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Maintaining Mission Critical Systems in a 24/7 Environment (IEEE Press Series on Power Engineering)
Peter M. Curtis
Manufacturer: Wiley-IEEE Press
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ASIN: 0471683744 |
Book Description
The latest tested and proven strategies to maintain business resiliency and sustainability for our ever-growing global digital economy
Here is a comprehensive study of the fundamentals of mission critical systems, which are designed to maintain ultra-high reliability, availability, and resiliency of electrical, mechanical, and digital systems and eliminate costly downtime. Readers learn all the skills needed to design, fine tune, operate, and maintain mission critical equipment and systems. Practical in focus, the text helps readers configure and customize their designs to correspond to their organizations' unique needs and risk tolerance. Specific strategies are provided to deal with a wide range of contingencies from power failures to human error to fire. In addition, the author highlights measures that are mandated by policy and regulation.
The author of this text has worked in mission critical facilities engineering for more than twenty years, serving clients in banking, defense, utilities, energy, and education environments. His recommendations for maintaining essential operations are based on firsthand experience of what works and what does not.
Most chapters in this text concentrate on an individual component of the mission critical system, including standby generators, automatic transfer switches, uninterruptible power supplies, and fuel, fire, and battery systems. For each component, the author sets forth applications, available models, design choices, standard operating procedures, emergency action plans, maintenance procedures, and applicable codes and standards. Extensive use of photographs and diagrams illustrates how individual components and integrated systems work.
With the rapid growth of e-commerce and 24/7 business operations, mission critical systems have moved to the forefront of concerns among both private and public operations. Facilities engineers, senior administrators, and business continuity professionals involved in information technology and data center design should consult this text regularly to ensure they have done everything they can to protect and sustain their operations to reduce human error, equipment failures, and other critical events. Adapted from material the author has used in academic and professional training programs, this guide is also an ideal desktop reference and textbook.
Customer Reviews:
Light on content, disorganized.......2007-06-04
This book has some good sections, which are fine by themselves. However, I found the power chapters in the first part of the book to be disorganized and poorly written. The diagrams are not clear at all, and many have a lot of information in them that should have been removed. Almost like they did cut and paste without making them relevant to the text. Many diagrams are missing labels and annotations as well. There is a chapter on power quality that starts with a very dubious analogy about grades of gasoline and sports cars and the importance of using high quality power. Then the start of the next chapter says that modern equipment can use a large range of voltages and really power quality isn't important, availability of power is. Uh...great. So, I feel the continuity of the book was poor. I haven't finished everything, but so far, I am not impressed.
As far as the content that is there, I don't feel this is really an engineering oriented book. I didn't feel there were enough methods to really made decisions about availability or reliability, just general ideas, which we all have anyway (downtime is bad, uptime is good, etc).
I don't feel it really helps you understand WHY things are, mainly it rehashes industry best practices, which in many cases are driven by the vendors who are selling products used to increase services availability. There is an interesting appendix about the national power infrastructure, but it covers a lot of things that are already in the book, which is kinda strange. This is a collection of articles, not a book really.
Amazon.com
In 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik and the ensuing space race. Three years later, Gene Kranz left his aircraft testing job to join NASA and champion the American cause. What he found was an embryonic department run by whiz kids (such as himself), sharp engineers and technicians who had to create the Mercury mission rules and procedure from the ground up. As he says, "Since there were no books written on the actual methodology of space flight, we had to write them as we went along."
Kranz was part of the mission control team that, in January 1961, launched a chimpanzee into space and successfully retrieved him, and made Alan Shepard the first American in space in May 1961. Just two months later they launched Gus Grissom for a space orbit, John Glenn orbited Earth three times in February 1962, and in May of 1963 Gordon Cooper completed the final Project Mercury launch with 22 Earth orbits. And through them all, and the many Apollo missions that followed, Gene Kranz was one of the integral inside men--one of those who bore the responsibility for the Apollo 1 tragedy, and the leader of the "tiger team" that saved the Apollo 13 astronauts.
