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SPACE' in Britain over the past year could well be likened to a half‐finished crossword puzzle. It is clear that the empty spaces must at some time be filled (possibly with black squares!) but the clues are so devious that each answer awaits letters from other words; anagrams and conundrums abound and, what is more, there is no dictionary in which to look up the words. One might even say that half the clues have not been given. Like a crossword, the parts of the whole are tenuously connected and every clue has several possible meanings.

In the continuing endeavour to work towards ever better management, experience plays a crucial role. We learn from success, but we can learn much more from failure. Further, it is far better and cheaper when we learn from other people′s failures rather than our own. This monograph assesses the requirements of project management in relation to industrial projects, illustrating the factors that can result in failure by means of a series of case studies of completed and abandoned projects worldwide that have failed in one way or another. The key roles played by project planning and project cost control in meeting and overcoming the practical problems in the management of industrial projects are examined in detail. In conclusion the lessons that can be learned are evaluated and presented, so that we may listen and learn – if only we will.

In light of the discussions on outer space property management, this conceptual review paper aims to discuss and evaluate if, when and under which conditions certain land management and property right frameworks can apply to allocate and/or restrict property rights in outer space.

This paper applies a pragmatic review approach which seeks to better understand if and how the basic tenets of the land management frameworks could better shape and revise the challenges in outer space regulations.

Despite the fact that regulatory guidelines on outer space rights are existing, the analysis shows that these lack a number of practical tools and measures aiming at intervening if stakeholders do not follow the rules. With the use of land management frameworks, it is possible to derive policy options for making the outer space management more practical and action-oriented, in particular for the removal of space debris. These include amongst others more attention for formulating global public restrictions in outer space, incorporating regulatory guidelines for accessing open space regimes, addressing responsiveness and robustness in adherence and compliance to regulations

Given the conceptual and discursive character of the paper, there are no specific empirical data, yet several recommendations for further research include expanding the boundary work between the land management and regulatory outer space domain.

The insights derived from land management and real estate related property theories could potentially provide new starting points for (re)formulating the regulatory framework for outer space property discourses.

Interpreting the outer space regulations from known and practiced land management perspective helps to bridge the policy–society knowledge and necessity gap on outer space activities.

The specific land management perspective and discursive analysis on outer space debris provide new options for devising and extending regulatory guidelines for assigning responsibilities on outer space debris and debris rights, restrictions and responsibilities.

To trace a shift in attitudes towards control since the mid-twentieth century, as reflected in a shift in rhetoric that accompanied the extension from first- to second-order cybernetics.

Narratives of exploration that have emerged from NASA’s lunar programme and recent design cybernetics are juxtaposed to show a transition away from the legitimisation of goal-oriented decision-making and control towards advocacy of partial control avoidance and accommodation of the unanticipated.

Contemporary cybernetic theory recognises the importance of both the partial presence and the partial absence of control in creative epistemic practice. It is thus unsurprising that, according to historical records, NASA’s journey to the moon was enabled not only by the assurance of control but also by lapses of control. However, NASA’s rhetorical posture during the race to the moon focused on predictable control and goal orientation, differing notably from the recent design-cybernetic openness towards uncertainty, error, and serendipity. This difference is encapsulated by the “Failure is not an option” dictum that was associated with NASA’s lunar programme and the “Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better” equivalent associated with design cybernetics. Recognition of the more recent cybernetic perspective is impeded by its continuing omission from narratives of earlier cybernetic accomplishments.

To the extent that narratives examined in this paper refer to exceptional initiatives and spontaneous events, the repeatability and generalisability of the presented argument are limited.

The paper highlights changing cybernetic narratives of creative invention by examining how spontaneous changes in variety were reported to have been addressed in NASA’s lunar programme, and how recent cybernetic design theory suggests they should be addressed.

The use of virtual reality (VR) technologies in the education of autistic children has been a focus of research for over two decades. It is argued that this form of technology can provide authentic “real world” contexts that target social and life skills training in safe, controllable and repeatable virtual environments. The development of affordable VR head-mounted displays (HMD), such as Google cardboard and Oculus Rift, has seen a renewed interest in their use for a wide range of applications, including the education of autistic individuals. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A systematic search of electronic databases focussing on empirical studies on the use of VR-HMD for children and adults on the autism spectrum was undertaken.

A review of the literature identified a limited number of studies in this field characterised by differences in the type of application, technology used and participant characteristics.

Whilst there are some grounds for optimism, more research is needed on the use of this technology within educational settings to ensure robust recommendations can be made on the implementation, use and sustainability of this approach.

This paper is the first to consider the evidence base for the use of VR-HMD technology to support the needs of the autistic population.

The US Government adopted the base realignment and closure (BRAC) to resolve the military, economic and political issue of excess base capacity. There have been five rounds of BRAC since 1988, and more are expected to come in the years ahead. The complexity of the closure and realignment decisions and the plethora of factors that are often involved necessitate the need for a sound theoretical framework to structure and model the decision‐making process. This paper aims to address the issues.

The paper presents a multiple criteria benchmarking system that integrates the employment, environmental, financial, strategic, and tactical impacts of the closure and realignment decisions into a weighted‐sum measure called the “survivability index.” The proposed index is used to determine whether the returns generated by each military base on the Department of Defense (DoD) hit list meet a sufficient target benchmark.

There is a significant amount of evidence that intuitive decision making is far from optimal and it deteriorates exponentially with problem complexity. The benchmarking system presented in this study helps decision makers (DMs) crystallize their thoughts and reduce the environmental complexities inherent in the BRAC decisions. The presented model is intended to create an even playing field for benchmarking and pursuing consensus not to imply a deterministic approach to BRAC decisions.

An iterative process is used to consistently analyze the objective and subjective judgments of multiple DMs within a structured framework based on the analytic network process and fuzzy logic. This iterative and interactive preference modeling procedure is the basic distinguishing feature of the presented model as opposed to statistical and optimization decision‐making approaches.