Three-man Crew Research Articles

Strategies to Develop Resilience: Lessons from a Civil Rights Activist, a Scientist, and an Astronaut.

Strategies to Develop Resilience: Lessons from a Civil Rights Activist, a Scientist, and an Astronaut.

Myron Kinley and the ‘Torch of Moreni’

Abstract Myron M. Kinley (1898–1978) has been called the first, the dean, the grandfather and the original pioneer oil-well firefighter. He and his father Karl are often credited with being the first to use explosives to extinguish an oil-well fire in 1913 in a California, USA oil field. Myron formed the M.M. Kinley Company in 1923, specializing in controlling well blowouts and extinguishing well fires. During Kinley's long career, he fought hundreds of oil-well fires throughout the world. On 28 May 1929, after drilling to a depth of 1453 m, the No. 160 Romano-Americana well in Moreni, Romania had a blowout and caught fire. The derrick was destroyed and the 100 m-high flames could be seen in the city of Ploiesti over 50 km away. Attempts to extinguish the well were unsuccessful and the well burned for over 2 years. More than 100 workers were injured and 14 died in the process of trying to extinguish the fire. By the spring of 1931, the ‘Torch of Moreni’ had created a crater 76 m wide and 20 m deep. Newspapers covered the attempts to extinguish the fire and many of the photographs of the fire were used to create postcards. Kinley first visited the No. 160 well in 1930, but was unable to convince the operators to allow him to try his firefighting methods. It took a second visit, a year later, before he was hired by the Romano-Americana Company, an affiliate of Standard Oil. A three-man crew consisting of Americans Kinley and Grady Chupp, and Romanian Costeca Luper battled the fire for 3 months. The fire was finally extinguished and Kinley was paid his $50 000 fee and he returned to the USA. American newspapers recounted his exploits and praised his heroism. Eighty-five years later, oil production facilities and producing wells surround the crater, and patches of carbonized ground attest to the intensity of the ‘Torch of Moreni’.

Efficacy and profitability of a mobile grinder system for biomass production in Korea

ABSTRACTForest biomass utilization is increasing in Korea, but on-site biomass operations have not been studied much. This study investigates the efficacy and profitability of a mobile grinder system that consists of a mobile tub-grinder, a grapple excavator, and a three-man crew. A time study was carried out to measure production time and to calculate the productivity of the system. The mobile grinder system ran 3 work cycles a day for total of 347.5 minutes. It was only productive for less than half of the 8 working hours a day (237.4 minutes, utilization rate of 49.4%). We estimated that the system produced 246.2 m3/day, which was 26% lower than the daily capacity reported by the grinder operators. This study found the system could make utilizing forest biomass profitable, although this depended on limited market information. The profitability of the system can be improved by increasing work cycles a day and decreasing organizational delays by better operation management. More research is needed to increase the on-site productivity of the system, and incorporate it and the actual price of wood chips to further assess the profitability of the system. The study results can be used as a justification for the grinder system, encouraging forest managers to adapt this relatively new operation.

Machine function integration and its effect on the performance of a timber yarding and processing operation

An assessment of the benefits of a fully integrated yarder-processor was made against the alternative of splitting the yarding and processing functions onto two base machines. The effect of productivity rates, specific costs, and crew sizes on the relative performance of each working configuration was investigated. The systems analysis showed that for the integrated yarder machine, a two-man crew was considerably cheaper than a three-man crew at all yarding distances, although the difference became less pronounced with increasing mean tree volumes. The single integrated machine with a 2-man crew was cheaper than the modelled 2-machine system at medium and longer extraction distances, as the processor base machine in the 2-machine systems incurred a considerable cost penalty in waiting idly for the yarder. At shorter distances (75 m) the 2-machine system was cheapest, but became less competitive with increasing mean tree volume. For mid-sized trees (0.38 m3) on a medium corridor length of 150 m, overall system productivity rates ranged from 5.2 m3 per productive system hour (PSH) for the single machine system to 9.4 PSH−1 for the 2-machine system, although the specific net costs were almost identical at 31.5 € m−3. A sensitivity analysis showed that reduced labour costs would promote use of the 2-machine system, suggesting that the optimum system configuration would be country specific. Despite being marginally more costly in small trees at short corridor lengths (75 m), the single fully-integrated machine was considered the working configuration of choice under Norwegian conditions.

"What Do You Mean, A Wheelchair Athlete?"

"What Do You Mean, A Wheelchair Athlete?"

The application of a vehicle routing model to a waste-collection problem: two case studies

In this paper we suggest a unique model for estimating the operating cost of each of three waste-collection systems. Under the traditional system, which is widely used, waste is typically collected in plastic bags and a three-man crew is needed on each vehicle. The other two systems require a one-man crew for vehicle collecting street containers. The side-loader system with fixed body automatically empties street containers into the vehicle body and empties the load at the disposal site. The side-loader system with demountable body allows the separation of the waste collection phase from transport to the disposal site, since the vehicle body can be demounted. We also present two case studies and show how the estimation of operating costs is a critical issue in decisions regarding the type of system to be used for waste collection.

