Browsing by Author "Gao, Yang"
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Item Cap and trade markets for groundwater: Efficiency and distributional effects of a permit allocation mechanism(2016-08-12) Gao, Yang; Williams, Ryan B.; Segarra, Eduardo; Mitchell, Donna M.Agricultural production on the Texas High Plains is heavily dependent on the Ogallala Aquifer, which accounts for approximately 95 percent of groundwater pumped. Rapid groundwater depletion has been observed in the Ogallala Aquifer, which is attributed to low recharge rates and high water withdrawals. To manage this limited-renewable water resource, the High Plains Water Conservation District (HPWD) No.1 has established a rule to reduce pumping to 1.25 acre-feet per acre per year for all groundwater users within the HPWD. This research evaluates the efficiency and distributional effects of a cap and trade mechanism for the HPWD region under alternative policies of allocating the allowable groundwater by using two methods: an equal distribution method and a uniform percentage reduction method. Also, five policy alternatives are compared here to accomplish the water conservation objective. Marginal abatement curves are derived from producer profit functions, which include three irrigated crops. Optimal cropping choices, water use, permit water trades, and water permit prices are estimated simultaneously by maximizing producer profits. The relative efficiency of the programs is evaluated by comparing total producer profits. The study concludes that if the cap were set between 10 to 12 acre-inches per irrigated acre, and a frictionless market for water rights existed, the total desired water withdrawals could be achieved and total producer profits could be equivalent to the command and control policy limiting producers to 15 acre-inches. The results indicates that opportunity to trade water rights in a market could compensate groundwater users, an equal distribution cap will result in a more efficient use of groundwater resources compared to a uniform percentage reduction cap, which will result in less wealth redistribution.Item Chemical Lidar Science Payload for the Lunar Volatile and Mineralogy Mapping Orbiter(49th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2019-07-07) Kruzelecky, Roman; Murzionak, Piotr; Lavoie, Jonathan; Sinclair, Ian; Schinn, Gregory; Gao, Yang; Underwood, Craig; Cloutis, Edward; Bridges, Christopher; Armellin, Roberto; Luccafabris, Andrea; Daly, Mike; St-Amour, Amélie; de Lafontaine, Jean; Leijtens, JohanUnderstanding the lunar near-surface distribution of in-situ resources, such as ilmenite (FeTiO3), and volatiles, such as water/ice, is vital to future sustained manned bases. However, there is a large uncertainty in the distribution and quantity of the lunar resources. Moreover, planned future lunar orbiter missions have relatively limited spatial resolution, in the km range, for volatile mappings relative to lander and rover requirements. The VMMO Volatile and Mineralogy Mapping Orbiter is a low-cost 12U Cubesat that is being designed for a potential flight opportunity with the SSTL Lunar Communications Pathfinder Orbiter. VMMO would be injected into a nominal high-eccentricity lunar orbit. It would then use its on-board propulsion to attain the desired operating orbit. VMMO comprises the LVMM Lunar Volatile and Mineralogy Mapper science payload, the CLAIRE Compact LunAr Ionising Radiation Environment monitor with a COTS electronics testbed, and the supporting 12U Cubesat bus, which has dual ion and cold-gas propulsion, direct to Earth S-band and optical communications, on board data processing and a suite of sensors for semi-autonomous navigation. The compact LVMM is a multi-wavelength Chemical Lidar (<6.1 kg) using single-mode (SM) fiber lasers emitting at 532nm, 1064nm and 1560nm, for stand-off mapping of the lunar water/ice distribution using active illumination, with a focus on selected permanently-shadowed craters in the lunar south pole. This combination of spectral channels can provide very sensitive discrimination of water/ice in various Mare and Highland regolith based on relevant bread-board validations. The use of the SM fiber lasers enables a relatively high spatial resolution in the 10m range. LVMM can also be used in a passive multispectral mode to map the lunar ilmenite in-situ resource distribution during the lunar day using the characteristic surface-reflected solar illumination. This paper discusses the VMMO threshold and augmented science definitions, and the resultant mission architecture and data products.Item Chemical Lidar Science Payload for the Lunar Volatile and Mineralogy Mapping Orbiter(2020 International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2020-07-31) Kruzelecky, Roman; Murzionak, Piotr; Sinclair, Ian; Gao, Yang; Bridges, Chris; Luccafabris, Andrea; Cloutis, Edward; St-Amour, AmelieThe distribution and quantity of surficial in-situ lunar resources, such as water ice and ilmenite (FeTiO3), is currently highly uncertain. Moreover, planned near-future lunar orbiter missions are limited to a volatile-mapping spatial resolution of several km. VMMO, for Volatile and Mineralogy Mapping Orbiter, is a low-cost 12U Cubesat that comprises the Lunar Volatile and Mineralogy Mapper (LVMM) science payload, the Compact LunAr Ionizing Radiation Environment (CLAIRE) monitoring payload, a COTS electronics test bed, and the supporting 12U Cubesat bus with dual ion and cold-gas propulsion, direct-to-Earth S-band and 1560nm optical communications, on-board data processing and a suite of altitude and pointing sensors for semiautonomous, vision-assisted navigation. VMMO will most likely be deployed from a commercial lunar transportation provider, such as Astrobotics, and injected into a suitable near-polar orbit. On-board propulsion will be used to achieve a stable near-frozen polar orbit for the subsequent science operations. The compact LVMM is a multi-wavelength Chemical Lidar (<6.1 kg) using fiber lasers emitting simultaneously at 532nm, 1064nm and 1560nm, for stand-off mapping of lunar water/ice distribution using active laser illumination. The active measurements will focus on selected craters in the lunar South pole, such as Shackleton and Faustini, that contain permanently-shadowed regions that could shelter water ice deposits. This combination of spectral channels can provide very sensitive discrimination of water/ice to below 0.5% in various Mare and Highland regolith, based on pre-flight bread-board validations. The use of single-mode fiber lasers enables a spatial resolution of about 10m at the lunar surface. LVMM can also be used in a passive multispectral mode at 300nm, 532nm, 1064nm and 1560nm to map the lunar ilmenite in-situ resource distribution during the lunar day using known characteristics of surface-reflected solar illumination. This paper discusses the VMMO augmented science configuration and the resultant mission architecture and data products.Item Exploration of materials under compression of non-hydrostaticity and shear(2018-08) Gao, Yang; Ma, Yanzhang; Chyu, Ming; Yeo, Changdong; He, Zhaoming; Li, GuigenNon-hydrostatic compression is in general a circumstance that material is subject to in the nature. Understanding the behaviors of materials under such a condition makes it possible to gain insights into the physics and chemistry beyond their natural phenomena. In this dissertation, we attempt to explore the behaviors of materials under non-hydrostatic conditions to seek their potential in engineering applications. Three topics are covered in this work: the search of new scintillators via non-hydrostatic compression, the synthesis of novel phases from known materials under shear load, and the reaction of super-hard materials to shear stress. A diamond anvil cell and a rotational anvil cell accompanied with synchrotron X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscope, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed as diagnostic methods. MnWO4 was studied by synchrotron X-ray diffraction to 50.1 GPa in a diamond anvil cell. Comparison experiments under the hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic conditions were performed. A structural phase transformation is observed, of which the high-pressure phase is determined to be a triclinic structure. Under the non-hydrostatic condition, the transformation to a high-pressure phase of MnWO4 initiates at a far lower onset pressure. The low-pressure and the high-pressure phases are discovered to coexist in a wide range of pressure under both the hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic conditions, which indicates that the triclinic structure is energetically comparable to that of the wolframite one. Combined with previous reports, non-hydrostatic effect is believed to reveal the triclinic phase of wolframite tungstates at a far lower pressure. The discovery of this work suggests that the wolframite tungstates could be a new source of scintillating materials, and non-hydrostatic effects can be utilized to lower the condition required for their synthesis. Diamond synthesis from graphite is achieved at below 1 GPa and room temperature using a rotational anvil cell. By applying large plastic shear, graphite transformed into hexagonal and cubic diamonds at extremely low pressures of 0.4 and 0.7 GPa, respectively. The formation of a new orthorhombic diamond phase was also observed after pressure elevation to 3 GPa. It is discovered that shear, instead of pressure, plays the key role in this transformation. The discovery of this transformation suggests new mechanism of phase transformations with drastically reduced pressures by shear and is expected to new materials synthesis strategies. Furthermore, the formation of diamonds under unconventionally low pressures also opens up new thoughts in geophysics that the micro-diamonds at geological sites could have formed in the cold crust due to shear-related historical activities instead of the conventional subduction-exhumation process. Decomposition of B4C was observed at 1.0 GPa under large plastic shear using a rotational anvil cell. The products are determined to be a boron-very-rich compound, B50C2, and a pure carbon substance, nano-crystalline graphite. Amorphization of B4C is also observed in the quenched sample. The discovery of B4C’s decomposition and amorphization under large plastic shear suggests a new explanation, in addition to amorphization, to B4C’s mystery shear strength reduction over 20 GPa. It also reveals that shear combined with modest