Invest in water for farming, or the world will go hungry. [Opinions].

Crop production, Food security, Water scarcity, Water productivity, Water supply

International Water Management Institute success stories 2000-2009

Research institutes / Research projects / Development projects / Water resource management / Water use / Multiple use / Food security / Soil conservation / Poverty / Farmers / Water harvesting / Water storage / Tanks / Land management / Drinking water / Domestic water / Groundwater management / Irrigated farming / Productivity / Wastewater irrigation / Water scarcity / Maps / Case studies / South Asia / India / Africa / Tanzania / Ethiopia / Thailand / Central Asia / Kyrgyzstan / Tajikistan / Uzbekistan

EDSN Development Lessons Learned

The Edison Demonstration of Smallsat Networks (EDSN) is a technology demonstration mission that provides a proof of concept for a constellation or swarm of satellites performing coordinated activities. Networked swarms of small spacecraft will open new horizons in astronomy, Earth observations and solar physics. Their range of applications include the formation of synthetic aperture radars for Earth sensing systems, large aperture observatories for next generation telescopes and the collection of spatially distributed measurements of time varying systems, probing the Earth’s magnetosphere, Earth-Sun interactions and the Earth’s geopotential. EDSN is a swarm of eight 1.5U Cubesats with crosslink, downlink and science collection capabilities developed by the NASA Ames Research Center under the Small Spacecraft Technology Program (SSTP) within the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). This paper describes the concept of operations of the mission and planned scientific measurements. The development of the 8 satellites for EDSN necessitated the fabrication of prototypes, Flatsats and a total of 16 satellites to support the concurrent engineering and rapid development. This paper has a specific focus on the development, integration and testing of a large number of units including the lessons learned throughout the project development

Toward a Strategy and Results Framework for the CGIAR

tbd. Document discussed at ExCo16

Nanosatellite Launch Adapter System (NLAS) Overview

An overview of the Nanosatellite Launch Adapter System (NLAS) is provided that contains information on NLAS' objectives and relevance, structural components and position in the launch vehicle stack, and details on its three main components

The atmospheric corrosion of 304L and 316L stainless steels under conditions relevant to the interim storage of intermediate level nuclear waste

The atmospheric corrosion of 304L and 3 16L austenitic stainless steels was investigated in conditions relevant to the storage of intermediate level nuclear waste (I L W). Thin electrolyte films were created via automated droplet deposition, allowing multiple tests to be conducted in parallel. In-situ monitoring of droplet arrays on stainless steel samples was conducted with the use of a flat-bed document scanner, allowing large-scale, automated monitoring of corrosion processes. The initiation time for individual corrosion processes was established, showing that corrosion was slower to initiate under less aggressive conditions, and allowing 'true corrosion site lifetimes to be recorded, and compared with their depths. The presence of precipitated species within an electrolyte film was shown to affect the corrosion processes within that film. Both NaCl precipitates and glass shards acted as barriers to ion transport. This affected both the propagation of corrosion, and the electrochemical potential within the droplets; a higher precipitate content decreased the average corrosion depth and the extent of corrosion. The presence of nitrate and sulphate salts, both known corrosion inhibitors in full- immersion conditions, was shown to inhibit atmospheric corrosion when the inhibitor:chloride ratio was above a certain value. This was independent of the absolute amounts of salts, but dependent on the exposure humidity of the test

NASA Facts: Nanosatellite Launch Adapter System (NLAS)

The Nanosatellite Launch Adapter System (NLAS) was developed to increase access to space while simplifying the integration process of miniature satellites, called nanosats or cubesats, onto launch vehicles. A standard cubesat measures about 4inches (10 cm) long, 4 inches wide,and 4 inches high, and is called a one-unit (1U) cubesat. A single NLAS provides the capability to deploy 24U of cubesats. The system is designed to accommodate satellites measuring 1U, 1.5U, 2U, 3U and 6U sizes for deployment into orbit. The NLAS may be configured for use on different launch vehicles. The system also enables flight demonstrations of new technologies in the space environment