Eric Nordin 11/7/13 ENG106 Halliday Analysis Draft 1

Citation/Annotation: Williams, Craig, Juhasz, Albert, Borowski, Stanley, Dudzinski, Leanord. Space Propulsion via Spherical Torus Fusion Reactor. Cleveland: 2002, Print. This is a long and complex article involving research into fusion space propulsion. It goes very in-depth on the physics and engineering behind fusion, where the ultimate mission goal is to reach Saturn's moon Titan with a crew. It was part of an assignment in ENGR103, so I thought it would be interesting to analyze because I am interested in space travel and exploration, especially the newer technologies.

Introduction Analysis The introduction states that they are creating the vehicle design from a recent (in 2002) series of NASA research papers. They then explain what these earlier papers entail, and how they use them for their own design. This follows along with the first step of the Swales CARS model, as they are generalizing their topic and reviewing previous research. The introduction never explicitly states their purpose for the design, they only hint at a gap in research on space fusion propulsion using modern and experimental technologies. They occupy the niche by saying that they used state of the art systems and engineering/math references and resources in order to

develop their design. The introduction follows the CARS model relatively well, though it was hard to tell when they established and occupied the niche.

Research Methods It seems that the authors wanted to keep the article as clear and understandable as possible, so they used endnotes in order to keep the information uninterrupted. They have in total 65 references, mostly from research articles. Many of the references are from NASA or AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) studies. Others are from other universities or laboratories, with a few books and journal articles. It seems the authors had to use many references in the field of fusion and space travel in order to get an accurate design. Fusion is a relatively new technology, so it is easy to tell that they are continuing a large effort to develop fusion and space technologies and to establish their practical applications based on all the references they used.

Writing/Format Style This is a research article, so the authors formatted it to be very informative. They broke the paper up into eleven sections in order to help the reader find certain information, though they did not include a table of contents. The article includes many figures and tables showing their research. They depict many calculations, graphs, research findings, diagrams and cross sections. This is very helpful to the reader, because they are given some visualization for the data in the article. The article has many numbers with units and chemical formulas in the text, making it slightly jumbled and hard to read. The writing is very educational and to the point, and does use many technical terms that may be difficult to understand. However, this is necessary because the

article is very technical and complex regarding science and engineering. Clearly, the authors wanted to get the information across clearly and efficiently.

Conclusion: This article is primarily a scientific research article. The article is credible and relevant to the field because the authors are all a part of NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio, a large and recognized laboratory. The main focus of the paper is to clearly show their research regarding fusion space propulsion. For the most part, they gathered information from their references and compiled it together in this design project. This paper is more for the engineering, science and physics fields judging from the technical lingo and purpose of the paper. Even though the paper was written eleven years ago, a lot of the technology hasn't really changed based on what I've been learning in my ENGR103 class, so this must have been cutting edge technology. Overall, the article works very well for a technical paper. Even though the text is filled with numbers and units, it is necessary for the paper and gives credibility to the research.