Participatory Technology Assessment for Mars Mission Planning: Public Values and Rationales

Public support and interest are needed to design an ambitious human spaceflight program. However, it is difficult to understand what the public values and would support. And it is even more challenging and rare to consider public views prior to actually developing a mission. Participatory technology assessment (pTA) is a method that aims to understand public preferences and values in order to inform upstream government decision-making. We assess a recently completed experiment in pTA, the "Informing NASA's Asteroid Initiative" project. Through a cooperative agreement with NASA, the Expert and Citizen Assessment of Science and Technology (ECAST) network conducted a pTA-based forum on NASA's Asteroid Initiative and the Journey to Mars. ECAST organized two citizen forums in Phoenix, Arizona and Boston, Massachusetts in November 2014, with a total of 183 citizens selected so as to minimize self-selection biases. This paper focuses on the "Journey to Mars" session, which had the primary goal of soliciting citizen perceptions about different Mars exploration scenarios and mission planning approaches. Citizens were given background information about three potential Mars exploration scenarios that NASA could carry out: 1) Crewed orbital mission to direct robots on the surface of Mars; 2) Short exploratory crewed mission to the surface of Mars; and 3) establishing a permanent settlement. Citizens then engaged in structured facilitated discussions about their preferences among the scenarios and NASA's mission planning approach. Using a grounded theory coding approach, we analyzed participants' written rationales and dialogue about Mars exploration. In general, participants did not show a strong preference for any particular mission profile, but there was a slight preference for the crewed orbital robotics scenario. Participants who supported this approach saw it as the quickest, safest, and least costly road to a successful mission. However, many participants were interested in seeing "boots on the ground," as they believed this would propel scientific advancement, increase excitement about space exploration, and make humans a "two-planet species.

Commercial experience with facility deactivation to safe storage

The Department of Energy (DOE) has shutdown many production reactors; the Department has begun a major effort to also shutdown a wide variety of other nuclear facilities. Because so many facilities are being closed, it is necessary to place many of them into a safe- storage status, i.e., deactivation, before conducting decommissioning- for perhaps as long as 20 years. The challenge is to achieve this safe-storage condition in a cost-effective manner while remaining in compliance with applicable regulations. The DOE Office of Environmental Management, Office of Transition and Management, commissioned a lessons-learned study of commercial experience with safe storage and decommissioning. Although the majority of the commercial experience has been with reactors, many of the lessons learned presented in this document can provide insight into transitioning challenges that Will be faced by the DOE weapons complex

How long do nosocomial pathogens persist on inanimate surfaces? A systematic review

BACKGROUND: Inanimate surfaces have often been described as the source for outbreaks of nosocomial infections. The aim of this review is to summarize data on the persistence of different nosocomial pathogens on inanimate surfaces. METHODS: The literature was systematically reviewed in MedLine without language restrictions. In addition, cited articles in a report were assessed and standard textbooks on the topic were reviewed. All reports with experimental evidence on the duration of persistence of a nosocomial pathogen on any type of surface were included. RESULTS: Most gram-positive bacteria, such as Enterococcus spp. (including VRE), Staphylococcus aureus (including MRSA), or Streptococcus pyogenes, survive for months on dry surfaces. Many gram-negative species, such as Acinetobacter spp., Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, or Shigella spp., can also survive for months. A few others, such as Bordetella pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae, Proteus vulgaris, or Vibrio cholerae, however, persist only for days. Mycobacteria, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and spore-forming bacteria, including Clostridium difficile, can also survive for months on surfaces. Candida albicans as the most important nosocomial fungal pathogen can survive up to 4 months on surfaces. Persistence of other yeasts, such as Torulopsis glabrata, was described to be similar (5 months) or shorter (Candida parapsilosis, 14 days). Most viruses from the respiratory tract, such as corona, coxsackie, influenza, SARS or rhino virus, can persist on surfaces for a few days. Viruses from the gastrointestinal tract, such as astrovirus, HAV, polio- or rota virus, persist for approximately 2 months. Blood-borne viruses, such as HBV or HIV, can persist for more than one week. Herpes viruses, such as CMV or HSV type 1 and 2, have been shown to persist from only a few hours up to 7 days. CONCLUSION: The most common nosocomial pathogens may well survive or persist on surfaces for months and can thereby be a continuous source of transmission if no regular preventive surface disinfection is performed

Trend of the Butter Industry in the United States and Other Countries

Excerpts from the report: The foregoing charts are subject to many interpretations of varied character. Of the deductions applying to the dairy industry of the United States, however, the following are of particular interest: 1. Farm buttermaking reached its maximum production about 1900. The present trend indicates that it will become a less and less important factor in the Nation's butter supply, being superseded by the factory product. 2. Production of factory butter in the United States shows a more rapid general upward trend than is observed in any foreign country from which dependable butter figures have been obtained. 3. Production of renovated butter in the United States is declining. This condition evidently results from reduced supplies of low-quality farm butter, the chief product from which renovated butter is made. 4. Butter made in the United States is a very small factor in the international butter trade. More than 99 per cent of our butter business has been entirely domestic, except in the last three years. 5. The United Kingdom and Germany were the principal butter-importing nations, and Europe in the last decade has been unable to supply its own butter needs. Shortly before the war, Siberia, Australia, and New Zealand supplied most of the butter which Europe imported. 6. The export-butter business of nearly all countries shows noticeable fluctuations in short periods of time, indicating that the balance between domestic supplies and the profitable foreign outlet is delicate. 7. Well-known facts considered in connection with the charts show that high quality is essential to a large export trade. In Denmark, which before the war had the largest butter business in the world, the quality was high. It may be added that her stringent laws controlled the quality of export butter. 8. Information supplementary to the charts shows also that high quality and a high per capita consumption generally are found together, as also are low quality and low consumption. 9. Since consumption is depressed by high prices, it is apparent, in connection with the quality influences discussed, that high per capita consumption is influenced by both quality and price. 10. Briefly, a general improvement in the quality of butter in the United States will help to strengthen the domestic market, and with enlarged production will put this country in a better position to increase its export trade

Trend of the Cheese Industry in the United States and Other Countries

Excerpts from the report: In the last half century the production of farm-made cheese in the United States has practically ceased. Factory cheese, which has taken its place, now exceeds 300 million pounds annually, about three times the highest figure ever reached by cheese made on farms. The factory system of cheesemaking, developed in the United States, has stimulated cheese production in practically every country. The United States in recent years has consumed practically all the cheese it produced and in addition, just before the war, was importing about one-tenth of the exports from all other countries. In 1880 the United States was the greatest cheese-exporting country in the world. In 1918 there were five countries each of which exceeded the United States in exports. The cheese exported by European countries is of special types, while that from Canada, United States, Argentina, New Zealand, and Australia is largely of the Cheddar type. A relatively small quantity of "filled" cheese made in the United States between 1870 and 1905 and sold as genuine cheese practically destroyed the confidence of European purchasers in the quality of cheese from the United States. Countries exporting those varieties of cheese which are especially used for savory purposes appear to have enjoyed a continuous export demand. The variations in their exports are not so marked as in those that made the Cheddar type of cheese. The annual cheese consumption in the United States has been less than 4 pounds per capita during practically all the time of record, and has never reached 5 pounds per capita as a national average. For the most part the per capita consumption of cheese has been less in the countries using only a few varieties than in those where numerous varieties are used