Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Space policy'

Thesis (M.S. in Systems Technology (Space Systems Operations)) Naval Postgraduate School, December 1996.
Thesis advisor(s): Dan C. Boger. "December 1996." Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-126). Also available online.

This is a policy history of the earliest period of ·space' and the United Kingdom. tt is mainly concemed with the creation of the UK's first space policy, announced in 1959, but considers key precursor programmes as well as operational aspects of the policy itself. It treats both civil and military factors. Part I considers the precursors, i.e. the early upper atmosphere sounding rocket programme set up in 1955, and the early military interest in reconnaissance from satellites. Key to the former was the coincidence of civil and military interest in the upper atmosphere, the former for purely scientific reasons, the latter on account of the development of Blue Streak, the UK's medium range ballistic missile. The crucial development of the concept of using Blue Streak as the basis of a satellite launcher arose and is considered under the reconnaissance interest. Part II narrates developments between 1958 and 1959, when the UK's first policy was being developed in Whitehall. This process amounted to the fonnulation of a proposal for a civil scientific space programme based on Blue Streak, and the proposal's subsequent assessment. The roles of the key actors are analysed in detail - government departmentslbodies, the Royal Society, leading individual ministers, officials, advisers and independent scientists. Central is the assessment exercise mounted by the government's AdviSOry Council on Scientific Policy (ACSP), and the vexed question of scientific and technological priorities. Part III examines operational aspects. Though only a comparatively modest programme was agreed in 1959, it engendered serious problems in operation, some symptomatic of ailments in the whole system of government funded science. This part also considers all-important developments in the military's attitude towards space between 1959 and 1960

This dissertation analyses the implications of international investment law on host states’ legal ability to protect the environment, regulate sustainable use of natural resources, and develop new approaches to manage environmental risks and uncertainties. ‘Environmental policy space’ is found to be a useful term when exploring the regulatory autonomy in this context. On one hand, investment law aims to ensure stability of the investment environment. On the other hand, environmental law needs flexibility to react to the degradation of the environment. It is found that those different aims do not have to be in conflict. There are useful mechanisms in national environmental law which provide for accessible, transparent and predictable decisions for the private actor. These mechanisms can fulfill the aim of stability in investment law. It is, however, concluded that core provisions of international investment treaties risk to put constraints to environmental law in a variety of ways. To diminish these risks, states, when concluding investment treaties, should make clear that constraining environmental regulation is not compatible with the overarching aim of sustainable development. Furthermore, the interpretation of provisions of investment protection must respect principles and instruments of environmental law not to continue being unbalanced towards investor interests. It is also concluded that allowing for investor – state arbitration, without the investor exhausting local remedies, will ignore the important national administrative review system of public environmental measures.

Space stations represent a watershed in man's exploitation and utilization of the space milieu. The several factors of: array of hardware; proliferation of space capability; constant presence of man in orbit; variety of activities; and multiplicity of participants, all coalesce to create an unprecedented era in man's conquest of space.
In addition to these scientific and technological developments, this thesis addresses the policy implications for all the current participants in the Space Stations' Era. This is then applied to the US/International Space Station project to assess the legal implications which this precedental co-operative venture provokes. Thus, the status of the co-operative instrument, structures for the efficient management of the project and the commercial law applicable to the venture are all dealt with.
The shift of focus from the specific to the general is completed through a treatment of the military realities of space station utilization, the protection of the environment through the medium of the NPS issue, and the operation of global space law in this era as exemplified by the Registration Convention. The thesis concludes with a call for patience, foresight and vigilance to ensure and promote space democratization to the betterment of mankind.

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2018.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 68-70).
In 2014 the city of Detroit began a program of "targeted and rapid demolition" of its housing stock, aimed at removing all of the city's "blighted" buildings. As the largest currently ongoing housing removal operation in the United States, with $250 million in funding and over 13,000 houses demolished so far, the impact of Detroit's housing demolitions on the city is substantial, and its popularity has grown despite charges of price-gouging, misuse of funds, and ineffectiveness. The scale by which this initiative is reshaping the city should be familiar to anyone with knowledge of twentieth century urban renewal efforts; it likewise deserves a great deal of careful study to understand its inherent benefits and harms. Evidence of blight removal's ability to reduce crime, improve property values, revitalize neighborhoods, and spur economic growth (generally called "neighborhood stabilization") is widely cited, and many city residents are approving of the practice. However, criticism of blight removal programs and the concept of blight in general is growing as scholars find fault with the tenuous relationship between demolition and stabilization, and city governments contend with accusations of displacement, corruption, lack of redevelopment plans, and unjust use of resources. In response, this thesis examines Detroit's housing removal program in light of its rapid growth and potentially problematic effects. It evaluates the impacts of housing removal at the community level by comparing short term outcomes in case study neighborhoods against the stated goal of neighborhood revitalization through its various metrics, and then recommends strategies for future demolition programs and for neighborhoods experiencing high amounts of removal.
by Brandon Peterson.
M.C.P.

This thesis is concerned with policy space abstractions that concisely encode alternative ways of making decisions; dealing with discovery, learning, adaptation and use of these abstractions. This work is motivated by the problem faced by autonomous agents that operate within a domain for long periods of time, hence having to learn to solve many different task instances that share some structural attributes. An example of such a domain is an autonomous robot in a dynamic domestic environment. Such environments raise the need for transfer of knowledge, so as to eliminate the need for long learning trials after deployment. Typically, these tasks would be modelled as sequential decision making problems, including path optimisation for navigation tasks, or Markov Decision Process models for more general tasks. Learning within such models often takes the form of online learning or reinforcement learning. However, handling issues such as knowledge transfer and multiple task instances requires notions of structure and hierarchy, and that raises several questions that form the topic of this thesis – (a) can an agent acquire such hierarchies in policies in an online, incremental manner, (b) can we devise mathematically rigorous ways to abstract policies based on qualitative attributes, (c) when it is inconvenient to employ prolonged trial and error learning, can we devise alternate algorithmic methods for decision making in a lifelong setting? The first contribution of this thesis is an algorithmic method for incrementally acquiring hierarchical policies. Working with the framework of options - temporally extended actions - in reinforcement learning, we present a method for discovering persistent subtasks that define useful options for a particular domain. Our algorithm builds on a probabilistic mixture model in state space to define a generalised and persistent form of ‘bottlenecks’, and suggests suitable policy fragments to make options. In order to continuously update this hierarchy, we devise an incremental process which runs in the background and takes care of proposing and forgetting options. We evaluate this framework in simulated worlds, including the RoboCup 2D simulation league domain. The second contribution of this thesis is in defining abstractions in terms of equivalence classes of trajectories. Utilising recently developed techniques from computational topology, in particular the concept of persistent homology, we show that a library of feasible trajectories could be retracted to representative paths that may be sufficient for reasoning about plans at the abstract level. We present a complete framework, starting from a novel construction of a simplicial complex that describes higher-order connectivity properties of a spatial domain, to methods for computing the homology of this complex at varying resolutions. The resulting abstractions are motion primitives that may be used as topological options, contributing a novel criterion for option discovery. This is validated by experiments in simulated 2D robot navigation, and in manipulation using a physical robot platform. Finally, we develop techniques for solving a family of related, but different, problem instances through policy reuse of a finite policy library acquired over the agent’s lifetime. This represents an alternative approach when traditional methods such as hierarchical reinforcement learning are not computationally feasible. We abstract the policy space using a non-parametric model of performance of policies in multiple task instances, so that decision making is posed as a Bayesian choice regarding what to reuse. This is one approach to transfer learning that is motivated by the needs of practical long-lived systems. We show the merits of such Bayesian policy reuse in simulated real-time interactive systems, including online personalisation and surveillance.

