Economic geology of lunar Helium-3

Economic geology evaluation of lunar He-3 should answer the question: Can lunar He-3 be sold on Earth with sufficient profit margins and low enough risk to attract capital investment in the enterprise. Concepts that relate to economic geology of recovering He-3 from the lunar maria are not new to human experience. A parametric cost and technology evaluation scheme, based on existing and future data, is required to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the comprehensive economic feasibility and return on investment of He-3 recovery from the lunar maria. There are also many political issues which must be considered as a result of nuclear fusion and lunar mining

INTERMARS: User-controlled international management system

Existing international space law as well as the best interest of all nations are consistent with the establishment of a user-based international organization, herein called INTERMARS. INTERMARS would provide access to facilities and services at a Martian base which would be of high functional potential, quality, safety, and reliability. These opportunities would be available on an open and nondiscriminatory basis to all peaceful users and investors. INTERMARS is a model organization concept tailored to provide cooperative international management of a Martian base for the benefit of its members, users, and investors. Most importantly, INTERMARS would provide such management through a sharing of both sovereignty and opportunity rather then unilateral control by any one nation or set of competing nations. Through an Assembly of Parties, a Board of Governors, a Board of Users and Investors, and a Director General, INTERMARS would meet its primary goal as it would be in the self-interest of all members, users, and investors to do so. The internal structure and philosophy of INTERMARS would provide not only for all participants to have representation in decisions affecting its activities, but also would insure effective and responsive management. Surely this is the precedent wished for, to establish for mankind at the now not-so-distant shores of the new ocean of space

The real world and lunar base activation scenarios

A lunar base or a network of lunar bases may have highly desirable support functions in a national or international program to explore and settle Mars. In addition, He-3 exported from the Moon could be the basis for providing much of the energy needs of humankind in the twenty-first century. Both technical and managerial issues must be addressed when considering the establishment of a lunar base that can serve the needs of human civilization in space. Many of the technical issues become evident in the consideration of hypothetical scenarios for the activation of a network of lunar bases. Specific and realistic assumptions must be made about the conduct of various types of activities in addition to the general assumptions given above. These activities include landings, crew consumables, power production, crew selection, risk management, habitation, science station placement, base planning, science, agriculture, resource evaluation, readaptation, plant activation and test, storage module landings, resource transport module landings, integrated operations, maintenance, Base 2 activation, and management. The development of scenarios for the activation of a lunar base or network of bases will require close attention to the 'real world' of space operations. That world is defined by the natural environment, available technology, realistic objectives, and common sense

The politics of Mars

A discussion is presented comparing past and present major accomplishments of the U.S. and the Soviet Union in space. It concludes that the Soviets are presently well ahead of the U.S. in several specific aspects of space accomplishment and speculates that the Soviet strategy is directed towards sending a man to the vicinity of Mars by the end of this century. A major successful multinational space endeavor, INTELSAT, is reviewed and it is suggested that the manned exploration of Mars offers a unique opportunity for another such major international cooperative effort. The current attitude of U.S. leadership and the general public is assessed as uniformed or ambivalent about the perceived threat of Soviet dominance in space

The understanding of how different environmental burials may affect the decomposition rate of human remains

Human taphonomy, within a forensic setting, explores the decomposition of human remains. This field has proved highly valuable within the criminal justice system, where some high-profile cases have included Naya Rivera amongst others. However, within a practical setting there are multiple different environments encountered within forensic practice which introduce individual limitations. Of primary concern are burial environments. The purpose of the study was to explore how different burial environments affected the decomposition process. In order to understand this limitation a study was set up whereby pig was used as an analogue for human decomposition with this being placed within seven different burial environments specifically, sand, soil and water (chapter three), over a four-week burial period. The study found that the epidermis, adipose, muscle and weight of the meat sample were the primary factors varying during the decomposition process. Where certain environments showed to have an accelerated effect on decomposition (chapter three). To further investigate burial environments, a survey was developed and distributed to various forensic professionals from different regions of the world. Survey responses were used to explore standard methods and techniques for the recovery of human remains within sand, soil and water based burial circumstances (chapter four). The survey was used to understand how different regions of the world experience diverse environments and the difficulties encountered by practitioners. From the responses it was concluded that different regions of the world experience a broad range of environmental factors which need special consideration. Interestingly, there appeared to be inconsistencies of fully developed standard protocols, which will ultimately have numerous implications within forensic investigation. This thesis aims to address some of these challenges and provide further insight into the effect of burial environments on decomposition rates

Metal drilling with portable hand drills

Study of metal drilling solves problems of excessive burring, oversized holes, and out-of-round holes. Recommendations deal with using the proper chemical coolants, applying the coolants effectively, employing cutting oils, and dissipating the heat caused by drilling

A complement to Le Cam's theorem

This paper examines asymptotic equivalence in the sense of Le Cam between density estimation experiments and the accompanying Poisson experiments. The significance of asymptotic equivalence is that all asymptotically optimal statistical procedures can be carried over from one experiment to the other. The equivalence given here is established under a weak assumption on the parameter space $\mathcal{F}$. In particular, a sharp Besov smoothness condition is given on $\mathcal{F}$ which is sufficient for Poissonization, namely, if $\mathcal{F}$ is in a Besov ball $B_{p,q}^{\alpha}(M)$ with $\alpha p>1/2$. Examples show Poissonization is not possible whenever $\alpha p<1/2$. In addition, asymptotic equivalence of the density estimation model and the accompanying Poisson experiment is established for all compact subsets of $C([0,1]^m)$, a condition which includes all H\"{o}lder balls with smoothness $\alpha>0$.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/009053607000000091 in the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org