European response to the NASA space station initiative

This article contrasts the political motivations behind the US space station initiative with those underlying the European Space Agency's Long Term Plan. Philip Chandler concludes that European cooperation in NASA's space station programme (SSP) will serve three needs: to buy time; to allow European users to undertake longer, manned experiments; and, to keep the Spacelab teams intact. However, in itself the SSP holds little value for Europe.     

Competing for a future in space: NASA and the Department of Defense

Although the 1958 Space Act stressed the civilian nature of the US space programme, the military space budget has grown to over twice the size of NASA's. Military influence on US space policy has grown accordingly. NASA has failed in articulating a sense of direction and purpose for the civilian space programme justifying sustained and adequate support. What matters most for a reinvigorated NASA is the level of commitment the nation is prepared to make, and in today's political climate greater spending on a civilian space programme would be unpopular. The USA looks likely to continue to fall behind in the international competition for space leadership.     

Prospects for international space cooperation in the Pacific Basin

This article examines the possible avenues of cooperation in space activity between nations of the Pacific Basin. It looks at possible memebers of a regional space organization and their areas of common interest. The European Space Agency is suggested as a model, and some of the useful lessons that could be learned from it, as well as significant differences between the European and Pacific regions, are discussed.     

Management dynamics of NASA''s human spaceflight programs

The public management dynamics of human spaceflight at NASA in the post-Apollo era—Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and the United States national vision for space exploration—are examined. A number of variables are applied to assess this. Public management processes are identified as a function of political accountability, organizational decision-making and cultures, and technical aspects directed at high reliability and safety of the large-scale, complex, and high-risk technologies that characterize NASA's human spaceflight programs. The findings indicate that these variables are causally linked to management outcomes through dynamics of centralized and decentralized organizational approaches. The success or failure of NASA's human spaceflight programs are linked to organizational management based on dynamics between centralized aspects of management, like controls over cost and schedule, and decentralized aspects, such as engineering authority over technical development.     

Astronaut photography and the intelligence community: Who saw what?

Despite NASA's astronaut photography benefiting a wide range of civilian interests, it occasionally conflicted directly with the critical national security requirement to protect the National Reconnaissance Program from public disclosure or compromise. The Intelligence Community consequently imposed a number of restrictions, from reviewing the photography before public release to limiting the capabilities of NASA's image-forming sensors. At the same time, beginning in the Mercury program the Intelligence Community acquired and analyzed some of the photography as a possible source of intelligence data that otherwise was not being collected.     

Informed maintenance for next generation reusable launch systems

Perhaps the most substantial single obstacle to progress of space exploration and utilization of space for human benefit is the safety & reliability and the inherent cost of launching to, and returning from, space. The primary influence in the high costs of current launch systems (the same is true for commercial and military aircraft and most other reusable systems) is the operations, maintenance and infrastructure portion of the program's total life cycle costs. Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) maintenance and design have traditionally been two separate engineering disciplines with often conflicting objectives - maximizing ease of maintenance versus optimizing performance, size and cost. Testability analysis, an element of Informed Maintenance (IM), has been an ad hoc, manual effort, in which maintenance engineers attempt to identify an efficient method of troubleshooting for the given product, with little or no control over product design. Therefore, testability deficiencies in the design cannot be rectified. It is now widely recognized that IM must be engineered into the product at the design stage itself, so that an optimal compromise is achieved between system maintainability and performance.The elements of IM include testability analysis, diagnostics/prognostics, automated maintenance scheduling, automated logistics coordination, paperless documentation and data mining. IM derives its heritage from complimentary NASA science, space and aeronautic enterprises such as the on-board autonomous Remote Agent Architecture recently flown on NASA's Deep Space 1 Probe as well as commercial industries that employ quick turnaround operations. Commercial technologies and processes supporting NASA's IM initiatives include condition based maintenance technologies from Boeing's Commercial 777 Aircraft and Lockheed-Martin's F-22 Fighter, automotive computer diagnostics and autonomous controllers that enable 100,000 mile maintenance free operations, and locomotive monitoring system software.This paper will summarize NASA's long-term strategy, development, and implementation plans for Informed Maintenance for next generation RLVs. This will be done through a convergence into a single IM vision the work being performed throughout NASA, industry and academia. Additionally, a current status of IM development throughout NASA programs such as the Space Shuttle, X-33, X-34 and X-37 will be provided and will conclude with an overview of near-term work that is being initiated in FY00 to support NASA's 2^nd Generation Reusable Launch Vehicle Program.     

Speculating on space futures

A volunteer group of engineers and scientists at NASA's Lewis Research Center is trying to push the frontiers of aerospace science and technology beyond the realm of conventional methods and concepts. The first step is to provide a supportive environment for ideas that are too speculative or high risk to warrant formal organizational responsibility. This report describes the motivation, birth and experiences of this group.     

Research priorities and plans for the International Space Station-results of the 'REMAP' Task Force

Recent events in the International Space Station (ISS) Program have resulted in the necessity to re-examine the research priorities and research plans for future years. Due to both technical and fiscal resource constraints expected on the International Space Station, it is imperative that research priorities be carefully reviewed and clearly articulated. In consultation with OSTP and the Office of Management and budget (OMB), NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Research (OBPR) assembled an ad-hoc external advisory committee, the Biological and Physical Research Maximization and Prioritization (REMAP) Task Force. This paper describes the outcome of the Task Force and how it is being used to define a roadmap for near and long-term Biological and Physical Research objectives that supports NASA's Vision and Mission. Additionally, the paper discusses further prioritizations that were necessitated by budget and ISS resource constraints in order to maximize utilization of the International Space Station. Finally, a process has been developed to integrate the requirements for this prioritized research with other agency requirements to develop an integrated ISS assembly and utilization plan that maximizes scientific output.     