Commercial human spaceflight inherently raises numerous medical, legal and ethical considerations with regard to the health and safety of civilian spaceflight participants (SFPs) and commercial crew. Nascent and emerging space companies are currently proposing a diverse range of commercial suborbital, orbital and eventually point-to-point transportation services that challenge the status quo of transportation service providers today. Bioethical and legal issues therefore arise throughout the course of private/commercial (nongovernmental) spaceflight activities to include preflight selection procedures, medical monitoring, and informed consent among others. In addition, concerns involving medical, technological and scientific uncertainty raise issues in developing effective governance for spaceflight. This is particularly evident with regard to how to regulate innovative space technologies and mission architectures, establishing appropriate risk assessment and management procedures, incorporating moral decision-making frameworks into commercial spaceflight operations, and understanding the cultural values and moral relationships inherent to these space actors, the general public, and prospective space activities. This thesis raises pertinent issues, arguments, implications and applicable approaches for commercial human spaceflight to better assist in establishing a foundation for dynamic and forward-looking ethical, legal and practical frameworks on spaceflight and human expansion into space.

In Northern Ireland, the concept of 'shared space' has evolved through a number of policy documents to indicate what is generally regarded as an aspirational objective to develop spaces that all sections of society can use and share in a society that remains divided along ethno-national lines. Societal cohesion and the transformation of conflict cannot take place without addressing the territorial dimension of the conflict itself. In ethno nationally divided cities, issues of space and territory become magnified, representative of and mapped onto the conflict itself. The way people negotiate space in divided cities is central to the way that conflict is rehearsed and manufactured, reified and transformed. The production of shared space is therefore an important element for the reconciliation of conflict. This dissertation explores how shared space is produced in Belfast by examining policy, the physical environment and the social construction of space, interrogating the relationship between these elements. I examine the way that space is understood culturally in Northern Ireland and the way that these understandings inform spatial narratives and practices. By employing ethnographic methods combined with a critical policy approach, policy is explored not only in terms of a textual analysis, but also in terms of the social and political contexts in which specific policy documents emerged and the policy process itself. Utilising three case studies that are socially and materially distinct from one another, this dissertation illustrates the challenges of producing shared space in different contexts and highlights the ways in which policy narratives can influence the production of space. Ultimately, I argue that space is best understood as flu idly existing along a spectrum, with 'shared space' not necessarily determined by the material environment, but by the quality of interaction that occurs within it.

The politics of outer space has in recent years been given attention from political elites and scientist due to increasing usage and reliance on space based assets, and due to increasing numbers of actors trying to utilize the benefits of space. Concerns have been raised if the increasing military usage of space will lead to a future weaponization of space, making some political leaders and scholars claiming the inevitability of space weaponization.  In this thesis I investigate why the United States of America this far has chosen not to weaponize space based on the strategical setting of outer space politics. The research question guiding this thesis reads: What strategic considerations explain the US decision not to weaponize outer space? In order to evaluate the strategic setting and US strategical considerations I apply Game Theory and Non-Formal Rational Choice Theory to highlight what is causing the greatest space faring nation not to weaponize space. I empirically base this study on official space policy documents and one report written by an official commission to asses US national security space management.  Based on the strategic setting of outer space politics and US strategical considerations it is found that the US has not commenced a process leading to the weaponization of space since such development would not increase its national security, but rather in several ways decrease it. I conclude that a process of space weaponization is not likely to be initiated by the US in the current strategical setting.

The contemporary practice of the internal-external divide in foreign policy is being challenged by globalization's non-territorial logic. This challenge is reformulated as information globalization; a border-crossing trend of social exposure to alternative ideas jointly precipitated by the global reach of information and communication technologies, global capitalism, and post-Cold War geopolitical fluidity. The agents and processes associated with it confound any orderly delineation of 'the foreign'. This can be understood as an ideational threat to the nation-state in terms of generating a public 'global information space' that reopens all borders to political struggle. For the nation-state to survive in this space, a reformulation of foreign policy as discourse is needed. This thesis argues that the ideational, in the form of information, is endowed with power relations in spite of its abstraction, hence creating a tangible enough 'target' for 'offence/defence' by foreign policy. In this regard, information is defined as the socially patterned relationship of events and symbols capable of politically inducing action, identity or community. Thus 'soft power', or the ability to produce outcomes through attraction instead of coercion, becomes a central focus of this examination of informational challenges to statist foreign policy. Two central research questions are posed. Firstly, how can foreign policy defend or project statist political communities using soft power within a global information space. Secondly, does soft power, when exercised in turn by non-state actors, affect foreign policy by undermining statist community within the same global information space. An answer to the first question is to actualise soft power through forms of Leadership, whether from 'Inside-Out' or 'Outside-In', which are derived from domestically proven communitarian discourses worthy of emulation abroad. Alternatively soft power can be exercised by non-state actors to the detriment of state interests trough processes I label the 'Intermestic Correlation of Forces', 'Socialisation' and the 'Demonstration of Ideas'. In this second hypothesis, foreign policy retains relevance by learning to accommodate itself to the demands of external parties with interests in the welfare of domestic political constituencies. Exercising soft power in the sense in a conflation of the international and the domestic (intermestic) spheres. The case studies of Singaporean and Chilean foreign policies respectively provide analytical illustrations of both hypotheses.

Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Economics
Steven P. Cassou
This dissertation consists of three essays relating to asymmetric preferences in optimal monetary policy models. Optimal monetary policy models are theoretical optimal control problems that seek to identify how the monetary authority makes decisions and ultimately formulate decision rules for monetary policy actions. These models are important to policy makers because they help to define expectations of policy responses by the central bank. By identifying how researchers perceive the central bank’s actions over time, the monetary authority can identify how to manage those expectations better and formulate effective policy measures. In chapter 1, using a model of an optimizing monetary authority which has preferences that weigh inflation and unemployment, Ruge-Murcia (2003a; 2004) finds empirical evidence that the monetary authority has asymmetric preferences for unemployment. We extend this model to weigh inflation and output and show that the empirical evidence using these series also supports an asymmetric preference hypothesis, only in our case, preferences are asymmetricforoutput. Wealsofindevidencethatthemonetaryauthoritytargetspotential output rather than some higher output level as would be the case in an extended Barro and Gordon (1983) model. Chapter 2 extends the asymmetric monetary policy problem of Surico (2007) by relaxing the assumption that inflation and interest rate targets are constant using a time varying parameter approach. By estimating a system of equations using iterative maximum likeli- hood, all of the monetary planner’s structural parameters are identified. Evidence indicates that the inflation and interest rate targets are not constant over time for all models esti- mated. Results also indicate that the Federal Reserve does exhibit asymmetric preferences toward inflationary and output gap movements for the full data sample. The results are robust when accounting for changing monetary policy targeting behavior in an extended model. The asymmetry for both inflation and output gaps disappears over the post-Volcker subsample, as in Surico (2007). In chapter 3, Walsh (2003b)’s speed limit objective function is generalized to allow for asymmetry of policy response. A structural model is estimated using unobserved compo- nents to account for core inflation and measure the output gap as in Harvey, Trimbur and Van Dijk (2007) and Harvey (2011). Full sample estimates provide evidence for asymmetry in changes in inflation over time, but reject asymmetry for the traditional speed limit for the output gap. Post-Volcker subsample estimates see asymmetry disappear as in a more traditional asymmetric preferences model like Surico (2007).