Adding fuel to the fire: NASA’s crisis communications regarding Apollo 1

In January 1967, NASA faced its first major crisis when a flash fire killed the three-man crew of Apollo 1 during a routine, preflight test. Unprepared for a fire on the ground and desperate to manage its image, the space agency responded poorly to the crisis: it waited 2 h to report the deaths; it communicated inaccurate, contradictory, and purposefully misleading information to Congress and the media; it lied, and refused to release information, to congressional committees investigating the fire; and it stacked the official board investigating the fire with its own personnel and people who had close ties to the agency. NASA’s poor crisis communications exacerbated the tragedy, tarnishing its image, hurting its credibility, and prolonging the crisis. This study provides an example of an unsuccessful response to a crisis and demonstrates how much damage can occur when an organization fails to communicate openly and honestly. James Kauffman is an associate professor of communication studies at Indiana University Southeast.

Logistical and ergonomic transportation capacity for refuse collection workers: a work physiology field study.

In a work physiology field study, the work flow and the electrocardiogram were recorded throughout whole shifts for six male refuse (garbage) collection workers who transported and emptied 1.1 m3 refuse containers. The work rate (WR), indicated by the number of 1.1 m3 containers emptied per unit of time, and the work pulse rate (WPR) were determined in the data evaluation. The work pulse rate increases with the work rate. The functional relationship can be approximated by a linear regression function (WPR = 20.9 + 35.8.WR). The work pulse rate reaches such high values that it must be assumed that the work cannot be performed continuously throughout the whole working day. Consequently, regular breaks should be provided. When determining the necessary duration of the breaks, it was assumed that an equilibrium between fatigue and recovery should be maintained during the working day. The recovery breaks should be at least long enough for the heart rate to return to the resting level. The necessary duration of the breaks was determined on the basis of the present field study and the laboratory investigations described in the literature. A minimum duration of 10 min per working hour results from the calculations. The breaks should be taken regularly at about hourly intervals. A transportation-capacity model is provided for the planning of the deployment of refuse workers. It permits calculation of the number of 1.1 m3 containers a three-man crew, comprising the refuse collection truck driver and two loaders, can empty during one shift. Both the logistical and ergonomic transportation capacities can be determined using the model. The logistical transportation capacity (TCL) indicates the number of containers which can be emptied per shift by a crew when only criteria such as the optimal utilization of the working time are considered. The ergonomic transportation capacity (TCE) is understood as the number of containers which can be emptied per shift taking into consideration the workers' strain and the recovery breaks they require. TCE amounts to between about 140 and 160 containers per shift depending on the type of city district. TCL is higher by between 20 and 30 containers per shift. In order to meet the demand of protecting workers' health, the number of containers to be emptied per shift by a three-man crew should not exceed the ergonomic transportation capacity.

Engineering and simulation of life sciences Spacelab experiments

The third in a series of Spacelab Mission Development tests was conducted at the Johnston Space Center as a part of the development of Life Sciences experiments for the Space Shuttle era. The latest test was a joint effort of the Ames Research and Johnson Space Centers and utilized animals and men for study. The basic objective of this test was to evaluate the operational concepts planned for the Space Shuttle life science payloads program. A three-man crew (Mission Specialist and two Payload Specialists) conducted 26 experiments and 12 operational tests, which were selected for this 7-day mission simulation. The crew lived on board a simulated Orbiter/Spacelab mockup 24 hr a day. The Orbiter section contained the mid deck crew quarters area, complete with sleeping, galley and waste management provisions. The Spacelab was identical in geometry to the European Space Agency Spacelab design, complete with removable rack sections and stowage provisions. Communications between the crewmen and support personnel were configured and controlled as currently planned for operational shuttle flights. For this test a Science Operations Remote Center was manned at the Ames Research Center and was managed by simulated Mission Control and Payload Operation Control Centers at the Johnson Space Center. This paper presents the test objectives, description of the facilities and test program, and the results of this test.

