The Future of United States - Chinese Space Relations
In recent years the U.S. space program has been in decline, mostly due to budget cuts. Because of those reductions, NASA is struggling to fund its space exploration programs. One solution to this problem is to collaborate with other space agencies to share the cost and the knowledge gained. The Chinese have recently put a lot of effort into becoming a global space power and are willing to collaborate with other agencies in their space exploration efforts. The United States, however, is very reluctant to enter into any type of collaborative effort with the Chinese for a host of reasons. In order to gain greater insight into this issue, a survey will be conducted using the following three control groups: 1) individuals affiliated with the U.S. space program and related agencies, 2) individuals affiliated with the U.S. military and related security agencies, and 3) individuals not affiliated with either group previously mentioned. It is believed that these three groups will give a good indication of the general feelings of the United States population towards cooperating with the Chinese in spaceflight and what obstacles need to be overcome. The central research questions will focus on whether the participants believe the United States should collaborate with the Chinese, what they believe are the main objectives of the Chinese space program, and what issues need to be addressed before collaboration is possible. The author predicts that the individuals affiliated with the space program and those of the military will be diametrically opposed to one another while most of the general public will support collaboration.
Implanted Helium-3 Abundance Distribution on the Moon
Introduction: Helium-3 (He) is expected to be the cleanest fuel of choice for potential 21st century fusion reactors, because its reaction is efficient and produces low residual radioactivity. He is very rare on the Earth and much concentrated in the lunar regolith. It is possibly the most valuable resource on the Moon. As we had known, the mineral ilmenite [FeTiO3] retains helium much better than other major lunar materials. The more mature soils should contain high concentration of He, because they have been exposed to the solar wind longer and contain greater amounts of fine-grained aggregates that absorb He. A map of implanted He abundance distribution on the Moon is constructed in this paper. The map is calibrated using a correlation between the He concentration and the TiO2 concentration and maturity index Is/FeO of lunar regolith. The distributions of the TiO2 concentration and the regolith maturity Is/FeO are derived from the multispectral lunar digital image model (DIM) of the Moon in five spectral ranges (415, 750, 900, 950, 1000 nm wavelengths), which was obtained. Data Source: This multi-spectral lunar digital image model (DIM) of the Moon is a radiometrically and geometrically controlled, photometrically modeled global image mosaic compiled using more than 400,000 images from multiple filter observations of the UltraViolet-Visible (UVVIS) camera onboard the Clementine Spacecraft. The DIM mosaic is mapped in the simple_cylindrical projection at a spatial resolution of 100 meters per pixel. Final PDS (Planetary Data System) data set archive volumes CL_4001 through CL_4078 were produced in July, 1999 by a group led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) branch of astrogeology at flagstaff, Arizona (http://pdsmaps.wr.usgs.gov/maps.html) Algorithm: Taylor (1994) found that the abundance of He in the lunar regolith at a given location depends on surface maturity, and titanium content, because ilmenite (FeTiO3) retains helium much better than other major lunar minerals. He proposed a correlation between the abundance of He and TiO2 content and maturity index Is/FeO of lunar soil from the statistical analysis of the measurement of Apollo lunar soil sample [1]. The abundance of He in the lunar regolith is determined by: 3 0 2 He (ppb)=0.2043 [(Is/FeO) TiO ] × .645
Cultural constraints on the delivery of HIV/AIDS prevention in Ireland.
HIV appeared in Ireland following an opiate epidemic in the early 1980s. Initially, however, the gay community mounted the only response to the spread of the virus while the implementation of early actions by the government was hampered by the constructions of the disease within Irish society. This paper considers the influence of the religious hierarchy in both the development of AIDS policy and in the shaping of public perceptions of the disease and those affected. A qualitative methodology is used to examine the role of such cultural constraints in an evaluation of the social context within which the prevention of HIV infection occurs. Three key issues pertinent to the policy context in Ireland are explored in depth. These are the role of the Catholic Church, the influences on health education programmes, particularly information giving, and the development of services and other interventions. These findings are discussed within the social and political contexts in which health policy is formulated.