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and, (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2010.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-193).
This thesis addresses two challenges associated with advanced space and planetary exploration: characterizing and improving the mobility of current and future gas pressurized space suits; and developing effective domestic Planetary Protection policies for the emerging private space industry. Gas-pressurized space suits are known to be highly resistive to astronaut movement. As NASA seeks to return to planetary exploration, there is a critical need to improve full body space suit mobility for planetary exploration. Volume effects (the torque required to displace gas due to internal volume change during movement) and structural effects (the additional torque required to bend the suit materials in their pressurized state) are cited as the primary contributors to suit rigidity. Constant volume soft joints have become the design goal of space suit engineers, and simple joints like the elbow are believed to have nearly achieved such performance. However, more complex joints like the shoulder and waist have not yet achieved comparable optimization. As a result, it is hypothesized that joints like the shoulder and waist introduce a third, and not well studied, contributor to space suit rigidity: pressure effects (the additional work required to compress gas in the closed operating volume of the suit during movement). This thesis quantifies the individual contributors to space suit rigidity through modeling and experimentation. An Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) space suit arm was mounted in a -30kPa hypobaric chamber, and both volume and torque measurements were taken versus elbow angle. The arm was tested with both open and closed operating volumes to determine the contribution of pressure effects to total elbow rigidity. These tests were then repeated using a full EMU volume to determine the actual impact of elbow pressure effects on rigidity when connected to the full suit. In both cases, structural and volume effects were found to be primary contributors to elbow joint rigidity, with structural effects dominating at low flexion angles and volume effects dominating at high flexion angles; pressure effects were detected in the tests that used only the volume of the arm, but were found to be a secondary contributor to total rigidity (on average < 5%). These pressure effects were not detected in the tests that used the volume representative of a full EMU. Unexpected structural effects behavior was also measured at high (> 75°) flexion angles, suggesting that the underlying mechanisms of these effects are not yet fully understood, and that current models predicting structural effects behavior do not fully represent the actual mechanisms at work. The detection of pressure effects in the well-optimized elbow joint, even if only in a limited volume, suggests that these effects may prove significant for sub-optimized, larger, multi-axis space suit joints. A novel, fast-acting pressure control system, developed in response to these findings, was found to be capable of mitigating pressure spikes due to volume change (and thus, pressure effects). Implementation of a similar system in future space suit designs could lead to improvements in overall suit mobility. A second study, which focused on the implications of the development of the US private space industry on domestic Planetary Protection policy, is also presented. As signatories of the 1967 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space (commonly known as the Outer Space Treaty), the United States is responsible for implementing Planetary Protection procedures designed to prevent biological contamination of the Solar System, as well as contamination of the Earth by any samples returned from extra-terrestrial bodies. NASA has established policies and procedures to comply with this treaty, and has successfully policed itself independently and autonomously since the signing of the treaty. However, for the first time in the history of the American space program, private entities outside of NASA have developed the capability and interest to send objects into space and beyond Earth orbit, and no current protocol exists to guarantee these profit-minded entities comply with US Planetary Protection obligations (a costly and time-consuming process). This thesis presents a review of US Planetary Protection obligations, including NASA's procedures and infrastructure related to Planetary Protection, and based on these current protocols provides policy architecture recommendations for the emerging commercial spaceflight industry. It was determined that the most effective policy architecture for ensuring public and private compliance with Planetary Protection places NASA in control of all domestic Planetary Protection matters, and in this role NASA is charged with overseeing, supporting, and regulating the private spaceflight industry. The underlying analysis and architecture tradeoffs that led to this recommendation are presented and discussed.
by Bradley Thomas Holschuh.
S.M.in Technology and Policy
S.M.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Ciência Política
Nesta dissertação estudam-se os desafios da exploração do Espaço Exterior3(‘EE’)4e dos Tratados5 que a regulam6. Em concreto, apresentam-se, inicialmente, alguns dos conceitos técnicos associados ao ‘EE’ e aos Tratados em articulação com os conceitos fundamentais à sua compreensão e enquadramento da sua problematização na área da Ciência Política (‘CP’)7 8 (Caetano, 1991, p. 15) - em particular da Space Policy (‘SP’)9 - num meio que se pretende pacífico, mas onde é crescente a competição na medida em que a [recente] “entrada em cena” de actores Privados apresenta potencial para gerar conflitos. Com o escassear dos recursos no Planeta Terra10, o ‘EE’ apresenta características peculiares, uma vez que constitui uma dimensão onde se podem encontrar recursos naturais e, simultaneamente, ser instalados recursos artificiais (satélites ou estações espaciais, por exemplo). De facto, em locais onde exista dimensão e abrangência relativamente à Terra, a disponibilização deste tipo de instrumentos - ainda que para fins formalmente definidos como estritamente científicos - será sempre alvo de uma disputa que pode assumir contornos de várias tipologias, desde a meramente comercial até à militar. Parafraseando Bhavya Lal, onde ela escreve que “O sector espacial está a passar por uma grande transformação. Há Cinquenta anos, os Estados Unidos e a União Soviética realizaram os únicos programas espaciais nacionais significativos, e apenas um pequeno número de entidades comerciais estava envolvido em atividades espaciais”. (Lale, 2016, p. s/p) 3 Cfr. Glossário Astronómico, adiante designaremos por ‘GA’ e Anexo III Nota II Secção III. 4 Utilizaremos a sigla ‘EE’ entre plicas para designarmos Espaço Exterior Cfr. Siglas, Acrónimos e Abreviaturas, adiante designaremos por ‘SAA’. 5 Um Tratado é muito mais que um conjunto de leis escritas onde é definida e legislada determinada matéria (matéria essa que geralmente dá título ao próprio Tratado). Um Tratado é, primeiro, e acima de tudo, a coroação dos esforços diplomáticos que a nível das ‘RI’ alcançaram o objectivo através da ‘CP’ onde os actores políticos, neste caso os Estados, manifestaram a concretização da sua vontade, por outras palavras, o que está inserido no Tratado nunca é o ideal, mas sim o possível, que é o resultado dos esforços e negociações diplomáticas e que na sua redacção final vê plasmadas as posições concordantes de todos os intervenientes. 6 Em particular o Tratado do Espaço Exterior (adiante designado de TEE). Cfr. Glossário Geral adiante designaremos por ‘GG’, Cfr. SAA e Anexo II Nota I Secção I. 7 Utilizaremos a sigla ‘CP’ entre plicas para designarmos Ciência Política ou Ciências Políticas. Cfr. SAA. 8 «Uma pessoa desprevenida pode incorrer na confusão entre ciência política e a política, ou seja, com a actividade desenvolvida para a conquista e manutenção do poder segundo certos ideais que se pretende fazer aceitar e realizar na sociedade». 9 Utilizaremos a sigla ‘SP’ entre plicas para designarmos Space Policy. Cfr. SAA. 10 Cfr. GA e Anexo V Nota V Secção VI. Se, por um lado, poderemos vir a assistir a uma nova corrida ao Espaço (que parece ser o caso no tempo presente, em que nos encontramos a escrever estas linhas, existem 9 países com capacidade de lançamento orbital: «Russia, the United States, France, Japan, China, India, Israel, Iran and North Korea» (Barker, 2013, p. s/p.) ) e à correspondente corrida ao armamento espacial (como é o caso da China) assistimos, por outro, à necessidade de entendimentos e cooperação para que seja possível investigar, desenvolver e produzir tecnologias extremamente complexas e que requerem recursos humanos, materiais e financeiros avultados, que um só Estado - isoladamente - não tem condições para garantir. Para a elaboração desta dissertação adoptou-se o método de investigação em Ciências Sociais proposto por Roberto Hernández Sampieri, Carlos Fernández-Collado e Pilar Baptista Lucio. O percurso metodológico utilizado foi um estudo dedutivo da análise dos Tratados Internacionais (geral) para avaliar da sua aplicabilidade a uma realidade específica: o Espaço Exterior, seguido de uma intensa pesquisa bibliográfica e documental na área das Ciências Sociais e Políticas, com particular incidência na análise das lacunas nos Tratados, na entrada de Privados na corrida, indústria e tecnologia espaciais. Foi esta a razão pela qual optámos por aplicar o método indutivo, onde afirma ter a ciência como ponto de partida a observação e que após considerarmos um número suficiente de casos particulares, obteremos dados suficientes para concluirmos uma verdade geral. Mas verificámos que se só utilizássemos este método seria insuficiente para que esta dissertação fosse bem fundamentada e, foi esta a razão, por a qual também optámos por partir de dados particulares da experiência sensível, onde as premissas nos forneceram um fundamento definitivo. Dessa conclusão, decidimos optar por utilizar o método misto, pois apenas o emprego dos dois métodos analíticos: o dedutivo e o indutivo, conjugados nos leva à conclusão de um raciocínio válido. A nossa ideia surgiu quando verificámos que as lacunas existentes nos actuais Tratados e Regulamentos, conjugada com as novas realidades decorrentes da exploração do ‘EE’, os torna insuficientes para responder aos novos desafios por estas apresentados. Assim detectámos a necessidade do Poder Político de legislar esta matéria, através de Tratados Internacionais, para que a falta de regulamentação não transforme o ‘EE’ no palco de uma “guerra de mercadores”, que iria afectar a economia mundial e a soberania dos Estados, sendo esse o escopo desta dissertação. A equação deste problema foi efectuada com metodologia da ‘CP’ , através do método hipotético-dedutivo defendido por Karl Popper no seu livro “Lógica da Descoberta Científica” (Popper, 1998, p. s/p) , pressupõe a constante presença de lacunas no conhecimento, que seriam solucionáveis mediante tentativas explicativas - formuladas em termos de hipóteses, teorias, conjecturas - e eliminação dos erros. Formulando hipóteses para determinado problema e por meio de um processo de inferência dedutiva estas são continuamente testadas, de modo a obter a sua validação, para que no final desta dissertação, se possa responder à pergunta: “Serão necessários novos Tratados para o Espaço Exterior no Século XXI?”. Querendo demonstrar o argumento da necessidade da segurança no ‘EE’, em particular a jurídica, a todos os níveis do Planeta Terra, explorámos a hipótese da cooperação operativa entre a ‘SP’, a ‘CP’ e as Relações Internacionais (‘RI’)11, para que, em consonância com os princípios do Direito Internacional (‘DI’)12, se discuta a possibilidade de serem reformulados ou existirem novos Tratados que beneficiem a Humanidade, isso está reflectido na pergunta base: «Necessitará o Espaço Exterior de um Tratado no/para o século XXI?», a resposta, como se verá na dissertação é claramente afirmativa. 11 Utilizaremos a sigla ‘RI’ entre plicas para designarmos Relações Internacionais. Cfr. SAA. 12 Utilizaremos a sigla ‘DI’ entre plicas para designarmos Direito Internacional. Cfr. SAA.
The aim of this MSc dissertation is to study the challenge of exploiting the Outer Space and the treaties that regulate it. Some of the technical concepts associated with Outer Space will be presented first, followed by the related Treaties and the fundamental concepts needed for their proper understanding within the context of Political Science. The peaceful implementation of the Space Policy will form the core of this research, especially when considering the growing competition from the entry of private participants that has the potential to generate conflicts. With resources becoming scarcer on Earth, the “Outer Space” offers an alternative lucrative potential. There you can find natural resources and a place to install artificial resources (satellites or space stations, for example). It is important in terms of size and scope relative to the Earth, and even if a scientific motive is formally presented to justify its use as an option, it will always be considered a [potential] target for a military and or commercial disputes. To paraphrase Bhavya Lal, where he writes that “The space sector is undergoing a major transformation. Fifty years ago, the United States and the Soviet Union conducted the only significant national space programs, and only a small number of commercial entities were involved in space activities”(Lale, 2016, p. s/p). On the one hand, we have the race for space weapons (currently we have nine countries which can launch a space rocket: “Russia, the United States, France, Japan, China, India, Israel, Iran and North Korea” (Barker, 2013, p. s/p.) and a potential from China to create its own space weapons independently); on the other, there is a need for understanding and cooperation so that we can do research, develop and or produce extremely complex technologies that require substantial human, material and financial resources that no single State/Nation can guarantee on its own. The research for this dissertation was conducted by adopting the scientific methodology developed by luminaries such as Roberto Hernández Sampieri, Carlos Fernández Collado and Pilar Baptista Lucio. The methodology used was a deductive study of the analysis of international treaties (general) to evaluate its applicability to a specific reality: outer space, followed by an intense bibliographical and documentary research in the area of Social and Political Sciences, with a particular focus on the analysis of the treaties and its lacunae, the entry of the Privates into the race, space industry and technology. We chose the use of the mixed method, since, among others, we had to use the two analytical methods: the deductive and the inductive, in the search for a valid ratiocination. We begin, like any inductivist, who asserts that science starts with observation and after considering a sufficient number of particular cases, we have enough data to proceed to the conclusion of a general truth. But following this path was insufficient for this dissertation, we wanted a well-founded work, and this was the reason why we also started from private data of the sensitive experience where the premises provided a definitive foundation, and the whole led to our conclusions. We then found that the gaps in the current Treaties and Regulations make them insufficient to respond to new realities arising from the exploitation of Outer Space. The need to regulate this matter through international treaties, so that the lack of regulation does not transform the Outer Space into a stage of a "War of Merchants" that would affect the world economy and the sovereignty of states, is the major scope of this dissertation. The modeling of this problem was done through the 'CP' methodology, through the hypothetical-deductive method defended by Karl Popper in his book "Logic of Scientific Discovery" (Popper, 1998), presupposes the constant presence of knowledge gaps, which would be explanatory attempts - formulated in terms of hypotheses, theories, guesses - and elimination of errors. By formulating hypotheses for a given problem and by means of a deductive inference process these are continuously tested in order to obtain their validation, so that at the end of this dissertation, the question can be answered: "Do we need new treaties for the “Outer Space” in the XXI century?”. In order to demonstrate the need for legal security in Outer Space, for security at all levels of Planet Earth, we have explored the hypothesis of operational cooperation between Space Policy, COP and IR, so that, in line with the principles of International Law, new Treaties that benefit Humanity are drawn up, this is reflected in the basic question: "Will it need the Outer Space of a Treaty in the 21st century?", the answer, as it will be seen in the dissertation, is clearly affirmative.
N/A

