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February 2007 |
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Contents Space Agreement Act © Cranfield University 2007
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Space Agreement Act
NASA and Google to bring space exploration down to Earth NASA Ames Research Center and Google have signed a Space Act Agreement that formally establishes a relationship to work together on a variety of challenging technical problems ranging from large-scale data management and massively distributed computing, to human-computer interfaces. As the first in a series of joint collaborations, Google and Ames will focus on making the most useful of NASA's information available on the Internet. Real-time weather visualization and forecasting, high-resolution 3-D maps of the moon and Mars, real-time tracking of the International Space Station and the space shuttle will be explored in the future. "This agreement between NASA and Google will soon allow every American to experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon or through the canyons of Mars," said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin at Headquarters in Washington. "This innovative combination of information technology and space science will make NASA's space exploration work accessible to everyone," added Griffin. "Partnering with NASA made perfect sense for Google, as it has a wealth of technical expertise and data that will be of great use to Google as we look to tackle many computing issues on behalf of our users," said Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer of Google. "We're pleased to move forward to collaborate on a variety of technical challenges through the signing of the Space Act Agreement." Recently, teams from NASA and Google met to discuss the many challenging computer science problems facing both organizations and possible joint collaborations that could help address them. NASA and Google intend to collaborate in a variety of areas, including incorporating agency data sets in Google Earth, focusing on user studies and cognitive modeling for human computer interaction, and science data search utilizing a variety of Google features and products. "Our collaboration with Google will demonstrate that the private and public sectors can accomplish great things together," said S. Pete Worden, Ames center director. "I want NASA Ames to establish partnerships with the private sector that will encourage innovation, while advancing the Vision for Space Exploration and commercial interests," Worden added. "NASA has collected and processed more information about our planet and universe than any other entity in the history of humanity," said Chris C. Kemp, director of strategic business development at Ames. "Even though this information was collected for the benefit of everyone, and much is in the public domain, the vast majority of this information is scattered and difficult for non-experts to access and to understand. "We've worked hard over the past year to implement an agreement that enables NASA and Google to work closely together on a wide range of innovative collaborations," said Kemp. "We are bringing together some of the best research scientists and engineers to form teams to make more of NASA's vast information accessible." NASA and Google also are finalizing details for additional collaborations that include joint research, products, facilities, education and missions. Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Google is headquartered close to Ames in Silicon Valley with offices through the Americas, Europe and Asia. The above is a reproduction of the official NASA press release, produced on 16th December 2006. RELEASE: 06-371. Books Express: A specialist bookseller This article was kindly written by Duncan Evans of Books Express
While retail and online giants were selling Jamie Oliver tomes by the ton, the Books Express contribution to Christmas stockings included many specialist books suited to defence and engineering profession. Such titles are seldom found on the shelves of Waterstones and Borders, or even university bookshops. Like Jamie Oliver, Books Express has its origins in Saffron Walden, between Cambridge and London. While Jamie (who still can be occasionally spotted in my local pub) sells to the mass market, Books Express concentrates on its areas of expertise in academic, scientific and technical publishing, with a strong emphasis on all aspects of defence and engineering. We also have particular staff expertise of politics, history and international relations. We also offer the following online services:
Like other independents, we harness the awesome marketing power of Amazon by selling through Amazon Marketplace. Our book prices are often lower than those of Amazon. You can also search and browse our holdings at AbeBooks.com. The majority of our book supply is through offline transactions with engineering and defence sector clients. We host staffed book sales and author signings at the Joint Services Command and Staff College and the Defence College of Management and Technology. We also enjoy a good working relationship with these college libraries. Our Web site will soon include sophisticated online tools and resources for defence and engineering librarians. We welcome suggestions from librarians on what bibliographic tools would assist their workflow. Our customers often receive larger discounts for offline orders. We deliberately do not publicise this on our public Web site, and by extension, to our competitors. We have developed long-standing, excellent relationships with publishers, allowing us to compete on the same or better terms than not only Amazon, but other library suppliers. We have also worked closely on supply chain initiatives to make rapid deliveries a trusted norm, rather than an expensive extra. We have recently delighted customers with free 1-2 day delivery of (recent examples) Wiley, AIAA, SPIE, Artech House and Taylor and Francis group publishers. All AERADE customers are welcome to contact me personally at duncan@books-express.co.uk or telephone +44 (0) 1799 513726 to discuss your requirements. NASA's NACA Reports Server and the new NTRS interface In October 2006, NASA shutdown their NACA Reports Server. NACA (the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) was NASA's predecessor. The agency was founded on 3rd March 1915 and existed until the end of September 1958, when NASA came into being. During its existence, NACA produced thousands of (technical) reports, many of which still have relevance to today's researchers and engineers in aeronautics and aerodynamics. While many of the reports are only available in hardcopy, in the last decade or so, a substantial number of the reports - over 14,000 - have been digitised and made available online. The good news is that these digitised reports are still available despite the demise of the NACA Reports Server. They can now be accessed from the NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS).