Moviegoers know Gene Kranz through Ed Harris's Oscar-nominated portrayal of him in Apollo 13, but Kranz provides a more detailed insider's perspective in his book Failure Is Not an Option. You see NASA through his eyes, from its primitive days when he first joined up, through the 1993 shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, his last mission control project. His memoir, however, is not high literature. Kranz has many accomplishments and honors to his credit, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but this is his first book, and he's not a polished author. There are, perhaps, more behind-the-scenes details and more paragraphs devoted to what Cape Canaveral looked like than the general public demands. If, however, you have a long-standing fascination with aeronautics, if you watched Apollo 13 and wanted more, Failure Is Not an Option will fill the bill. --Stephanie Gold
Book Description
Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America's manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA's Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race. He helped to launch Alan Shepard and John Glenn, then assumed the flight director's role in the Gemini program, which he guided to fruition. With his teammates, he accepted the challenge to carry out President John F. Kennedy's commitment to land a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s.
Kranz was flight director for both Apollo 11, the mission in which Neil Armstrong fulfilled President Kennedy's pledge, and Apollo 13. He headed the Tiger Team that had to figure out how to bring the three Apollo 13 astronauts safely back to Earth. (In the film Apollo 13, Kranz was played by the actor Ed Harris, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance.)
In Failure Is Not an Option, Gene Kranz recounts these thrilling historic events and offers new information about the famous flights. What appeared as nearly flawless missions to the Moon were, in fact, a series of hair-raising near misses. When the space technology failed, as it sometimes did, the controllers' only recourse was to rely on their skills and those of their teammates. Kranz takes us inside Mission Control and introduces us to some of the whiz kids -- still in their twenties, only a few years out of college -- who had to figure it all out as they went along, creating a great and daring enterprise. He reveals behind-the-scenes details to demonstrate the leadership, discipline, trust, and teamwork that made the space program a success.
Finally, Kranz reflects on what has happened to the space program and offers his own bold suggestions about what we ought to be doing in space now.
This is a fascinating firsthand account written by a veteran mission controller of one of America's greatest achievements.
Download Description
Perhaps best known through Ed Harris's Oscar-nominated portrayal in the film Apollo 13, Gene Kranz was a NASA flight controller throughout the entire manned space program. Kranz witnessed everything from Alan Shepard's and John Glenn's early flights in the Mercury program through the triumph of Neil Armstrong's giant leap for mankind in Apollo 11 and the near-disaster of Apollo 13. Kranz headed the "tiger team" that saved the Apollo 13 astronauts, and he provides new details about the urgent and successful improvising that brought the crew safely back to Earth.
Failure Is Not an Option is a thrilling insider's account of Mission Control from the early years of trying to catch the Russians to the end of the manned space program. It is filled with behind-the-scenes stories, including the painful self-examination that took place following the Apollo 1 disaster and the daring decision to schedule an Apollo flight to the moon before NASA had ever launched a manned rocket beyond earth orbit. Kranz's stories about the dedication and resourcefulness of the astronaut corps and Mission Control teams show how an organization dominated by young people only in their twenties could succeed in one of the boldest missions in human history, placing a man on the moon in less than a decade.
Customer Reviews:
Inspiring reading for technical leaders of all kinds.......2007-08-15
While I confess to being a lifelong space buff, this book is the first of many memoirs I have had the pleasure of reading from the actual men and women who participated in one of the greatest adventures in human history. I read it nonstop from the moment I brought it home, and have reread many sections of it numerous times. I believe it is a useful historical record of the golden era of the space program, but also holds many lessons for those who find themselves in formal or de facto positions of technical leadership in all types of organizations - churches, consulting firms, technical contractors, manufacturers, and probably many others with which I am not personally familiar. Thank you Mr. Kranz for all you have shared!
a fist hand report of the early NASA years.......2007-06-30
I highly recommend this book to all the poor men who already believe today that APOLLO is a whole fake
KRANZ tell the truth it is obvious when you read him
The best way to learn about spaceflight is through this book.......2007-05-17
Failure is not an Option
The first time I heard this sentence is when I saw the movie Apollo 13 (Tom Hanks), when I was only 7 years old. I then read the book only when I was 11 years old. Gene Kranz is a great writer as well as a great Flight Director.
The book explains about everything from Mercury, through Gemini, to Apollo in great detail. The book taught me a lot of stuff that I did not know such as that Gemini 7 was before Gemini 6A. The book explains why did it happen and how. It will also explains what they were going to do about it.