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-182).
On-orbit servicing is the process of improving a space-based capability through a combination of in-orbit activities which may include inspection; rendezvous and docking; and value-added modifications to a satellite's position, orientation, and operational status. As a means to extend the useful life or operational flexibility of spacecraft, on-orbit servicing constitutes one pathway to a responsive space enterprise. Following launch, traditional satellite operations are tightly constrained by an inability to access the orbiting vehicle. With the exception of software upgrades from ground controllers, operators are wedded to supporting payload technologies that become rapidly obsolete and to bus structures that deform during the stress of launch and degrade in the harsh environment of space. On-orbit servicing offers satellite operators an option for maintaining or improving space-based capabilities without launching a new spacecraft. Numerous studies have been performed on on-orbit servicing, particularly regarding the architecture of the servicing provider. Several customer valuation case studies have also been performed to identify the economic case (or lack thereof) for different categories of servicing missions.
(cont.) Little work, however, has been done to analyze the tradespace of potential on-orbit servicing customers-a global analysis of operational satellites currently orbiting the Earth. The goal of this research is to develop and test a methodology to assess the physical amenability of satellites currently in operation to on-orbit servicing. As defined here, physical amenability of a target satellite, or "serviceability," refers to the relative complexity required of a teleoperated or autonomously controlled robotic vehicle to accomplish on-orbit servicing. A three-step process is followed to perform serviceability assessments. First, a taxonomy of space systems is constructed to add structure to the problem and to identify satellite attributes that drive servicing mission complexity. Second, a methodology is proposed to assess serviceability across the four servicing activities of rendezvous, acquire, access, and service.
(cont.) This includes development of an agent-based model based on orbital transfers as well as a generalized framework in which serviceability is decomposed into four elements: (1) knowledge, (2) scale, (3) precision, and (4) timing. Third, the value of architecture frameworks and systems engineering modeling languages for conducting serviceability assessments is explored through the development of a discrete event simulation of the Hubble Space Telescope. The thesis concludes with prescriptive technical considerations for designing serviceable satellites and a discussion of the political, legal, and financial challenges facing servicing providers.
by Matthew G. Richards.
S.M.

