Aufgrund des Mißerfolges der Mars Observer Mission 1992 und allgemeiner sinkender Raumfahrtetats, entwickelte NASA 1995 die „Faster Better Cheaper“ (FBC) Philosophie. Diese sah vor, daß planetare Missionen innerhalb eines kurzen Zeitraumes und mit begrenzten Budgets geplant, gebaut, getestet und gestartet werden sollten. Dabei sollten neue Technologien und neue Betriebsmethoden zum Einsatz kommen. Mögliche Fehlschläge durch unerprobte Instrumente oder Prozesse wurden dabei nicht ausgeschlossen. Der Mißerfolg der Mars-Missionen im Jahr 1999 und weiterer Projekte zwangen jedoch zu einem Umdenken der „Faster Better Cheaper“ Philosophie. Eine Vielzahl von Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen wurden daraufhin veröffentlicht, die Fehler der FBC Philosophie aufzeigten, ohne dabei jedoch auf mögliche Verbesserungen einzugehen. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit besteht in der Ermittlung effektiver Maßnahmen, so daß Ressourcen während des Lebenszyklus eines Projektes optimal eingesetzt werden können. Aus der Analyse der fehlgeschlagenen Missionen und einer Erläuterung der Funktionen verschiedener planetarer Missionskonzepte, werden mögliche Maßnahmen zur Verringerung der Kosten ermittelt. Die Effektivität dieser Maßnahmen wird anhand eines Bewertungskataloges im Rahmen einer Simulation zu verschiedenen Zeitpunkten einer Mission bestimmt. Es wird dabei eine Handlungshilfe erstellt, mit der ein Projektmanager die Verteilung von Ressourcen optimieren kann. Die Systemtechnik bietet hierzu eine Vielzahl von Analyse- und Simulationsmethoden, mit der die hier gemachten Angaben bewertet und überprüft werden können. / Due to the failure of the Mars Observer Mission in 1992 and decreasing budgets, NASA developed a new philosophy for the development, design and operations called „Faster Better Cheaper“ (FBC). New technologies and new management methods were deployed to reduce lift cycle costs. Possible mission failures were expected. After the losses of the Mars Missions in 1999 and other missions, NASA was forced to rethink its FBC approach. Numerous papers have been published in the meantime which identified the mistakes of the missions and of FBC, but none have identified potential improvements. The objective of this paper is the development of potential measurements for the design of the operations of unmanned space missions that should be applied during its life cycles. A new tool in form of an EXCEL spreadsheet will be developed based on historical missions, which can be used a program manager who can allocate resources in optimal way. Systems Engineering Techniques will be used in various ways to identify problems and to measure potential improvements.

We have observed our Universe in many different wavelengths, from gamma ray to radiowaves and have observed countless stars, galaxies, and everything else in between. These measurements slowly add to our understanding of what our Universe is, how it formed, and where it is heading next. In Chapter 2 we introduce the Ultraviolet GAlactic Plane Survey (UVGAPS), which produced a high resolution map of the Milky Way’s Galactic plane in the NUV using the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), an orbiting ultraviolet space telescope operated by NASA and Caltech between 2003-2013. Of the many astrophysical phenomena observable in ultraviolet wavelengths, we choose to focus on a few interesting objects: red clump stars and OB type stars, and the Galactic dust that impacts them. We use an image source extractor to obtain the NUV photometry and apply several cuts to clean the data. We present a catalog of 2,843,399 objects with GALEX NUV band mea- surements. Despite the difference in observing strategy and analysis pipeline, we find good agreement between previously targeted GALEX observations and the UVGAPS catalog in overlapping regions. The data were cross matched to Gaia DR2 and Pan-STARRS DR2, two visible-band surveys that have considerable coverage of the Galactic Plane. We characterize matched objects in color-magnitude and color-color space to highlight a range of objects, from main sequence stars to binaries detected with these data. Although core helium-burning red clump (RC) stars are faint at ultraviolet wavelengths, their ultraviolet-optical color is a unique and accessible probe of their physical properties. In Chapter 3, using data from the GALEX All Sky Imaging Survey, Gaia DR2, and the SDSS APOGEE DR14 survey, we find that spectroscopic metallicity is strongly correlated with the location of a RC star in the UV-optical color magnitude diagram. The RC has a wide spread in (NUV - G)0 color of over 4 magnitudes compared to a 0.7-magnitude range in (G BP - G RP )0 . We propose a photometric, dust-corrected, ultraviolet-optical (NUV - G)0 - [Fe/H] color-metallicity relation using a sample of 5,175 RC stars from APOGEE. We show that this relation has a scatter of 0.16 dex and is easier to obtain for large, wide-field samples than spectroscopic metallicities. Importantly, the effect may be comparable to the spread in RC color attributed to extinction in other studies. In Chapter 4 we extend our RC analysis to UVGAPS and include new age and mass measurements. We find that RC stars separate into two distinct populations in the thin and thick disk. Thick disk stars tend to be old, low mass stars while thin disk stars are more heterogeneous, containing mostly young, massive stars but also some old, low-mass stars typical of the thick disk. These last two chapters are just two of many projects that UVGAPS enables.

