Space Station Microgravity Analysis and Assessment
The space station will be a platform for microgravity research. For superior microgravity science, the experiment locations must experience very little acceleration in the quasi-steady...
Microgravity Research in a Space Station Environment
A broad class of scientific experiments have evolved which utilize extreme low acceleration environments. A space station can provide such a `microgravity' environment, in conjunction...
Adaptive Space Station Technologies and Systems for a Lunar Surface Return Mission
The current global economic climate, in particular that of the United States, has impacted all aspects of government spending. Wise use of existing, as well as near-term planned, assets...
A Summary of the NEPSTP Nuclear Safety Program
The Nuclear Electric Propulsion Space Test Program (NEPSTP) is sponsored by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) to demonstrate and evaluate the Russian-built TOPAZ II nuclear...
TOPAZ II System Description
The TOPAZ II single-cell thermionic space reactor power system was designed, built and tested by the former Soviet Union (Russia). It has been purchased by the United States (U.S.) for...
TOPAZ II Qualification and Nuclear Testing Program
This paper presents an overview of the Topaz II qualification and nuclear test program. The program combines the joint efforts and resources of Russian and American specialists and organizations...
A Discussion of Nuclear Propulsion in Space Travel
Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) is gaining popularity as a safe alternative to conventional propulsion. Such alternatives are desirable to meet the goals of lunar colonization and manned...
Construction of a Lunar Base
The United States' space program has the capabilities to build a lunar base, but must build an infrastructure which allows the easy transportation of the construction materials. Once this...
Biosphere II - Its Effects on Space Colonization
In the middle of the Arizona desert, a strange sight can be seen. A small world with ecosystems and different climate zones, just like Earth, is enclosed in glass and steel. The 3.15 acre...
Space Stations Past, Present, and Future
The paper discusses the evolution, present state and future of space stations. Man's interest in the stars led to many inventions and the ultimate launching of the Russian satellite Sputnik,...
Wheel Space Station for 2025
The advantages and disadvantages of three basic space station designs are discussed. These designs are a zero-gravity can like Skylab, a tethered system, and the wheel. A design of a wheel...
The Effect of Zero Gravity on Bones
Zero-gravity has created many problems for astronauts and researchers in space. Calcium depletion is cited as a major health problem. There are many different theories as to why zero-gravity...
Space Exploration: Getting a Handle on Why?
The two prominent economic issues facing the U.S. today are competitiveness and the huge federal deficit. Economics being the counter-intuitive science that it is, a reasonable exploration...
Terrestrial Analogs: Implications for Lunar Lava Tubes
Earlier work has demonstrated that lava tubes did form on the Moon. Comparison of terrestrial lava tubes to their lunar counterparts suggest that they are very similar despite the order...
Space Commercialization: Problems of Law and Policy
This paper focuses on executive and legislative efforts to promote the growth of commercial space industries in the United States. After a discussion of the current, situation and efforts...
Dynamic Optimization by Small Variation of the System Layout
Dynamic problems have been usually considered in the speed for frequency domain. However, most machines, structures or mechanisms are usually interconnected subsystems, overconstrained...
Puerto Rico Privatizes the Roads
The opening of Puerto Rico's Teodoro Moscoso Bridge in San Juan early in 1994 will usher in a new era of privately financed toll roads. The first product of the 1989 Private...
Cables Over the Mississippi
As the designer of the Great River Bridge over the Mississippi between Gulfport, Ill. and Burlington, Iowa, Sverdrup Corp., St. Louis, had to find a way to connect the new five-lane crossing...
U.S. / Japan Large Scale Cooperative Research Program for Steel Structures
The US/Japan Cooperative Research Program Utilizing Large Scale Test Facilities for Earthquake Resistant Design was initiated in 1980 using a combination of full-scale, small-scale, subassemblage...
Impediments to the Implementation of Seismic Isolation
There are over 400 civil engineering structures, worldwide, that have been constructed using the principles of seismic isolation, and 70 of these are in the United States. Although use...
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