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The Department of Defense has made progress in modernizing its procurement of weapon systems. Modernization has identified a need to address Federal and military standards and specifications for parts, materials, and processes that represent many de facto national standards. The aerospace industry is proposing a transition to commercial specifications that meet the needs of Acquisition Reform. This paper reviews the history and benefits of modernization and describes the transition process.

Future lunar science and exploration missions will involve the use of pressurized rovers for long duration lunar surface missions. Designs for pressurized rovers are being studied by NASA and the industry. This paper presents some results of work currently underway on the development of a rover simulator in the context of a new pressurized rover concept. A motion base simulator will play a vital role in generating rover vehicle design and performance requirements. A simulator based on a modular simulation (MODSIM) architecture, has been under study and development since 1991. The MODSIM approach will provide benefits of flexibility of modification, low cost, phased scheduling and ease of supportability when compared with more traditional simulator architectures. A lunar rover simulator based on MODSIM will help rover vehicle engineers to be productive through all phases of simulator development.

A liquid/gas separator called the Mostly Liquid Separator (MLS) has been devised to provide liquid/gas separation with soapy fluids in a microgravity environment, and is an integral component of the International Space Station Water Processor. Now in its third generation of development, this paper describes the evolution of the MLS design, and presents a discussion of the development test data and results.

This paper describes the evolution of the Thermal Diffusing Apparatus (TDA) (patent pending) and elaborates on the specific problems in bonded repair of complex composite structures. The use of composite materials in current and future aircraft presents both factory and field-level technicians with unique repair problems. Precise temperature control over the entire repair area is required if damaged composite aircraft structures are to be restored to mission-ready status. The TDA uniformly heats thermally complex components and is a direct replacement for conventional heat blankets, resulting in significant improvements in the repair process and better control of variations in cure temperature.