The book has 21 pictures and 397 pages of knowledge. I recommend it for everybody
Failure Is Not An Option..........2007-03-15
The book arrived within the scheduled delivery time in excellent condition.
Thank you,
Mark & Francine Keehnel
Not a bad book - not a great one either........2007-01-16
"Failure is Not An Option" is not a bad book, but it is not a great one either. Kranz provides certain insight into the role of NASA Flight Directors and the book is interesting to the extent it serves that function. However, Kranz occasionally gives major events fairly short shrift, while writing at length on an array of banal topics which are of limited interest. The reader is often left wanting greater details about events that shaped the space program and less information on subjects such as Kranz's management style or his trademark vests.
Moreover, Kranz's writing style is a little too compact and terse to make this book a consistently engaging read. Kranz uses the word "crisp" in seemingly every other paragraph. His writing style might be described in the same way. Unfortunately, it can make sections of "Failure Is Not An Option" a bit tedious at times.
Lastly, although a small point, Kranz makes no attempt to hide his political bent. The book is replete with praise for Kennedy and obvious (though unarticulated) disdain for Nixon. Kranz speaks with almost boy-like ardor of Kennedy's far-sightedness and vision for the space program despite the fact that many regard Kennedy's interest in space to have arisen solely out of a political desire to beat the Soviets - not for scientific or human advancement as Kranz would have the reader believe. At times, the political commentary proves irritating and distracting and Kranz's idolatry of Kennedy excessive and simplistic.
That said, this book is worth the read for the information it does impart and to supplement other texts on the space program, but it is not as gripping or engaging as "Lost Moon" or a host of others.
Book Description
A terrifying examination of how Iran's president (a radical Shiite zealot) believes he has a "divine mission" to usher in the apocalypse and thereby herald the second coming of a Shia Muslim messiah-and how he is trying to achieve this by building his arsenal and threatening to cripple America and destroy Israel in a nuclear holocaust.
Customer Reviews:
Informative, but dry.......2007-09-08
This book taught me a lot about Iran's past and present, but the information was presently too dryly for me to give it five stars. It's a good read if you're interested in the nuclear situation with Iran, but I would have liked it if the book delved further into the religious ideas behind Iran's actions.
Great Book to read.......2007-07-03
Take the time to read this book in its entirety. The author states the facts that no one likes to hear, but must be said. It is about time someone brought forth the truth.
A bunch of lunatics in Iran and what do we do........2007-06-29
I don't know what to make of this book.
Say someone had a written a book in 1934 saying that Hitler was going to conquer almost all of Europe and write of the methods Hitler used to commit his unspeakable acts of mass murder. I would not have found it believable. I would have said that German is a poor military weak country that is barely economically viable. It could not even stand up to the Polish army much less France. Also that I know many Germans and I could not imagine Germans doing such acts.
The problem here is also the same. Iran today is a weak country. Economically it is also barely viable. Militarily it could only draw with Saddam's Iraq. I know several Persian people. They are fine people.
The problem is the Iranian government. If there was a free and open election, it would lose. The Iranian government knows this. Also unlike most governments today, it has a mission to ram a horrible form of Islam down to its people and spread this doctrine thought the world. So it attacks the West which it sees as secular and in particular the US and Israel. So it now sees itself in conflict with them. Ironically both the US and Israel are the most unsecular of the Western goverments.
The only hope of Iran to balance off the US is nuclear weapons. Therefore, they are trying to make one. It is only a few years before they will have one. Then they will want some missiles. Only when the Iranian government feel that they can strike with these at the US will they feel safe. Once they achieve this safety what will they do?
This book has some believable scenarios if you assume that a country is trying to achieve suicide. A few Iranian nuclear bombs hit Israel or the US will quickly result in a massive retaliation by either. That will result in the end of the Iranian revolution. Somehow I just cannot believe that this is what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants. Even if he did, he is not supreme. Over him is the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his Council of Guardians.
What I was wondering is what would happen if a nuclear armed Iran decides to use its weapons against a non-nuclear neighbour.
This book is worth reading as a study of some disturbing trends and scenarios. It is not impossible that a nuclear missile supplied by some Muslim fanatical group or government goes straight into a major city and goes boom. Then what are we going to do?
