Rational Decision-Making in Business Organizations

Lecture to the memory of Alfred Nobel, December 8, 1978decision making;

High current/high power beam experiments from the space station

In this overview, on the possible uses of high power beams aboard the space station, the advantages of the space station as compared to previous space vehicles are considered along with the kind of intense beams that could be generated, the possible scientific uses of these beams and associated problems. This order was delibrately chosen to emphasize that the means, that is, the high power particle ejection devices, will lead towards the possible ends, scientific measurements in the Earth's upper atmosphere using large fluxes of energetic particles

Fabrication of Thin Film Heat Flux Sensors

Prototype thin film heat flux sensors have been constructed and tested. The sensors can be applied to propulsion system materials and components. The sensors can provide steady state and fast transient heat flux information. Fabrication of the sensor does not require any matching of the mounting surface. Heat flux is proportional to the temperature difference across the upper and lower surfaces of an insulation material. The sensor consists of an array of thermocouples on the upper and lower surfaces of a thin insulating layer. The thermocouples for the sensor are connected in a thermopile arrangement. A 100 thermocouple pair heat flux sensor has been fabricated on silicon wafers. The sensor produced an output voltage of 200-400 microvolts when exposed to a hot air heat gun. A 20 element thermocouple pair heat flux sensor has been fabricated on aluminum oxide sheet. Thermocouples are Pt-Pt/Rh with silicon dioxide as the insulating material. This sensor produced an output of 28 microvolts when exposed to the radiation of a furnace operating at 1000 C. Work is also underway to put this type of heat flux sensor on metal surfaces