Offshore Space Center (offshore launch site)

Any activity requiring the development of the HLLV can benefit by operations from an offshore space center (OSC) since operating near the equator provides a twenty percent increase in payload in an ecliptic plan orbit. Some OSC concepts considered include a moored floating (semisubmersible) design, a stationary design supported by fixed piles, and a combination of these two. The facility supports: a 15,000 foot long, 300 foot wide runway, designed to accommodate a two staged winged launch vehicle, with a one million pound payload capacity to low earth orbit; an industrial area for HLLV maintenance; an airport terminal, control and operation center, and observation tower; liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen production and storage, and fuel storage platforms; a power generation station, docks with an unloading area; two separate launch sites; and living accommodations for 10,000 people. Potential sites include the Paramount Seamount in the Pacific Ocean off the north coast of South America. Cost estimates are considered

Maksutov spectrograph Patent

Maksutov spectrograph for low light level researc

Reapportionments of State Legislatures—Legal Requirements

The continuously rising attention to and practice of eco-city development in Sweden and China, as well as the countries’ active cooperation has motivated this study and the exploration of eco-city development in these two countries. In eco-city development, diverse environmental issues may well be beyond the planning sector’s capacity and need to be resolved elsewhere by other authorities and agencies in such areas as energy, water and traffic. This may in practice require the reframing of certain institutions to ensure that relevant sector authorities, scientific institutions and actors have responsibilities for integrative tasks and can cooperate effectively. The study aims to investigate how institutional conditions affect environmental integration in urban planning. The approach used is the exploration of how different institutional conditions promote and/or hinder environmental integration by the examination of four examples of eco-city development in Sweden and China. Based on theories of institutions, Environmental Policy Integration (EPI) and sustainable urban planning, an analytical framework is used to describe institutional conditions related to formal rulemaking, informal rules and administrative management and organizations. Formal rules provide framework and legitimacy for guiding and enforcing actors in the practice of realizing environmental integration in urban planning. Meanwhile, informal rules; i.e. wills, interests, understanding and knowledge, could considerably affect the design of formal rules and how they are to be implemented. Administrative management and organization serve to realize environmental integration following the formal rules, but the informal institutional conditions of e.g. officials’ interests, understanding, knowledge and experience, as well as political support, affect the organizations’ performance and abilities for implementation, which in turn also largely depends on the specific organizational settings. All three need to be combined to achieve environmental integration in sustainable urban planning, since each one has its own strengths and weaknesses and they gradually affect each other in practices.QC 20140908</p

Apparatus for photographing meteors

Apparatus for photographing meteors in a selected area of the sky is described. A photomultiplier is pointed in the direction of the area. When a meteor passes through the area the signal output of the photomultiplier increases. Means are provided that activate a camera, pointed at the area, in response to an increased signal from the photomultiplier. Hence, the camera photographs the selected are only while meteors are likely to be passing through the area

NASA-LRC faint meteor spectra

A brief description is given of the instrumentation, the facilities, and the patrol technique used by the NASA faint meteor spectra patrol. A classification of 500 meteor spectra obtained in the first 2-1/2 years of the patrol is reported. The general characteristics of typical spectra are discussed and preliminary conclusions drawn. Examples of unusual spectra are briefly described

Spectral analysis of a high-velocity meteor

A spectrogram of a fast optical meteor was reduced and analyzed, and 60 features were identified in the spectrum. Air and ionized elements in this meteor radiate throughout the spectrum from 3000 A to 6800 A. A mass of 9 mg and an effective radiation temperature of approximately 5700 K were computed for the meteor. Weight ratios of Ca:Fe, and Mg:Fe, and Na:Fe were computed. A plasma particle velocity distribution for meteors was derived, and the average collision speed obtained from this distribution was compared with the relative collision speed of a Fe-N2 gas mixture at 5700 K

Spectral analysis of four meteors

Four meteor spectra are analyzed for chemical composition and radiative processes. The chemical compositions of the Taurid, Geminid, and Perseid meteors were found to be similar to that of a typical stony meteorite. The chemical composition of the sporadic meteor was found to be similar to that of a nickel iron meteorite. The radiation from optical meteors was found to be similar to that of a low temperature gas, except that strong, anomalous ionic radiation is superposed on the neutral radiation in bright, fast meteors

Photographic observations of a low-density iron artificial meteoroid

Photographic observations of low density iron artificial meteoroi