Wingless Flight: The Lifting Body Story

Wingless Flight tells the story of the most unusual flying machines ever flown, the lifting bodies. It is my story about my friends and colleagues who committed a significant part of their lives in the 1960s and 1970s to prove that the concept was a viable one for use in spacecraft of the future. This story, filled with drama and adventure, is about the twelve-year period from 1963 to 1975 in which eight different lifting-body configurations flew. It is appropriate for me to write the story, since I was the engineer who first presented the idea of flight-testing the concept to others at the NASA Flight Research Center. Over those twelve years, I experienced the story as it unfolded day by day at that remote NASA facility northeast of los Angeles in the bleak Mojave Desert. Benefits from this effort immediately influenced the design and operational concepts of the winged NASA Shuttle Orbiter. However, the full benefits would not be realized until the 1990s when new spacecraft such as the X-33 and X-38 would fully employ the lifting-body concept. A lifting body is basically a wingless vehicle that flies due to the lift generated by the shape of its fuselage. Although both a lifting reentry vehicle and a ballistic capsule had been considered as options during the early stages of NASA's space program, NASA initially opted to go with the capsule. A number of individuals were not content to close the book on the lifting-body concept. Researchers including Alfred Eggers at the NASA Ames Research Center conducted early wind-tunnel experiments, finding that half of a rounded nose-cone shape that was flat on top and rounded on the bottom could generate a lift-to-drag ratio of about 1.5 to 1. Eggers' preliminary design sketch later resembled the basic M2 lifting-body design. At the NASA Langley Research Center, other researchers toyed with their own lifting-body shapes. Meanwhile, some of us aircraft-oriented researchers at the, NASA Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in California were experiencing our own fascination with the lifting-body concept. A model-aircraft builder and private pilot on my own time, I found the lifting-body idea intriguing. I built a model based on Eggers' design, tested it repeatedly, made modifications in its control and balance characteristics along the way, then eventually presented the concept to others at the Center, using a film of its flights that my wife, Donna and I had made with our 8-mm home camera

Training Extension Professionals from Developing Countries Through Educational Workshops Conducted in the United States

Many opportunities exist for conducting stateside professional improvement workshops to train Extension professionals from developing countries. To conduct a successful workshop it is important to understand the needs of the partner country and identify participants who can use their workshop training to address those needs. An effective workshop will have high-quality field trips, practical classroom instruction, and opportunities for cultural exchange. Pre-workshop planning and close attention to logistical issues are essential to the success of the workshop. Good evaluation of the workshop is important to measure the impacts of the workshop and provide input for improving future workshops

Biological Oxidant and Life Detection (BOLD) mission: an outline for a new mission to Mars

The Viking mission was the only mission to date that conducted life detection experiments. It revealed ambiguous and still controversial results. New findings and hypotheses urge a re-evaluation of the Viking results and a re-evaluation of the evidence for the possible presence of life on Mars in general. Recent findings of abundant water ice on Mars, the presence of liquid contemporary water on the Martian surface, and the detection of methane in the Martian atmosphere further support this possibility. Current missions to be launched focus on habitability considerations (e.g., NASA Phoenix, NASA Mars Science Laboratory), but shy away from directly testing for life on Mars, with the potential exception of the ESA ExoMars mission. If these currently planned missions collect positive evidence toward habitability and the possible existence of extraterrestrial (microbial) life on Mars, it would be timely to propose a new mission to Mars with a strong life detection component. We propose such a mission called BOLD: Biological Oxidant and Life Detection Mission. The BOLD mission objective would be to quantify the amount of hydrogen peroxide existing in the Martian soil and to test for processes typically associated with life. Six landing packages are projected to land on Mars that include a limited power supply, a set of oxidant and life detection experiments, and a transmitter, which is able to transmit information via an existing Mars orbiter back to Earth

Biological Oxidant and Life Detection (BOLD) mission: an outline for a new mission to Mars

The Viking mission was the only mission to date that conducted life detection experiments. It revealed ambiguous and still controversial results. New findings and hypotheses urge a re-evaluation of the Viking results and a re-evaluation of the evidence for the possible presence of life on Mars in general. Recent findings of abundant water ice on Mars, the presence of liquid contemporary water on the Martian surface, and the detection of methane in the Martian atmosphere further support this possibility. Current missions to be launched focus on habitability considerations (e.g., NASA Phoenix, NASA Mars Science Laboratory), but shy away from directly testing for life on Mars, with the potential exception of the ESA ExoMars mission. If these currently planned missions collect positive evidence toward habitability and the possible existence of extraterrestrial (microbial) life on Mars, it would be timely to propose a new mission to Mars with a strong life detection component. We propose such a mission called BOLD: Biological Oxidant and Life Detection Mission. The BOLD mission objective would be to quantify the amount of hydrogen peroxide existing in the Martian soil and to test for processes typically associated with life. Six landing packages are projected to land on Mars that include a limited power supply, a set of oxidant and life detection experiments, and a transmitter, which is able to transmit information via an existing Mars orbiter back to Earth

Levantamento soro-epidemiológico da infecção pelo vírus da Anemia Infecciosa Eqüina, da Influenza Eqüina-2 e do Herpesvírus Eqüino-1 em rebanhos do sul do Estado do Pará, Brasil

