Project Assessment Framework through Design (PAFTD) - A Project Assessment Framework in Support of Strategic Decision Making

Research and development organizations that push the innovation edge of technology frequently encounter challenges when attempting to identify an investment strategy and to accurately forecast the cost and schedule performance of selected projects. Fast moving and complex environments require managers to quickly analyze and diagnose the value of returns on investment versus allocated resources. Our Project Assessment Framework through Design (PAFTD) tool facilitates decision making for NASA senior leadership to enable more strategic and consistent technology development investment analysis, beginning at implementation and continuing through the project life cycle. The framework takes an integrated approach by leveraging design principles of useability, feasibility, and viability and aligns them with methods employed by NASA's Independent Program Assessment Office for project performance assessment. The need exists to periodically revisit the justification and prioritization of technology development investments as changes occur over project life cycles. The framework informs management rapidly and comprehensively about diagnosed internal and external root causes of project performance

Humanly space objects — Perception and connection with the observer

Expanding humanity into space is an inevitable step in our quest to explore our world. Yet space exploration is costly, and the awaiting environment challenges us with extreme cold, heat, vacuum and radiation, unlike anything encountered on Earth. Thus, the few pioneers who experience it needed to be well protected throughout their spaceflight. The resulting isolation heightens the senses and increases the desire to make humanly connections with any other perceived manifestation of life. Such connections may occur via sensory inputs, namely vision, touch, sound, smell, and taste. This then follows the process of sensing, interpreting, and recognizing familiar patterns, or learning from new experiences. The desire to connect could even transfer to observed objects, if their movements and characteristics trigger the appropriate desires from the observer. When ordered in a familiar way, for example visual stimuli from lights and movements of an object, it may create a perceived real bond with an observer, and evoke the feeling of surprise when the expected behavior changes to something no longer predictable or recognizable. These behavior patterns can be designed into an object and performed autonomously in front of an observer, in our case an astronaut. The experience may introduce multiple responses, including communication, connection, empathy, order, and disorder. While emotions are clearly evoked in the observer and may seem one sided, in effect the object itself provides a decoupled bond, connectivity and communication between the observer and the artist-designer of the object. In this paper we will discuss examples from the field of arts and other domains, including robotics, where human perception through object interaction was explored, and investigate the starting point for new innovative design concepts and future prototype designs, that extend these experiences beyond the boundaries of Earth, while taking advantage of remoteness and the zero gravity environment. Through a form of emotional connection and design, these concepts will focus on the connection and brief emotional bond between a humanly animate object in space and a co-located observer in spaceflight. We conclude that beyond providing creative expressions for humanly contacts, these experiences may also provide further insights into human perception in spaceflight, and could be tested on the International Space Station, and serve as a stepping-stone towards use on long-duration spaceflight to Mars

New Frontiers-class Uranus Orbiter: Exploring the feasibility of achieving multidisciplinary science with a mid-scale mission

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Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia

The past, present, and future of the Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS)

The Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) is a community-driven standard for the organization of data and metadata from a growing range of neuroscience modalities. This paper is meant as a history of how the standard has developed and grown over time. We outline the principles behind the project, the mechanisms by which it has been extended, and some of the challenges being addressed as it evolves. We also discuss the lessons learned through the project, with the aim of enabling researchers in other domains to learn from the success of BIDS

Venus Conditions for the IPPW-6 Short Course Exercise

This presentation was part of the session : Short CoursesSixth International Planetary Probe WorkshopVenus Conditions for the IPPW-6 Short Course Exercis

Overview of Past Venus Missions and Potential Architectures for Future Missions - Architectures - Issues - Failures

This presentation was part of the session : Short CoursesSixth International Planetary Probe Worksho

