Paving the Way: The Influence of Early Research and Development Programs on Apollo, Saturn, and Legacy System Development

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first successful human landings on the surface of the Moon in 1969, it is insightful to review the many historic accomplishments that contributed to this astounding human achievement. While the Apollo Program officially began following the charge by United States President John F. Kennedy in 1961, much of the foundation for Apollo was already underway with early research and development that began as early as the close of the second World War. Innovations and key decisions prior to the formal initiation of the Apollo Program, and even prior to the formation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), enabled the relatively rapid development of the Saturn V rocket, the Apollo capsule, and the Lunar Lander systems needed to achieve the goal of landing humans on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth by the close of the 1960s

The SERI solar energy storage program

In support of the DOE thermal and chemical energy storage program, the solar energy storage program (SERI) provides research on advanced technologies, systems analyses, and assessments of thermal energy storage for solar applications in support of the Thermal and Chemical Energy Storage Program of the DOE Division of Energy Storage Systems. Currently, research is in progress on direct contact latent heat storage and thermochemical energy storage and transport. Systems analyses are being performed of thermal energy storage for solar thermal applications, and surveys and assessments are being prepared of thermal energy storage in solar applications. A ranking methodology for comparing thermal storage systems (performance and cost) is presented. Research in latent heat storage and thermochemical storage and transport is reported

Generals in Three-Piece Suits—Contractors in Camouflage: A Critical Assessment of Contractors in Iraq

Contractors compose part of the total force for U.S. warfare capability in Iraq. Some augment U.S. warfare capability; others do not. Some of the contractors are controlled by the military; others are controlled by civilian (nonmilitary/political) government agencies. The problem: Who are the contractors and how has the nature of government oversight and control over contractors determined whether contractor contributions augment or diminish U.S. warfare capability in the Iraq War? Argument: It is the degree of government control over contractors that determines whether the contractors\u27 contributions have a positive or negative impact on warfare capability. Ultimately the findings support this argument. My method is a single case study that compares two groups of individual cases. The first group is composed of firms that have military contract administrators; the second has nonmilitary/political administrators. The individual cases are framed by a research question set to trace contractor control and contributions to changes in warfare capability. The firms are identified by function type and contract administrator. The military had procedures for controlling contractors when the war started, but failed to follow through on them. Contractor fraud and the Abu Ghraib scandal were the result. With congressional oversight and military control, contractors contributed to the size of the military force structure and augmented warfare capability. Contractors modernized military capability with technology support; in addition, they provide specialized skills such as language capability and oil well maintenance. All of these functions augment warfare capability. However, both military dependence on contractors and contractor lobbying are fundamental threats to military readiness and warfare capability. Nonmilitary/political administrators had no force structure, plans, or procedures for contractor control at the start of the war; control policy was written as an afterthought. Contractors provided the force structure, building skills, and police training essential for the warfare capability goal of rebuilding and stabilizing Iraq. However, armed security firms that were used to protect rebuilders became a threat to political order because the nonmilitary/political control policies for contractors did not change with the political situation. Thus, the nonmilitary/political administrators\u27 failure to control contractors is linked to the erosion of warfare capability

CELF significantly reduces milling requirements and improves soaking effectiveness for maximum sugar recovery of Alamo switchgrass over dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment

BackgroundPretreatment is effective in reducing the natural recalcitrance of plant biomass so polysaccharides in cell walls can be accessed for conversion to sugars. Furthermore, lignocellulosic biomass must typically be reduced in size to increase the pretreatment effectiveness and realize high sugar yields. However, biomass size reduction is a very energy-intensive operation and contributes significantly to the overall capital cost.ResultsIn this study, the effect of particle size reduction and biomass presoaking on the deconstruction of Alamo switchgrass was examined prior to pretreatment by dilute sulfuric acid (DSA) and Co-solvent Enhanced Lignocellulosic Fractionation (CELF) at pretreatment conditions optimized for maximum sugar release by each pretreatment coupled with subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis. Sugar yields by enzymatic hydrolysis were measured over a range of enzyme loadings. In general, DSA successfully solubilized hemicellulose, while CELF removed nearly 80% of Klason lignin from switchgrass in addition to the majority of hemicellulose. Presoaking and particle size reduction did not have a significant impact on biomass compositions after pretreatment for both DSA and CELF. However, presoaking for 4 h slightly increased sugar yields by enzymatic hydrolysis of DSA-pretreated switchgrass compared to unsoaked samples, whereas sugar yields from enzymatic hydrolysis of CELF solids continued to increase substantially for up to 18 h of presoaking time. Of particular importance, DSA required particle size reduction by knife milling to < 2 mm in order to achieve adequate sugar yields by subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis. CELF solids, on the other hand, realized nearly identical sugar yields from unmilled and milled switchgrass even at very low enzyme loadings.ConclusionsCELF was capable of achieving nearly theoretical sugar yields from enzymatic hydrolysis of pretreated switchgrass solids without size reduction, unlike DSA. These results indicate that CELF may be able to eliminate particle size reduction prior to pretreatment and thereby reduce overall costs of biological processing of biomass to fuels. In addition, presoaking proved much more effective for CELF than for DSA, particularly at low enzyme loadings

A time series from the beach environment-II

This work is the second in a continuing series of time-series data reports to be published periodically as a result of field investigations in the beach-ocean-atmosphere system by Dr. Wyman Harrison and his associates. The first report was published as Technical Memorandum ERLTM-AOL 1 of ESSA\u27s Atlantic Oceanographic Laboratories. This series of reports will allow other researchers to test hypotheses or to experiment with analytical procedures without going through the expensive and somewhat arduous task of obtaining the data

A time series from the beach environment-II

This work is the second in a continuing series of time-series data reports to be published periodically as a result of field investigations in the beach-ocean-atmosphere system by Dr. Wyman Harrison and his associates. The first report was published as Technical Memorandum ERLTM-AOL 1 of ESSA\u27s Atlantic Oceanographic Laboratories. This series of reports will allow other researchers to test hypotheses or to experiment with analytical procedures without going through the expensive and somewhat arduous task of obtaining the data

Pages from the Geologic Past of Marion County

The "pages" of rock strata that together form the geologic history book of Marion County are written in a foreign language of fossils, rock fragments, and mineral grains. We are able to translate the messages from these accumulations of extinct organisms and lifeless mineral matters through the knowledge gained from efforts of many generations of geologists. The meaning of the story of earth history that arises from the work of thousands of geologist translators lies in the connections man finds between his life and the world around him.Indiana Department of Conservatio