Accurate, Alarming... A Must Read!.......2007-06-25
I just finished this book, and I have to say I was impressed. If I ran across something I found a bit hard to believe, when I checked the endnotes I (more often than not) found a web link. Sure enough, the web links were valid and led me to even more information.
Evans & Corsi provide an accurate and sobering picture of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His visions of ushering in the return of the Mahdi through violence and jihad, and his explicit warnings of just that, should be heeded by the West. This is a must read for Americans, but even more so, for America's leaders.
Biased.......2007-02-22
When Corsi says the following:
"Islam is like a virus -- it affects the mind -- maybe even better as an analogy -- it is a cancer that destroys the body it infects... No doctor would hesitate to eliminate cancer cells from the body." (11/26/02)
...it reminds me of something the Nazis would have said about the Jews.
While Iran and Islam may be a threat, so are China and many other countries and groups. It is rather scary that so much propaganda and demonization have taken place merely (in my current opinion) to foment another war for oil, Israel and Empire. Haven't we seen where this path leads many times before?
Therefore, I caution readers to consider the bias of the authors into account.
Book Description
The eagerly awaited paperback of the BusinessWeek bestseller that has sold 100,000+ copies and been translated into 20 languages. With combined sales of more than 14 million copies, the books of Ken Blanchard are a phenomenal source of business wisdom. In this international bestseller - Blanchard's first big-picture management book - he and business strategist Terry Waghorn show how to lead any organization by simultaneously focusing on the present and the future. Written in Blanchard's signature style - concise, inspiring, emotionally gripping, and always down to earth - Mission Possible reveals how to make any organizational change program a success.
Customer Reviews:
How to Work on the Present and the Future at the Same Time.......2006-06-02
This is Ken Blanchard's idea of how to propel your company securely into the future by dividing up your talent pool into two self-chosen groups - the P(resent) Team and the F(uture) Team. Aside from their regularly assigned positions, employees would commit themselves to one of these teams based on their own personal preference. Ken says you have adminstrators and producers that gravitate toward the P team and innovators and integrators that belong on the F team. These teams are overseen by a balanced Steering Committee that adopts the best of both teams. A patchwork of recycled ideas.
Interesting but non-riveting.
Four Stars
Insightful!.......2001-04-18
Ken Blanchard, one of the most successful business authors of all time, teams up with Terry Waghorn in this clear, concise guide to surviving and prospering in a time of great change. The authors show you how to guide your business through the present while simultaneously preparing for and implementing changes for the future. This well-balanced book, which focuses as much on vision, intuitive processes and thinking as it does on nuts-and-bolts strategy, is a valuable guide for working and leading in the twenty-first century. We [...] recommend this book for everyone in business, and find it particularly essential for leaders, managers, and business owners.
Attention Survivors!.......2000-10-02
Mission Possible... is a book about surviving today and recreating your organization for tomorrow. The authors use the analogy of a sand castle which faces the incoming tide. Does one leave it alone to face certain destruction and hope that it doesn't happen for a while; or does one take immediate action to build barriers along the beach for protection, which may or may not help; or does one plan for the future by redesigning the structure as well as relocate the castle? People are the key to an organization's success and the way a leader can best encourage them towards this goal is to allow them to become involved in improving the present or inventing the organization's tomorrow. It's all about the journey and the understanding of what is possible.
I used this for a reading assignment for a class and found it to be interesting. It certainly is easy to read and while others may find it's message too simple, I feel that it is the simple message that gets across easily and stays with you the longest.
