Advanced space engine preliminary design

A preliminary design was completed for an O2/H2, 89 kN (20,000 lb) thrust staged combustion rocket engine that has a single-bell nozzle with an overall expansion ratio of 400:1. The engine has a best estimate vacuum specific impulse of 4623.8 N-s/kg (471.5 sec) at full thrust and mixture ratio = 6.0. The engine employs gear-driven, low pressure pumps to provide low NPSH capability while individual turbine-driven, high-speed main pumps provide the system pressures required for high-chamber pressure operation. The engine design dry weight for the fixed-nozzle configuration is 206.9 kg (456.3 lb). Engine overall length is 234 cm (92.1 in.). The extendible nozzle version has a stowed length of 141.5 cm (55.7 in.). Critical technology items in the development of the engine were defined. Development program plans and their costs for development, production, operation, and flight support of the ASE were established for minimum cost and minimum time programs

Archaeology of the haut pays (Belgium); the prehistory of the haine valley until the beginning of the bronze age

This work is an attempt to study the complete sequence of material cultures in an area of limited extent up to its settlement by metal using peoples. As such it is scarcely an originally conceived project for surveys of this kind exist with greater or lesser thoroughness for many other areas in northern Europe. It is our hope that we will be able to show the local material in a wider setting, to de- provincialize it, and to draw the attention of archaeologists to its general significance. In some instances, this attempt to provide a wider fulne of reference for the material has led to consideration in detail of finds far removed from the modest valley which was for some time our home. In this the "tail" often tends to wag the "dog ", but it is such a fascinating "tail" that the temptation to deal with it at length could not be resisted, unhappily for the brevity of the work.The text is divided into four main sections. The first/dealing with Paleolithic finds and their setting in the rather complex geology of the valley, is an attempt, in the light of recent research, to bring some order into a chaotic mass of long -known material. It is by no means a definitive study, for, under the circumstances of inadequate documentation of finds, poorly donducted excavations and similar hindrances, one can but hope to give an indication of the state of the situation.The discussion of the Mesolithic settlement of the valley is so brief that it scarcely merits a separate chapter, but this is because of the limited nature of the finds themselves.In the discussion of the Neolithic and Aeneolithic periods, we have tried to shed some new light on some old problems, and the bulk of the effort is devoted to these sections (chapters 6 & q). The results of our field work and study of correlative material does, accomplish this we hope, though we feel that the scheme outlined in the last chapter is capable of considerable refinement

Noble warriors : the military elite and Henry VIII's expeditions of 1513 and 1544

This thesis is concerned with identifying and understanding the typical behaviour of the early Tudor nobility, particularly in relation to military activity. It is also an attempt to describe that behaviour without following the usual practice of categorising it as declining chivalry and the emergence of modern attitudes. Instead, I suggest that insofar as there was a shared area of ideas and behaviour amongst the nobles, that behaviour was in large part an outcome of their position in society as a military elite. Because the nobles formed a military elite, the behaviour of individuals in both military and civilian life was, to a major degree, shaped by the expectation that their typical actions would be the same as those of the leaders of the army. Their peacetime behaviour was, therefore, often related to the position occupied in the army by nobles, and, at the same time, behavioural characteristics associated with the noble in his civilian life frequently intruded into war situations. An outcome of the identity between the noble as a civilian and as a soldier was that the noble tended to regard the army as the proper sphere in which to display his select status, rather than seeing the army merely as an instrument of the nation or the government. Nobles were often concerned to be seen to be acting in a manner befitting their rank, even in times of great stress and danger. Because these typical activities associated with the noble might emphasise somewhat resource wasting actions, their presence helped make warfare seem even less efficient than it already was. At the same time, there were numerous traditionally based types of behaviour associated with the military elite, which many writers have been content to label as chivalry. These were adopted by the nobles as aspects of the typical behaviour of their group. But it would be incorrect to claim that these characteristics alone made up the main influence on the ideas and actions of the early Tudor nobility

On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini

Gemini was the intermediate manned space flight program between America's first steps into space with Mercury and the manned lunar expeditions of Apollo. Because of its position between these two other efforts, Gemini is probably less remembered. Still, it more than had its place in man's progress into this new frontier. Gemini accomplishments were manyfold. They included many firsts: first astronaut-controlled maneuvering in space; first rendezvous in space of one spacecraft with another; first docking of one spacecraft with a propulsive stage and use of that stage to transfer man to high altitude; first traverse of man into the earth's radiation belts; first extended manned flights of a week or more in duration; first extended stays of man outside his spacecraft; first controlled reentry and precision landing; and many more. These achievements were significant in ways one cannot truly evaluate even today, but two things stand out: (1) it was the time when America caught up and surpassed the Soviet Union in manned space flight, and (2) these demonstrations of capability were an absolute prerequisite to the phenomenal Apollo accomplishments then yet to come