The development of a cislunar space infrastructure

The primary objective of this Advanced Mission Design Program is to define the general characteristics and phased evolution of a near-Earth space infrastructure. The envisioned foundation includes a permanently manned, self-sustaining base on the lunar surface, a space station at the Libration Point between earth and the moon (L1), and a transportation system that anchors these elements to the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) station. The implementation of this conceptual design was carried out with the idea that the infrastructure is an important step in a larger plan to expand man's capabilities in space science and technology. Such expansion depends on low cost, reliable, and frequent access to space for those who wish to use the multiple benefits of this environment. The presence of a cislunar space infrastructure would greatly facilitate the staging of future planetary missions, as well as the full exploration of the lunar potential for science and industry. The rationale for, and a proposed detailed scenario in support of, the cislunar space infrastructure are discussed

Impact parameter dependence of the nuclear modification of J/psi production in d+Au collisions at sqrt(S_NN) = 200 GeV

The centrality dependence of sqrt(s_NN)= 200 GeV d+Au {J/\psi} data, measured in 12 rapidity bins that span -2.2 < y < 2.4, has been fitted using a model containing an effective absorption cross section combined with EPS09 NLO shadowing. The centrality dependence of the shadowing contribution was allowed to vary nonlinearly, employing a variety of assumptions, in an effort to explore the limits of what can be determined from the data. The impact parameter dependencies of the effective absorption cross section and the shadowing parameterization are sufficiently distinct to be determined separately. It is found that the onset of shadowing is a highly nonlinear function of impact parameter. The mid and backward rapidity absorption cross sections are compared with lower energy data and, for times of 0.05 fm/c or greater, data over a broad range of collision energies and rapidities are well described by a model in which the absorption cross section depends only on time spent in the nucleus.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures. Expanded discussion of methods, and added extensive comparison of effective absorption cross sections with lower energy data, and with theory. Corrected minor typos in table 1, corrected typos in best fit parameters for Fig.