“MARO Gvidu Kion Firme Al Dezira Fino!”

The myth of the masters revived: the occult lives of Nikolai and Elena Roerich, by Alexandre Andreyev, Eurasian Studies Library, Leiden and Boston MA, Brill, 2014, xxix + 502 pp., $179.00 (hbk), ISBN 978-9-004-27042-8Pity the scholar researching the lives of Nikolai Roerich and his wife, Elena. Even allowing for the impossibility of gaining perfect knowledge of any historical subject, Roerich - a fin de siecle painter of pivotal importance, but also an occultist who spent much of the 1920s and 1930s engaged in political schemes that verged on espionage - remains one of the most baffling individuals in modern Russian history. His wife, whose role in motivating his endeavours has been long underestimated, is no less enigmatic.Alexandre Andreyev, a noted expert on the history of Buddhism in Russia, has done much in his latest book to pull back the veil that still shrouds the Roerichs' intentions and actions. The Myth of the Masters Revived makes a signal contribution and exemplifies the newest historiographic tum in Roerich studies. In recent years, an expanding cohort of scholars, both Russian and non-Russian, have striven to assess Roerich without falling victim to the hagiographie tendencies so common among his admirers, but also without giving into the temptation - particularly strong among his detractors from the late 1970s onward - to dismiss him more than is warranted.With a judicious moderation often lacking among those writing about Roerich, Andreyev relates the fuller account of Roerich's years in emigration that has emerged over the last two decades, thanks to post-Soviet archival revelations and the appearance of other useful sources in the 1990s and 2000s. Famously, Roerich, after emigrating from Soviet Russia, staged two expeditions to Asia - one to Turkestan, the Altai, Mongolia, and Tibet in 1925-1928 (with an unpublicized side-trip to Moscow), and a second to Manchuria in 1934-1935 - ostensibly to study the cultures of Asia in the first case, and to search for drought-resistant grasses on behalf of the US Department of Agriculture in the second. In reality, both ventures were steps in a covert, occult-inspired aspiration that the Roerichs referred to as the Plan: an attempt to create a pan-Buddhist state encompassing as much of Central Asia as possible. Not only did this audacious ambition guide the Roerichs' every action after 1920, but the family believed in all earnest that it had been communicated to them by unseen spiritual masters during seances presided over by Nicholas and especially Elena.During the earliest 1920s, the first iteration of the Great Plan was anti-Soviet, but by the time of their first expedition, the Roerichs had decided that their best course of action was to co-operate with the USSR. This pro-Soviet impulse faded by 1928, giving way to a second rightward shift, lasting through the mid-1930s and based on seeking support from White Russian emigres and Japanese forces on the Asian mainland. With the scandalous collapse of Roerich's second expedition - conducted with the blessing of Agriculture Secretary and future vice-president Henry Wallace (a Roerich disciple during the late 1920s and early 1930s) - the family found itself stranded in India, where Roerich remained until his death, hoping once again, but in vain, to reconcile with the Soviet Union. …

In flight control, as with any human in the loop system, operator error is an inevitable reality. On the International Space Station (ISS) where crew time and physical resources are precious and often irreplaceable, operator errors can result in significant, irreversible consequences. Flight controllers at the Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) located at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama know this reality well. At the POIC, operator errors can be caused by a variety of factors, from poor hardware or software design to environmental factors such as time pressure or fatigue. The most difficult errors to address, however, are those which result from ineffective teamwork.Academic research in teamwork has resulted in the identification of many factors which make cross-functional teaming difficult, including leadership, trust building, and communication challenges. These factors, especially when combined with the challenging environmental factors flight control teams must contend with daily, make the goal of minimizing operator errors in payload operations challenging to achieve. To address such teamwork errors, trainers at the POIC have drawn best practices from high reliability industries such as commercial aviation, healthcare, and nuclear power plants, as well as from our sister ISS control center in Houston, Texas, to develop and institute a new training program focused specifically on teamwork skills.This training program, called the Team Skills Curriculum, is based on the concept of Crew Resource Management (CRM) which was developed by NASA in the 1970s for the commercial aviation industry in response to a series of aviation disasters resulting from ineffective teamwork. CRM was later tailored by the Johnson Space Center (JSC) for use in astronaut and flight control training. The result, called Space Flight Resource Management (SFRM) was formally introduced into manned spaceflight training in the late 90s. SFRM has evolved over the years, but the focus has remained on helping operators develop the skills needed to work as part of an effective team. Using these concepts as well as the latest research in cross-functional teaming and data on specific errors occurring at the POIC, trainers in the integrated flight control training branch created a custom training program for both new and certified payload operations specialists.

