Implications of an Engineering Manpower Shortage

Many competent sources have been predicting an increasing shortage of graduate engineers to perform needed research and development work in the United States. Consequently, many industrialists, educators, and government officials have been advocating an increased enrollment of students in the engineering curriculum in college in a greater effort to produce more engineers. This paper examines the assumptions behind the projected manpower shortage, and proposes some rather unique and occasionally radical alternatives to the solution of a manpower deficit. The paper, and the solutions, may produce violent controversy, but at least the material is not the usual dull rehash so often seen of late.     

Identifications of emission lines in the EUV solar spectrum

Conclusions During the past three years there have been significant extensions of the solar data available. Over most of the solar spectrum between 1 – 2200 the new or improved observations have led to interesting problems in line identifications. The identifications have in turn led to new methods of determining the physical conditions in the solar atmosphere, eg electron density determinations from the Hei like ion intercombination line to forbidden line ratio (Gabriel and Jordan, 1969b). The majority of the strong lines have now been identified, either by theoretical considerations or from the extensive laboratory data which have recently become available. However, weak lines may also aid the understanding of the chromosphere and corona and work on the identifications of all remaining features observed must continue.     

SIR-C/X-SAR: A multifaceted radar

The multifaceted Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) was successfully flown twice in 1994 aboard the Shuttle Endeavour as part of an international imaging radar mission. The United States SIR-C operated at L- and C-band, each with multiple polarization, utilizing an active phased array antenna. The German/Italian X-SAR operated at X-band with a single polarization. SIR-C and X-SAR operated synchronously to collect data over common sites. Data were collected for repeat-track interferometric processing at all three frequencies. A total of 143 hours (93 terabits) of SAR data were digitally recorded on tape over the two flights for subsequent processing in the U.S., Germany, and Italy. This advanced multifrequency/multipolarization system has produced a rich radar data set for Earth scientific investigation and demonstration of spaceborne radar remote sensing capabilities     

Mollusc-microbe mutualisms extend the potential for life in hypersaline systems

Metazoans in extreme environments have evolved mutualisms with microbes that extend the physical and chemical capabilities of both partners. Some of the best examples are bivalve molluscs in evaporite and hypersaline settings. Mollusc tissue is developmentally and evolutionarily amenable to housing vast numbers of symbiotic microbes. Documented benefits to the host are nutritional. Multiple postulated benefits to the microbes are related to optimizing metabolic performance at interfaces, where heterogeneity and steep gradients that cannot be negotiated by microbes can be spanned by larger metazoan hosts. A small cockle, Fragum erugatum, and its photosymbiotic microbes provide a remarkable example of a mutualistic partnership in the hypersaline reaches of Shark Bay, Western Australia. Lucinid bivalves and their endosymbiotic chemolithotrophic bacteria provide examples in which hosts span oxic/anoxic interfaces on behalf of their symbionts at sites of seafloor venting. Multiple lines of evidence underscore the antiquity of mutualisms and suggest that they may have played a significant role in life's first experiments above the prokaryotic grade of complexity. The study of metazoan-microbe mutualisms and their signatures in extreme environments in the geologic record will provide a significant augmentation to microbial models in paleobiology and astrobiology. There are strong potential links between mutualisms and the early history of life on Earth, the persistence of life in extreme environments at times of global crisis and mass extinction, and the possibilities for life elsewhere in the universe.     

The active sun

A brief summary is given of observations which will be required to investigate further the structure and energy balance of active regions.Proceedings of the Conference Solar Physics from Space, held at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), 11–14 November 1980.     