The WTO, tourism and small states: finding policy space to develop This study examines whether the General Agreement on Services (GATS) provides the necessary policy space for small states to pursue their development agendas. Small states in this study are defined in power terms. But the study also focuses on small states in a property sense--those with few diversification options, making the services sector potentially an important avenue for economic growth and diversification. The study seeks to examine critically the parameters that GATS places on policy-making of small states--whether governments are limited to providing a competitive business environment, or if they retain sufficient policy space to shape the development of a sector. The study also looks at the interplay between international and domestic factors in development of policy. The tourism industries of Oman and Qatar provide case studies to examine these issues. Tourism has the potential to contribute to the economies of small states generally, but debate exists as to whether GATS leaves small states with sufficient space to influence the direction of this sector. The similarities between Oman and Qatar in both power and property terms allow for a comparative examination of whether small states can find meaningful policy space. In addition, their domestic dynamics provide insight into the interplay between domestic and international pressures on policy choices. The experiences of Oman and Qatar suggest that there remains some policy space for states to develop their tourism industries in a manner compatible with local aspirations. Governments thus have some scope to direct the shape of the tourism sector beyond merely providing a competitive business environment. But policy direction is influenced by capacity, past experiences and existing norms, and these differences can result in varying outcomes. Additionally, small states must decide their priorities in on-going WTO negotiations in order to maintain existing policy space.

The Soviet manned space programme is one of the most impressive and mysterious legacies of the Soviet Union. Evidence that has come to light since 1989 throws considerable doubt on earlier Western understanding of the Soviet space effort. One of the more puzzling aspects of the new data is the claim that the Chief Designers of several missile design bureaux played a pivotal role in the making of Soviet manned space policy. This claim contradicts much of what was thought to be known about the Soviet space programme, their research and development system, and Soviet politics generally. This dissertation is an empirical study that seeks to answer four interrelated questions. 1. What major manned space projects did the Soviet Union engage in during the 1960s, and how were these projects authorised? 2. Did the Chief Designers play an influential role in the promotion, selection, approval, and implementation of these projects? 3. What were the overall objectives and purposes of the Soviet manned space programme? 4. What does the example of Soviet space policy tell us about the Soviet political system? The examination of institutions, individuals, and the policymaking process has led to the following conclusions. The Soviet manned space programme was an extremely limited state undertaking until 1964. Prior to Khrushchev's ouster, the Soviet Union began several manned lunar space programmes designed to upstage the US Apollo moon landing effort. When all of these efforts failed by 1969, Soviet manned space policy was re-directed toward orbital space stations. One Chief Designer, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, played a central role in establishing the Soviet manned space programme. However, the ability Chief Designers to influence space policy was systematically restricted after 1960. The manned space programme was essentially a political programme. Throughout the 1960s, it was effectively controlled by a handful of top party leaders to achieve their domestic and international political objectives.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology, Management, and Policy Program, 2002.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-168).
A change in government policy can send waves of crippling impacts through the design and development of publicly funded complex engineering systems. Thus it is important for system architects and designers to understand the interaction of policy with their systems, and to strive for policy robustness in their systems. To be policy robust is to successfully pass through policy changes that might arise during the course of system development in order to bring the system into operational use. The goal of this thesis research is to enable the creation of policy robust system architectures and designs through making policy an active consideration in the engineering systems architecting and design process. Qualitative and quantitative analysis methods are brought to bear on the problem using space systems as the application domain, and a process is set down through which policy can become an active consideration instead of a static constraint. Unique contributions of this thesis in the qualitative analysis of policy robust systems include new heuristics describing the interaction of policy and publicly funded engineering systems, as well as impact flow path diagrams for tracing policy interactions with technical engineering system parameters. Quantitative contributions include general relationships for the behavior of engineering system architecture sets under downward annual budget policy pressure, and the application of real options to measure the value of designing an engineering system to be policy robust to budget policy instabilities. Lastly, this research presents the first comprehensive quantification of U.S. space launch policy economic costs, and contributes relationships for estimating these costs on new space systems.
(cont.) The analysis techniques presented in this thesis for assessing and insuring policy robustness can be applied as early as the conceptualization phase of system architecting and design, and the earlier they are applied in the process, the greater the benefits that can be derived. As the architecture and system design solidify, time and opportunities are lost to tailor a system for policy robustness.
by Annalisa L. Weigel.
Ph.D.

Askew and unsystematic urbanization that occurred after rapid increase and migration in 1950&rsquo
s in Tü
rkiye, caused destruction of green spaces. In this way, green spaces in urban pattern that are insufficient now are going to decrease day by day. As a result, human beings that are living in cities have to survive their life in a condition of less green and much building. Urban populace has physical and psychological problems caused by noise, pollution, stress together with not meeting their strolling, resting and being comfortable. For this reason, importance of green spaces is increasing day by day. Being under a disaster of earthquake doubles this importance in istanbul. In this research, in which green spaces in Kartal and Sariyer are taken into consideration, one-by-one fixing and photographing technique is used. Results are evaluated in terms of ownership, opening year, classification, size, activity and distribution of green spaces. Research is consisting of eight chapters. Aim and extension of research is taken into consideration in first chapter. In second chapter, urban open and green spaces are examined in terms of definition, classifications, hierarchy and design criteria. Third chapter include urbanization and green pace relation. In this chapter, historical development of urban open spaces, importance of urban open and green spaces and need of green space issues are mentioned. Green space concept in development plans are taken into consideration in fourth chapter. Firstly, green space concept in development plans
then, procuring methods of green spaces and at last, problems of application decisions of green spaces are examined. Fifth chapter includes green space norms in Tü
rkiye and in other countries and comparison of these norms. In sixth chapter, green space situation of istanbul, Kartal and Sariyer are given. In this chapter, firstly, urbanization and green space problem
then, existing situation of Kartal and Sariyer are researched. In case study, which is observed in seventh chapter, green space situation of Kartal and Sariyer is investigated. At last chapter, results of these researches are attained by comparison of green space situations of these two districts in a heading of conclusion.