pressure is essential in initiating phase transformations and chemical reactions than hydrostatic compression. Furthermore, the discovery of such shear-induced decomposition of boron carbides may also open a new strategy of non-hydrostatic effects’ utilization in both engineering and chemistry.Item Lunar Dust In-situ Experiment and Operational Considerations for the Potential CABLE Canadian American British Lunar Explorer(45th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2015-07-12) Kruzelecky, Roman V.; Latendresse, Vincent; Aïssa, Brahim; Lavoie, Jonathan; Nakhaei, Alireza; Jamroz, Wes; Cloutis, Edward; Lappas, Vaios; Underwood, Craig; Gao, Yang; Sweeting, Martin; Sorensen, Trevor; Mouginis-Mark, PeteThe Canadian American British Lunar Explorer (CABLE) is a low-cost lunar lander/microRover mission concept based on international collaboration of niche technologies. CABLE includes collaborations with the University of Surrey/Surrey Space Centre on the soft lander, planetary surface autonomy and communications technologies and the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory on the required Earth-Moon transfer stage and mission operations based on their COSMOS mission operations and flight system software, as well as the prior experience gained in the Clementine lunar mission. CABLE also leverages relevant Canadian technologies in high-performance microRovers, robotics and optical sensors to extend the achievable planetary exploration and science per unit payload mass. The baseline science mission is to investigate the near-surface characteristics of a near-side region of the Moon, the Aristarchus Plateau, that has never been explored in-situ to address for the first time a fundamental lunar geologic process, namely large-scale explosive volcanism that can provide information on the origins of the Moon and the evolution of the Earth-Moon system. The mission drivers include minimizing the mission risks and costs while providing innovative relevant science and data on the lunar near-surface environment and operations. This mission will address key international interests, including mapping lunar surface geology to determine the extent, particle size distribution, and composition of pyroclastic deposits on the plateau. The mission will also explore the availability and distribution of near- surface volatiles from prior impacts and in-situ resources, such as ilmenite, using robotic trenching capability. The lunar surface radiation and dust environments would also be investigated through a set of in-situ experiments using the CABLE lander and rover to provide data both of scientific interest and to assist future potential manned missions. Key data are missing on the levitated lunar dust fluxes to assist validation of various mitigation efforts that could be provided by CABLE. This paper discusses the lunar dust operational considerations for CABLE, as well as the potential in- situ experiments to characterize the levitated lunar dust and its effects on optical measurements and robotic operations.Item VMMO Lunar Volatile and Mineralogy Mapping Orbiter(48th International Conference on Environmental Systems, 2018-07-08) Kruzelecky, Roman; Murzionak, Piotr; Lavoie, Jonathan; Sinclair, Ian; Schinn, Gregory; Underwood, Craig; Gao, Yang; Bridges, Chris; Armellin, Roberto; Luccafabris, Andrea; Cloutis, Edward; Leijtens, JohanUnderstanding the lunar near-surface distribution of relevant in-situ resources, such as ilmenite (FeTiO3), and volatiles, such as water/ice, is vital to future sustained manned bases. VMMO is a highly-capable, low-cost 12U Cubesat designed for operation in a lunar frozen orbit. It accomodates the LVMM Lunar Volatile and Mineralogy Mapper and the CLAIRE Compact LunAr Ionising Radiation Environment payloads. LVMM is a multi-wavelength Chemical Lidar using fiber lasers emitting at 532nm and 1560nm, with an optional 1064nm channel, for stand-off mapping of the lunar ice distribution using active laser illumination, with a focus on the permanently-shadowed craters in the lunar south pole. This combination of spectral channels can provide sensitive discrimination of water/ice in various regolith. The fiber-laser technology has heritage in the ongoing Fiber Sensor Demonstrator flying on ESA's Proba-2. LVMM can also be used in a low-power passive mode with an added 280nm UV channel to map the lunar mineralogy and ilmenite distribution during the lunar day using the reflected solar illumination. CLAIRE is designed to provide a highly miniaturized radiation environment and effect monitor. CLAIRE draws on heritage from the MuREM and RM payloads, flown on the UK’s TDS-1 spacecraft. The payload includes PIN-diode sensors to measure ionizing particle fluxes (protons and heavy-ions) and to record the resulting linear energy transfer (LET) energy-deposition spectra. It also includes solid-state RADFET dosimeters to measure accumulated ionizing dose, and dose-rate diode detectors, designed to respond to a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) or Solar Particle Event (SPE). CLAIRE also includes an electronic component test board, capable of measuring SEEs and TID effects in a selected set of candidate electronics, allowing direct correlations between effects and the real measured environment.