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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration maintains a challenging schedule of planned and on-going space exploration missions that extend to the outer reaches of our galaxy. New missions represent a huge investment, in terms of actual costs for equipment and support infrastructure, and personnel training. The success of a mission is critical considering both the monetary investment, and for manned missions, the lives which are put at risk. Tragedies involving Challenger, Columbia, Apollo 7, and the near tragedy of Apollo 13 exemplify that space exploration is a dangerous endeavor, posing extreme environmental conditions on both equipment and personnel. NASA, the National Science Foundation' and numerous independent researchers indicate that predictive simulations have the potential to decrease risk and increase efficiency and effectiveness in space exploration activity. Simulations provide the capability to conduct planning and rehearsal of missions, allowing risk reducing designs and techniques to be discovered and tested. Real-time simulations may improve the quality of the response in a real-time crisis situation. The US Army developed Layered Terrain Format (LTF) database is a uniquely architected database approach that provides high fidelity representation of terrain and specialized terrain query functions that are optimized to support real-time simulations. This dissertation investigates the question; can the unique LTF database architecture be applied to the general problem of celestial body representation? And if so, what benefits might it bring for mission planners and personnel executing the mission? Due to data limitations, this research investigates these questions through a lunar analog setting iv involving S band and Earth-bound communication signals as might be needed to conduct manned and/or robotic mission on the moon. The target terrain data set includes portions of the Black Point Lava Flow in Arizona which will be used for NASA's 2010 Desert RATS analog studies. Applied Research Associates Inc, the developer of the LTF product, generated Black Point databases and made limited modifications to the LTF Viewer tool, RAVEN, which is used for visualization of the database. Through the results attained during this research it is concluded that LTF product does provide a useful simulation capability which could be used by mission personnel both in pre-mission planning and during mission execution. Additionally, LTF is shown to have application an information system, allowing geospecific data of interest to the mission to be implemented within its layers. The Florida Space Research & Education Grant Program sponsored by FSGC, Space Florida and UCF provided a grant of $31,500 to perform this research.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 350-369). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

The study of outer radiation belt dynamics has been ongoing for over 5 decades. Outer radiation belt dropouts involve the rapid lost of electron fluxes at the main phase of a storm and subsequent recovery. The characteristics of the dropouts are many and varied. This study examines the Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) and the ionospheric responses during Stream Interface (SI) andMagnetic Cloud (MC) events, using a combination of ground based and satellite instruments. SI- and MC-driven dropout events were inspected from summary plots of the Synchronous Orbit Particle Analyser (SOPA) instruments from the year 1996 to 2007. Comprehensive studies were done on six selected events. Analysis of the data from the instruments indicate that SIs and MCs are important lost drivers with significant differences in GEO and ionospheric environment. To validate the data and test for consistent response of the events, the Superposed Epoch Analysis (SEA) technique was used. The ground based measurements also revealed how the absorption peaks in the ionosphere correlated with dropouts and geophysical activity. Ionospheric absorption during SI associated dropouts was enhanced for 5 < L < 6, while significant peaks in ionospheric absorption extended to lower L during MC driven dropouts. Wave-particle interactions and southward Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF-Bz) are apparent causes for the precipitation. This analysis showed that, within the confines of the selected events, SI driven dropouts were more dominant at the declining phase of the solar cycle while the MC driven dropouts were more dominant during solar maximum. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.

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.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1971. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-207).

This diploma thesis critically examines traditional positivist interpretations concerning the birth of four core norms of the current legal regime governing activities of states in Outer Space: a) non-militarization, b) peaceful use, c) non- appropriation, and d) freedom of access. Traditional interpretations often explicate the emergence of the aforementioned principles in static terms, either as a result of universal aspirations of mankind to peaceful explore the final frontier, or alternatively as a product of rational calculations of self-interested states. Analysis of the first decade of the space age through the lens of post-structural genealogical method proposed by Richard Price reveals a much more complex picture. Application of critical genealogical approach indicates that the emergence of the four norms in question was contingent on the presence of particular historical circumstances and cognitive structures of the Cold War: a) fear of nuclear weapons, b) policy of containment, c) trauma of the Second World War, and d) highly politicized outer space discourse due to the presence of the space race. The findings also indicate that without the presence of the particular historical circumstances and cognitive structures that necessitated their emergence, the four principles in question are...

The possibility of using sunlight to pump a CW carbon dioxide laser has been analyzed. Such a laser could be of interest for such applications as space communication and power transmission. In order to optically pump CO2 using sunlight, the intense vibrational-rotational absorption bands of CO2 in the 4.3 micron spectral region would have to be utilized. The total pumping power from sunlight can be calculated from the known data of the solar spectral irradiance outside the atmosphere and the infrared absorption by carbon dioxide at 4.3 microns. The pumping power is proportional to the collector area of the sunlight and is also dependent on the characteristics of the absorbing gas mixture, such as the gas composition, the gas temperature, the total pressure of the mixture, the partial pressure of CO2, and the absorption path length of the sunlight in the gas. To analyze the carbon dioxide laser system, a thermodynamic approach was used with a simplified CO2 chemical kinetic model. The gain and saturation intensity were obtained by solving a set of energy balance equations which describe the processes among the various vibrational modes. From those results, along with the estimated cavity losses, the output power was found.

The purpose of this thesis has been to prepare a group interpretation script based on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and its major manned programs. The script is designed to inform high school students and the general public of the space program. Available literature on oral interpretation and readers theatre have been investigated with particular attention given to the value of readers theatre as a means of instruction. Questionnaires were circulated among aerospace professors throughout the country and companies involved in the space industry. In their responses, aerospace company officials indicate strong support of this thesis and indicate a pressing need for such an informative script.

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