Find some 21st Century spectacles - quick!.......1999-04-08
Buy the book because there is far too much useful information to take in at even two listenings. Although it starts as typical `heard it all before' the last two sides are remarkable in their depth and panorama. There is advice and guidance for everyone here. We need to ask questions of our customers and competitors. How would our customers redesign our company? Three steps: vision - picture of what we need to become to better serve existing customers, prepare - what is the shortest path from where we are to where we need to be, deliver - change organisation to match vision. Customer facing people need to be empowered to solve problems on the spot, not refer to their managers. Your organisation is evaluated by how quickly it can respond to customer needs and problems. The person they care about is are the ones they talk to and they want top service from these people. Making all your people your business partners is a way of raising financial awareness and therefor cutting costs (story of 5c margin in restaurant). Divide into cost centres and profit centres. What is the strategic reason for performing the function of the cost centres? Should the work be outcourced? Should be spending more time managing profits not costs. Profit results from keeping needs of customers and employees paramount. 4 key managerial roles: producing - technical skills in field, make things happen, implementing - planners and administrators, maintain order and control, innovating - entrepreneurs, future looking and integrating - motivators, good at teamwork. Also 4 mismanagement styles: lone rangers - producers who cannot delegate, bureaucrats - implementers who focus on administration, process and rules, arsonists - innovators who never follow through or implement the ideas of others, super followers who cannot provide direction. In times of change are leaders willing to: relinquish `parental control; look at both long and short term; supply resources and support; communicate and remove obstacles; help others overcome uncertainty and fear; admit that they do not have all the answers. Control kills learning, invention and commitment. Bossidy - burning platform principle, people `jump' only when they see flames themselves. Leaders need to help people see the flames. Long term provides focus not on survival but the future. When in doubt communicate more, not less. Nelson Mandela - "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us." In order to help people manage change we need to keep everyone informed so they know what is in it for them. Change means that people feel awkward about needing to act differently, they focus on what they will lose, (what you resist, persists), they feel alone, they feel overwhelmed if there is too much change so they need to experience some successes before taking on more change. Readiness for change varies. Although people feel that they need more resources to do more - we have to do more with less. Need to keep everyone encouraged by catching people doing something right, but leaders need sufficient self-esteem to help others feel good about themselves. Discipline required managing perpetual churn (whitewater). Catch yourself doing something right - managing your self-talk. What do you want to be doing? Our problem is not what we see, but what we see with. At the brink of the 21st Century we cannot see the future with 20th Century spectacles.
Disppointing.......1998-11-03
I should have come to this site and read the reviews before purchasing the book. It was very disappointing. The chapter headings were interesting, and some were good insights. However, the author spent too much time around elaborating too many of the sub-points. There were also little case studies. Felt like the book could be condensed a lot more.
Amazon.com
On July 20, 1969, near the end of a great decade of near-space exploration, a small craft called Eagle landed on the moon's surface. As anyone who watched the televised broadcast of the landing might recall, the astronauts aboard Eagle were guided to their objective by a capable ground crew headed by Chris Kraft, whom his colleagues had long called "Flight." Kraft was unflappable on the surface, but, as he writes in this memoir, the Eagle's landing had moments of drama that gave him pause, and that few outside NASA knew about--including baleful alarms from the ship's on-board computer that warned of imminent disaster.
For Kraft, frightening moments were part of his job as director of Mission Control. He encountered many of them in the early years of the space program, when failures were commonplace and all too often caused not by mechanics but by politics. We learn of many in Kraft's pages. One such failure was the Soviet Union's Sputnik launch, about which Kraft thunders, "We should have beaten them.... We were stopped by anonymous doctors in the civilian world who didn't know what they were talking about, by a bureaucrat in the White House who'd been stung when JFK shot down his position on manned space flight, and by our friend the German rocket scientist, who got cold feet when he should have been bold."
Plenty of other contemporaries, including John Glenn and Richard Nixon, come in for a scolding in Kraft's fiery account, which offers a rare insider's portrait of the challenging work of astronautics--work that, Kraft writes hopefully, is only beginning. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
The Right Stuff meets Rocket Boys in this gripping memoir by the man who helped create some of the greatest moments in U.S. space history.
NASA flight director Chris Kraft takes readers behind the scenes of the U.S. space program to deliver an unforgettable account of his life in Mission Control. One of our early space pioneers, Kraft emerged from a boyhood in small-town America to become a visionary whose energy and commitment would lead to the creation of our nation's most daring space programs. It's all here, from the legendary Mercury missions that first sent Americans into space through the Gemini and Apollo missions that landed them on the moon. The great heroes of space are here, too-Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, and Buzz Aldrin-leading the space race that would change the course of U.S history.
From its infancy to its glory days, from near-disasters to astonishing triumphs . . . from the stunning gambles to the pure luck that accompanied each mission, Flight relives the spellbinding moments and events that captured the imagination of the world. It is a stirring tribute to the U.S. space program and to the men who risked their lives to take America on a flight into the unknown-from the man who was there for it all.