This dissertation considers gray-space primary-secondary spectrum sharing, in which secondary devices are allowed to transmit when primary transmissions are strong enough that additional interference would be tolerable, rather than when the primary transmissions are weak or absent so the spectrum is considered unused, as occurs in white-space sharing. To avoid causing harmful interference (i.e., interference causing disruptions in services), transmit power of a secondary device is dynamically adjusted. Various novel sharing mechanisms are proposed for two different types of primary system: cellular systems, and rotating radars. Both cases when primary and secondary systems cooperate (cooperative sharing), and when they do not (coexistent sharing) are considered. Based on analyses and extensive Monte Carlo simulations, this dissertation shows that useful secondary transmissions are possible even when the shared spectrum is considered 100% utilized by the primary system under conventional approaches to spectrum management. For example, in spectrum sharing with cellular systems, even when the primary system is 100% utilized, a modest extent of transmissions of around 0.01–0.03 bps/Hz is achievable for secondary transmitter and receiver that are 400 m apart. In spectrum sharing with radars, even in the scenario where radars are the most densely packed, a secondary transmitter can get almost 1.2 bps/Hz on average, when 5% of the transmitters are competing for the shared spectrum. This dissertation also shows the potential of sharing models in which a secondary system has information about a primary system, but does not cooperate in real time; such arrangements are not typically considered today. For sharing with radars, the case in which an OFDMA-based cellular system operates as the secondary spectrum-user in non-contiguous cells is considered, as might occur with a broadband hotspot service, or a cellular system using shared spectrum to supplement its dedicated spectrum. It is found that even with fluctuations and interruptions in secondary transmissions while radars rotate, the shared spectrum could be used efficiently for applications that generate much of the traffic on mobile Internet, including non-interactive video on demand, peer-to-peer file sharing, large file transfers, and web browsing, but not for applications such as real-time transfers of small files, and VoIP. For sharing with cellular systems, the efficiency of cooperative and coexistent sharing is compared based on performance of the secondary system measured as achievable transmissions, and performance of the cellular system measured as power consumption of a mobile device, which may be increased to compensate for additional interference from secondary transmissions. When both achievable secondary transmissions and primary power consumption are of concern, coexistent sharing is found to be as effective as cooperative sharing.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1988, and Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technology and Policy, 1988.
Includes bibliographical references.
by Michael James Massimino.
M.S.

From 1960-4 the British government embarked on two large-scale space research programmes to develop satellite launchers. After first being cancelled as a military project in 1960, the Blue Streak missile was converted into the first stage of a British-led European collaborative project to build a three stage satellite launcher (through the European Launcher Development Organisation - ELDO). Born out of the Black Knight warhead re-entry testing vehicle, the independent Black Arrow project aimed to launch small satellites for scientific experimentation. With European collaborations, American scientific knowledge, and an Australian testing site, decisions affecting British space research had wide reaching diplomatic as well as domestic consequences. However, by 1973, both of these programmes had been cancelled. By examining the complex formation of British policy on these two space research projects, I will identify the alliances of actors involved focusing on understanding the role of civil servants, and the domestic, economic, and foreign policy priorities which directed their policy-making. This thesis seeks to address two contradictions raised by British policy on space research, and historical analysis of this period. Firstly, if we accept that Britain was not in decline in this period, the how can the history of two projects which is dominated by their cancellation be explained? Secondly, how British governments could reconcile their policy towards ELDO (threatening to withdraw almost yearly from 1966-73) with their stated aim to accede to the European Communities and their repeated rhetoric that the increased potential for scientific and technological collaboration was a key benefit of British accession? In order to address these contradictions I focus on decisions and decision-makers within government. By tracking policy arguments and options to their very beginnings I show throughout this thesis the way in which individuals frame, shape and direct policy. This thesis provides new insights into the foreign and domestic policy priorities of the four governments in this period by tracking the balance of priorities in policy making in two major space research projects. Close examination of ELDO and Black Arrow highlights that their cancellation is not a symbol of British decline, but instead represent active choices by decision-makers to engage in new areas of research. This supports the work of historians challenging the idea that Britain was in decline in this period, and suggests that cancelled projects should be re-examined.

The published works described in this thesis commentary form the basis of a submission for a PhD degree in Space Policy. The body of work represents an original and coherent contribution to the space profession in the general subject areas of space policy and environmental sustainability. At its most fundamental level, the research embodied within the published works is designed to address the question of whether it is possible to establish an optimal balance between expansion of activity in space and protection of the fragile space environment. The texts submitted in support of this thesis represent a body of peer-reviewed work centred on a monograph entitled “Space: The Fragile Frontier”, which is the first academic text to draw together the recognised issues of Earth orbital debris and planetary protection, set them in the context of space law and ethical policies, and encourage a sustainable and environmentally-friendly approach to space exploration and development. The published works described here cover a two-decade period of research surrounding this ‘Central Work’ and are based on a systematic acquisition and understanding of a body of knowledge at the forefront of an area of professional practice – specifically at the interface between space technology and space policy. This commentary describes the aims of the research and the central themes that coalesce to form the connective thread that ties the Submitted Works together: a pragmatic approach to developing a policy for sustainable development of the space environment. An analysis of citations shows that the work has been widely cited within and beyond the space community and has made a significant impact and coherent contribution to the field. The body of work continues to feature in academic publications and, because of the long-term nature of space-related developments, is expected to guide and influence workers in the field for the foreseeable future.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technology and Policy Program, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-166).
by Jeffrey Eric Munson.
S.M.

Recent advancements in social networking and technology, and the increasing popularity of “gourmet” food trucks, have brought renewed attention to mobile food vending. Research indicates that vendors can provide inexpensive food to city dwellers and have a positive impact on the vibrancy of public spaces. The recent popularity of vendors, however, has fueled ongoing debates over public space use and regulation. Municipalities are looking to craft policies to appease community members with a range of opinions on the acceptability of vending on public streets. This thesis uses the case study of Los Angeles to attempt to answer the research question: What are the relationships among policies on food vendors, food vendors, and the public’s use and perception of urban space? The study triangulates information gathered from public space user surveys, behavior mapping and observation, in-depth interviews, and archival research to address this research question. Findings indicate that vending can contribute to vibrancy and activity in public spaces, and public space users generally perceive vendors positively. Findings of the research also suggest, however, that some public spaces do not provide adequate amenities for food truck customers and public space users. These, and other findings, are used to inform the policy and planning recommendations presented in this study.

