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Papers by Wendell Mendell

The nighttime lunar surface has been scanned at a variety of phases both before and after new Moo... more The nighttime lunar surface has been scanned at a variety of phases both before and after new Moon. A differential chopping technique was used which records the flux difference between adjacent resolution elements along a scan. In principle the differential scan can be integrated to provide the flux distribution, but slow drifts in the sensor null level frustrated this procedure. However, some cold limb temperatures have been calculated using the planet Jupiter for calibration. The measurements were made with a resolution element of 27 arc seconds on the 28-inch telescope at the University of Arizona. Scan positions were determined by noting features on the illuminated portion of the Moon through a bore-sighted guide telescope. Positional accuracies are within two reso¬ lution elements. The technique is particularly sensitive to the detection of nighttime anomalies, and more than 150 of these have been identified. Prior to new Moon is seen large scale thermal structure, correspondin...

Human Exploration and Development in the Solar System

Oxford Encyclopedia of Planetary Science, 2017

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Planetary Scien... more This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Please check back later for the full article.Emergence of ballistic missile technology after the Second World War enabled human flight into Earth’s orbit, fueling the imagination of those fascinated with science, technology, exploration, and adventure. The performance of astronauts in the early flights assuaged concerns about the functioning of “the human system” in the absence of normal gravity. However, researchers in space medicine have observed degradation of crews after longer exposure to the space environment and have developed countermeasures for most of them, although significant challenges remain. With the dawn of the 21st century, well-financed and technically competent commercial entities began to provide more affordable alternatives to historically expensive and risk-averse government-funded programs. Space’s growing accessibility has encouraged entrepreneurs to pursue pl...

Science and the Constellation Systems Program Office

An underlying tension has existed throughout the history of NASA between the human spaceflight pr... more An underlying tension has existed throughout the history of NASA between the human spaceflight programs and the external scientific constituencies of the robotic exploration programs. The large human space projects have been perceived as squandering resources that might otherwise be utilized for scientific discoveries. In particular, the history of the relationship of science to the International Space Station Program has not been a happy one. The leadership of the Constellation Program Office, created in NASA in October, 2005, asked me to serve on the Program Manager s staff as a liaison to the science community. Through the creation of my position, the Program Manager wanted to communicate and elucidate decisions inside the program to the scientific community and, conversely, ensure that the community had a voice at the highest levels within the program. Almost all of my technical contributions at NASA, dating back to the Apollo Program, has been within the auspices of what is now...

What the Heck is Going On at NASA

On February 1, 2010, the federal budget for Fiscal Year 2011 was released. NASA received an incre... more On February 1, 2010, the federal budget for Fiscal Year 2011 was released. NASA received an increase, unlike almost any other federal agency. At the same time, the budget revealed that the Constellation Program would be cancelled and that NASA would look to private sector providers for transportation of cargo, and eventually crew members, to the International Space Station. The Constellation Program had included a human return to the Moon by the year 2020, and the program plans called for a permanent surface facility capable of supporting human explorers. In the FY2011 announcement, the prescription of a lunar objective was replaced by a concept called flexible path that was advertised to open possibilities of other types of human missions beyond low Earth orbit. The policy direction has polarized the U.S. space community, where the reactions have been swift and polemical. The new policy has been described both as the death knell of human space exploration and as the only hope to sa...

Science & Global Security, 1991

The next generation of space vehicles will be capable of routinely carrying humans beyond the con... more The next generation of space vehicles will be capable of routinely carrying humans beyond the confines of the earth's gravitational field. Ambitious undertakings such as manned bases on the moon should greatly increase the scale and importance of constructive international interactions. At the present time the most appropriate arena for the closest cooperation in space seems to be scientific investigation. Achieving higher levels of cooperation in the grand schemes of future human exploration such as establishing human presence on Mars will require a buildup of interactions and trust through a series of programs of evolving complexity. In this paper we present a part of the case for developing lunar bases, with detailed emphasis on the astronomical opportunities which they offer. Reasons are given as to why the development should be international, along with suggestions as to steps which can be taken in the next few years to undertake this initial level of largescale space cooperation.

Years of interaction with young people in the space industry and in space activists groups led to... more Years of interaction with young people in the space industry and in space activists groups led to my observation that many such individuals can cite a quite specific life event that triggered a life-long interest in or commitment to creating a space future. I am particularly intrigued by parallels between such experiences and the phenomenon of epiphanic experiences among committed Christians. I see analogies between the puzzlement among space activists and among Christian groups as to the reasons for so many people being "unbelievers." At a small international meeting on lunar exploration in 2003, I heard two separate lunch speakers cite such personal experiences. At the beginning of a break in that meeting, I grabbed the microphone from the chairman and asked each person to write down on a pad by his chair whether or not he (or she) had experienced a specific event that led to their involvement in space. If the answer was positive, I asked for a brief narrative, for their...

Lunar BaseWhy ask Why?

& Proceedings 저널· 프로시딩즈| 기술보고서| 해외 …, 1993

Lunar Base - Why ask, "Why?"? Wendell Mendell NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX 770... more Lunar Base - Why ask, "Why?"? Wendell Mendell NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX 77058. Abstract. ... Adams[9]. The anthropological imperative is explored at length in the book Interstellar Migrations and the Human Experience by Ben Finney and Eric Jones[10]. ...

A mission design for International Manned Mars Mission - From the 1991 International Space University (ISU) Design Project

Space Technology

Manned Space Exploration and Life Support - Strategies, Milestones, and Limitations

SAE Technical Paper Series, 1995

Potential Polymeric Sphere Construction Materials for a Spacecraft Electrostatic Shield

Space 98, 1998

The European Space Agency (ESA) has studied the performance of future space-based optical interfe... more The European Space Agency (ESA) has studied the performance of future space-based optical interferometers. Included was an analysis of a candidate design of a lunar surface instrument with a 5-km separation between the individual telescopes. The report predicted that observations on the Moon would be impeded by an incessant rain of micrometeorites that would disrupt interferograms approximately every 7 seconds via seismic disturbances. Examination of 8 years of data from the Apollo seismic stations shows that a disruptive seismic event from a meteorite striking the Moon should occur no more than once a year at any given site. † NASA/JSC/SN2, Houston, TX 77058, USA, <wendell.mendell@jsc.nasa.gov>

Use of Lunar Base Programs to Improve Human Exposition Reliability and Safety

54th International Astronautical Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the International Institute of Space Law, 2003

The InfraredScanning Radiometer{ISR)was designed to map the thermal emissionof the lunar surface ... more The InfraredScanning Radiometer{ISR)was designed to map the thermal emissionof the lunar surface from the Service Module of the orbiting Apollo 17 spacecraft. The principalexperimentalobjectivewas the measurementof lunar surfacen" .timetemperatures,which are extremely difficultto map from Earth-basedtelescopes. J Data objectivesfall into two main categories. In the first case, lunar regions can be classed accordingto surfacepropertiesas determined by nighttimetemperaturesand cooling rates. Secondly,geophysicalboundaries can be establishedfrom thermalmaps of the highestpossible spatial resolution. The ISR is an imaging llne scJnner utilizinga continuouslyrotating, single-sided,plane scan mirror. The detector is an uncooled thermistor bolometerbonded to a hyperhemisphericsilicon immersionlens. The all-? reflectiveCassegrainoptical system has an apertureof 17.8 cm and an i ;