Lunar and Martian hardware commonality

A number of different hardware elements were examined for possible Moon/Mars program commonality. These include manned landers; cargo landers, a trans-Mars injection (TMI) stage, traverse vehicles, unmanned surface rovers, habitation modules, and power supplies. Preliminary analysis indicates that it is possible to build a common two-stage manned lander. A single-stage, reusable lander may be practical for the lunar cast, but much less so for the Martian case, and commonality may therefore exist only at the subsystem level. A modified orbit transfer vehicle was examined as a potential cargo lander. Potential cargoes to various destinations were calculated for a Shuttle external tank sized TMI stage. A nuclear powered, long range traverse vehicle was conceptually designed and commonality is considered feasible. Short range, unmanned rovers can be made common without great effort. A surface habitation module may be difficult to make common due to difficulties in landing certain shapes on the Martian surface with aerobraking landers. Common nuclear power sources appear feasible. High temperature radiators appear easy to make common. Low temperature radiators may be difficult to make common. In most of these cases, Martian requirements determine the design

Developmental Neurotoxicity Study of Dietary Bisphenol A in Sprague-Dawley Rats

This study was conducted to determine the potential of bisphenol A (BPA) to induce functional and/or morphological effects to the nervous system of F1 offspring from dietary exposure during gestation and lactation according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for the study of developmental neurotoxicity. BPA was offered to female Sprague-Dawley Crl:CD (SD) rats (24 per dose group) and their litters at dietary concentrations of 0 (control), 0.15, 1.5, 75, 750, and 2250 ppm daily from gestation day 0 through lactation day 21. F1 offspring were evaluated using the following tests: detailed clinical observations (postnatal days [PNDs] 4, 11, 21, 35, 45, and 60), auditory startle (PNDs 20 and 60), motor activity (PNDs 13, 17, 21, and 61), learning and memory using the Biel water maze (PNDs 22 and 62), and brain and nervous system neuropathology and brain morphometry (PNDs 21 and 72). For F1 offspring, there were no treatment-related neurobehavioral effects, nor was there evidence of neuropathology or effects on brain morphometry. Based on maternal and offspring body weight reductions, the no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) for systemic toxicity was 75 ppm (5.85 and 13.1 mg/kg/day during gestation and lactation, respectively), with no treatment-related effects at lower doses or nonmonotonic dose responses observed for any parameter. There was no evidence that BPA is a developmental neurotoxicant in rats, and the NOAEL for developmental neurotoxicity was 2250 ppm, the highest dose tested (164 and 410 mg/kg/day during gestation and lactation, respectively)