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Ball Aerospace (Ball) and the Electric Propulsion Laboratory, Inc. (EPL) are in partnership to develop a high specific impulse electric propulsion system. The propulsion system is based on EPL’s Magneto-gradient Electrostatic Plasma 650-Watt (MEP 650) engine technology. The goal of the MEP 650 project is to develop a flight-like, engineering model (EM) MEP 650 system that can meet future Ball Small Satellite (SmallSat) mission requirements. These requirements are met by an engine that operates at a discharge power of 650 W in self-heating mode, attains a specific impulse of 1,500 seconds, a thrust of 29 mN, and processes about 7.0 kg of xenon propellant at full power. To support the project efforts, two laboratory engines (EM1 and EM2), a power conditioning unit (PCS), a xenon flow system (XFS) and a MEP command, control, and telemetry (MCCT) unit have been built and tested. Laboratory engine EM1 is dedicated to endurance testing and has completed a 947-hour endurance test at 684 W, at an average discharge voltage of 258 volts. The EM2 engine is dedicated to support continued performance optimization and plasma plume investigations. EPL has completed the MEP system component design, structural and thermal testing, fabrication, and have extensively tested all components, including full system level “end-to -end” performance testing. Characterization of the EM2 engine has been conducted for discharge power levels up to 1 kW (any power level beyond 700 W requires the use of facility power supplies). The results to-date have exceeded the Ball (SmallSat) mission requirements and indicate a total MEP 650 engine efficiency of 35.5%, thrust of 30 mN, and specific impulse of 1,581 seconds at a discharge power of 650 W in self-heating mode. The MEP 650 system has completed all testing identified to achieve a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6.

SammanfattningDe flesta företag som arbetar med produktutveckling idag använder sig av någon form avproduktutvecklings-process. Även om en process är mycket användbar, så garanterar inte den enframgångsrik produktutveckling. En av de viktigaste aspekterna i projektarbete ochproduktutveckling är kommunikation – hur projektmedlemmar utbyter information medvarandra. En framgångsrik produktutveckling är svår att uppnå utan effektivprojektkommunikation.Temat för den här uppsatsen är baserad på denna bakgrund. De frågor som ska besvaras är: Vilkaproblem finns i produktutvecklings-projekten idag? Hur är de relaterade till kommunikation?Hur kan kommunikationen förbättras för att lösa dessa problem? För att svara på dessa frågor haren fallstudie på produktutvecklings-företaget ITT Water and Wastewater genomförts. Genom 37intervjuer har data rörande företagets kommunikationsmetoder och utvecklingsprocess insamlats.Dessutom har teorier på samma studerats. Tillsammans bildar de basen till examensarbetetsanalys.Den empiriska datainsamlingen visade på problem i utvecklingsprocessen: brister i utvärderingarav projekt, långa utvecklingstider, projekt med för svag marknadsorientering och beslut tagnabaserade på otillräcklig information. De två sistnämnda har identifierats att vara beroende avkommunikationen i processen.Vidare visade studien att en projektöversikt skulle lösa dessa problem. Som resultat harförfattarna skapat en utformning av denna projektöversikt. Fastän brister i kommunikation inte ärden enda anledningen till de identifierade problemen, tror författarna att den framtagnaprojektöversikten kommer att avstyra dem. Då det finns stora likheter i hur produktutvecklingutförs på olika företag idag, anses resultatet vara överförbart även till andra organisationer. AbstractThe majority of companies working with new product development today are using a productdevelopment process. Although very helpful, a process will not guarantee successful productdevelopment. One of the most important aspects to consider in projects and product developmentis communication - how project members exchange information with one another. Successfulproduct development is hard to achieve without efficient project communication.This master thesis is based on the previously mentioned background. The questions to beanswered are: What problems exist within product development projects? How are these relatedto communication? How can communication be improved to solve them? To answer thesequestions, a case study at the product development company ITT Water and Waste Water wascarried out. By conducting 37 interviews, data regarding the company’s communication anddevelopment process has been collected. In addition, theories regarding project development andcommunication are researched. Together, theses constitute the basis for the thesis analysis.The empirical research showed that there indeed exist problems in the case company’sdevelopment process: a lack of project evaluation, too development times, a lack of marketorientation, and decisions being made without sufficient information. The later two where foundclosely dependent on communication.Further research showed that introducing a project overview would solve these problems. As afinal conclusion, a layout of the proposed project overview was introduced. Even thoughinsufficient communication is not believed to be the only cause for the identified problems, theauthors believe that the project overview would in part solve them. Since there are largesimilarities in how product development is carried out at different companies, the findings aremost likely transferable to other organizations.

The majority of companies working with new product development today are using a product development process. Although very helpful, a process will not guarantee successful product development. One of the most important aspects to consider in projects and product development is communication - how project members exchange information with one another. Successful product development is hard to achieve without efficient project communication. This master thesis is based on the previously mentioned background. The questions to be answered are: What problems exist within product development projects? How are these related to communication? How can communication be improved to solve them? To answer these questions, a case study at the product development company ITT Water and Waste Water was carried out. By conducting 37 interviews, data regarding the company’s communication and development process has been collected. In addition, theories regarding project development and communication are researched. Together, theses constitute the basis for the thesis analysis. The empirical research showed that there indeed exist problems in the case company’s development process: a lack of project evaluation, too development times, a lack of market orientation, and decisions being made without sufficient information. The later two where found closely dependent on communication. Further research showed that introducing a project overview would solve these problems. As a final conclusion, a layout of the proposed project overview was introduced. Even though insufficient communication is not believed to be the only cause for the identified problems, the authors believe that the project overview would in part solve them. Since there are large similarities in how product development is carried out at different companies, the findings are most likely transferable to other organizations.

Powerpoint presentation of project activities in Ecuador. Presented to Bolivian research team. available in SANREM office, ESIILTRA-3 (Watershed-based NRM for Small-scale Agriculture)

This document describes the progress, challenges and prospects of the FF POIROT project, covering the second year of the project implementation. Detailed information can be found in the other documents in the documentation package.