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This thesis posits the creation of a lunar settlement, examining the practical and theoretical challenges of urban design in a space environment. Analysis of the lunar environment aided by data and imagery from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter allows the project to narrow focus on site selection while simultaneously capturing the bizarre and beautiful landscape. Intensive site study becomes the framework of a uniquely tailored, imaginative design emphasizing an urban fabric that is sensitive to astrological presences through passive and reactive design. / Master of Science / Whether it be through accident, conquest, or expedition, humanity has long held an innate desire to root itself in new environments that challenge us. The sky has proven to be no limit, the 20th century has shown that the exploration and colonization of space is inevitable. The question is where will we begin the first colony in space and what form will it take? This thesis posits the creation of a lunar settlement, examining the practical and theoretical challenges of urban design in a space environment. Site selection is crucial with the birth of any new city or civilization. Much like settlers of the past, a thorough understanding of constraints and strategic positioning is necessary to ensure the growth and survival of a colony. The accumulative site knowledge presented with this thesis is the framework of a uniquely tailored design to sustain long-term inhabitance on the moon. While this project can make no bold claims to predict the intentions of future colonists, it does serve to create an imaginative urban form to begin this journey, derived from grounded research and intensive site study. This thesis adds new perspectives beyond conventional engineered plans, to explore the potential of an immersive, reactive urban fabric with sensitivity to astrological presences. Urban design recommendations are made to enhance day to day livability in space, offer a sense of time and place, foster meaningful interaction among colonists, and consider growth beyond the initial settlement. While such a colony will undoubtedly serve as the staging area for the next steps in space exploration, it foremost will be a testament to what we as a people choose to collectively bring with us to the moon.

Although the Apollo 11 moon landing was one of the most remarkable events of the twentieth century, it was also among the most abstruse—what did it mean, after all? With implications ranging from the everyday benefits of “spinoff” to the cosmic questions of existence, it seemed like it had to signify something important. But the United States was undergoing a profound cultural shift as the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, a transformative moment when the rationalist, technological optimism of the high Space Age began losing traction to the more intuitive, relativistic, neo-romantic cultural aura of the 1970s. This turn left many Americans who reckoned that Apollo should be important—somehow, in some way—unable to adequately integrate the event into their worldviews, their American mythologies. This study examines how Americans attempted to make sense of Apollo in the 1960s and 1970s. This period saw a noticeable retreat from the faith in science and rationalism that had driven American thought and culture in the decades following World War II, and which formed the foundation of the successful space program. In its stead emerged a new understanding of “progress” that was divorced from its previous equation with technological advancement for its own sake and reconsidered in terms of its impact on sustainability and personal fulfillment. In this environment, Apollo—an endeavor that that ultimately seemed to offer no deeper meaning that itself—provided bold evidence that the crucial answers to life’s quandaries would not be discovered through technological journeys to the near planets; indeed, that the prolonged emphasis on these sorts of materialist endeavors had only obscured humanity’s quest for true meaning and its continued sustenance on what Apollo made abundantly clear was the only planet it would inhabit for a long time to come. This cultural turn spelled doom for a space program that for all its futuristic trappings was actually firmly rooted in the past, in a mindset that had flourished throughout the middle of the twentieth century but was now falling under wide suspicion. / text

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This study examined the content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) constructed by a group of 24 pre-service elementary teacher participants as they learned about the moon’s phases, inquiry learning, and use of the Internet message boards as a teaching tool as a part of their science teaching methods course. The MOON Project (More Observations On Nature), an exploration of inquiry teaching via e-learning, matched the pre-service elementary teacher participants with schoolchildren in grades 4-8 around the world. Upon completion of a 4-week moon observation phase, the participants led the schoolchildren in a discussion of their observations via Blackboard™. This mixed methods study followed a quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design. The participants’ content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge and perceptions about their knowledge were documented using questionnaires, essays, and tests as they entered this experience and again as they exited. Qualitative and quantitative methods and analysis established that the increase in pre-service teachers’ content and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as well as their perceptions of the knowledge gained was statistically significant at the conclusion of the project. However, they took away understandings of why the moon changes shape that were basic at best and fraught with a statistically significant increase in misconceptions. None of the instruments supported the pre-service teachers’ perceptions of increased PCK. The pre-service teachers had mixed perceptions about teaching over the Internet, mostly due to the degree to which their elementary student groups responded with focus to questions and discussions or, in some cases, participated at all. The findings and recommendations speak to teacher educators about the methodology used in teacher education programs. / Department of Biology

