Mission Elements Research Articles

Health of the Public

Aging of the population, increasing prevalence of chronic and disabling illnesses with multiple social and behavioral risk factors, concern about quality of care, and escalating costs of medical care require fundamental changes in the way that academic health centers discharge their mission. This article describes a newly developed Mission Statement for academic health centers that wish to contribute positively to the health of the populations that they serve. A shift toward addressing the needs of the public may produce increasing institutional strength, long-run stability, and enhanced productivity, as well as higher quality, more cost-effective care for patients. Seventeen centers in the Health of the Public Program are currently conducting activities that implement the described mission elements. The goals and objectives described herein create a foundation for change, with more balanced institutional goals, and could turn an emerging confrontation between academe and its public into an opportunity for both. (JAMA. 1992;267:2497-2502)

The ATLAS‐1 shuttle mission

A space shuttle mission scheduled for launch on March 23, 1992, carrying a payload of largely remote‐sensing instruments, will constitute an important element of the NASA's Mission to Planet Earth and the U.S. Global Change Research Program. The mission was planned in 1983 and was earlier known as the Earth Observations Mission (EOM), subsequently becoming the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science (ATLAS) in 1986.The ATLAS‐1 flight is intended to be the first in a series of shuttle flights that will monitor the radiant energy output of the Sun, look for potential responses of the Earth's atmosphere to changes in this energy source, and verity global change assessments. Emphasis is on the frequent recalibration opportunities afforded by such a program, which allow transfer of calibrations to other longer‐duration orbiting observatories, such as the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration TIROS‐N satellites

Deep space telecommunications, navigation, and information management: Support of the space exploration initiative

The United States Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) calls for the charting of a new and evolving manned course to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. This paper discusses key challenges in providing effective deep space telecommunications, navigation, and information management (TNIM) architectures and designs for Mars exploration support. The fundamental objectives are to provide the mission with means to monitor and control mission elements, acquire engineering, science, and navigation data, compute state vectors and navigate, and move these data efficiently and automatically between mission nodes for timely analysis and decision-making. Although these objectives do not depart, fundamentally, from those evolved over the past 30 years in supporting deep space robotic exploration, there are several new issues. This paper focuses on summarizing new requirements, identifying related issues and challenges, responding with concepts and strategies which are enabling, and, finally, describing candidate architectures, and driving technologies. The design challenges include the attainment of: 1) manageable interfaces in a large distributed system, 2) highly unattended operations for in-situ Mars telecommunications and navigation functions, 3) robust connectivity for manned and robotic links, 4) information management for efficient and reliable interchange of data between mission nodes, and 5) an adequate Mars-Earth data rate.

Human Element in Long-Duration Spaceflight

Human Element in Long-Duration Spaceflight

NASA big winner in budget

The President's budget request for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration contains a dramatic increase of 24%, or $2.8 billion, over Fiscal Year 1990, bringing the total figure for FY 1991 to $15.1 billion. Of the $4.5 billion the administration has proposed in increases for civilian and defense R&D, NASA receives $2 billion. The largest single increase in the NASA budget is slated for Space Station Freedom, which increases by $700 million (36%) to a total of $2.6 billion. Other big increases go to the lunar/Mars initiative, which is up 47% to a total of $408 million, and the first element of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, the Earth Observing System (EOS), to receive $264 million.

The Li/Ba Release Experiments of the Lon Release Module

Injections of Li and Ba plasmas in the solar wind and geomagnetic tail constitute the active element of the AMPTE mission. The scientific objectives are twofold: ion tracing and the study of the unteraction of two vastly different plasmas in space. The amounts of metal vapor injected in one of the seven release experiments via a reaction of the metal with CuO range from 0.2 kg of Li to 3 kg of Ba. Photoionization by the solar light converts the initially neutral gas into a plasma. The gas clouds created at the morning side of the magnetosphere and in the tail are well observable with low-light-level TV systems developed for such purposes. One of the cameras employed in a network distributed over the Western United States and Eastern Pacific is described in detail. The optical observations consitute only one source of information on the local effects of the seeded plasmas, the other being a set of particle and fi'eld instruments installed both on the IRM and UKS. First results on the expansion and vapor yield (ion injection rate) have been obtained from the in situ diagnostics of the two first releases in September 1984.

Clinical Investigation: USAF Medical Center Keesler's Third Mission Element

Clinical Investigation: USAF Medical Center Keesler's Third Mission Element