Customer Reviews:
Read !.......2007-08-27
Very few books on this period, biographical or not, are quite like this one. The information and personal details give a very complete view of NASA from the very beginning, and give some detail to the management evolution of the organization. It also gives some interesting insights into how development of mission-critical / real-time organizations and management should function.
Fantastic Journey of a fascinating man.......2007-05-15
What a great book. Chris Kraft has really catured those glorious years when man ventured out into the unknown whilst competing with the Russians. Really easy to read and understand. The book took me back to those early years of the space program and Chris lets you experience the development of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions as if it is happening real time. What a great read
Why I liked this book........2006-06-27
This book fills in quite a few holes in my knowledge and curiousity of how a lot of things evolved. Many books spend so much time on Apollo especially 11 and 13. I always wanted to know more about how the size and shape of the Mercury capsule evolved and it's good to hear stories about the guys that originally concieved these ideas. Guys like Max Faget. Also, without telecommunication satellites- putting together a worldwide ground tracking system to track Mercury was an amazing feat, in and of itself, and to do it with such a tight deadline. These guys were good. Sure that stuff is pure engineering and probably pretty boring to the layperson. But those are the dotted i's and crossed t's that made it happen. Kraft was in on conception and implementation of this, and the evolution to Gemini and then Apollo. He is definitly has a no "B.S." management style and is the kind of boss that won't tolerate ineptness.
His critism of Scott Carpenter was the harshest I've read yet, and matched Gene Kranz's version. I know a lot of folks are in Scott's court that it couldn't have been that bad, but if you put yourself into the chair of "Flight" where every small glitch can cascade into a catastrophy, you can understand why Kraft takes the hard line. It's obvious that Carpenter wasn't in sync with mission control, and ignored critical requests for information that could have positioned his spacecraft in the correct attitude for reentry with fuel to spare. No wonder Kraft went balistic. If Carpenter had burned up on reentry, the impact to the program at that point would have been catastophic, and human error in flight is harder to stomach than hardware failure (although equally as devastating, but more avoidable). Kranz and Kraft were happiest when the communications were crisp and direct to the other controllers and the astronauts themselves, and this wasn't what happened with Carpenter, hence the heartburn.
I wish I'd been around back then to be a part of the building years of NASA. This is as close as I can get to that.
When NASA was exciting.......2005-10-22
Fantastic book for any "space cadet". This book, along with "Failure Is Not An Option", brings out the true story of NASA when success wasn`t measured in political currency.
Take it with a grain of salt.......2005-08-24
Much of what Kraft writes about in "Flight" has already been told, going back as far as Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff", or even further back in the contemporary media of the space era. The new material that this book offers is Kraft's unbiased take on the people he worked with during his many years in the manned space program, starting in the late 1950s when he was a member of the original Space Task Group at Langley. Kraft pulls no punches. Even some of his professed admirers such as Gene Kranz come in for the occasional dig, and he reserves an entire chapter for villifying Scott Carpenter, making statements that NASA's official biography of Carpenter refute. Kraft states that Carpenter did not have a college degree, and that he had no time working in flight test, both untrue. In his post-Mercury years, Carpenter was awarded the Navy's Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and the prestigious Collier Trophy, also held by Chuck Yeager, not to mention seven honorary college degrees on top of his 1949 B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado. Hardly the life of a failed slacker. I wonder if Kraft has been similarly honored post-NASA? His outright falsehoods about Carpenter cast doubt on some of Kraft's assertions about others that he worked with.
