Engineers become dreamers at NASA Future Forum

With a panel of aerospace engineers set to discuss commercial space investments and their benefit to the nation at the NASA Future Forum Dec. 9 at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, one was prepared for some heavy number crunching and rocket science. Instead, the group of representatives of various firms involved in commercial spaceflight focused entirely on the intangibles of inspiration, innovation, and vision.

A great example comes from Sierra Nevada Space Systems, which named its space vehicle Dream Chaser. Mark Sirangelo, head of the company, talked eloquently about the appeal of the industry.

A panel discussed Commercial Space Investments and Benefits 

for the Nation at the NASA Future Forum Dec. 9 at the Museum 

of Flight in Seattle. L-R: Moderator Doug King, president and 

CEO of the museum, Phil McAlister of NASA, Gwynne Shotwell of 

SpaceX, Peter McGrath of Boeing, Mark Sirangelo of Sierra 

Space Systems, Robery Meyerson of Blue Origin, and 

Steve Isakowitz of Virgin Galactic. Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

“It’s being able to see something built and grow from nothing, from an inspiration,” he said. Sirangelo noted that the companies involved are full of dreamers, and used Seattle’s aerospace giant as an example.

“There was a Boeing. It was a family and it was a person like we are,” he said. “We’re individuals who believe in something and believe that we can make a difference and be able to change something in the future.

“That’s the personal inspiration for me, being able to do something that hasn’t been done in this way before, to be able to fly something that I hope to be able to fly in the next few years, and understand that this is something that we’ve designed and built and developed. There’s no better satisfaction than being able to take that dream and make it a reality.”

Most of the panel participants were of similar age to the author. I was born two weeks before the launch of Sputnik, so my life is the space age and as a kid I was fascinated by the race to the Moon. It is the reason I am interested in space and astronomy today. Everyone on the panel told a similar story. Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, said it’s important to remain interesting to the next generation.

“Space has to be cool. It has to be cool to be technical and enter into these kinds of fields,” Shotwell said. “Space is the best place to inspire children to do great things and study hard and focus on changing the world.” Her message to kids: “It’s OK to be a nerd!”

Peter McGrath of Boeing is a chip off the old block—his father also was an aerospace engineer—but he, too, took inspiration from Apollo.

The St. Nick on duty at the Museum
of Flight seems to have a preference for
the local aerospace company.
Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

“I would also say it was seeing somebody walk on the Moon,” McGrath said of his career motivations. “We need to create that next environment, somebody walking on the Moon, to really energize the next generation of aerospace engineers.”

“We’re a nation of explorers,” said Robert Meyerson, president of Blue Origin. “Space represents that next frontier. I believe that strong investments in science and technology will make us stronger.”

The engineers did get around to tackling some problems. Steve Isakowitz, chief technology officer for Virgin Galactic, said the cost of space flight is a big hurdle. He noted that technology is making a lot of things easier and cheaper; Moore’s law holds that computer power doubles every 18 months while the cost drops. Unfortunately, that has not yet translated to space.

“In fact if you look at the economics of space travel, the cost has either remained the same or even increased, depending on how you do the math,” Isakowitz said. “I think the challenge to the panel here is to change that, to create our own law. Perhaps every five years the price of space travel will be cut in half, so that more and more people will have the opportunity to enjoy space travel and allow us to push the frontier of space exploration.”

NASA of course remains the major player in the field, but Phil McAlister, NASA’s director of commercial spaceflight development, said it’s perfectly logical for the companies represented on the panel to help take us to space.

“For lower orbit, where the International Space Station travels, that’s a place that we’ve been many times over the last 40 years,” McAlister said. “So we feel like it’s time now to transition some of the responsibility for launching crew and cargo to low-Earth orbit to the private sector.”

McAlister also noted that having the private sector involved will provide a buffer of sorts to the vagaries of federal spending.

“If this commercial crew and cargo industry takes off we’re no longer dependent on just NASA’s budget going up and down,” he said. “The private market will spur these innovations, spur these opportunities, so when kids get closer to high school they’re going to see these opportunities. It won’t just be about NASA. The pie will be bigger.

“That’s why I believe this is the right path not only for NASA but for the nation.”

You can watch the entire panel discussion on the NASA TV video below.

NASA Future Forum panel discusses importance of technology andinnovation

Those looking for real-life applications of all of the cool technology NASA creates need look no further than cleaning appliances or one of the biggest fad toys of a decade ago.

“The computational power that was used to make an Apollo spacecraft successful is now embodied in a Furby,” said Dr. Ed Lazowska. “It’s not clear that this is the greatest social use for that technology, but it’s still a remarkable comment on what we’ve been able to do.”

This panel discussed "The Importance of Technology and Innovation
for our Economic Future" at the NASA Future Forum Dec. 9 at
 the Museum of Flight in Seattle. L-R: are Joseph Parrish and Robert
Pearce of NASA, Dr. Kristi Morgansen of the University of Washington,
Dr. Roger Myers of Aerojet, and Dr. Ed Lazowska, UW.
Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, was speaking as part of a panel about “The Importance of Technology and Innovation for our Economic Future” at the NASA Future Forum held Dec. 9 at the Museum of Flight in Seattle. He sees robotics as a major area of innovation in the coming decade.