The development of GaAs quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center began in the late 1980s and has continued ever since. Initial developments produced single element detectors and shortly thereafter in 1990 a 128× 128 element array was developed in collaboration with AT&T Bell Labs and Rockwell Science Center. Since that time we have developed numerous generations of QWIP arrays most recently resulting in the multi-QWIP focal plane for the next NASA-US Geological Survey Landsat mission to be launched in December of 2012. This paper will describe the technological evolutionary process from concept to a space-flight qualified infrared detector system. Many developments have been accomplished in the ensuing two decades as well as numerous experiments, both ground-based and airborne en route to qualifying for a NASA space flight mission. Some of these experiments will also be described as well as our current development for the next generation of QWIP focal planes for potential earth observing missions.

The Manufacture of World Order

<div class="htmlview paragraph">To date, almost all water used by the crew during space flight has been transported from Earth or generated in-flight as a by product of fuel cells and used for relatively short periods. With the United States' commitment to a permanent manned presence in space, this is no longer adequate. In order to resolve this problem, a plan for nearly complete recovery and recycling of water on-orbit has been formulated. Closed-loop water recovery on a scale applicable to a manned space station was first studied in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These tests, conducted with breadboard and early prototype equipment, demonstrated the feasibility of sustaining humans in a closed environment by a regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS). However, increased awareness of potential hazards associated with long-term reuse of reclaimed water has resulted in the recognition that additional characterization of closed-loop water recovery systems and products is essential.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">A testing program has been developed at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to further investigate the operational aspects of a closed loop water recovery system. In order to support the various operational scenarios involved with the testing activities, a computer model of the system has been developed using the Computer Aided Systems Engineering and Analysis program (CASE/A). The model will be used to predict various attributes related to the test protocol including process mode, mass balance, tank quantities, tank modes, water availability, and water purity (correlation of water cleanliness to the number of times it has been processed). The model will be used preceding testing operations in order to determine problems associated with the test protocol. After the tests have been completed, results from the model will be coupled with analytical results from the chemistry lab (water chemical composition) to determine specific correlations between transient test operational parameters.</div>

Chapter 97 - Two Unusual Situations of Excess Iodine Ingestion: A Faulty Iodinator and the US Space Program

NASA’s Space Programs stimulated the initiation of fuel cell research and development in the late 1950s.(1–7) The types of fuel cells that were focused on in the 1960s for space applications were the ones using solid polymer and alkaline electrolytes. The General Electric Company was responsible for developing the solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells, and United Technologies Corporation (Pratt and Whitney Division) for developing the alkaline fuel cells. The initial difficulties regarding the stability of the proton-conducting membrane, polystyrene sulfonic acid, for the solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells used in the Gemini flights and the excellent performance of the alkaline fuel cells are the reasons for the choice of the latter system as a power source for the Apollo, space shuttle, and other space flights. The fuel cell performance is best with the “pristine” reactants hydrogen and oxygen. These reactants, stored cryogenically, are the logical ones for space flights. In the 1970s, with the invention of a highly stable and conducting solid polymer electrolyte, Nafion, by the Du Pont Company, there was a breakthrough in fuel cell technology using such electrolytes. By the substitution of the polystyrene sulfonic acid with Nafion, General Electric Company showed a significant improvement in the performance of solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells. The Dow Chemical Company has developed a membrane which is more promising than Nafion in respect to conductivity and water management characteristics. These advances make the solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell a strong competitor of the alkaline fuel cell, particularly for the lunar-and Mars-based missions of NASA.

