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- Creators: School of Politics and Global Studies
- Creators: Anderson, Kelly Joanne
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
This thesis proposes hardware and software security enhancements to the robotic explorer of a capstone team, in collaboration with the NASA Psyche Mission Student Collaborations program. The NASA Psyche Mission, launching in 2022 and reaching the metallic asteroid of the same name in 2026, will explore from orbit what is hypothesized to be remnant core material of an early planet, potentially providing key insights to planet formation. Following this initial mission, it is possible there would be scientists and engineers interested in proposing a mission to land an explorer on the surface of Psyche to further document various properties of the asteroid. As a proposal for a second mission, an interdisciplinary engineering and science capstone team at Arizona State University designed and constructed a robotic explorer for the hypothesized surfaces of Psyche, capable of semi-autonomously navigating simulated surfaces to collect scientific data from onboard sensors. A critical component of this explorer is the command and data handling subsystem, and as such, the security of this system, though outside the scope of the capstone project, remains a crucial consideration. This thesis proposes the pairing of Trusted Platform Module (TPM) technology for increased hardware security and the implementation of SELinux (Security Enhanced Linux) for increased software security for Earth-based testing as well as space-ready missions.
In light of the 2020 Presidential election, accusations regarding early voting methods have risen as a topic of debate among active voters. In order to ensure the voter’s trust in voting methods, it is important to analyze whether such accusations are truthful or just dramatized speculation. Do early voting methods negatively infringe on the integrity the U.S. election process? Using gathered voter statistics and conducted partisan research within recent elections, this defense examines the impact early voting has had through the analysis of two of its most controversial claims. The author finds that there exists little to no reasonable support to conclude existence of infringement to the integrity of the election process, and the reasons that explain this topic’s rise in popularity lies in the failure to accept defeat and the notion of fear.