Energy and Environment are two very complex and interconnected systems. Both are extremely important for economic development and for societies' quality of life. The natural environment favours and supports the production of energy resources. Non-renewable primary energy sources, such as oil, coal and natural gas are the results of long natural processes which take millions of years before the resources can be extracted and used. These resources have been and they are still fundamental drivers of economic process and progress, however their production and consumption pose highly costs to natural environment and ultimately on human beings. Oil and coal are the world's leading fuels: oil accounts for a third of global energy consumption and coal equals to 28.1 % (BP report, 2017) but they are also the main responsible for climate change (COP21). Renewable energies are clean resources which are naturally produced such as sunlight, wind, geothermal heat, etc., they represent an important opportunity for energy-shifting, fundamental for the mitigation of climate change. Renewable resources contribution to world energy production is growing, but it is still negligible with respect to the traditional resources. This thesis aims at contributing to the debate on the link of energy and environment from a political economy point of view. From one perspective, energy production and consumption are dangerous for the environment and policy decision makers need to incentivise internalization of energy externalities. On the other hand, the transition towards renewable resources need to be facilitated by appropriate policy instruments promoting sustainable energy paths. Conventional resources represent a threat for the environment, renewables energies are a concrete clean alternative. On the fossil fuel side, policy interventions are designed to address environmental damages; on the renewable energies side policy makers need to incentivize the development and diffusion of clean technologies. The thesis is structured in three different chapters representing three independent essays. On one hand the three chapters share the same topics of interest and they are linked to one another; on the other hand, they could be singularly read, as autonomous papers. The common topic shared by the three chapters is the analysis of the relationship between energy technologies and environmental aspects, for which this research would like to support the policy decision makers in designing the appropriate policy instruments. Further, the three chapters present empirical techniques adequate to answer the case-to-case research questions.

Research indicates that in the No Child Left Behind era of public education, local districts with elected school boards may be perceived as relinquishing control over policies that affect their school system. With the locus of control coming into question, school boards may struggle with how to involve parents in local decision making. Therefore, it is essential that boards of education openly engage parents by exploring and reflecting on how parent voices can influence the policies that govern public schools. This qualitative study examines how, during the course of approximately 10 months, a seven-member school board involves parents at its public meetings during policy-making processes. Specifically, one way for a school board to engage parents in a policy-making process is to employ deliberative democracy. Thus, this is a qualitative inquiry that, through two case studies, examines a school board's deliberative democratic processes and the parents' participatory stances during public meetings as policies are established or modified. The purpose of this research is to inform school boards, policymakers, parents, and other educational leaders on how elected school boards can preserve a locus of control in decision-making processes at the local level by engaging parents in policymaking. The primary data collection methods included public meeting observations, a school board survey, and interviews. Findings presented through narratives and thematic analyses reveal scenarios where deliberative democratic tenets were exercised. These tenets included purpose, intent, procedures, practices, and reciprocity. In both case studies, parents adopted various stances such as advocate, proxy agent, and expert. However, throughout the processes, study participants noted tension between formal meeting procedures and their desire for informal dialogue. Limitations included selective homogeneity of participants in deliberative processes, root cause analysis for parent participation, and the challenges of local space. Implications for school boards, parents, and deliberative democracy are discussed. Further areas for research could consider the use of electronic media in deliberative democracy, the presence of affective domains in procedurally-steeped processes, the possibility of micro-deliberative practices, and the leveraging of deliberative democratic processes that reclaim local space.

Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2009.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 102-107).
In Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), private partners assume more responsibility for public projects than in traditional approaches. The larger responsibility of the private partner is expected to improve efficiencies of the project. However, it also increases potential challenges such as conflicts of interest. If the dynamic structures which cause challenges in PPPs are identified, they will help to predict potential challenges in future PPP projects. Therefore, this research develops a dynamics model of which challenges arise in the application of PPP approaches to space projects. The PPP dynamics model is illustrated by using system dynamics modeling. In the first step, this research develops a traditional-approach model. In the second step, it proposes the PPP model, which is a modification of the traditional-approach model. In the third step, this research tests the PPP model by applying it to four space-related PPP cases: the European navigation system Galileo, the Japanese navigation system QZSS, the Japanese launch vehicle GX, and the U.S. launch vehicle families EELV. The PPP model passes these four tests. In the PPP model, three variables play important roles: conflicts of interest among parties, user satisfaction, and the private partner's revenue risk. The three variables represent interests of stakeholders such as the public sector, private partners, and users. Conflicts of interest among parties increase cost schedule inefficiencies. More cost schedule inefficiencies lead to less user satisfaction. Less user satisfaction results in more revenue risk for the private partner. More revenue risk for the private partner leads to more conflicts of interest among parties.
(cont.) Thus, the interaction of stakeholder interests forms a reinforcing loop unique to PPPs. Additionally, unexpected technical and demand problems strengthen the reinforcement. This reinforcing loop and these unexpected problems are the inherent sources of challenges in space-related PPP projects. Lessons for improving the dynamic structures of space-related PPPs are (1) to set cost saving as the primary goal, (2) to choose the government customer market, and (3) to adopt conservative technical and demand forecasts. Based on these lessons, this research proposes that potential missions suitable for future space-related PPPs might be telecommunication, Earth observation, and meteorological monitoring for governments' use.
by Masafumi Hashimoto.
S.M.in Technology and Policy

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and, (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2009.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-238).
The Earth Science and Applications decadal survey released by the National Research Council in 2007 presents both an ambitious engineering challenge and a challenge for the entire Earth science community to come together to reach a consensus on priorities that cross conventional disciplinary boundaries. The vision established by the decadal survey requires a paradigm shift for Earth system science: Societal benefits must be considered equally with purely scientific benefits to guide the development of the future NASA and NOAA Earth Observations Program. The decadal survey focused heavily on the needs and objectives of the Earth science community, while providing much less thorough treatment of the other relevant stakeholders. To address this, I conducted a stakeholder value network analysis for the Earth Observations Program that includes the development of a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative stakeholder model. The qualitative model includes a rigorous articulation of the needs and objectives of 13 major stakeholders; the development of a three-level stakeholder map including a baseline map, higher-level map, and lower-level map; and a complete stakeholder value network model with 190 individual value flows that capture the interactions between all the stakeholders. The quantitative model includes a method for assigning numeric scores to each value flow; the calculation of 1880 unique and valid "value loops" within the stakeholder value network; and an analysis of the value loops that yields useful insights about the Earth Observations Program. The value loop analysis reveals the most important stakeholders, value flows, and value loops within the stakeholder value network; as well as the most important outputs from and inputs to NASA and NOAA. The analysis also reveals the relative important of each of the six science categories representing the six science-themed panels of the decadal survey. The results from the stakeholder value network analysis provide insights regarding the value produced by the Earth Observations Program, as well as the value-added roles of each stakeholder within the network. The most important value loops and Program outputs are used to derive a set of high-level program goals, including goals that suggest what NASA and NOAA should do, as well as how they should conduct business. Finally, the insights and results from the analysis provide the foundation for a set of recommendations for the Earth Observations Program, which complement the recommendations put forth in the decadal survey.
by Timothy A. Sutherland.
S.M.in Technology and Policy
S.M.

In this thesis, I examine how postmodern notions of space and place may shed light on legal controversies regarding cyberbullying behavior in lower courts. Using the theories of Michel de Certeau, I argue that rhetorically intervening in these controversies by way of thinking through space and place not as geographic locations, but rather as relational and communicative concepts, may clarify some of the issues school administrators and courts run into when trying to regulate cyberbullying speech. I propose a set of standards for regulating some forms of cyberbullying speech that should not encroach upon students’ First Amendment rights to political speech.

