Analysis of Problems Encountered in R and D Project Management

Types and frequencies of problems encountered by project and laboratory managers working on 32 government-supported projects in aerospace and electronics industrie

Motivation of R and D enterpreneurs - Determinants of company success

Human performance related to motivations of achievement, power, and company affiliations for determining leadership qualitie

Individual and corporate sources of motivation - A preliminary investigation

Rating scales of individual and corporate motivations and factor analysis of result

Ku-band signal design study

Analytical tools, methods and techniques for assessing the design and performance of the space shuttle orbiter data processing system (DPS) are provided. The computer data processing network is evaluated in the key areas of queueing behavior synchronization and network reliability. The structure of the data processing network is described as well as the system operation principles and the network configuration. The characteristics of the computer systems are indicated. System reliability measures are defined and studied. System and network invulnerability measures are computed. Communication path and network failure analysis techniques are included

Solar Carboreduction of Alumina under Vacuum

AbstractMain requirements for successful production of aluminum via carboreduction of alumina using solar vacuum reactors are sufficiently high reaction temperature, suitable low partial pressure of the product gases, fast heating and quenching at temperature low enough to prevent backward reaction. Based on these requests a batch solar reactor was modeled, designed, built and tested. Experimental results of the solar tests under different vacuum levels and temperature conditions will be presented. It will be shown that for reaction temperature, which is above the minimal temperature required for full conversion as predicted by thermodynamic calculations for appropriate pressure, the alumina to aluminum conversion is above 90%. Not reaching the full conversion can be explained by the byproducts formation during the initial preheating. At lower reaction temperatures and higher CO partial pressure by products can also be formed when reaching steady state condition both in the forward and backward reactions. This formation in the forward reaction is confirmed by the discovery of larger amounts of Al4C3, Al4CO4 solids as the residual byproducts in the reactants holder and higher alumina content in the deposits on the cold parts of the reactor that originated from the volatile Al2O produced in the forward reaction which during the deposition converts to alumina and aluminum. Decreasing the reaction temperature is accompanied by decreasing the temperature in the hot zone that causes the increasing of the deposit mass there with higher amount of Al4C3 and Al4CO4 produced in the backward reaction. Nano crystalline and amorphous morphology of the deposits in the cold zone caused by fast cooling will also be discussed

Polar orbit electrostatic charging of objects in shuttle wake

A survey of DMSP data has uncovered several cases where precipitating auroral electron fluxes are both sufficiently intense and energetic to charge spacecraft materials such as teflon to very large potentials in the absence of ambient ion currents. Analytical bounds are provided which show that these measured environments can cause surface potentials in excess of several hundred volts to develop on objects in the orbiter wake for particular vehicle orientations

Climate Change, Environmental Justice and Children’s Health: Break the Cycle of Climate Change by Cultivating Future Leaders

Children are more vulnerable to adverse environmental factors than adults. Children from poor communities, who are predominantly children of color, are most vulnerable to adverse environmental factors and have fewer protective resources. This combination results in adverse health outcomes for the children and impacts their potential for the future. This scenario can be viewed as an intergenerational cycle of heath disparities. Although the scope of the problem is vast, positive changes can be made on small scales, which, collectively have a significant impact in reducing health disparities and promoting health equity for all children. We have developed a program called Break the Cycle of Children’s Environmental Health Disparities, which every year invites university students from different disciplines to develop projects that will break the cycle of children’s health disparities at any point in the conceptual cycle, with the purpose of influencing their career trajectory and cultivating future leaders. This annual program has been in operation for 16 years and has guided approximately 150 students. The impact of climate change on our planet, our societies and communities, disproportionately affects the same group of socially and economically vulnerable children and their families. We plan to adapt the Break the Cycle program to address the challenges of climate change for an already besieged generation of children who have experienced discrimination as a result of poverty and being children of color. This program will focus directly on students from colleges in vulnerable communities to explore the challenges posed by the impact of climate change in their own communities and develop strategies to address the impact of climate change on children and protect them from its impact. Through the adaptation of the Break the Cycle concept to Climate Change, we anticipate creating future leaders, who will guide our communities and societies in reducing climate change and protecting our most vulnerable citizens

Three-dimensional calculation of shuttle charging in polar orbit

The charged particles environment in polar orbit can be of sufficient intensity to cause spacecraft charging. In order to gain a quantitative understanding of such effects, the Air Force is developing POLAR, a computer code which simulates in three dimensions the electrical interaction of large space vehicles with the polar ionospheric plasma. It models the physical processes of wake generation, ambient ion collection, precipitating auroral electron fluxes, and surface interactions, including secondary electron generation and backscattering, which lead to vehicle charging. These processes may be followed dynamically on a subsecond timescale so that the rapid passage through intense auroral arcs can be simulated. POLAR models the ambient plasma as isotropic Maxwellian electrons and ions (0+, H+), and allows for simultaneous precipitation of power-law, energetic Maxwellian, and accelerated Gaussian distributions of electrons. Magnetic field effects will be modeled in POLAR but are currently ignored