“NASA has been a pioneer in robots in unstructured environments, where they have to be autonomous and they have to respond to unanticipated situations,” Lazowska said. “You see these in your home today in the person of the Roomba vacuum cleaner.”

“This notion of robots in unstructured environments working with us is going to be transformative in the next ten years,” he said.

Robert Pearce, NASA’s head researcher, says today’s jetliners are a prime example of how the agency’s work has made it out into common use. Instrumentation, wing and engine design, the shape of the planes, even the way the pilots work together all were born from the space agency.

“The DNA of everything that flies started at NASA,” Pearce said, though he noted one exception. “When you turn and go down into the airplane and you see all of those tight, cramped, uncomfortable seats—that’s not NASA.”

Joseph Parrish, who moderated the panel and is NASA’s deputy chief technologist, takes exception to the often-expressed view that the space agency is doing little more than blasting scarce tax dollars into space.

“We’re not actually packaging up a bunch of dollar bills into the nose cone of a rocket and firing it out to Mars, to be spent by Martians, on a prank,” Parrish said. “We’re spending that money on planet Earth, and in the process of developing the systems that we do send to Mars and to Jupiter and to Saturn and beyond we’re enabling things here on planet Earth. We’re creating high-technology jobs that in turn inspire new ideas and create and new ecosystems of supporting companies. Think of all the companies that support Boeing. Think of all the companies that are going to support this burgeoning commercial launch industry that NASA is helping to kick off.”

One of those companies is Redmond-based Aerojet. It’s executive director for electric propulsion and integrated systems, Dr. Roger Myers, says his company is working on better ways to get spacecraft from here to there.

“Today’s propulsion systems are pretty inefficient,” Myers said. “That means that you have to carry a huge amount of fuel, you have to launch a tremendous amount of propellant, to get beyond low-Earth orbit. It takes big, expensive, unique rockets to do that.”

“We have to change that paradigm,” Myers added. “If we’re going to explore deep space we need a balanced set of investments, in both the launch architecture, the way that we launch people and cargo, and also we need a parallel set of investments in deep-space transportation architectures.”

Lazowska said that a big problem with technological innovations is that the uses are seldom obvious.

“It’s often not clear at the outset what the real benefit of an innovation is going to be,” he said. “When people were working on the Internet, ARPANET, nobody was thinking about email or the web or ecommerce or digital media. It was for remotely using expensive mainframe computers. You see this pattern again and again.”

Lazowska said the concept of technology transfer is important but often misunderstood.

“The goal of university technology transfer is to put publicly funded innovation to work for the public good,” he explained. “People have to get over the notion that somehow you’re going to float the institutional boat on licensing revenues, and realize that the goal is to make our nation the world leader, and make our regions regions of innovation.”

You can watch the entire panel discussion on the NASA TV video below.

SpaceX flight to ISS announced at NASA Future Forum in Seattle

The NASA Future Forum held Dec. 9 at Seattle’s Museum of Flight was all about the approach of creating a new economy out in space, getting private enterprise to take over the work in low-Earth-orbit while the NASA plans for getting us out beyond the Moon to deep space. As if to underscore that point, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver broke some milestone news during her keynote address at the forum.

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver does a live NASA-TV
broadcast in the Great Gallery of The Museum of Flight in Seattle
Dec. 9. Garver was in town for the NASA Future Forum.
Museum of Flight photo by Ted Huetter.

“We have set the target date for launch on February 7 next year for SpaceX’s second commercial orbital transportation services (COTS) demonstration,” Garver announced. “Pending all the final safety reviews and testing, SpaceX will send its Dragon spacecraft to rendezvous with the International Space Station in less than two months.”

It would be the first commercial linkup with the space station.

Garver noted that NASA has invested some significant seed money, about $800 million, in COTS for getting crew and cargo to the ISS. The February mission will give SpaceX the chance to show what it can do.

“It is the opening of that new commercial cargo delivery era for ISS, and it’s great news for NASA and SpaceX together,” Garver said.

Garver said the new approach makes sense. NASA’s gig has always been to learn the unknown and create knowledge and technology. LEO is hardly a mystery any more, and private companies are demonstrating that they can do it. She adds that if the private sector and competition can lower launch costs, it will leave more resources for the science.

“We’re here to learn from each other, just like we have for all of these years, how we can more effectively advance personal and commercial space flight, how we can more effectively transition the technologies that we develop at NASA to the private sector to create those high-paying jobs and open up endless possibilities for economic growth,” Garver said. “Together we are truly developing an industry that until recently had been largely science fiction, but now it stands poised to open the new frontier, that next chapter in human space development.”

Photo: Greg Scheiderer

Commercial space transportation already is a significant industry. In 2009, according to Garver, it generated $208 billion in economic activity in the U.S., employing about a million people who brought home $53 billion in wages.

