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USGS2009

Strategic analysis for the MER Cape Verde approach

The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has recently completed a two year campaign studying Victoria Crater. The campaign culminated in a close approach of Cape Verde in order to acquire high resolution imagery of the exposed stratigraphy in the cliff face. The close approach to Cape Verde provided significant challenges for every subsystem of the rover as the rover needed to traverse difficult, uncharacterised terrain and approach a cliff face with the potential of blocking out solar energy and communications with Earth. In this paper we describe the strategic analyses performed by the science and engineering teams so that we could successfully achieve the science objectives while keeping the rover safe. ??2009 IEEE.

Conference Paper↗

USGS1998

Cattle and cultivators: A study of competition over natural resources in north Senegal

This study presents an analysis of the interaction of humans and their environment in the arid Sahel ian zone of northern Senegal. It compares a pastoral community which lives primarily from the production of livestock and a farming community whose activities have traditionally centered on crop production. Living side by side but following different strategies for securing their livelihoods, these groups find themselves in increasing conflict over how the diminishing resources of the area should be used. The pastoral livelihood system, as practiced in the case study community of Maka Ndandary, is essentially conservationist in its approach to natural resources. It regulates the activities of community members toward the environment and employs diverse strategies to protect local resources against incursion by outsiders. The agricultural village, represented by the case study of Teud Bitty, takes a much more extractive approach to its resources. As resources have diminished over time, the villagers have become even more aggressive in their attempts to exploit what remains, whether soils or trees ... both within and outside their territory.

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