Abstract
<p>Radon and its progeny are well-documented sources of natural radioactivity which can be used as benchmarks for testing a novel ionisation detector. The miniaturised ionisation detector was deployed aboard the NRP Sagres on a SAIL mission in July 2021 which travelled between the Açores and Lisbon in the North Atlantic Ocean. On its voyage, the detector profiled natural background radiation and in-directly detected cosmic ray muons, providing both spectroscopic energy discrimination and count rate data. The detector was simultaneously run with a NaI(Tl) gamma ray counter and other meteorological instruments.</p><p>The small form factor and low-power detector, composed of a 1x1x0.8 cm<sup>3 </sup>CsI(Tl) microscintillator coupled to a PiN photodiode, was able to identify gamma peaks from Bi-214 and K-40, having been calibrated using laboratory gamma sources up to 1.3 MeV. This research aims to investigate the performance of the ionisation detector and behaviour of discrete gamma energies over the duration of the voyage. Additionally, we will show a comparison of the CsI(Tl) based ionisation detector against the gamma ray counter which features a larger NaI(Tl) scintillator.</p>

Abstract
The use of robots is widely spread across the industry. It is paramount that the robot end-effector tracks a pre-defined trajectory with the lowest energy loss. To contribute to the solution of this problem, the robot trajectory is defined using a tracking parameter which is optimised using the Matlab (R) fminunc function and the Particle Swam Optimisation algorithm. This approach was tested for a case study with the energy loss being reduced in approximately 96.15%.

Abstract

Abstract
Robotics is a multidisciplinary subject that typically involves mechanics, electronics, and computer science concepts. For this reason, robotic projects are particularly well suited to the European Project Semester framework since they allow students with different backgrounds to contribute to the overall team objective in their specific knowledge areas. This chapter briefly presents illustrative examples of robotic projects that have been developed by teams of students participating in the European Project Semester at the School of Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto. It concludes by presenting and discussing student feedback, namely on the program and the projects developed.

Abstract
Orion is a NASA spacecraft being developed for human exploration of the Moon and Mars. Crew Dragon is a commercial spacecraft used to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Both spacecraft are of similar design and both spacecraft perform a water landing following re-entry. This study evaluated the ability of International Institute of Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) Citizen Astronaut Candidates (CAC) to egress a spacecraft mock-up wearing a commercially available intravehicular activity (IVA) spacesuit manufactured by Final Frontier Design (FFD) (Anderson, 2014; Barker and Bellenkes; 1996; Rubio et al., 2004). This suit is similar to those worn by astronauts traveling to the ISS on board Crew Dragon. Mobility assessment revealed that most participants had sufficient ranges of motion to perform egress tasks successfully. In some instances suited participants were unable to perform selected tasks proficiently, but in these instances this often stemmed from difficulty in achieving a stable upright position in the water. Seat ingress and egress evaluation revealed no significant problems with anthropometric accommodation across participants.

Abstract
In recent years, with the rise of a growing economic and technological interest in lithium mineral resources, there has been a parallel concern, on the part of some local populations and even national environmental groups, for a hypothetical contamination problem that this type of exploitations may cause on the quality of groundwater. Thus, the present study was based on an evaluation of an open-pit quarry, in the so-called Alijó quarry, located in the North of Portugal, in the parish of Canedo, Ribeira de Pena municipality and Vila Real district. This exploitation, under concession by the company José Aldeia Lagoa & Filhos, SA, has been going on for at least 11 years and mainly supplies the ceramic and glass industry. It is in this context that this work is carried out. The general objectives are to assess signs of impacts that extractive activities, carried out in the open-pit exploitation area of Alijó, may have caused on the surrounding subsoil. In this sense, it was necessary to consider the aforementioned hypothesis of the existence of possible sources of water drainage with ionic anomalies for the surrounding environment. If this hypothesis were confirmed, then the level of underground conductivity would have to be proportionally high and obtainable through equivalent low values of electrical resistivity (high electrical conductivity). The current study was limited to geophysical tools along with a few chemical analysis of water samples collected in the open-pit exploration for control purposes. The signs we sought for could possibly be manifested in the form of anomalous concentrations of some of the elements of the mineralization of this lithiniferous pegmatite and whose effects could, hypothetically, be measured in the form of anomalous low values of underground electrical resistivity, as well as anomalous pH valuespresent in the drainage water. To this end, a study mainly supported by the electrical resistivity method was carried out. This method is based on the measurement of electrical resistivity variations of different subsoil geological materials, since rocks and soils, depending on their mineralogical composition, texture, porosity, fracturing and the content/chemical composition of the water contained in them, could exhibit anomalous, low electrical resistivity. The results revealed that no low resistivity values were found, typical of areas that normally exhibit natural or anthropogenic geochemical anomalies, or even, in more extreme cases, contaminations with acid drainages whose acidity and resistivity would be even lower and more anomalous.