Book Description
Reducing Space Mission Cost is the first complete treatment of the technology, process, and problems in the most critical areas of modern spaceflight. The demand to reduce cost is unrelenting. This pioneering book addresses all aspects of this problem, including: + Technology and processes for reducing cost + Cost reduction in mission engineering, spacecraft design, manufacture, launch, and operations + Implementation methods and problems + The price of reducing cost + 10 detailed case studies of what works in practice in: - Science missions - Interplanetary probes - Communications spacecraft - Test and Applications missions Beginning on the inside front cover, this book provides real cost data on a variety of missions, systems, and subsystems. According to the authors: `Reducing mission cost is hard enough if you know what the real costs are, and virtually impossible if you don't.' This book challenges traditional methods, yet recognizes that all space programs are run to minimize cost within the rules under which they are built and flown. It provides practical recipes for reducing cost in both new and ongoing missions and discusses what works, what government can do to help, and what methods intended to reduce cost may be counterproductive and unintentionally increase cost. As shown on the inside rear cover, the case studies described in the book have reduced total mission cost by 80% to more than 90% with respect to projections by traditional cost methods. This book is a follow-on to the now standard text and reference, Space Mission Analysis and Design, also edited by Drs. Wertz and Larson. It is required reading for professionals, students, and managers in astronautics or space sciences and managers or scientists involved in space experiments. This book shows that reducing space mission cost, without reducing reliability, is as possible as it is important for the future of space exploration.
Book Description
- For the first time ever, the senior architect and lead developer for a key enterprise system on NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover mission shares the secrets to one of the most difficult technology tasks of all-successful software development
- Written in a conversational, brief, and to-the-point style, this book presents principles learned from the Mars Rover project that will help ensure the success of software developed for any enterprise system
- Author Ronald Mak imparts anecdotes from his work on the Mars Rover and offers valuable lessons on software architecture, software engineering, design patterns, code development, and project management for any software, regardless of language or platform
Customer Reviews:
Intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this book with envious eyes........2007-08-01
The template of "principles" in this book are covertly ideal discussion topics & solutions to be telegraphed sublimely during an interview session for the software development project manager when the interviewer(s) are not technically astute and semi-techtarded. In no way am I trivializing this book's relative importance, nor its integrity, just its targeted appeal. Nearly all big picture "solutions" presented in this text are genuinely useful but often overlooked. Rapid prototyping to get ideas and requirements into the recursive feedback loop of constructive critique and buy-in as fast as possible, what's better than that in the real world of software development? To keep things in perspective, keep a mental copy of this simplistic book within you for those high-level meetings and interviews to help paint the bigger picture of that which is really important in getting quality, productive software successfully developed instead of going astray in detailed minutiae.
Simple List of Lessons Learned.......2006-11-13
A simple collection of Best Practices and Lessons Learned from the Mars Rover Software Project. Full of higher level design and architecture decisions, but, no code listings and minimal implementation details. The lessons cover everything from component interfaces, logging, loosely coupled services to team dynamics and project management. Large clear fonts and plenty of whitespace allow for easy and quick reading. Recommended for those seeking a high level view, don't look for a lot of detail such as code snippets, etc.
Average customer rating:
- This should be required reading!
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Welcome to Doomsday (New York Review Books Collection)
Bill Moyers
Manufacturer: New York Review Books
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Similar Items:
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Bush's Fringe Government
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Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Times
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American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America
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The End of Nature
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Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
ASIN: 1590172094
Release Date: 2006-10-03 |
Book Description
The influence of the evangelical Christian right on the Bush administration has had a mostly unnoticed impact on America's environmental policy. While some take God’s granting of dominion over the earth to man as a call to good stewardship of our planet, many evangelicals distrust science and disdain environmental protections. They live in anticipation of one event: the Rapture, when Christ will return to cleanse the earth while the true believers are transported to heaven. For those who believe that the Rapture and the destruction of the world are imminent, there is no need to be concerned about saving the planet from environmental catastrophe.
Welcome to Doomsday is an investigation into the coupling of ideology and theology, in particular the intrusion of religion into political life, in America today. Global climate change is a rapid, possibly irreversible occurrence, yet the stance taken by the White House in both international and domestic arenas is one of both ignorance and disbelief. Appeasing the influential agendas of corporations, as well as the uncompromising dominant beliefs of evangelical groups, the Bush administration has firmly established a disastrous record of ignoring the urgency of potentially devastating changing climate.
Welcome to Doomsday is a passionate call to save the planet from the forces not only of greed and exploitation but from those who associate its destruction with a spiritual apocalypse. Written by the compelling and articulate Bill Moyers, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the current dismal state of environmental policy as well as in the growing power of the evangelical movement in the United States.
Customer Reviews:
This should be required reading!.......2007-06-14
Because Bush & Co have, without a doubt, diabolically turned our country upside-down, Bill Moyers book, "Welcome To Doomsday" should be required reading! Mr. Moyers, truly a national treasure, is also most certainly one of our most prolific 'thinkers' and writers. This book spares the reader empty rhetoric and redundancy but nevertheless is powerfully profound and informational -- please treat yourself, you won't regret it!