Os vírus da anemia infecciosa eqüina (EIAV), da influenza eqüina tipo 2 (EIV-2) e o herpesvírus eqüino tipo 1 (EHV-1) são agentes causadores de enfermidades que podem causar graves prejuízos econômicos. O objetivo deste presente estudo foi estimar a freqüência de anticorpos contra o EIAV, EIV-2 e o EHV-1 em rebanhos do sul do Estado do Pará, Brasil. Os anticorpos contra EIAV, EIV-2 e EHV-1 foram detectados pelo teste de IDGA, pelo método de inibição da hemaglutinação e pela técnica de soroneutralização (TCID50 =100), respectivamente. Amostras de sangue de 672, 514 e de 506 equídeos saudáveis e sem histórico de vacinação contra nenhum dos três vírus foram testadas, respectivamente, para EIAV, EIV-2, EHV-1. A seguinte freqüência de soro reativos foi observada: 1,34% para o EIAV; 35,79% para o EIV-2; 45,45% para o EHV-1. Estes resultados indicam que estes agentes estão presentes no rebanho paraense e a adoção de medidas de manejo e profilaxia devem ser priorizadas, garantindo deste modo, a prosperidade da eqüideocultura brasileira.Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), equine influenza virus type 2 (EIV-2) and equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) are the causal agents of diseases that may bring economical losses. The aim of this present study was to estimate the frequency of antibodies against EIAV, EIV-2 and EHV-1 in herds of south Pará State, Brazil. Antibodies against EIAV, EIV-2 and EHV-1 were detected by AGID, hemagglutination inhibition method and serum neutralization technique (TCID50 =100), respectively. Blood samples of 572, 514, and 506 healthy equine unvaccinated against any of the three viruses were tested, respectively, for EIAV, EIV-2 and EHV-1. The following frequencies of serum reactors animals were observed: EIAV,1,34%; EIV-2, 35,79%; EHV-1, 45,45%. These results show that the agents are present in herds from Pará herds and the adoption of measures of management and prophylaxis should be prioritized, ensuring, thereby, the prosperity of brazilian's breeding equine

Second Line of Defense Spares Program

During Fiscal Year 2012, a team from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) conducted an assessment and analysis of the Second Line of Defense (SLD) Sustainability spare parts program. Spare parts management touches many aspects of the SLD Sustainability Program including contracting and integration of Local Maintenance Providers (LMP), equipment vendors, analyses and metrics on program performance, system state of health, and maintenance practices. Standardized spares management will provide better data for decisions during site transition phase and will facilitate transition to host country sustainability ownership. The effort was coordinated with related SLD Sustainability Program initiatives, including a configuration items baselining initiative, a metrics initiative, and a maintenance initiative. The spares study has also led to pilot programs for sourcing alternatives that include regional intermediate inventories and partnering agreements that leverage existing supply chains. Many partners from the SLD Sustainability program contributed to and were consulted in the course of the study. This document provides a description of the findings, recommendations, and implemented solutions that have resulted from the study

Oceans across the solar system and the search for extraoceanic life: technologies for remote sensing and in situ exploration

Earth’s ocean comprises 99% of the habitable volume of our planet and contains the largest biomass and species diversity in the known universe. Perhaps unsurprisingly, recent advances in the search for life elsewhere in our solar system have increasingly pointed to potentially viable niches for life on other dynamic ocean worlds such as Titan, Europa, and Enceladus, among other moons of the outer gas giants. Indeed, the discovery of extraterrestrial life on these icy water bodies may motivate adopting an altogether new terminology and further non-anthropic perspective on the cosmos. Extraoceanic life, to coin a term, may well prove to be a designation more representative of the abundance and diversity of life in space. Exploration of such ocean worlds across the solar system will undoubtedly be enabled by technological developments in a range of sensing methodologies primarily developed for oceanography on Earth. As we have learned studying our home ocean, where less than 10% of the benthic surface has been optically imaged, the challenge is daunting, yet recent advances give hope. Here, we review some of the state-of-the-art techniques from oceanography and planetary science that may inform sensing of the biological and geophysical properties of ocean worlds, ranging from large-scale synoptic views afforded by active and passive remote sensing to in situ autonomous sampling and methods for detecting biosignatures

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

Wingless Flight: The Lifting Body Story

Most lifting bodies, or “flying bathtubs” as they were called, were so ugly only an engineer could love them, and yet, what an elegant way to keep wings from burning off in supersonic flight between earth and orbit. Working in their spare time (because they couldn’t initially get official permission), Dale Reed and his team of engineers demonstrated the potential of the design that led to the Space Shuttle. Wingless Flight takes us behind the scenes with just the right blend of technical information and fascinating detail (the crash of M2-F2 found new life as the opening credit for TV’s “The Six Million Dollar Man”). The flying bathtub, itself, is finding new life as the proposed escape-pod for the Space Station. R. Dale Reed retired from NASA\u27s Dryden Flight Research Center in 1985 but still works with NASA as a contract engineer. He has authored numerous articles and technical reports, managed nineteen NASA programs, including the flight test of a prototype Mars airplane, and acquired four patents. An excellent study. . . . A particularly rewarding aspect of this book is the clarity of the description of the sequential testing which has made the United States the world leader in space. —Air Power History Reed carefully blends technical detail into this in-depth account of the entire NASA/USAF lifting-body program. —Space Times Presents an in-depth account of the entire NASA/Air Force lifting-body program written by the engineer who initiated it. —Aviation History Provides a human and insightful story of an unusual and very important aerospace technology that has shaped and will continue to shape our future in space. —Technology and Culturehttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_history_of_science_technology_and_medicine/1011/thumbnail.jp