The complexity and amount of medical hardware needed by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) constantly shifts with mission requirements. Early missions such as Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo required minimal, relatively non-complex medical hardware, but as mission lengths have increased from hours to multiple months and mission crew sizes have increased from one to seven, so has the amount and complexity of medical hardware. As such, a need has arisen to develop a methodology by which medical hardware is certified for the space environment in a safe, consistent, and economically viable manner. This record of study documents my experiences certifying medical hardware for the space environment by providing two specific certification examples, a defibrillator, and automated external defibrillator and provides a brief history of the medical hardware used by NASA for its manned space programs.

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Master of Arts / Department of Communication Studies / Charles J. G. Griffin / Space commentators and government officials draw on a variety of themes that shape how the public perceives space efforts. By constructing particular visions of outer space and the future of humanity, political leaders have inspired children to become astronauts and consoled the nation after a major tragedy. The future of space exploration and development will likely occur as an extension of existing paradigms that shape the material development of space transportation, space stations, and eventually living in space. Through qualitative interviews, this study illuminates the paradigms of persons working to advance the cause of space exploration and development. In particular, the study analyzes perspectives from individuals in the private sector. It seeks to highlight themes, such as leadership and possible material benefits, so that researchers may begin to construct theories about the specific conditions under which the future of space exploration and development may be shaped or evolve. This enhances our understanding of how themes operate to sustain or alter existing paradigms. In turn, a thematic analysis will generate new understandings of how envisioning seemingly impossible futures and social realities can transform those realities by drawing on conceptions of the past to inform the present and potential futures. To this end, this study employs imagination studies as a theoretical lens to understand how interviewees describe these future social realities. Specifically, the study discusses Engen’s (2002) theory of communicative imagination and seeks to refine it to encompass a process-based approach and flexibility. The presence of communicative imagination is explored in transcripts from qualitative interviews with persons employed in private businesses involved in the research and production of materials and services for space exploration and development. Results from the study reveal five dominant themes: leadership, inspiration and support, core motives, material benefits, and potential futures. Understanding how these themes interact in the process of communicative imagination illuminates the role communication plays in shaping social realities in a variety of circumstances.

Boyatzis has stated that "true" management competencies are characteristics of a manager which differentiate superior from average and below average performance. Boyatzis, however, treats a manager's self-image (self-concept) as a "threshold" rather than a "real" competency. Lafferty's research, which has measured relationships between several lifestyle (self-concept) variables and corresponding organizational behavior, has found that performance differences between average and high performing managers are associated with differences in self-concept construction. The researcher proposes to treat variations in self-concept measurements from managers as indications of their relative management competency. Thisresearch investigates seventeen hypotheses relating to the self-concepts of high performing, mid-level technical managers employed in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Level 1: Life Style Inventory, developed by Lafferty, was administered to high performing, mid-level managers (118 aerospace technical and 43 non-technical) from nine major Research and Space Flight Centers, and the agency Headquarters, attending a Management Education Program. Measurement of 16 self-conceptand 4 biographical variables were compared and contrasted with self-concept measurements accomplished by Lafferty on samples of engineers, supervisors and mid-level managers. Three major conclusions are reached. (1) NASA technical managers exhibit an unusual degree of satisfaction when compared with other supervisors and mid-level managers and a self-actualizing management style. (2) The self-concept characteristics of high perfectionism and dependence in NASA technical managers should be studied further, based on Cooke and Rousseau's findings that high measurements in these variables are associated with a greater number of symptoms of strain and Lafferty's findings concerning associations between high measurements of these variables and disfunctional managerial behavior. (3) Evidence is provided by researchers, like Garfield, that while management experience may be significantly associated withself-concept increases in achievement and helpfulness orientations, and self-concept assumptions of these managers may preclude them from significant increases in their self-actualization.

The news media have documented the missions of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) since its formation in 1958. Little of that coverage, however, has focused on Mars exploration and colonization, which has only recently become a serious target of interest for NASA. The current study examines how three elite print newspapers in the United States and three in the United Kingdom framed Mars coverage between 2011 and 2016. A content analysis found that most of the frames were similar to those observed in previous studies, such as exploration, scientific knowledge, business, nationalism, settlement, legacy, and fear. New frames, including life, health, social justice, and social engagement, emerged from the current study. The framing and tone of Mars articles were deployed similarly in U.S. and U.K. newspapers despite the different objectives of each country's space program. From the Apollo moon shots to human exploration of Mars, each successive era of spaceflight has been framed in a logical progression from concept to completion that resonates with the values of the times.

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International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Observatory Management System (HSTOMS), located at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), provides telemetry, command, analysis and mission planning functions in support of the HST spacecraft. The Telemetry and Command System (TAC) is an aging system that performs National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Communications (Nascom) block and telemetry processing functions. Future maintainability is of concern because of the criticality of this system element. HSTOMS has embarked on replacing the TAC by using functional elements developed by the Microelectronics Systems Branch of the GSFC. This project, known as the Transportable TAC (TTAC) because of its inherent flexibility, is addressing challenges that have resulted from applying recent technological advances into an existing operational environment. Besides presenting a brief overview of the original TAC and the new TTAC, this paper also describes the challenges faced and the approach to overcoming them.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / The Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP) has a scheduled launch date between mid- 1999 and mid-2000, and will encounter a yet to be determined near Earth asteroid (1.1 - 2.2 AU distance from Earth) some ten months later [2]. The purpose of this mission is not only to collect valuable scientific and geological data, but to also determine the value of the asteroid’s materials for possible mining and exploitation [2], [3]. The purpose of this paper is to detail frequency allocation issues and to determine possible return (space to Earth) data rates associated with deep space communications with the NEAP spacecraft.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 27-30, 1997 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper details the interaction of a small satellite with a space network and estimates the number of contacts and duration of contacts between the small, spin-stabilized satellite and a TDRS satellite. The simulations were performed using Satellite Tool Kit (STK) version 3.0, an orbital analysis software program. STK was configured for the four vehicles representing the spin-stabilized satellite and three TDRS satellites, TDRS East, West, and TDRS Zone of Exclusion. A set of simulations were run in which the spinstabilized satellite was given orbital elements corresponding to an orbital altitude between 600 km and 1200 km. The orbital inclination angle for the set of simulations was also varied from 20° through 100° along with the antenna cone angle of 10° through 40° to account for the effective beamwidths. In each of the simulations, the access to each TDRS satellite in the SN constellation was examined as a function of orbital altitude, orbital inclination angle, and antenna cone angle.

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.