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2007. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-104). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This dissertation has three main focuses: (1) identify the distribution of a new rock type (Mg-spinel lithology) on the Moon and explore the likely petrogenesis of Mg-spinel; (2) investigate the presence of olivine in the crater central peaks and analyze the sources of olivine; (3) determine the compositional variations of lunar crust with depth, and establish a new model to describe the structure of the lunar crust.

As commercial lunar rovers are being developed and planned to fly from next year, in the context of a global momentum for lunar exploration, the mindset of system design is shifting to a product-oriented approach (as opposed to traditionally single mission-designed system). This deeply affects the system engineering discipline, which is also evolving through the development of more integrated, model-centric methodologies such as Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE). This Master Thesis combines 2 research questions:- How to adapt systems engineering processes and tools to a commercially-driven / product-oriented approach?- How to leverage new developments (e.g MBSE) within the system engineering discipline to support the rover design transition to a product-oriented philosophy? These research questions are investigated through this Master Thesis, carried out as a 6-month internship at ispace Europe (Luxembourg), a global lunar exploration company developing landers, rovers and data tools. The Master Thesis is applied to ispace’s Exploration Rover currently under development within the Polar Ice Explorer (PIE) mission with support from the Luxembourg Government.The goal of this Master Thesis is to develop an integrated toolchain (set of tools) for efficiently designing rover products (Exploration Rover), including platform configuration for a given mission concept and set of payloads, system sizing and mission analysis. The chosen methodology can be summarized as:1. Adapting PIE models to a generic, parametric/configurable toolset that can be used for mission/platform analysis and optimization2. Defining the Exploration Rover toolchain requirements & architecture, and selecting its environment (trade-off including MBSE solutions)3. Building the Exploration Rover toolchain, integrating models inside the defined architecture By maturing existing models, leveraging new software functionalities (in this case Valispace) and MBSE practises along with adding new parametric models for quick feasibility studies and integrating all models together, it was successfully shown that this integrated toolchain can support rover products definition, performing frequent and insightful design iterations, analysis and trade-offs. Not only does the toolchain comply with the product-approach but also successfully supports the Polar Ice Explorer (PIE) mission, by directly contributing to the system engineering activities and models of the Phase B. Therefore, the Master Thesis proved to be a successful demonstrator for developing more product-driven rovers, by leveraging new practices within the system engineering discipline. / Eftersom kommersiella månrovers utvecklas och planeras att flyga från nästa år, i samband med en global fart för månutforskning, går tankesättet för systemdesign över till produktorienterat tillvägagångssätt (i motsats till traditionellt endast uppdragsdesignat system). Detta påverkar djupt systemteknikdisciplinen, som också utvecklas genom utvecklingen av mer integrerade, modellcentrerade metoder som Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE).  Denna masteruppsats kombinerar två forskningsfrågor: - Hur anpassar man systemtekniska processer och verktyg till en kommersiellt driven / produktorienterad strategi? - Hur kan man utnyttja ny utveckling (t.ex. MBSE) inom systemteknikdisciplinen för att stödja rover-designövergången till en produktorienterad filosofi?  Dessa forskningsfrågor undersöks genom denna magisteruppsats, som genomfördes genom en praktik under 6 månader på ispace Europe (Luxemburg), ett globalt månutforskningsföretag som utvecklar landare, rovers och dataverktyg. Magisteruppsatsen tillämpas på ispaces Exploration Rover som för närvarande är under utveckling inom Polar Ice Explorer (PIE) -uppdraget, med med stöd från den luxemburgska. Målet med detta examensarbete är att utveckla en integrerad verktygskedja (uppsättning verktyg) för att effektivt utforma roverprodukter (Exploration Rover), inklusive plattformskonfiguration för ett givet uppdragskoncept och uppsättning nyttolast, systemstorlek och uppdragsanalys.  Den valda metoden kan sammanfattas som: 1. Anpassa PIE -modeller till en generisk, parametrisk / konfigurerbar verktygssats som kan användas för uppdrag / plattformsanalys och optimering 2. Definiera Exploration Rover-verktygskedjans krav och arkitektur och välja dess miljö (avvägning inklusive MBSE-lösningar) 3. Bygga Exploration Rover -verktygskedjan, integrera modeller inom den definierade arkitekturen  Genom att utveckla befintliga modeller, utnyttja nya mjukvarufunktioner (här Valispace) och MBSE -metoder tillsammans med att lägga till nya parametriska modeller för snabba genomförbarhetsstudier och integrera alla modeller tillsammans: visades det att denna inbyggda integrerade verktygskedja kan stödja rover -produktdefinition, som utför ofta och insiktsfulla design iterationer, analyser och avvägningar. Verktygskedjan följer inte bara produktmetoden utan stöder också framgångsrikt Polar Ice Explorer (PIE) -uppdraget genom att direkt bidra till systemtekniska aktiviteter och modeller i Phase B.  Därför visade masteruppsatsen sig vara en framgångsrik demonstrator för att utveckla mer produktdrivna rovers, genom att utnyttja nya metoder inom systemteknikdisciplinen.