Overview of Flagship Class Venus Mission Architectures

This presentation was part of the session : Probe Missions to the Giant Planets, Titan and VenusSixth International Planetary Probe WorkshopIntroduction: To assess the feasibility and potential technology needs of a future planned Venus Flagship class mission, NASA is funding a mission study in this fiscal year (FY08). Such a mission was recommended in NASA's 2006 Solar System Exploration Roadmap [1] and in the NRC SSE Decadal Survey [2]. The final mission architecture is required to be in line with the primary science goals and objectives, as defined in the Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG) White Paper [3], and enabled by suitable extreme environments technologies [4]. In order to assist the Science and Technology Definition Team (STDT) for this year's study, an initial assessment was performed at JPL during the summer of 2007 [5], evaluating 17 potential mission architectures. Science requirements focused the architectures to near surface in situ missions only. Consequently, the studied architectures were bound by a New Frontiers (medium) class short lived surface mission concept at one end, working towards a future large Flagship class Venus Surface Sample Return (VSSR) mission at the other end, and through a number of architectures at various levels of complexities and corresponding cost levels. In this paper we outline the findings of last summer's study, including the recommended 3 key mission architecture groups - i.e., landers, mobile platforms, and geophysical networks - and link them to the final mission architecture from this year's study. References: [1] NASA - SSE Roadmap Team, "Solar System Exploration - Solar System Exploration Roadmap for NASA's Science Mission Directorate", Report Number: JPL-D-35618, NASA Science Missions Directorate, Planetary Science Division, Washington, D.C., 2006. [2] NRC, New Frontiers in the Solar System, an integrated exploration strategy, Technical re-port, Space Studies Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2003. [3] VEXAG, "Venus Exploration Goals, Objectives, Investigations, and Priorities: 2007", Website: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/vexag/, Viewed: March 12, 2008. [4] Kolawa, E., et al., "Extreme Environments Technologies for Future Space Science Mis-sions," Report Number : JPL D-32832, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, September 19, 2007. [5] Balint, T.S., Cutts, J.A., "Venus Flagship Class Missions Architectures", Presented at the 4th meeting of the Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG), Greenbelt, MD, November 4-5, 2007.NASA Jet Propulsion Laborator

On the Feasibility of a New Frontiers Class Saturn Probe Mission

This presentation focuses strictly on science goals and strawman payload, trajectories, telecom/attenuation, atmospheric entry, descent and TPS issues, and communications

NASA's RPS Design Reference Mission Set for Solar System Exploration

NASA's 2006 Solar System Exploration (SSE) Strategic Roadmap identified a set of proposed large Flagship, medium New Frontiers and small Discovery class missions, addressing key exploration objectives. These objectives respond to the recommendations by the National Research Council (NRC), reported in the SSE Decadal Survey. The SSE Roadmap is down-selected from an over-subscribed set of missions, called the SSE Design Reference Mission (DRM) set. Missions in the Flagship and New Frontiers classes can consider Radioisotope Power Systems (RPSs), while small Discovery class missions are not permitted to use them, due to cost constraints. In line with the SSE DRM set and the SSE Roadmap missions, the RPS DRM set represents a set of missions, which can be enabled or enhanced by RPS technologies. At present, NASA has proposed the development of two new types of RPSs. These are the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG), with static power conversion; and the Stirling Radioisotope Generator (SRG), with dynamic conversion. Advanced RPSs, under consideration for possible development, aim to increase specific power levels. In effect, this would either increase electric power generation for the same amount of fuel, or reduce fuel requirements for the same power output, compared to the proposed MMRTG or SRG. Operating environments could also influence the design, such that an RPS on the proposed Titan Explorer would use smaller fins to minimize heat rejection in the extreme cold environment; while the Venus Mobile Explorer long-lived in-situ mission would require the development of a new RPS, in order to tolerate the extreme hot environment, and to simultaneously provide active cooling to the payload and other electric components. This paper discusses NASA's SSE RPS DRM set, in line with the SSE DRM set. It gives a qualitative assessment regarding the impact of various RPS technology and configuration options on potential mission architectures, which could support NASA's RPS technology development planning, and provide an understanding of fuel need trades over the next three decades