Thesis: S.M. in Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2014.
Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Political Science, 2014.
Original Chinese text of author translations (pages 468- 498). Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 202-229).
After ten years of planning and pre-development, the Chinese government approved the space station project on September 25, 2010. In October 2010, the People's Republic of China (PRC) officially announced its independent space station construction project planned for successful completion by 2022 with an operation life of approximately ten years. The Chinese Space Station (CSS) is of particular interest to those who research the country's patterns of behavior in cooperative ventures. The future space station is being advertised as an international collaborative project on an unprecedented scale for China. However, inviting international partners in the process of constructing and operating a space station presents an expansively demanding policy problem. China must determine if there are tangible benefits associated with different scales and scopes of space station cooperation. The key policy issue is finding a model that is effective for fair and rational cooperation based on mutual benefit, transparency, reciprocity, and cost sharing, while striking a balance with partners over ownership, intellectual property, and utilization rights. Through first hand professional and cultural experience in China and translations of various Chinese academic journals, I construct an analytical assessment of PRC space activities and expect CSS to take the form of a regionally focused space station leaving China with ultimate authority over day-to-day operations. Given its past behavior, China will likely control the majority share, establish a chain of command, and be in a position of power rather than establishing a system of equal share. Furthermore, China should extend offers for collaboration to strategic partners in the immediate Asia-Pacific region and beyond while continuing to include the United Nations. I argue that if CSS can be effectively managed as a platform for international cooperation and global leadership, then it can achieve subsidiary benefits for the Chinese government in domestic and foreign policy.
by Jordan J. Foley.
S.M. in Technology and Policy
S.M.

In the Swedish general elections of 2010, the party the Sweden Democrats for the first time entered the parliament. In an election otherwise characterised by competition between two explicit political blocs, the Sweden Democrats profiled itself as a party free from ideological blinders, ready to represent the will of the people. Commonly referred to as a populist party, there is considerable disagreement about where in the Swedish political space the party actually belongs. At the same time, there exist within political science a multitude of methodological approaches aimed at answering such questions. By combining election manifesto content analysis and survey-based approaches, the study of this paper presents cross-validated estimates of where in Swedish political space the Sweden Democrats belong. The study also evaluates strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches to the estimation of policy positions in the specific context of the Sweden Democrats. The party is found to be economically centrist but highly authoritarian, making it an outlier along both a "traditional" and a Swedish left-right continuum. Some methodological difficulties that may be particularly important to consider when analyzing parties such as the Sweden Democrats, e.g. bias, dimensional salience and linguistic volatility, are suggested.

Particularly since China's 2007 anti-satellite demonstration, China's "rise" in space has predominately come to be characterised as a national security threat within American public policy discourse. Yet American representations of China's space program as threatening, precluding cooperation, are an outlier in US-China relations, otherwise characterisable as comprised of a mix of cooperation and competition. Despite growing interest, however, this threat has been regarded as self-evident, with little research done on how and why China's space program came to be understood this way. This thesis seeks to understand this puzzle with the first systematic investigation of the construction of a threatening "rise" of China in space, undertaking a close reading of public US space policy including original archival research into policymakers' perspectives of China's Cold War space program. To do so, it outlines a 'technopolitical' approach to threat construction analysis, positioning threat and technology within a relationship of co-construction: the "threat" of China's "rise" in space is not pre-determined from Chinese space capabilities, so the thesis argues, rather they have been actively 'instrumentalised' in specific ways. A technopolitical approach to threat construction is required in this case because, equally, "threat" cannot be reduced to clashing identities, but is a product of interconnections between identities and technologies. The thesis' three parts each address a facet of technopolitical threat construction. Part 1 contextualises the "rise," theoretically and historically. Part 2 begins to analyse the "threat" of the "rise" after 2000, identifying key logics, objects and subjects. Part 3 explores to what extent threat discourses shaped American space technology and national identities. The thesis argues construction of the "Chinese space threat" was uneven: powerful enough to marginalise rival claims, yet failing to sanction an emergency response; and that this in itself can be best understood as technopolitical contestation within American public policy discourse.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and, (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2011.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-161).
Extravehicular activity (EVA), or spacewalks allows astronauts to accomplish some of the most important endeavors in space history. The importance of EVA will continue to increase as people venture further into our solar system. The spacesuit, used to protect the astronaut during EVA, is an anthropomorphic spacecraft that provides the physical environment a person needs to survive in the harsh environment of space. Although the suits are safe and effective, the pressurized suit becomes rigid in the vacuum of space, causing the astronaut to waste energy. Mechanical counterpressure (MCP) suits offer an alternative to gas pressurized suits by using elastic garments to provide pressure against the skin. Despite their many advantages, MCP suits are very difficult to put on, or don, making them infeasible for use today. A network of gas pressurized tubes is proposed as a solution to the donning problem. When pressurized, the tubes expand to become rigid, opening the MCP garment in the process. The system was modeled and a functional prototype was developed using a novel construction process. The model can be used as a design tool for future designs and the prototype serves as a proof-of-concept for this solution to the donning problem. The spectacular feats accomplish through spacewalks and space exploration inspire students to pursue an interest and career in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Since its inception, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been dedicated to educating the public about its compelling mission, fascinating discoveries, and the complicated technologies it develops. However, as the United States slips in indicators of student performance in STEM subjects, many look toward informal education, or education that occurs outside the classroom, to spur interest in STEM subjects. To maximize educational outcomes, NASA has developed a strategic framework to guide its educational programs. This framework is analyzed in the context of strategic management literature and suggests that the framework could be more easily implemented if NASA were to refine its education structure using the strengths of each of its directorates. The proposed framework was implemented in an informal education project and evaluated to determine if a projects implemented under the framework achieves the intended learning objectives. Students showed an increased understanding of NASA's mission and the complicated nature of space exploration. Suggestions to improve future projects are also given.
by Allison P. Anderson.
S.M.in Technology and Policy
S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2006.
Vita. Page 154 blank.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 146-153).
It is often difficult to forecast the future budgetary environment for today's space systems. Indeed, multiple NASA missions and programs have been put into jeopardy or canceled outright, due to discrepancies between the expected and actual lifecycle costs. This has resulted in the loss of billions of dollars in taxpayer money spent on false starts. It is therefore in the best interests of all stakeholders, including NASA and the U.S. Congress, to arrive at a solution which will allow NASA's space exploration endeavors to be funded at a politically sustainable level. Understanding the mechanisms and processes by which a program may exhibit politically sustainability is of paramount importance to the space exploration enterprise. In particular, budgetary sustainability has proven to be a driver for The President's Vision for Space Exploration, which instructs NASA to "Implement a sustained and affordable" space exploration program. NASA, as a federal agency, is dependent upon the support of many stakeholders within the US political system, especially the President and members of Congress. Thus, a politically sustainable program must address the needs of these stakeholders.
(cont.) Based upon strategies for agency-Congress interaction that are derived from the existing political science literature, this thesis proposes to translate policy directives into technical constraints or requirements for the Vision for Space Exploration. The effects of these changes in the technical system are then traced back to determine how they effect the political environment, articulating a feedback-loop that crosses between the political and technical realms.
by David André Broniatowski.
S.M.

This thesis will demonstrate the ways in which Mailer treats the Gilmore v. Utah case, the space of the courtroom, and the legal system that Gary Gilmore challenged. The Executioner’s Song can be used as a document of sorts, displaying changing attitudes within the traditional American fascination with marginal characters, death-row inmates specifically. This thesis also argues that Mailer presents a man who believes in the law and in upholding the sentences that are given to those who break it. Additionally, Mailer exploits the space of the courtroom and the state of Utah as places in order to establish a discussion regarding capital punishment and criminal figures in the United States. Finally, this thesis will look at the specific way that Mailer presents the legal facts of the case and the liberties he took with these details in order to construct his “true-life novel” in a very particular way.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Defense Decision-Making and Planning))--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2005.
Thesis Advisor(s): Daniel J. Moran. Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-101). Also available online.