An airfoil pitch apparatus-modeling and control design

The study of dynamic stall of rapidly pitching airfoils is being conducted at NASA Ames Research Center. Understanding this physical phenomenon will aid in improving the maneuverability of fighter aircraft as well as civilian aircraft. A wind tunnel device which can linearly pitch and control an airfoil with rapid dynamic response is needed for such tests. To develop a mechanism capable of high accelerations, an accurate model and control system is created. The model contains mathematical representations of the mechanical system, including mass, spring, and damping characteristics for each structural element, as well as coulomb friction and servovalve saturation. Electrical components, both digital and analog, linear and nonlinear, are simulated. The implementation of such a high-performance system requires detailed control design as well as state-of-the-art components. This paper describes the system model, states the system requirements, and presents results of its theoretical performance which maximizes the structural and hydraulic aspects of this system

The Human Synthesis: An Exploration of Anxiety, Love, and Selfhood under the Domain of the Will to Power

This paper elucidates the conception of the self by reading prominent philosophers such as Sartre and Kierkegaard against the backdrop of Nietzsche’s “will to power”. By understanding this central tenet of Nietzschien thought as a self-overcoming force - ubiquitous in all life - that wills only its own growth, we are left with the question of how the will to power manifests. I will argue that in order to self-overcome, the will to power must have individuated life, i.e., a myriad of “selves” who, under the Sartrean definition of consciousness, are able to be what they are not yet. A singularity, I will claim, would be unable to become what it is not because there is no being it is not; therefore, life individuates into selves capable of Sartrean self-consciousness. Kierkegaardian anxiety can then be conceived as a pull into selfhood away from what he terms “the race”. With this groundwork laid, I will return to Nietzsche’s philosophy to provide an answer for the self’s purpose: one that is paradoxically supplemented by De Rougemont’s analysis of love

LCROSS Lunar Impactor - Lessons Learned from a Small Satellite Mission

The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on June 18, 2009. While the science function of the LCROSS mission was to determine the presence of water-ice in a permanently-shadowed crater on the moon, the operational purpose was to be a pioneer for future low-cost, risk-tolerant small satellite NASA missions. Recent strategic changes at the Agency level have only furthered the importance of small satellite missions. NASA Ames Research Center and its industry partner, Northrop-Grumman, initiated this spacecraft project two-years after its co-manifest mission had started, with less than one-fifth the budget. With a $79M total cost cap (including operations and reserves) and 31-months until launch, LCROSS needed a game-changing approach to be successful. At the LCROSS Confirmation Review, the ESMD Associate Administrator asked the Project team to keep a close record of lessons learned through the course of the mission and share their findings with the Agency at the end of the mission. This paper summarizes the Project, the mission, its risk position, and some of the more notable lessons learned

LCROSS - Lunar Impactor: Pioneering Risk-Tolerant Exploration in Search for Water on the Moon

The Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on June 18, 2009 to determine the presence of water-ice in a permanently shadowed crater on the south pole of the Moon. However, an equally important purpose was to pioneer low-cost, quick-turnaround NASA missions that could accept a higher-than-normal-level of technical risk. When the LCROSS mission proposal was competitively selected by the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate to design, build, and launch a spacecraft in 31 months with a $79M cost-capped budget and a fixed mass allocation, NASA Ames Research Center and its industry partner, Northrop-Grumman, needed a game-changing approach to be successful. That approach was a ground-breaking combination of having a risk-tolerant NASA Class D mission status and finding the right balance point between the inflexible elements of cost and schedule and the newly-flexible element of technical capability

LCROSS: A High Return, Small Satellite Mission

Early in 2006, the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) held a competition for NASA Centers to propose innovative ideas for a secondary payload mission to launch with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to the Moon. The successful proposal could cost no more than $80 million dollars (less was preferred), would have to be ready to launch with the LRO in 31 months, could weigh no more than 1000 kg (fuelled), and would be designated a risk-tolerant "Class D" mission. In effect, NASA was offering a fixed-price contract to the winning NASA team to stay within a cost and schedule cap by accepting an unusually elevated risk position. To address this Announcement of Opportunity to develop a cost-and-schedule-capped secondary payload mission to fly with LRO, NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) in Moffett Field, CA, USA embarked on a brainstorming effort termed "Blue Ice" in which a small team was asked to explore a number of mission scenarios that might have a good chance for success and still fit within the stated programmatic constraints. From this work, ARC developed and submitted six of the nineteen mission proposals received by ESMD from throughout the Agency, one of which was LCROSS - a collaborative effort between ARC and its industrial partner, Northrop-Grumman (NG) in Redondo Beach, CA, USA

Foreign Subsidiary Management in the Contemporary Multinational Enterprise

As multinational enterprises (MNEs) expand into foreign markets that are not only heterogeneous but also change in an unsynchronized manner, the locus of strategic decision-making increasingly lies with foreign subsidiaries as a means of coping with complex multinational operations. However, although this shift towards more subsidiary autonomy seemingly represents a key building block of contemporary MNE strategy, existing international business literature offers little theoretical clarity regarding when an MNE’s headquarters will increase levels of autonomy over foreign subsidiary strategic decisions. Moreover, while prior research highlights increased decision-making autonomy as a key driver of subsidiary performance outcomes, several studies point to efficiency- and agency-based problems associated with higher levels of autonomy. Following the predominance of subsidiary-focused research in international business studies over the last two decades, the aforementioned issues have resulted in scholarly calls to better our understanding of foreign subsidiary management by MNE headquarters and more generally revisit the role of MNE headquarters in subsidiary success. Accordingly, this dissertation aims to propel a more coherent and contextualized understanding of these interrelated and pressing issues, thus advancing theory of MNE strategy and structure. I submit three essays towards that end. Specifically, essay one leverages existing empirical evidence to conduct a meta-analysis of foreign subsidiary autonomy determinants, focusing on theoretically relevant conditions shaping the headquarters’ inclination to increase subsidiary autonomy. Essay two offers a more nuanced, contextualized theory of the outcomes of subsidiary autonomy by demonstrating that subsidiaries can innovate without autonomy in specific contextual settings. Finally, essay three assesses the role of the MNE headquarters, relative to other classes of explanatory variables, to explaining foreign subsidiary performance differences. The result of these efforts is a more lucid theory of global MNE strategy and structure