According to the NTRS: "The NTRS offers users a single interface for searching the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) reports, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports and videos, and the NASA Image eXchange (NIX) images/photos and movies/videos. The new NTRS allows term searching, i.e., searching by user provided terms and navigation searching, i.e., searching by a category such as subject or NASA Center." (http://ntrs.nasa.gov/index.jsp?method=latest) Of course, in addition to the NTRS, over 7,000 of the digitised NACA reports can still be searched and downloaded from the UK archive of digitised NACA reports and also from the AERADE Reports Archive, which also holds over 3,000 digitised Aeronautical Reports Council technical reports. Tell us what you think: AERADE survey 2007 We need you! Or rather, we need your views about AERADE. Does it satisfy your information needs? How can we make it more relevant or useful to you? We value your opinion, so please let us know what you think. We are constantly working to improve AERADE and your suggestions and views are an essential part of that process. You will find a short survey on the AERADE front page and here:- http://cclibweb-1.dmz.cranfield.ac.uk/phpsurveyor/index.php?sid=2 Please take a few moments to complete the survey. Your views are important to us! THANK YOU The AERADE team. Recent AERADE news features You may have noticed the news feature at the bottom of the AERADE home page. We aim keep it continually updated with links to major news stories and to significant reports that have recently been published in the fields of aerospace and defence. In case you missed them, we are repeating some of the main news we have featured in the past quarter. AERADE Survey 2007 We are keen that AERADE reflects your evolving interests and needs, and welcome your feedback to help us to continue to improve the service we offer you. We would be grateful if you could take five minutes to answer a few questions for us about your current use of AERADE and your views on it. Earliest flying dinosaurs had a bi-plane design A BBC news article, reporting on a study appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, reveals that the earliest flying dinosaurs 'took to the air in a similar way to a World War I bi-plane'. New FAA ETOPS rule The FAA has changed safety rules for long-range flights: New EUROCONTROL PRC report The Performance Review Commission (PRC) has published a Report entitled 'Legal and Cultural Issues in relation to ATM Safety Occurrence reporting in Europe', which documents the results of a survey conducted during 2005 and 2006. Civil aviation accidents and incidents - public consultation The European Commission has launched a public consultation regarding possible revision of Council Directive 94/56/EC of 21 November 1994 establishing the fundamental principles governing the investigation of civil aviation accidents and incidents and of Council Directive 2003/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2003, on occurrence reporting in civil aviation. Interested parties are invited to fill in an online questionnaire by 2 March 2007. OFT proposes to refer BAA airports to the Competition Commission The OFT has signalled its intention to refer the supply of airport services by BAA to the Competition Commission (CC) for more detailed investigation. It has also made a recommendation that the airports regulator advise the Government on the case for the de-regulation of Manchester airport.
No-frills carriers: Revolution or evolution? A study by the Civil Aviation Authority The no-frills airlines sector has been one of the most significant developments in the UK travel sector over the last decade. No-frills carriers have had a significant impact on the aviation industry and are perceived as having revolutionised the way people travel. The CAA report, 'No-Frills Carriers: Revolution or Evolution' aims to set the 'no-frills' revolution in context, to understand better the impacts it has had on the sector, on infrastructure and on the public, and to reflect on those issues that seem most relevant to the current state of the UK aviation sector and likely future trends. An Annex to this document has also been published. The effectiveness of image recorder systems in accident investigations The CAA initiated research to determine whether flight deck image recorder systems would provide useful additional information for accident investigations. CAP 762 provides a detailed analysis into the pros and cons of image recorders and concludes that if properly installed and appropriately analysed, flight deck image recording systems could provide useful additional information in certain accident scenarios. Conference announcement: International Defence Logistics 2007
"Clearly,
logistics is the hard part of fighting a war." Logistics is a critical component of any operation. In modern warfare the actions and effectiveness of the operational commander is enabled or constrained by logistics chain velocity. Recognising this, militaries across the world are transforming their logistics organisations and strategies in response to the need to be more efficient, streamlined and focused on the needs of the frontline customer. Are you facing challenges in:
Key speakers include:
Focus day: Logistics in a coalition environment - 21st May 2007 Coalition logistics is a reality of modern warfare. Learning to work as part of a coalition to support joint warfighter adds another layer of complexity to an already challenging activity. Frequently coalition partners fail to share logistics information with each other leading to duplication of tasks and lack of co-ordination. Interoperability and standardisation are the name of the game. Mission critical masterclass: Business transformation - 24th May 2007 Joseph Albright, Director of Situational Awareness of the Office of the Deputy under Secretary of the Army for Business Transformation, will be leading this masterclass drawing on his experience of establishing and implementing the business transformation governance framework within the US Army. Further information For further information including a full list of speakers, the full conference agenda and registration details visit www.defencelog.com, contact Steven Savage on +44 (0) 20 7368 9400 or email steven.savage@wbr.co.uk. |
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