Space structures such as the International Space Station experience continuous degradation throughout their operational lifetime due to micrometeoroid impacts, radiation exposure, thermal cycling, and material ageing. Current external inspection approaches rely primarily on astronaut spacewalks and robotic manipulators, which introduce operational risks, require significant resources, and provide limited flexibility. As orbital infrastructure grows in scale and complexity, autonomous inspection systems become increasingly necessary.

This report presents the detailed design of Project EVE, an autonomous inspection system consisting of two free-flying drones designed to inspect large space structures using complementary non-destructive testing methods. The objective is to detect, localise, and characterise structural damage while reducing dependence on human intervention.

The selected architecture employs two specialised vehicles. Alpha performs rapid large-area inspection and identifies regions of interest, while Beta conducts detailed follow-up inspection. Together, the drones combine optical imaging, three-dimensional structured light, infrared thermography, and shearography to enable both surface and subsurface defect detection. To support detailed inspections in orbit, a deployable shading mechanism creates controlled thermal transients without dedicated heating hardware.

The final integrated design demonstrates that autonomous multi-drone inspection can provide a scalable, safer, and operationally flexible alternative to conventional inspection approaches for future long-duration space infrastructure. ... Read more

Tracing fast nanopore-translocating analytes requires a high-frequency measurement system that warrants a temporal resolution better than 1 µs. This constraint may practically shift the challenge from increasing the sampling bandwidth to dealing with the rapidly growing noise with frequencies typically above 10 kHz, potentially making it still uncertain if all translocation events are unambiguously captured. Here, a numerical simulation model is presented as an alternative to discern translocation events with different experimental settings including pore dimension, bias voltage, the charge state of the analyte, salt concentration, and electrolyte viscosity. The model allows for simultaneous analysis of forces exerting on a large analyte cohort along their individual trajectories; these forces are responsible for the analyte movement leading eventually to the nanopore translocation. Through tracing the analyte trajectories, the Brownian force is found to dominate the analyte movement in electrolytes until the last moment at which the electroosmotic force determines the final translocation act. The mean dwell time of analytes mimicking streptavidin decreases from ≈6 to ≈1 µs with increasing the bias voltage from ±100 to ±500 mV. The simulated translocation events qualitatively agree with the experimental data with streptavidin. The simulation model is also helpful for the design of new solid-state nanopore sensors. ... Read more