Changing the focus of the multibillion-dollar global aerospace business toward smaller, lower-cost spacecraft is not happening solely due to technical, managerial, financial or market motivations. Rick Fleeter's second book on the small, low-cost space programmes which are the fastest-growing segment of aerospace activity, gives the reader a keen understanding of the full spectrum of factors driving this profound change. The text then goes beyond engineering technologies and management techniques to envision the tantalizing prospects microspace has in store for the industry, its present markets and those of the future.

Welcome to The Logic of Microspace I'd like to say welcome to a brand new book, but in the interest of keeping my closet skeleton-free, I'll admit it's not entirely new. But neither are small satellites. While microspace practitioners might build a satellite in a year or even six months, it still takes a year or more of brainstorming to really get the bugs out of the mission concept, bureaucracies need years to get them under contract, and the launching pro cess is a bit more than a matter of stepping up to the turnstile with the appropriate number of quarters to drop into the slot. Or maybe that's a pretty good model, since it would take a few years (four is my estimate) to drop ten million quarters into a slot. Books are not that different - writing them takes forever minus epsilon, and the pro duction process is long. Plus, in another assault on "new," The Logic of Microspace includes, as one of its three major sections, an updated version of the wildly popular (ok, the popular) Micro Space Craft.

Y. Fujimori, Symposium Programme Committee Chair, and Faculty Member, International Space University e-mail: [email protected] M.Rycroft, Faculty Member, International Space University e-mail: [email protected] N. Crosby, International Space University e-mail: [email protected] For the sixth annual ISU Symposium the theme was "Smaller Satellites: Bigger Business? Concepts, Applications and Markets for Micro/Nanosatellites in a New Information World". Thus, the Symposium addressed the crucial question: are small satellites the saviour of space programmes around the world It did this from the unique perspective of the International Space today? University - the interdisciplinary, international and intercultural perspective. This Symposium brought together a variety of people working on small satellites - engineers, scientists, planners, providers, operators, policy makers and business executives, together with representatives from regulatory bodies, from national and international organizations, and from the finance sector, and also entrepreneurs. Discussion and debate were encouraged, based on the papers presented and those published here.

Beginning with the basic elements that differentiate space programs from other management challenges, Space Program Management explains through theory and example of real programs from around the world, the philosophical and technical tools needed to successfully manage large, technically complex space programs both in the government and commercial environment. Chapters address both systems and configuration management, the management of risk, estimation, measurement and control of both funding and the program schedule, and the structure of the aerospace industry worldwide.

Astonishing answers to unspoken questions revealed! Dr. Rick Fleeter [email protected] 11573 Greenwich Point, Reston VA 20194 They say fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly, but what they don't tell you is that thermodynamicists gotta travel. In fact, travel is so fundamental to the life of the engineer or scientist, that most of them no more realize that simple fact, than fish realize what water is. One who did was the greatest Thermodynamicist of all, Ludwig Boltzman. As so often happens, seeing a greater perspective led him to write - in his case the essay "Travels of a Thermodynamicist in California" but also to his profound depression, which he successfully, and appropriately, resolved by hanging himself from a hotel room chandelier. I thank the dearth of chandeliers in today's La Quinta and Econolodge hotels for my having thus far escaped emulating even that element of Boltzman's greatness, and thus providing the time for writing this book. Such is the importance of travel ? I owe my life to budget hotels. How did I decide to compete swimming breastroke, pick up the Cello, pursue long distance solo cycling and do a PhD in Thermodynamics? The common denominator is the search for a pursuit so archaic, so unappealing to the opposite sex (or even my own), so widely ignored, that even I, with minimal effort, could, if not dominate, at least get to the first wrung on a competitive sports, music or career ladder. That strategy propelled me to the #1 (and not coincidentally the only) position worldwide in authoring books on microspacecraft. A quick scan of Amazon or your local bookstore tells you why I will never write a book on starting a company, or pioneering a new field in Engineering. The shelves are full of well written books I couldn't hope to outshine. But a book on the experiences and the lessons learned from a career of mostly pointless business, recreational and competitive travel ? there's a niche even Rick Fleeter can own for a long time. And, dear potential reader, therein might lie a similar opportunity for you ? to be unique in having actually purchased and read that book. For $59, can you bypass the opportunity to be the first on your block, and maybe on the planet? I hope not.

This book focuses on systems engineering, systems thinking, and how that thinking can be learned in practice. It describes a novel analytical framework based on activity theory for understanding how systems thinking evolves and how it can be improved to support multidisciplinary teamwork in the context of system development and systems engineering. This method, developed using data collected over four years from three different small space systems engineering organizations, can be applied in a wide variety of work activities in the context of engineering design and beyond in order to monitor and analyze multidisciplinary interactions in working teams over time. In addition, the book presents a practical strategy called WAVES (Work Activity for a Evolution of Systems engineering and thinking), which fosters the practical learning of systems thinking with the aim of improving process development in different industries. The book offers an excellent resource for researchers and practitioners interested in systems thinking and in solutions to support its evolution. Beyond its contribution to a better understanding of systems engineering, systems thinking and how it can be learned in real-world contexts, it also introduce a suitable analysis framework that helps to bridge the gap between the latest social science research and engineering research.