The primary purpose of this study is to model the water vapor flow produced by a comet impact on the Moon using the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Toward that end, our DSMC solver was modified in order to model the cometary water from the time of impact until it is either destroyed due to escape or photodestruction processes or captured inside one of the lunar polar cold traps. In order to model the complex flow induced by a comet impact, a 3D spherical parallel version of the DSMC method was implemented. The DSMC solver was also modified to take as input the solution from the SOVA hydrocode for the impact event at a fixed interface. An unsteady multi-domain approach and a collision limiting scheme were also added to the previous implementation in order to follow the water from the continuum regions near the point of impact to the much later rarefied atmospheric flow around the Moon. The present implementation was tested on a simple unsteady hemispherical expansion flow into a vacuum. For these simulations, the data at the interface were provided by a 1D analytical model instead of the SOVA solution. Good results were obtained downstream of the interface for density, temperature and radial velocity. Freezing of the vibrational modes was also observed in the transitional regime as the flow became collisionless. The 45° oblique impact of a 1 km radius ice sphere at 30 km/s was simulated up to several months after impact. Most of the water crosses the interface under 5 s moving mostly directly downstream of the interface. Most of the water escapes the gravity well of the Moon within the first few hours after impact. For such a comet impact, only ~3% of the comet mass remains on the Moon after impact. As the Moon rotates, the molecules begin to migrate until they are destroyed or captured in a cold trap. Of the 3% of the water remaining on the Moon after impact, only a small fraction, ~0.14% of the comet mass, actually reaches the cold traps; nearly all of the rest is photo-destroyed. Based on the surface area of the cold traps used in the present simulations, ~1 mm of ice would have accumulated in the polar cold traps after such an impact. Estimates for the total mass of water accumulated in the polar cold traps over one billion years are consistent with recent observations. / text

The Mini-RF radar, launched on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, imaged the lunar surface using hybrid-polarimetric, transmitting one circular polarization and receiving linear H and V polarizations. Earth-based radar operating at the same frequency has acquired data of the same terrains using circular-polarized transmit waves and sampling circular polarizations. For lunar targets where the viewing geometry is nearly the same, the polarimetry derived from Mini-RF and the earth-based data should be very similar. However, we have discovered that there is a considerable difference in circular polarization ratio (CPR) values between the two data sets. We investigate possible causes for this discrepancy, including cross-talk between channels, sampling, and the ellipticity of the Mini-RF transmit wave. We find that none of these can reproduce the observed CPR differences, though a nonlinear block adaptive quantization function used to compress the data will significantly distort some other polarimetry products. A comparison between earth-based data sets acquired using two different sampling modes (sampling received linear polarizations and sampling circular polarizations) suggests that the CPR differences may be partially due to sampling the data in a different receive polarimetry bases.