She disagrees with the notion that the end of the space shuttle program was some sort of signal that the United States was no longer in the space game.

“Our job is just beginning,” she said. “The excitement and adventure is just beginning, and the opening of the space frontier is just beginning.”

She said the agency fully embraces the approach and NASA’s agenda: “Investing the nation’s valuable tax dollars to assure a healthier, more competitive industrial base that advances technology, provides more scientific benefit, and expands humanity’s presence farther than ever before while creating new markets, new industries, and new jobs to enhance our national security and our economic future.”

NASA has always had partners from the private sector, and Garver referred to the aerospace industry as a community.

“What we are trying to do is have our whole community gain a competitive advantage, moving out faster on this ambitious new direction that our nation’s leaders have given us,” she said. “Developing new technologies, developing partnerships, providing opportunities for competition and innovation, and looking for ways to get the most mileage out of all of the hard work over the decades that this community has invested in the fields of engineering, science, aeronautics, and technology.”

“This is what will inspire the next generation.”

You can watch Garver’s entire talk on the NASA-TV video below.

Seattle Museum of Flight gets Soyuz capsule from Simonyi

The new Charles Simonyi Space Gallery at Seattle’s Museum of Flight has landed a cool new artifact: the Soyuz-TMA-13 reentry module that brought Simonyi back from a space tourist trip to the International Space Station in 2009. The announcement was made this morning at a ceremony naming the new space gallery for the high-tech pioneer and philanthropist, who kicked in $3 million of the $12 million cost to build it.

Charles Simonyi returned to Earth from the International Space
Station in this Soyuz capsule in 2009. He's obtained the vehicle
and given it to the Museum of Flight on a long-term loan.
Photo: Space Adventures.

“The naming of the space gallery is a great honor for me and for my family,” said Simonyi in a news release. “I have the highest regard for the Museum of Flight and now that we are at the threshold of a great expansion of civilian spaceflight, I fully support the museum’s efforts to engage the public on the issue of space exploration with a focus on civilian space: past, present and future.”

The gallery was built as part of an effort to convince NASA to retire one of its space shuttles to Seattle. That hope was scuttled last spring, but the museum was awarded NASA Full-Fuselage Trainer as a consolation prize. The FFT, in which all shuttle astronauts trained for their missions, the Soyuz module, and other artifacts from Simonyi will be the centerpieces of the new gallery’s permanent display, expected to open in late spring.

Visitors to the museum can check out a new temporary exhibit that opens on Saturday. Many space-themed activities are on tap.

“This imposing new Charles Simonyi Space Gallery could not have become a reality without Dr. Simonyi’s continued support for The Museum of Flight and his vision about what our future can hold,” said Doug King, President and CEO of the museum. “While we are grateful for his monetary contribution, we truly named the space gallery in honor of Charles to recognize his commitment to aerospace education and his tireless enthusiasm for inspiring the next generation of space explorers.”

Local editor recognized for work on astro newsletter

Vicki Saunders, editor of BPAA Quarterly, the newsletter for the Battle Point Astronomical Association of Bainbridge Island, recently received fourth place recognition from the Astronomical League in the competition for the Mabel Sterns Newsletter Editor Awards. It’s the third time in the 14-year history of the awards, named for the AL’s first newsletter editor, that BPAA has placed. Saunders received honorable mention in 2006, and Bill and Anna Edmonds took fifth place in 2002.

Mabel Sterns, above, was the first editor of
the Astronomical League newsletter, and now
the league's award for newsletter excellence bears
 her name. Vicki Saunders of the Battle Point
Astronomical Association on Bainbridge Island took
fourth place in this year's awards.
Photo: Astronomical League.

Northwest astronomy clubs have not been all that well represented in the Sterns Awards. Rose City Astronomers from Portland took first place back in 2007 with the Rosette Gazette, edited by Larry Deal. Seattle Astronomical Society‘s Webfooted Astronomer, edited by Laurie Maloney, took a third in 2001, and Kathleen Higgins took second in 2002 for the Boise Astronomical Society newsletter.

The awards have a fairly rigorous nomination process, and Saunders noted that the recognition came despite the fact that she ignored one of the league’s strong suggestions, and that was to include the AL logo, preferably on the first page! The judges, former newsletter editors as well as editors of The Reflector, the Astronomical League magazine, apparently ignored that omission in their deliberations and recognized Saunders’ outstanding publication.

As a former editor of The Webfooted Astronomer, I recognize the challenge of putting out a good product month after month. It’s tough to find or create enough content. BPAA president Stephen Ruhl’s nominating letter was quoted in the AL Reflector in praise of Saunders’ work: “Vicki’s efforts create a newsletter that meeets the needs of the association and that draws the community into astronomy and the BPAA. It is the glue that holds our local astronomical community together.” The winter 2011/12 issue is a good one, with seven feature articles created by club members.

Submissions for the 2012 Mabel Sterns Awards are due by March 31. Complete information about how to apply is on the AL website.

Congratulations to Vicki Saunders, and hats off to all of the astronomy club newsletter editors out there who keep their members informed and engaged.