Apollo experience report: Problem reporting and corrective action system

The Apollo spacecraft Problem Reporting and Corrective Action System is presented. The evolution from the early system to the present day system is described. The deficiencies and the actions taken to correct them are noted, as are management controls for both the contractor and NASA. Significant experience gained from the Apollo Problem Reporting and Corrective Action System that may be applicable to future manned spacecraft is presented

Searches for Charginos and Neutralinos with the D0 Detector

Within the framework of supersymmetry, charginos and/or neutralinos are often the preferred topics of searches for experimental evidence. This is due to the facts that in much of parameter space they are the lightest supersymmetric partners and they offer unique final states to separate from standard model backgrounds. The D0 experiment has performed several recent searches including the traditional trilepton final state and a decay chain involving dark photons.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of DPF-2009, Detroit, MI, July 2009, eConf C09072

The RoboFlag SURF competition: results, analysis, and future work

The culmination of the 2002 RoboFlag Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program, jointly operated between California Institute of Technology and Cornell University, was a final competition between two teams of three undergraduate researchers. After ten weeks of preparation, Team Pasadena defeated Team Ithaca in two of the three final games. This paper provides the detailed results of the competition, an analysis of the competition, and reviews the future work

Lightweight magnesium-lithium alloys show promise

Evaluation tests show that magnesium-lithium alloys are lighter and more ductile than other magnesium alloys. They are being used for packaging, housings, containers, where light weight is more important than strength

Wind-tunnel simulation of store jettison with the aid of magnetic artificial gravity

A method employed in the simulation of jettison of stores from aircraft involving small scale wind-tunnel drop tests from a model of the parent aircraft is described. Proper scaling of such experiments generally dictates that the gravitational acceleration should ideally be a test variable. A method of introducing a controllable artificial component of gravity by magnetic means has been proposed. The use of a magnetic artificial gravity facility based upon this idea, in conjunction with small scale wind-tunnel drop tests, would improve the accuracy of simulation. A review of the scaling laws as they apply to the design of such a facility is presented. The design constraints involved in the integration of such a facility with a wind tunnel are defined. A detailed performance analysis procedure applicable to such a facility is developed. A practical magnet configuration is defined which is capable of controlling the strength and orientation of the magnetic artificial gravity field in the vertical plane, thereby allowing simulation of store jettison from a diving or climbing aircraft. The factors involved in the choice between continuous or intermittent operation of the facility, and the use of normal or superconducting magnets, are defined

The Ultimate Halo Mass in a LCDM Universe

In the far future of an accelerating LCDM cosmology, the cosmic web of large-scale structure consists of a set of increasingly isolated halos in dynamical equilibrium. We examine the approach of collisionless dark matter to hydrostatic equilibrium using a large N-body simulation evolved to scale factor a = 100, well beyond the vacuum--matter equality epoch, a_eq ~ 0.75, and 53/h Gyr into the future for a concordance model universe (Omega_m ~ 0.3, Omega_Lambda ~ 0.7). The radial phase-space structure of halos -- characterized at a < a_eq by a pair of zero-velocity surfaces that bracket a dynamically active accretion region -- simplifies at a > 10 a_eq when these surfaces merge to create a single zero-velocity surface, clearly defining the halo outer boundary, rhalo, and its enclosed mass, mhalo. This boundary approaches a fixed physical size encompassing a mean interior density ~ 5 times the critical density, similar to the turnaround value in a classical Einstein-deSitter model. We relate mhalo to other scales currently used to define halo mass (m200, mvir, m180b) and find that m200 is approximately half of the total asymptotic cluster mass, while m180b follows the evolution of the inner zero velocity surface for a < 2 but becomes much larger than the total bound mass for a > 3. The radial density profile of all bound halo material is well fit by a truncated Hernquist profile. An NFW profile provides a somewhat better fit interior to r200 but is much too shallow in the range r200 < r < rhalo.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to MNRAS letter