Space System Architecture: Final Report of SSPARC: the Space Systems, Policy, and Architecture Research Consortium (Thrust I and II)

The Space Systems, Policy and Architecture Research Consortium (SSPARC) was formed to make substantial progress on problems of national importance. The goals of SSPARC were to: ��� Provide technologies and methods that will allow the creation of flexible, upgradable space systems, ��� Create a ���clean sheet��� approach to space systems architecture determination and design, including the incorporation of risk, uncertainty, and flexibility issues, and ��� Consider the impact of national space policy on the above. This report covers the last two goals, and demonstrates that the effort was largely successful.

Modeling the Transport Sector: The Role of Existing Fuel Taxes in Climate Policy

Existing fuel taxes play a major role in determining the welfare effects of exempting the transportation sector from measures to control greenhouse gases. To study this phenomenon we modify the MIT Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model to disaggregate the household transportation sector. This improvement requires an extension of the GTAP data set that underlies the model. The revised and extended facility is then used to compare economic costs of cap-and-trade systems differentiated by sector, focusing on two regions: the USA where the fuel taxes are low, and Europe where the fuel taxes are high. We find that the interplay between carbon policies and pre-existing taxes leads to different results in these regions: in the USA exemption of transport from such a system would increase the welfare cost of achieving a national emissions target, while in Europe such exemptions will correct pre-existing distortions and reduce the cost.

Benefits of Implementing Lean Practices and the Impact of the Lean Aerospace Initiative in the Defense Aerospace Industry and Government Agencies

In the 1980���s, many United States industrial organizations started developing new production processes to improve quality, reduce cost, and better respond to customer needs and the pressures of global competition. This new paradigm was coined Lean Production (or simply ���Lean���) in the book The Machine That Changed The World published in 1990 by researchers from MIT���s International Motor Vehicle Program. In 1993, a consortium of US defense aerospace firms and the USAF Aeronautical Systems Center, together with the AFRL Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, started the Lean Aircraft Initiative (LAI) at MIT. With expansion in 1998 to include government space products, the program was renamed the Lean Aerospace Initiative. LAI���s vision is to ���Significantly reduce the cost and cycle time for military aerospace products throughout the entire value chain while continuing to improve product performance.��� By late 1998, 23 industry and 13 government organizations with paying memberships, along with MIT and the UAW were participating in the LAI.