Energy storage materials – lithium-based portable energy storage technologies are an area of research that was born in the late 1960s / early 1970s, went global in the 1990s with portable consumer electronics, and is now being adapted to a variety of markets including electrification of vehicles, space flight, and grid storage. While showing promise, these new applications may have different requirements (e.g. power, cost, volume) than ones optimized for consumer markets. To increase energy density, many researchers are exploring ways to incorporate silicon into a battery. Elemental silicon has many properties that make it a top candidate to replace graphitic carbon in next generation lithium-ion batteries. It has (1) very high gravimetric capacity (~3600 mAh/g), (2) high volumetric capacity (~7400 mAh/L), and (3) low insertion cell voltage. It also has many problems that must be overcome including (1) high volume expansion on lithiation, (2) an unstable SEI layer, and (3) instability of the fully charged anode to the electrolyte. Although significant effort has been focused on silicon-based electrodes, e.g. understanding the role of morphology, particle size, or local structure – our work has been concentrated on electrode level interactions. Using the knowledge gained from the materials level studies we are addressing what happens when the silicon is made into an electrode and exposed to the contents of an electrochemical cell [1-3]. Previous work by the Edstrom group [4-5] has shown that the normal passivation layer of silicon, namely silica, is in fact electrochemically active on the first charging cycle. On first lithiation it reacts to form Li4SiO4. This phase does not directly participate in the electrochemistry after this point, but does interact chemically with its environment to effect cycle efficiency and SEI stability [6]. In this talk we will discuss how, upon formation, it interacts with its environment and track these changes by FTIR, 29Si NMR, 7Li NMR, and PXRD with eventual formation of Li6Si2O7 and Li2SiO3. [1] C. Joyce, L.Trahey, S.A. Bauer, F. Dogan, and J, T. Vaughey Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 159,A909-A914 (2012). [2] F. Dogan, C. Joyce, and J. T. Vaughey Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 160, A312-A319 (2013). [3] F. R. Brushett, L.Trahey, X. Xiao, J. T. Vaughey ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces , 6, 4524−4534 (2014). [4] B. Philippe, R. DedryveÌre, M. Gorgoi, H. Rensmo, D. Gonbeau, K. Edström J. Am. Chem. Soc., 135, 9829−9842 (2013). [5] ] B. Philippe, R. DedryveÌre, M. Gorgoi, H. Rensmo, D. Gonbeau, K. Edström Chem. Mater., 25,394−404 (2013). [6] A. A. Hubaud, Z. Z. Yang , D. J. Schroeder, F. Dogan, L. Trahey, J. T. Vaughey Journal of Power Sources 282, 639-644 (2015) Figure 1

Geophysics from orbit: the unexpected surprise

Writings on the Experience of Eating in Illness in the journal of the American Dietetic Association

In the late 1970s, a West German private aerospace firm founded by Lutz Kayser wanted to be the first private company in the world to launch rockets into outer space. Kayser was an entrepreneurial and idiosyncratic rocketeer who was trained and mentored by ex-Nazi rocket scientists. More than four decades before Elon Musk, Richard Branson or Jeff Bezos sought to commercialise space flight, Kayser nearly succeeded in his desire to send ‘Billigraketen’ (cheap rockets) into space. Ultimately, OTRAG (Orbital Transport- und Raketen- Aktiengesellschaft GmbH), Kayser’s company, was derailed as much by growing opposition from the governments of West Germany, East Germany, the USA and the Soviet Union, than any technological shortcomings. Cheap commercial rockets would have broken the superpowers’ oligopoly on space flight, but there were also geopolitical implications of Kayser’s activities in what was then the country of Zaire under the brutal dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko that caused OTRAG to become enmeshed in Cold War wrangling. What unfolded in the jungles of southeastern Zaire is a remarkable tale of neocolonialism, geopolitical propaganda, corporate sovereignty and, ultimately, Kayser’s abandonment of his dream in the face of state-based opposition. This paper seeks to understand the origins and legacies of Lutz Kayser’s rocketry dream and examine what it means for contemporary space geopolitics.

Results of studies on advanced winged space transportation systems

One of the technology goals of NASA for advanced space transportation is to develop highly efficient propulsion systems to reduce the cost of payload for space missions. Developments of rockets for the second generation Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) in the past several years have been focused on low-cost versions of conventional engines. However, recent changes in the Integrated Space Transportation Program to build a crew transportation vehicle to extend the life of the Space Shuttle fleet might suggest that air-breathing rockets could reemerge as a possible propulsion system for the third generation RLV to replace the Space Shuttle after 2015. The weight of the oxygen tank exceeds thirty percent of the total weight of the Space Shuttle at launch while the payload is only one percent of the total weight. The air-breathing rocket propulsion systems, which consume oxygen in the air, offer clear advantages by making vehicles lighter and more efficient. Experience in the National Aerospace Plane Program in the late 1980s indicates that scramjet engines can achieve high specific impulse for low hypersonic vehicle speeds. Whether taking a form of Rocket Based Combined Cycle (RBCC) or Turbine Based Combined Cycle (TBCC), the scramjet is an essential mode of operation for air-breathing rockets. It is well known that fuel-air mixing and rapid combustion are of crucial importance for the success of scramjet engines since the spreading rate of the supersonic mixing layer decreases as the Mach number increases. A factored form of the Gauss-Seidel relaxation method has been widely used in hypersonic flow research since its first application to non-equilibrium flows. However, difficulties in stability and convergence have been encountered when there is strong interaction between fluid motion and chemical reaction, such as multiple fuel injection problems. The present paper reports the results from investigation of the effect of modifications to the original algorithm on the performance for multiple injectors.