A concept for NASA's Mars 2016 astrobiology field laboratory

The Mars Program Plan includes an integrated and coordinated set of future candidate missions and investigations that meet fundamental science objectives of NASA and the Mars Exploration Program (MEP). At the time this paper was written, these possible future missions are planned in a manner consistent with a projected budget profile for the Mars Program in the next decade (2007-2016). As with all future missions, the funding profile depends on a number of factors that include the exact cost of each mission as well as potential changes to the overall NASA budget. In the current version of the Mars Program Plan, the Astrobiology Field Laboratory (AFL) exists as a candidate project to determine whether there were (or are) habitable zones and life, and how the development of these zones may be related to the overall evolution of the planet. The AFL concept is a surface exploration mission equipped with a major in situ laboratory capable of making significant advancements toward the Mars Program's life-related scientific goals and the overarching Vision for Space Exploration. We have developed several concepts for the AFL that fit within known budget and engineering constraints projected for the 2016 and 2018 Mars mission launch opportunities. The AFL mission architecture proposed here assumes maximum heritage from the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Candidate payload elements for this concept were identified from a set of recommendations put forth by the Astrobiology Field Laboratory Science Steering Group (AFL SSG) in 2004, for the express purpose of identifying overall rover mass and power requirements for such a mission. The conceptual payload includes a Precision Sample Handling and Processing System that would replace and augment the functionality and capabilities provided by the Sample Acquisition Sample Processing and Handling system that is currently part of the 2009 MSL platform.     

Charge-product control approach to electrostatic leader-follower formations in LEO plasma wakes

The feasibility of using electrostatic forces to stabilize a close-proximity leader-follower formation is investigated. The leader craft is equipped with a set of affixed spheres whose charge is modulated to hold the charged follower craft along a proscribed trajectory to its nominal leader-relative position. This charge structure and the follower craft are constrained to remain in the plasma wake generated behind all LEO craft because the more-dense ambient plasma outside the wake prevents object charging and electric field propagation. Once the formation is achieved, a controlled electric field is generated by the leader to counter relative accelerations from perturbations like differential drag and solar radiation pressure, holding the follow near its nominal position. Two controllers are derived for the system described, incorporating Coulomb accelerations and linearized gravity and drag accelerations. Simulations are run under unmodeled perturbations and sensor noise for different scenarios, demonstrating the challenges and benefits associated with electrostatic actuation.     

The extravehicular mobility unit: A review of environment, requirements, and design changes in the US spacesuit

Requirements are rarely static, and are ever more likely to evolve as the development time of a system stretches out and its service life increases. In this paper, we discuss the evolution of requirements for the US spacesuit, the extravehicular mobility unit (EMU), as a case study to highlight the need for flexibility in system design. We explore one fundamental environmental change, using the Space Shuttle EMU aboard the International Space Station, and the resulting EMU requirement and design changes. The EMU, like other complex systems, faces considerable uncertainty during its service life. Changes in the technical, political, or economic environment cause changes in requirements, which in turn necessitate design modifications or upgrades. We make the case that flexibility is a key attribute that needs to be embedded in the design of long-lived, complex systems to enable them to efficiently meet the inevitability of changing requirements after they have been fielded.     

The first SETI observations with the Allen telescope array

The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) finally has its own full-time telescope. The Allen telescope array (ATA) in Northern California was dedicated on October 11, 2007. This array, which will eventually be composed of 350 small radio antennas, each 6.1 m in diameter, is being built as a partnership between the SETI Institute and the University of California Radio Astronomy Laboratory. Last October, Paul G. Allen (who provided the funds for the technology development and the first phase of array construction) pushed a silver button and all 42 antennas of the current ATA-42 slewed to point in the direction of the distant galaxy M81. Specialized electronic backend detectors attached to the ATA began making a radio map of that galaxy and simultaneously began SETI observations of HIP48573, a G5V star near M81 on the sky and a distance of 264 light years from Earth. The Allen telescope array will greatly improve the speed of conducting SETI searches over the next few decades, and it will allow a suite of different search strategies to be undertaken. This paper summarizes some of the earliest SETI observations from the array, and describes the search strategies currently being planned.     

Crop selection for advanced life support systems in the ESA MELiSSA program: Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum var durum)

As part of an ESA MELiSSA investigation into advanced life support (ALS) candidate crop cultivar selection and growth requirements, the University of Guelph’s Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility (CESRF) conducted a case study on growth and development of four durum wheat cultivars (Triticum turgidum var durum) grown hydroponically under controlled conditions in a sealed environment. Cultivars tested were Canadian developed Avonlea, Commander, Eurostar and Strongfield. There were few fundamental differences in durum quality parameters between hydroponically and field grown wheat, however yields of Eurostar and Strongfield exceeded those of field trials by 41% and 87% respectively.