Waste Makes Haste

Getting rid of bodily wastes during long space flights is a problem that is already worrying space researchers, even though the first such mission may be a decade or in the future. On a year-long round-trip flyby of Mars, for example, it has been estimated that a three-man crew would produce almost a ton of waste, not even including urine (which would probably be reprocessed for drinking and washing). A bizarre possible solution is now being investigated both by industry and by the Federal space agency, at its Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. It involves whipping the wastes in with some other ingredients to produce the most unusual rocket fuel since Aerojet-General proposed grinding up lunar rocks for return trips to earth. The idea arose when Rocket Research Corp. in Seattle was experimenting with a propellant it had developed in which a major ingredient was water. Since human feces are some 70 percent water, some company scientists reasoned that these wastes might be usable in a propellant, either as a disposal system or as a weight-saving source of fuel, since less weight of other ingredients would thus need to be carried aboard a space vehicle. The fuel, which Rocket Research calls Monex W, has a simple recipe: the four ingredients-carbon, ammonium nitrate, aluminum and the waste material-are just blended together and they're ready to go. You could use a Mixmaster if you wanted to, says James Jones of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The result is a thick black, dough-like gel which can be pumped into a fuel tank as soon as it is mixed. One concern was that the heavy carbon and aluminum particles might settle out of the mix after a while, apparently the material holds its form well. Rocket Research and NASA agree that Monex W has little or no odor, both believe that a largely automatic mixing system would be needed to minimize the psychological problem. The propellant's specific impulse, a sort of miles-per-gallon figure for rockets equal to the amount of thrust per pound of fuel consumed, is presently about 185, says NASA, which is about 85 percent of the maximum that is theoretically possible. Most metal-containing solid propellants operate at about 93 percent of their theoretical maximum, and the investigators believe that Monex W will approach that figure as the most efficient balance of ingredients is reached. Since its a gel, Monex W can also be used as a liquid fuel, injected through a nozzle and ignited in a combustion chamber. It's performance is less than most current liquid propellants, says Dr. Carl David Good of Rocket Research, but having the waste on board means that less propellant weight has to be carried to produce the same amount of total impulse. Since it is limited by the amount of available waste, Monex W would not be used to provide large amounts of thrust, would probably be used to help a spacecraft change position or to nudge a long-life space station occasionally to keep it up in orbit. There have been 13 test firings at NASA of Monex W-fueled rocket motors, plus more than 10 at Rocket Research, and the maximum thrust of any of them was 250 pounds. This is only a tenth the power of the pitch control motor in the Apollo spacecraft launch escape tower. Unfortunately, the ingredient mixture that contains the most waste is not the one that is the most efficient propellant, so the fuel mix would be different in a waste disposal system than in a rocket used primarily for thrust. Above a certain percentage of waste, in fact, the stuff just won't burn at all. Both NASA and the company has so far found that the most waste the mixture will stand is just under 40 percent, although the researchers think that playing around

Gemini 8 Launched

> THE MOST complicated maneuvers in man's first flight to the moon will be the various couplings, uncouplings, dockings and rendezvous performed at the two ends of the journey. Now, after several malfunctions, an aborted launch attempt and some compromises, practice has started. At 11:41 a.m. on March 16. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott shot spaceward, pursuing their target. an Agena spacecraft launched an hour and 41 minutes earlier. Their attempt to nose Gemini 8 into a mechanical attached to the Agena was successful-another milestone in space flight. However, less than half an hour after docking, while Gemini 8 was still coupled to the Agena, Armstrong reported engine trouble. The two vehicles were rolling and yawing out of control. The astronauts backed their spacecraft away from the Agena target and then stabilized by switching from their maneuvering power system to the one used for reentry into the atmosphere. But it was considered risky to continue the operation on fuel intended for the return trip. Because of this, and because no one was entirely sure what caused the trouble, Gemini Control in Houston cancelled the remainder of the flight. Late in the evening of their launch day the two astronauts landed safely in a recovery area in the Pacific. Had the three-day mission been completed other experiments would have been carried out. Co-pilot Scott was equipped with a long, cable-and-air-hose-filled cord, so that he could leave his cramped position in the spacecraft and spend one-and-a-half orbits of the earth walking in space. Spacewalking. although vitally important to orbiting space stations and any other missions that require outside repairs, will not be a part of the lunar flight. The shirtsleeves environment in the Apollo will prevent any of the threeman crew from stepping out into space, although two of them will step out on reaching the surface of the moon. However, Gemini flights between now and then may do away with the need for umbilical cords. Docking was the most important. While adjusting their orbit to match that of the Agena, the astronauts traveled some 107,000 miles, while keeping track of the roundness of their orbit, and the relative angle between the Gemini and the target, among other things. Rendezvous and docking are not the same thing. The former consists of getting from. say, 100 miles away to within about 100 feet at the proper angle. speed and orbit. Computers do all the heavy mathematics, and the pilot follows their instructions. Docking on the other hand, is done largely by eye. On the nose of the Gemini is a small sighting post, just like a sight on a rifle. At the rear of the Agena. inside the collar, is another sight, in the form of a notch. Neil Armstrong's job as pilot was to center the post in the notch. When two spacecraft are close enough for this. the operation becomes a matter of repeated slow nudges with the thrusters until the two vehicles touch. The collar then automatically locks them together. Similar maneuvers, with somewhat different equipment. will occur several times during the moon journey. At one point, the spacecraft will detach from its booster, turn around 180 degrees, and dock nose-on. . Science News, 89:195 March 26, 1966

Cadmium Sulfide and Mercuric Sulfide for Marking Sea Lamprey Larvae

The usefulness of insoluble dyes injected under the skin as marks for larval sea lampreys was investigated. For marked lampreys recovered as larvae, the dye marks persisted for at least 4 years, they could be identified readily by external examination, and they caused little mortality. For lampreys marked as larvae and recovered as newly transformed adults, internal examination was desirable for identification of marks, and there may have been some loss of marks and mortality. A three-man crew marked 100 larval lampreys per hour.