The demand for a more comprehensive engineering tool for design and parametric investigations of thrust-chamber relevant heat transfer is pushing the improvement of coolant and hot gas side prediction tools. Regenerative Coolant Flow Simulation (RCFS) [1], Astrium in-house developed one-dimensional (1D) tool to compute hot gas and coolant side heat transfer in a coupled approach, is based on the hot gas side Cinjarew approach which has its origin in the late 1960s. This tool was used as a starting basis for the development and validation of a further improved method. Over the past years, Astrium Space Transportation (ST) has continuously expanded the knowledge in this field. In addition, subscale hot firings, using different propellant combinations and injection conditions, relevant to open and closed cycle applications, were used for the second RCFS generation − the RCFS-II.

Reviewed by: The Soviet Photograph, 1924–1937 Natasha Kurchanova Margarita Tupitsyn, The Soviet Photograph, 1924–1937. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. x + 198 pp. ISBN 0300064500. $45. Margarita Tupitsyn's book is a long-awaited contribution to the histories of photography and the Russian avant-garde. It accomplishes two important tasks: it investigates a yet-unexplored terrain in the history of photography and it deals with issues that have occupied scholars primarily in the West, and secondarily in Russia itself, since the late 1970s–early 1980s. I single out "the West" as the privileged site of discussion, because this is where the interest in recovering the history of the subject arose.1 Toward the late 1980s, a new generation of Western scholars has become involved with the topic. Such thinkers as Benjamin Buchloh, Yve-Alain Bois, and Hal Foster have focused on finding a common theoretical ground for "historical" avant-garde movements, as defined by Peter Bürger and postmodernist trends. Meanwhile, art historians living in Russia obtained a political opportunity to do research and publish on the subject.2 At the moment, there is a rather clear division between those art historians concerned with theoretical issues, who find themselves confined to the camp of "Westerners" geographically, and the other group, consisting mostly of Russian scholars, who prefer to concentrate on establishing precise historical and factual data for the field. Until recently, there has been little explicit interaction between the two camps, apart from Christina Lodder's groundbreaking Russian Constructivism. The central merit of Tupitsyn's book consists of creating a discursive space where these disparate groups can engage in a dialogue. As a contribution to the history of Soviet photography, Tupitsyn's work outlines a general conceptual map of the subject that can be used as a reference in any subsequent investigation of it. The book spans the period from Lenin's death in 1924 to the end of the Second Five-Year Plan in 1937; from the first signs of iconicity in Constructivism to its last phase, characterized by the expansive influence of photography, architecture, and design, and theoretically backed by the "formalist-sociological" method. The chapters are arranged chronologically; in [End Page 220] each one, a brief historical and political overview of the period serves as a necessary background for the ensuing discussion of the contemporary artistic and theoretical atmosphere. Throughout the book, Tupitsyn focuses on the careers of four major artists: Gustav Klucis, Sergei Senkin, Aleksander Rodchenko, and El Lissitzky, thus passing over the contributions of photographers Boris Ignatovich, Dmitrii Debabov, Arkadii Shaiket and Max Alpert. Toward the end of the book she also briefly discusses the production of two women artists: Valentina Kulagina and Natalia Pinus. Although Tupitsyn's is primarily a historical study, it attempts to answer key theoretical questions first posed in texts by Lodder, Buchloh, and Bois.3 These authors zeroed in on the aesthetic and political choices which defined the transition from autonomous art to art that was politically engaged. How did this shift take place in Russian Constructivism? Were the artists the unwitting pawns in the hands of historical forces beyond their control (Lodder)? Were they sincere in their devotion to Communism even in its Stalinist guise (Buchloh)? Or did they simply sell out their principles to "save their skin" (Bois)? In order to answer these pivotal questions, Tupitsyn provides thorough historical background on the artistic debates of the period by using extensive documentation from archival and periodical sources. The tension between history and theory in the book is uneasy at times, despite the author's attempts to keep the two in balance. In her attempt to answer the question posed by Buchloh, "at what point, historically as well as structurally, [the change in photographic representation] takes place… during the 1930s," (7) Tupitsyn confounds the methodological grounds of her own work. In numerous instances her narrative is interrupted by a reference to a near-contemporary philosophical authority, such as Lyotard (14), Bürger (67), Deleuze (70), Barthes (159), and others. She does this, one would think, in order to provide a link with current theoretical concerns. However, her patterns of reference are at times sporadic and arbitrary, coming dangerously...