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A new flight research vehicle, the Rotorcraft-Aircrew Systems Concepts Airborne Laboratory (RASCAL), is being developed by the U.S. Army and NASA at Ames Research Center. The requirements for this new facility stem from a perception of rotorcraft system technology requirements for the next decade together with operational experience with the Boeing Vertol CH-47B research helicopter that was operated as an in-flight simulator at Ames during the past 10 years. Accordingly, both the principal design features of the CH-47B variable-stability system and the flight-control and cockpit-display programs that were conducted using this aircraft at Ames are reviewed. Another U.S. Army helicopter, a Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk, has been selected as the baseline vehicle for the RASCAL. The research programs that influence the design of the RASCAL are summarized, and the resultant requirements for the RASCAL research system are described.

The evolutionary history of life on Earth has occurred under the omnipresent influence of a gravitational force. The exposure to the microgravity environment of space produces an array of biochemical and physiological changes in plants and animals. These changes extend from the cellular to the whole organism level. In order to manipulate gravity as an experimental variable and to separate the effects of weightlessness from the other variables in spaceflight, it is essential to provide a source of gravity in space. The scientific user community was consulted on the potential need and science requirements for a centrifuge to be designed for and flown on Space Station Freedom.

The Spacelab Life Sciences 2 mission (SLS-2) is the second in a planned series of dedicated Life Sciences missions utilizing the European Space Agency-provided Spacelab module. The mission, tentatively scheduled for a mid-1992 launch, will comprise a total of eighteen experiments encompassing both human and animal research. Eight of the eighteen experiments will involve animal life sciences research and will be managed by the Space Life Sciences Payloads Office (SLSPO) at NASA's Ames Research Center (ARC). The ARC payload complement of eight experiments will include six which use rodents and two which use primates (squirrel monkeys). SLS-2 provides an opportunity for even more extensive investigations into the effects of weightlessness upon the anatomy and physiology of rodent and primate systems.

This paper reports the results of a project supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (NASA-OAST) under the Advanced Life Support Development Program. It is an initial attempt to integrate artificial intelligence techniques (via expert systems) with conventional quantitative modeling tools for advanced physical-chemical life support systems. The addition of artificial intelligence techniques will assist the designer in the definition and simulation of loosely/well-defined life support processes/problems as well as assist in the capture of design knowledge, both quantitative and qualitative. Expert system and conventional modeling tools are integrated to provide a design workstation that assists the engineer/scientist in creating, evaluating, documenting and optimizing physical-chemical life support systems for short-term and extended duration missions.