轻型空间相机遮光罩组件的研制

文章介绍了空间遥感相机遮光罩的结构特点及其功能。重点介绍了一种用于可见-红外光谱仪上的轻型遮光罩,该仪器安装于2005年美国发射的火星勘测轨道飞行器(MRO)上。     

NASA的智能协同系统

文章首先概述了智能协同系统在美国航空航天局(NASA)的应用情况,并以NASA普遍使用的两个典型软件工具PMT和NX为例,阐述了智能协同系统的基本功能和技术实现方法,为国内的智能化协同系统软件方面的研究提供参考。     

A US dilemma — satellite remote sensing privatization

NASA's and EOSAT's efforts to keep the USA in the technological forefront of remote sensing have been hampered by budgetary constraints and bickering. This article is a plea for a continued and explicit commitment by the US government to the promotion of the necessary technology and cooperative programmes. Unless the issues are tackled with a sense of urgency, the author argues, the French or Japanese may take over the lead.     

The changing face of the European space sector: the policies of Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom

The current international economic and technical climate has caused changes in the European space sector such that Italy is now struggling to maintain third place in the European hierarchy, the Franco-German relationship has become less dominant, while the UK is becoming more open towards European cooperation. This article analyses the current policies of Germany, the UK and Italy and examines their operating methods. The author speculates on the outlook for these countries in the next 10 years: neither the UK, nor Italy looks set to become a major player and German policy will depend on the success of its upcoming strategic plan. All these countries, and France, however, will need to engage in intensive bilateral consultations if they wish to compete in worldwide markets.     

The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) experiment for NASA's 2009 Mars Science Laboratory

We present a summary of the physical principles and design of the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument onboard NASA's 2009 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. The DAN instrument will use the method of neutron-neutron activation analysis in a space application to study the abundance and depth distribution of water in the martian subsurface along the path of the MSL rover.     

流星体和碎片——航天器的微粒环境综述

介绍了流星体和碎片环境的特征和分布以及它们对航天器的影响和危害,并简单介绍了它们的探测方法和计算模式以及防护措施。     

Demographics of principal investigators involved in NASA-funded research

This report presents the findings of a study of 2875 principal investigators identified through a database maintained by NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications. It was found that there will be a major ‘retirement wave’ involving the loss of approximately 1200 of these experienced scientists within the next 15 years. A manpower crisis can apparently only be averted by reversing the exodus from space science that occurred after the end of the Apollo programme.     

The men who sold the Moon: science fiction or legal nonsense?

Previously the exclusive domain of science-fiction novels, the sale of extraterrestrial real estate has nowadays become a favourite feature of tabloid reports. This article critically analyses and dismantles with legal arguments the issue of the sale of extraterrestrial land, after having outlined some of the trivial claims of ownership of celestial bodies. From Dennis Hope's lunar claim to the alleged Martian trespass by NASA's Pathfinder, the only consequence these claims have on the legal plane is to highlight the need for better regulation of extraterrestrial landed property rights.     

Data on and methodology for calculating space shuttle programme costs

This report presents data on the annual and total costs of NASA's Space Shuttle programme through fiscal year (FY) 1993. The total cost of the programme through FY 1993 is found to be $83.7 billion in 1992 dollars. This information has significance for pending policy decisions on the future of the Shuttle programme, its possible successors, and interrelated programmes, such as the Space Station.     

Observations from over a decade of experience in developing faster, better, cheaper missions for the NASA small explorer program

The Small Explorer (SMEX) Project at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has accumulated nearly a decade of experience building missions with the underlying philosophy of “Faster, Better, Cheaper” (FBC). Five satellites are now successfully operating on-orbit with only one serious instrument anomaly. Together this Project has accumulated 14.6 years of on-orbit experience without a spacecraft bus failure. Additionally, this project, under the Explorer Technology Infusion effort, has developed a protoflight version of a 21^st Century FBC spacecraft bus that has just completed environmental qualification and has been selected at the base spacecraft for NASA's Triana mission. Design and production of these six high performance spacecraft, in just ten years time, has provided a unique base of experience from which to draw lessons learned. This paper will discuss the fundamental practices that have been used by the SMEX Project in achieving this record of success.     

Attached payloads on SPACEHAB, growing from the Space Shuttle to the Space Station

Although NASA's Space Shuttle is largely dedicated in the near term to Space Station assembly, 10–16 day flight opportunities still abound for spacecraft technology demonstration payloads, and experiments for the established earth and space science communities. This paper will present the latest developments of SPACEHAB flight systems in order to accommodate the flight needs of these communities on the Space Shuttle today and the Space Station tomorrow. In particular, some examples of payloads from these disciplines will be introduced together with the accommodation and experiment objectives.     

Learning ‘smaller, faster, cheaper’ from the Applied Physics laboratory

By demonstrating the ability to build ‘smaller, faster, and cheaper’ space devices, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) has played a key role in influencing NASA's current Discovery program. The APL Space Department was founded by Richard B. Kershner. This article examines the key elements of Kershner's leadership and management philosophy through the Transit satellite program and the Delta series spacecraft.