This thesis examines user interaction with instrumentation in the specific context of space science. It gathers together existing practice in machine interfaces with a look at potential future usage and recommends a new approach to space science projects with the intention of maximising their science return. It first takes a historical perspective on user interfaces and ways of defining and measuring the science return of a space instrument. Choices of research methodology are considered. Implementation details such as the concepts of usability, mental models, affordance and presentation of information are described, and examples of existing interfaces in space science are given. A set of parameters for use in analysing and synthesizing a user interface is derived by using a set of case studies of diverse failures and from previous work. A general space science user analysis is made by looking at typical practice, and an interview plus persona technique is used to group users with interface designs. An examination is made of designs in the field of astronomical instrumentation interfaces, showing the evolution of current concepts and including ideas capable of sustaining progress in the future. The parameters developed earlier are then tested against several established interfaces in the space science context to give a degree of confidence in their use. The concept of a simulator that is used to guide the development of an instrument over the whole lifecycle is described, and the idea is proposed that better instrumentation would result from more efficient use of the resources available. The previous ideas in this thesis are then brought together to describe a proposed new approach to a typical development programme, with an emphasis on user interaction. The conclusion shows that there is significant room for improvement in the science return from space instrumentation by attention to the user interface.

The reality of cities is that, no matter how designed, controlled, or planned they are, people will do as they like. They will find ways to live and move through them that suit their purposes, even if this means going against a ‘designed’ system. In the case of South Africa during apartheid, this movement was obstructed by institutionalised segregation and State oppression. Apartheid, which means ‘apart’ and ‘hood’ in Afrikaans, was an attempt to inscribe a power structure into the spatial framework of a territory, based on notions of capitalism, race, and hygiene. As a mechanism of social control, it relied heavily on concepts of space and power to achieve the white ideal of racial segregation. Although the spaces of apartheid may be seen as fixed and concrete, internal contradictions contested their authority. While apartheid legislated, controlled, and monitored the movement of all South Africans, the actions of many of its citizens created counter mechanisms which diminished its effect. Despite the official days of apartheid now being over, the question remains: how do people create and maintain public life in the face of an administrative system of control? The spaces created by the everyday actions of those living under apartheid - the stories, music, dance, and protests that were part of the country’s culture of subversion and resistance - were, for years, the site of public life in South Africa.

In this studio based visual arts project I am exploring through representational painting and compositing, perceptions, conjunctions and disjunctions in space and time in the urban environment. My approach situates the stranger as the phenomenological self, the perceptual being, at the centre of the research who explores the spatio-psychology of the city in the light of contradictory philosophies that move between seeing the city as a place of social malaise to seeing it as a malleable space for each individual within it.

A work of architecture holds the observations of the architect, an accumulation of images, feelings and sensations. These remain largely detached and invisible to the casual observer, occasionally becoming apparent as an idea is glimpsed through an external point of observation. The research has looked to redefine the paradigms of observation, that define the way architecture is seen and interpreted, by exploring attachments to places and belief systems. It has followed a journey within practice. Part of this journey has been about locating the aesthetic and metaphysical experience of architecture within its physical and operational realities. The research is an observation of the architect experiencing, as an observer, himself, his place in the world, and of the cities and spaces that occupy his imagination. By observing the interface between things that have defined career and identity, an architectural narrative has been developed to describe how an architect' s persona, what he lives through and the memories that he carries with him have been and can continue to be condensed into his work. Beauty resides in the interface between these things and ultimately, the fixed reality of the work. The search is characterised by the appearance of The Blue Room. It is a metaphorical place representing both the present and the un-created future. The Blue Room is a metaphor for all of the emotions that rest behind the evolution of an architectural idea and which remain embedded within it as a finished work. It is a metaphor for beauty and a metaphor for loss and sadness, all of the things that exist in-between the idea and the representation of that idea; between the visible and the invisible. It also represents the inherent paradox of the architectural work in that the idea is never the same as it is first imagined; in its finished form it is both the space of the architect and the client.

This thesis addresses the legal and policy issues relating to what may be the most exciting prospect in the history of the human civilisation: the commercial exploitation of natural resources in outer space. The thesis is based on the hypothesis that such ventures are inhibited not by physical, technological and economic factors, but by the inadequacies and uncertainties present in the current body of space law and policy. Consequently, a new international legal framework and a policy consensus are required to provide a legal environment favourable for such a valuable and necessary development. To substantiate this hypothesis, the thesis begins by establishing the economic necessity and technical feasibility of space mining today, an estimate of the financial commitments required. This is followed by a risk analysis of a typical commercial mining venture in space, identifying the economic and legal risks. This leads to the recognition that the legal risks must be minimised to enable such enormous financial commitments to be made. What then follows is a detailed analysis of the legal framework for such activities as well as identifying the inadequacies of space law for the commercial exploitation of celestial resources. This is achieved through a discussion of the general principles of international space law, particularly dealing with state responsibility and international liability, as well as some of the issues arising from space mining activities. Much detail is devoted to the analysis of the content of the “common heritage of mankind” doctrine in international law and the effect of international disagreement over its application to celestial bodies. Having established the relevant legal issues, the thesis then turns to consider the past failures in reach similar agreements and the competing policy interests that have prevented the success of such agreements. It attempts to balance such interests in creating a legal and policy compromise that may be acceptable to a majority of the international community and provide some practical proposals on the structural, procedural, administrative and judicial aspects of creating and implementing a new legal framework.

This art project explores issues of unoccupied space. In particular, the project concerns itself with temporal aspects of site and issues of past, present and potential usage. This space, otherwise inert, invites activation by the spectator's psychological projections. This projected occupation calls on redolence of the past, memory and a sense of the utility of the site.Based on imagery evidence and personal remembered experience, the spectator provides context forthis site. The project uses the painting process to open up areas of sensibility around personal and remembered experience.The thesis is constituted as practice-based work, 80%, accompanied by an exegesis, 20%.

In this studio based visual arts project I am exploring through representational painting and compositing, perceptions, conjunctions and disjunctions in space and time in the urban environment. My approach situates the stranger as the phenomenological self, the perceptual being, at the centre of the research who explores the spatio-psychology of the city in the light of contradictory philosophies that move between seeing the city as a place of social malaise to seeing it as a malleable space for each individual within it.

Thesis (M.A. Sc.)--University of Toronto, 2006. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, page: 2869. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2008. / Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed April 18, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-129).

Thesis (LL.M.). / Written for the Institute of Air and Space Law. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/12/04). Includes bibliographical references.