Book Description
As the global population continues to grow, family planning is fast becoming one of the most critical issues facing the planet. While many organizations--most prominently the United Nations--are trying to implement policies that will help curb the population explosion, these measures are frequently blocked by those professing conservative religious beliefs. In many of the world's religions there is a restrictive and pro-natalist view on family planning, and this is one legitimate reading of those religious traditions. As the essays in this volume demonstrate, however, this is not the only legitimate or orthodox view. Seeking to counteract the simplistic idea that all religions are completely antagonistic toward family planning, the authors--all scholar-practitioners of the religions about which they write--present alternative interpretations of religions' views about family planning. Arguing for the existence of equally valid traditions that allow contraception and abortion, they seek to escape the confines of oversimplified either/or, pro-choice/pro-life arguments. Instead, they point the way toward a more open discussion of family planning. Dispelling the notion that the world's religions are uniformly conservative on issues of family planning, the authors show that the parameters of orthodoxy are wider and gentler than that, and that the great religious traditions are wiser and more variegated than a simple repetition of the most conservative views would suggest.
Customer Reviews:
Sacred rights. The case for contraception and abortion in wo.......2004-01-11
Daniel C Maguire is professor of Moral Theological Ethics at Marquette University, a Catholic, Jesuit Institution, president of the Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics in Milwaukee, WI with a degree in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
With a continuation of the growth of the global population, contraception or family planning and abortion becomes very critical and moral issues that face today's family, no matter where they are living or from what religion they stem. Sometimes the views of professionals, international organizations or agencies will eventually clash with the view of clergy and religious belief.
This book has 12 chapters: a Jewish perspective, Roman Catholicism, Protestant Christianity, Islam, Hindu view, Thai Buddhism, practices in Nigeria, American Indian traditions, Chinese considerations during the late Imperial period, Taoist approaches, Jainism with a concluding chapter on reproduction and sexuality in a changing world.
There are about 80 million pregnancies globally each year with about one third unwanted or mistimed. Fifty million end up in abortion with 20 million performed under unsafe conditions and 78,000 women die each year. Not to mention the hundred of thousands with short or long-term disabilities as a result. These fact makes this book very important and efforts by governments and United Nations to decriminalize and make abortions safer should be looked upon positively.
Many of the world religions have a say upon the issue of family planning, but the attitudes and rulings have fluctuated over time. The authors of this book from various part of the world and different religions present alternative interpretations of their various religion's view upon family planning and show a more wide and more open stand than the usual conservative held views that we generally hear.
We found this book important in the continuing debate on abortion and family planning from the viewpoint of religion.
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Bear Dogs: Canines with a Mission
Ted Wood
Manufacturer: Walker Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0802787584 |
Book Description
Carrie Hunt's dogs are obsessed with bears. These 50 pound bundles of energy and courage routinely take on 400 pound grizzly bears - and win. For centuries, Karelian Bear Dogs have been famous in Russian and Finland for their bear hunting abilities. Carrie has taught these dogs a new trick, using their instinct and energy to steer problem bears away from trouble.
As people and bears come together more and more frequently - in backyards, national parks, and wilderness areas - some bears are losing their natural fear of humans, endangering people's lives, and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of property damage each year. If a bear cannot be taught to stay away from people, it has to be destroyed. Carrie, a bear biologist, has trained her unique canine team to teach wayward bears form Montana to Alaska a lesson they will never forget.
These endearing dogs, as gentle and loving with people as they are fearless with bears, are bringing a humane solution to this modern dilemma, allowing people and bears to share the wilderness they both love.
Customer Reviews:
Bark at the bear!.......2004-05-13
In an effort to protect bears and people, biologist Carrie Hunt uses black and white husky-like Karelia bear dogs from Finland to try to scare bears away from people and people food. Carrie and her partners give the dogs orders such as "bark at the bear." Follows the biologists and dogs on several bear incidents outing. Offers a list of advice to campers and hikers to keep a good bear a good bear. Interesting look at a little known topic. Karen Woodworth-Roman, Children's Science Book Review
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