This scholarly study of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center places the institution in social, political, scientific, and technological context. It traces the evolution of Marshall, located in Huntsville, Alabama, from its origins as an Army missile development organization to its status in 1990 as one of the most diversified of NASA's field Centers. Chapters discuss military rocketry programs in Germany and the United States, Apollo-Saturn, Skylab, Space Shuttle, Spacelab, the Space Station and various scientific and technical projects including the Hubble Space Telescope. It sheds light not only on the history of space technology, science, and exploration, but also on the Cold War, federal politics, and complex organizations.
In a 2014 essay that went viral, Pippa Biddle revealed the inequities and absurdities baked into voluntourism--the pairing of short-term, unskilled volunteer work with tourism. In the years since, Biddle has devoted herself to understanding the origins, intentions, and outcomes of a multibillion-dollar industry built on the premise of doing good, and she tracks that investigation in Ours to Explore. The flaws of voluntourism have included xenophobia, racism, paternalism, and a "West knows best" mentality. From exploitative orphanages that keep children in squalid conditions to attract donors to undertrained medical volunteers practicing their skills on patients in developing regions and to those looking for an inspiring selfie, Biddle reveals the hidden costs of the voluntourism complex. Along the way, readers meet inspiring activists and passionate community members, as well as thoughtful former voluntourists who still work to make a difference--just differently. Ours to Explore offers a plan for how the service-based travel industry can break the cycle of exploitation and suggests strategies for travelers who want to improve the places they visit for the long haul.
Predictive Modeling for Energy Management and Power Systems Engineering introduces readers to the cutting-edge use of big data and large computational infrastructures in energy demand estimation and power management systems. The book supports engineers and scientists who seek to become familiar with advanced optimization techniques for power systems designs, optimization techniques and algorithms for consumer power management, and potential applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence in this field. The book provides modeling theory in an easy-to-read format, verified with on-site models and case studies for specific geographic regions and complex consumer markets. - Presents advanced optimization techniques to improve existing energy demand system - Provides data-analytic models and their practical relevance in proven case studies - Explores novel developments in machine-learning and artificial intelligence applied in energy management - Provides modeling theory in an easy-to-read format
• New York Times bestseller • The 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming, based on meticulous research by leading scientists and policymakers around the world “At this point in time, the Drawdown book is exactly what is needed; a credible, conservative solution-by-solution narrative that we can do it. Reading it is an effective inoculation against the widespread perception of doom that humanity cannot and will not solve the climate crisis. Reported by-effects include increased determination and a sense of grounded hope.” —Per Espen Stoknes, Author, What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming “There’s been no real way for ordinary people to get an understanding of what they can do and what impact it can have. There remains no single, comprehensive, reliable compendium of carbon-reduction solutions across sectors. At least until now. . . . The public is hungry for this kind of practical wisdom.” —David Roberts, Vox “This is the ideal environmental sciences textbook—only it is too interesting and inspiring to be called a textbook.” —Peter Kareiva, Director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA In the face of widespread fear and apathy, an international coalition of researchers, professionals, and scientists have come together to offer a set of realistic and bold solutions to climate change. One hundred techniques and practices are described here—some are well known; some you may have never heard of. They range from clean energy to educating girls in lower-income countries to land use practices that pull carbon out of the air. The solutions exist, are economically viable, and communities throughout the world are currently enacting them with skill and determination. If deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, they represent a credible path forward, not just to slow the earth’s warming but to reach drawdown, that point in time when greenhouse gases in the atmosphere peak and begin to decline. These measures promise cascading benefits to human health, security, prosperity, and well-being—giving us every reason to see this planetary crisis as an opportunity to create a just and livable world.
Americans' safety, productivity, comfort, and convenience depend on the reliable supply of electric power. The electric power system is a complex "cyber-physical" system composed of a network of millions of components spread out across the continent. These components are owned, operated, and regulated by thousands of different entities. Power system operators work hard to assure safe and reliable service, but large outages occasionally happen. Given the nature of the system, there is simply no way that outages can be completely avoided, no matter how much time and money is devoted to such an effort. The system's reliability and resilience can be improved but never made perfect. Thus, system owners, operators, and regulators must prioritize their investments based on potential benefits. Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System focuses on identifying, developing, and implementing strategies to increase the power system's resilience in the face of events that can cause large-area, long-duration outages: blackouts that extend over multiple service areas and last several days or longer. Resilience is not just about lessening the likelihood that these outages will occur. It is also about limiting the scope and impact of outages when they do occur, restoring power rapidly afterwards, and learning from these experiences to better deal with events in the future.
Space Nuclear Propulsion for Human Mars Exploration identifies primary technical and programmatic challenges, merits, and risks for developing and demonstrating space nuclear propulsion technologies of interest to future exploration missions. This report presents key milestones and a top-level development and demonstration roadmap for performance nuclear thermal propulsion and nuclear electric propulsion systems and identifies missions that could be enabled by successful development of each technology.
The Performance of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Systems: Analysis, Measurement, and Assessment offers a unique overview of the information on the state-of-the-art of analysis, measurement, and assessment of the performance of concentrated solar power (CSP) components and systems in a comprehensive, compact, and complete manner. Following an introductory chapter to CSP systems and the fundamental principles of performance assessment, individual chapters explore the component performance of mirrors and receivers. Further expert-written chapters look at system performance assessment, durability testing, and solar resource forecasting for CSP systems. A final chapter gives an outlook on the actual methods and instruments for performance and durability assessment that are underdevelopment. The Performance of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Systems: Analysis, Measurement, and Assessment is an essential reference text for research and development professionals and engineers working on concentrated solar power systems, as well as for postgraduate students studying CSP. - Presents a unique, single literature source for a complete overview of the performance assessment tools and methods currently used for concentrated solar power (CSP) technology - Written by a team of experts in the field of CSP - Provides information on the state-of-the-art of modeling, measurement, and assessment of the performance of CSP components and systems in a comprehensive, compact, and complete manner
Fundamentals and Applications of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (SCO2) Based Power Cycles aims to provide engineers and researchers with an authoritative overview of research and technology in this area. Part One introduces the technology and reviews the properties of SCO2 relevant to power cycles. Other sections of the book address components for SCO2 power cycles, such as turbomachinery expanders, compressors, recuperators, and design challenges, such as the need for high-temperature materials. Chapters on key applications, including waste heat, nuclear power, fossil energy, geothermal and concentrated solar power are also included. The final section addresses major international research programs. Readers will learn about the attractive features of SC02 power cycles, which include a lower capital cost potential than the traditional cycle, and the compounding performance benefits from a more efficient thermodynamic cycle on balance of plant requirements, fuel use, and emissions. - Represents the first book to focus exclusively on SC02 power cycles - Contains detailed coverage of cycle fundamentals, key components, and design challenges - Addresses the wide range of applications of SC02 power cycles, from more efficient electricity generation, to ship propulsion