The purpose of this project fosters in students a sense of place and connection with their home area. It also provides students a real-world basis upon which to study the concepts of weather and geography.

Aufgrund des Mißerfolges der Mars Observer Mission 1992 und allgemeiner sinkender Raumfahrtetats, entwickelte NASA 1995 die „Faster Better Cheaper“ (FBC) Philosophie. Diese sah vor, daß planetare Missionen innerhalb eines kurzen Zeitraumes und mit begrenzten Budgets geplant, gebaut, getestet und gestartet werden sollten. Dabei sollten neue Technologien und neue Betriebsmethoden zum Einsatz kommen. Mögliche Fehlschläge durch unerprobte Instrumente oder Prozesse wurden dabei nicht ausgeschlossen. Der Mißerfolg der Mars-Missionen im Jahr 1999 und weiterer Projekte zwangen jedoch zu einem Umdenken der „Faster Better Cheaper“ Philosophie. Eine Vielzahl von Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen wurden daraufhin veröffentlicht, die Fehler der FBC Philosophie aufzeigten, ohne dabei jedoch auf mögliche Verbesserungen einzugehen. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit besteht in der Ermittlung effektiver Maßnahmen, so daß Ressourcen während des Lebenszyklus eines Projektes optimal eingesetzt werden können. Aus der Analyse der fehlgeschlagenen Missionen und einer Erläuterung der Funktionen verschiedener planetarer Missionskonzepte, werden mögliche Maßnahmen zur Verringerung der Kosten ermittelt. Die Effektivität dieser Maßnahmen wird anhand eines Bewertungskataloges im Rahmen einer Simulation zu verschiedenen Zeitpunkten einer Mission bestimmt. Es wird dabei eine Handlungshilfe erstellt, mit der ein Projektmanager die Verteilung von Ressourcen optimieren kann. Die Systemtechnik bietet hierzu eine Vielzahl von Analyse- und Simulationsmethoden, mit der die hier gemachten Angaben bewertet und überprüft werden können. / Due to the failure of the Mars Observer Mission in 1992 and decreasing budgets, NASA developed a new philosophy for the development, design and operations called „Faster Better Cheaper“ (FBC). New technologies and new management methods were deployed to reduce lift cycle costs. Possible mission failures were expected. After the losses of the Mars Missions in 1999 and other missions, NASA was forced to rethink its FBC approach. Numerous papers have been published in the meantime which identified the mistakes of the missions and of FBC, but none have identified potential improvements. The objective of this paper is the development of potential measurements for the design of the operations of unmanned space missions that should be applied during its life cycles. A new tool in form of an EXCEL spreadsheet will be developed based on historical missions, which can be used a program manager who can allocate resources in optimal way. Systems Engineering Techniques will be used in various ways to identify problems and to measure potential improvements.

<p> </p> <p>There are several challenges that occur when creating extraterrestrial structures that are not relevant to terrestrial applications. The Resilient Extra-Terrestrial Habitat Institute is a NASA funded research project focused on developing resilient lunar habitats. In order to develop these deep-space structures, many considerations have to be made to account for scenarios that are not relevant to Earth. Such scenarios include meteorite impacts, moonquakes, radiation, and moon dust accumulation. To observe possible consequences of these disruptions, RETHi established a modular coupled virtual testbed to monitor the effects of different deep-space related situations. MCVT is a computer model of a lunar habitat that uses a system-of-systems approach to examine the impacts of these scenarios. Currently, MCVT is developing methods to confront these extraterrestrial situations by utilizing robotic agents and expanding upon a variety of safety responses to increase resiliency.  RETHi also utilizes a cyber physical testbed to run cyber-physical experiments to validate the approaches used in MCVT. </p> <p><br></p> <p>One of the numerous models in MCVT is the Habitat Interior Environment Model. HIEM monitors the interior environment of the lunar structure using physics-based calculations and inputs from its surroundings. There are three main disturbances that directly affect the interior environment—fire within the dome, meteorite impacts, and airlock failure. Such scenarios either increase or decrease the temperature and pressure. This data is then forwarded to other subsystems for further evaluation. HIEM can be remodeled to fit the pressure box in the cyber physical testbed. By doing so, it is then possible to validate the pressure leakage calculations used in HIEM using experimental data. HIEM is specifically designed to the lunar habitat currently in development; however, the model can be refitted to a variety of applications such as terrestrial, aerospace, space, and marine. </p>

No other government agency receives as much attention as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The high-profile agency frequently captures attention of the media in both positive and negative contexts. This thesis takes a case study approach using organizational learning and sensemaking theories to investigate crisis communication within NASA's 2003 Columbia tragedy. Eight participants, who in some capacity had worked for NASA during the Columbia tragedy in a communication centered position, were interviewed. Using a grounded theory framework, nine themes emerged pertaining to organizational learning, leadership, structure, and organizational culture. The results of the study aid in understanding how high risk organization's (HROs) can learn from previous failures and details how organizational culture can hinder organizational change.