
Satellites in Earth orbit might be physically remote, but still potentially vulnerable to hacking. Up until recently most satellite signals went unencrypted, and this remains true for many of the smallest, cheapest mission types, such as miniature CubeSats
But as services delivered by satellites of all sizes form an increasing element of everyday life, interest in assured satellite cybersecurity is growing, and a focus of ESA’s new Technology Strategy for this November’s Space19+ Ministerial Council
.
CryptIC, or Cryptography ICE Cube, - the beige box towards the top of the image, has been a low-cost development, developed in-house by ESA’s Software Product Assurance section and flown on the ISS as part of the International Commercial Experiments service – ICE Cubes for short. ICE Cubes offer fast, simple and affordable access for research and technology experiments in microgravity using compact cubes. CryptIC measures just 10x10x10 cm.
“A major part of the experiment relies on a standard Raspberry Pi Zero computer,” adds Emmanuel. “This cheap hardware is more or less flying exactly as we bought it; the only difference is it has had to be covered with a plastic ‘conformal’ coating, to fulfil standard ISS safety requirements.”
The orbital experiment is operated simply via a laptop at ESA’s ESTEC
technical centre in the Netherlands, routed via the ICE Cubes operator, Space Applications Services in Brussels.
“We’re testing two related approaches to the encryption problem for non rad-hardened systems,” explains ESA Young Graduate Trainee Lukas Armborst. “The first is a method of re-exchanging the encryption key if it gets corrupted. This needs to be done in a secure and reliable way, to restore the secure link very quickly. This relies on a secondary fall-back base key, which is wired into the hardware so it cannot be compromised. However, this hardware solution can only be done for a limited number of keys, reducing flexibility.
“The second is an experimental hardware reconfiguration approach which can recover rapidly if the encryption key is compromised by radiation-triggered memory ‘bit flips’. A number of microprocessor cores are inside CryptIC as customisable, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), rather than fixed computer chips. These cores are redundant copies of the same functionality. Accordingly, if one core fails then another can step in, while the faulty core reloads its configuration, thereby repairing itself.”
In addition the payload carries a compact ‘floating gate’ dosimeter to measure radiation levels co-developed by CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, as part of a broader cooperation agreement
.
And as a guest payload, a number of computer flash memories are being evaluated for their orbital performance, a follow-on version of ESA’s ‘Chimera’ experiment which flew on last year’s GomX-4B CubeSat
.
The experiment had its ISS-mandated electromagnetic compatibility testing carried out in ESTEC’s EMC Laboratory
.
“CryptIC has now completed commissioning and is already returning radiation data, being shared with our CERN colleagues,” adds Emmanuel. “Our encryption testing is set to begin in a few weeks, once we’ve automated the operating process, and is expected to run continuously for at least a year.”
Credits: ESA; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO