[musical tones]
[electronic sounds data]
- So welcome to the
2015 NASA Ames Summer Series.
NASA, and in particular,
NASA Ames,
changes the way we see
and interact with the world.
As a research
and technology center,
NASA Ames develops
novel concepts and approaches
to advance NASA's missions.
This cannot be achieved
without a great team
balanced by a great leadership.
Today's talk entitled
"NASA Ames' Role in the Future
of Exploration, Science,
and Aeronautics"
will be given by our NASA Ames
Deputy Center Director,
Dr. Tom Edwards.
Dr. Edwards is a graduate
of Princeton University
with a Bachelor's in mechanical
and aerospace engineering.
He also received a Master's
and a PhD degrees
in aeronautics and astronautics
from Stanford University.
Also he has a Master's
of science and management
from Stanford
Graduate School of Business
and is a Sloan Fellow.
He began his career at NASA
in 1983
just after finishing
the Bachelor's.
He has had experience both
on the technical
and management ladder
within the Center,
and prior to becoming a deputy,
he was the
Director of Aeronautics at Ames.
Please join me in welcoming
Dr. Thomas Edwards.
[applause]
- Thank you very much,
and thank you all
for coming today.
I know there's a lot of things
going on at the Center today
and I appreciate
that you took the time
to come and listen to me.
I also want to thank Jacob
for this opportunity.
If those of you
who have been coming to
the colloquia
through the summer
you've gotten to hear
from astronauts,
scientists,
project managers,
and authors.
Fascinating people, and so
the grand finale is a manager.
[laughter]
- And so it took a fair bit
of courage on your part
to come and hear,
but I look forward to sharing
with you a little bit about
how I view this lofty title
of the future
of Ames' role
in the Agency's missions.
As you probably know,
many of you probably know
both me and the Center Director,
Dr. Eugene Tu,
are relatively new
to our positions.
We have been
in our positions for
just a little over
three months now,
both of us.
And while we're fairly new
to those positions,
we're fairly long
to the Center itself,
so we have a general pretty good
idea of what's going on here.
But we are in new roles,
and it's somewhat audacious
to think that
we've got the future
figured out already.
So this is really just a preview
of what's to come,
where we see things headed,
and looking forward
to working with you
on really defining the future
and looking at how
Ames and our assets
best fit into the future
of where the Agency is going.
So with that,
I'd like to give you
a little bit of an introduction
to what Ames is doing,
and you'll see
that my central thesis
is that Ames
really is the future of science,
exploration,
and aeronautics.
And the reason
I say that is that
here at Ames, more than
any other Center in the Agency,
we conduct fundamental,
groundbreaking,
innovative research.
For that reason, sometimes
we're viewed as unconventional,
possibly even controversial,
and we're also looking at
the next generation
of technologies
that will enable or help us
understand things
that are really beyond
the current day
operational time horizons.
So we are out there
really working in the future
and the rest of the Agency
is catching up to us
in many ways
and that's a heritage
we've had
for a very long time
and I think it's good for us
to proceed with in the future.
So to start with,
let's think a little bit about
what the Agency
espouses as its future.
And there are these really
inspirational taglines here
that the Agency has put out
as part of its vision.
to "Reach new heights,"
"Reveal the unknown,"
and "Benefit all humankind."
That's really incredible,
and that's inspirational stuff.
It's part of what
makes it really fun and cool
to say that you work for NASA
and to come through the gate
every day and be part of this.
That said, those are
fairly lofty statements.
What does it really mean?
So that's what
I want to talk about here
and get a little bit more
specific about it.
We've got all these
very altruistic goals,
but what does that mean?
What do we do about that,
and where are we going?
So the next level of vision
that the Agency has espoused
are embodied
in these nice posters
with sayings that
kind of capture the major areas
of emphasis for the Agency.
They're a little bit hard
to see,
so I'll go around
and touch on each one
and you'll see how
they kind of fit together
and they also describe
those very nice statements
on the previous chart.
In the upper left is
"Aeronautics."
That's the first "A" in NASA.
It's where I spent
most of my career
working as a researcher
and as a manager.
And the tagline there is
"With you when you fly."
You'll hear a little bit
more about what that means
in a minute,
but, essentially, there is NASA
technology
in every aspect
of air transportation
and in aircraft,
and so when you are flying,
you are benefitting
from NASA technology.
The next one
in the middle says
"Earth Right Now,"
and the tagline there is
"Your planet is changing.
We're on it."
Nice little
double entendre there.
I like that.
And we have our own planet
to understand,
just like we
want to understand planets
in the rest of the universe,
but we first should
understand our own planet,
especially because
it pertains very directly to
our quality of life
and our way of life here.
And so a major emphasis
is to look at our own planet.
Then on the upper right,
there's the
"International Space Station.
Off the Earth for the Earth."
And you'll hear a little
bit more about the way
that that research platform
in space
is using
its unique environment
to understand
the way humans evolve
and how we adapt
to varying conditions
and how life can survive
in microgravity
and that will benefit
life on Earth
as well as in our
exploration activities.
Continuing around clockwise,
we've got
"Solar System and Beyond,"
and that one says,
"We're out there."
And you can just think
of any number of missions
that have been profiled recently
that are understanding
the solar system,
most recently New Horizons.
We had a major event here
to celebrate the flyby
that the "New Horizons"
spacecraft did of Pluto.
Coming back around,
there's "Mars,"
and this is really
the centerpiece
in a lot of ways,
"NASA's Journey to Mars,"
so I'm gonna come back
to that in just a minute.
But that currently
is the driving focus
for a lot of NASA's work
in technology
and in exploration.
And finally, we've got
"Space Technology."
And the tagline there is,
"Technology Drives Exploration."
So we are--we are
a technology organization.
NASA thrives on technology.
We need new technology
always to push the frontiers
and to enable the capabilities
that we need
to do evermore ambitious
space missions.
So that's a quick profile.
Now, what I'm going to do
in this talk is
relate this back to the things
that Ames does
and look at how we are
contributing to the future
in each one of these areas
as we conduct the research
here at the Center.
Before I do that,
I just want to zero in a little
bit on that Mars mission,
The Journey to Mars.
And in fact, it really doesn't
matter a whole lot
whether our
ultimate destination is Mars.
It sets a focus
for us that drives
a lot of technology
that will be relevant
to any destination
that we go to.
And so it's--A lot of times we
use things called
Design Reference Missions
to really define requirements
and to drive technology needs
and this would be
an example of that
where we're setting a goal
of putting humans on Mars
in the 2030s,
and seeing,
what is it going to take
to make that all happen?
And it starts on the far left.
in a regime that we call
Earth Reliant.
This is the regime
that's within
the Earth's atmosphere
as well as up to low Earth orbit
where we can exist
in those environments,
but we rely intrinsically
on regular
and routine support
from Earth.
So we see things
like the Space Station,
obviously,
is an active area of research,
and we are bringing up
astronauts and supplies
on a continuing basis
multiple times per year
to provide
them what they need,
to set up the experiments,
to bring the experiments
and the data back.
And we are learning a lot
but we are completely reliant
on regular launch access
to those areas.
In addition to that, we've got
commercial cargo and crew.
Now, we're trying to hand off
the domain
of low Earth orbit
to the commercial sector
where there are a lot of
commercial potential.
There's also the ability
to commercialize
the space transportation
business to low Earth orbit,
and we are in the process
of doing that
with companies like
Orbital Sciences and SpaceX
that are now providing
launch capabilities to Station
and they will also be able
to provide launch services
to anyone who wants
to access low Earth orbit.
So we've learned a lot
and we've accomplished a lot
in the Earth Reliant.
Now, we're starting to turn
our focus to that middle ground
called a Proving Ground.
Now,
this is where you're getting
a little bit farther out there,
where it's more challenging
to both send
spacecraft, people, payloads,
and also to exist out there.
Outside of the radiation belts
into the environment that
is characteristic of deep space
with radiation,
the potential for solar flares,
longer duration missions,
and the--now, the first time
that the time delay
of communications
starts to become
an important impediment
to how you operate,
from anywhere from seconds
of time delay
communicating with the Moon
to tens of minutes
if we are to look at scenarios
approaching Mars.
And in this regime,
we really need to have
our spacecraft
and our astronauts
be more independent.
And yet,
in this Proving Ground,
we can,
in extreme situations,
turn control or reliance
back to Earth
or we can get back to Earth
in a relatively
short amount of time.
In this regime, we can test out
the technologies
that will be necessary for us
to become Earth independent.
So things like
novel propulsion systems
and also the--the crew--
crew cargo spacecraft
that are going to be necessary
to exist for longer durations
in space.
And finally, we get
to the Earth Independent regime
where we really need
a self-sufficient capability
to sustain astronauts,
to be able to operate
effectively
on planetary surfaces
as well as in orbit,
to fix things
that break ourselves,
rather than having to
go back home for spare parts.
And looking at all
the various support systems,
habitats,
transportation vehicles,
communication systems,
and so forth,
that will sustain life
in an independent manner.
So I took a bit of time
to go through this,
because this really does explain
many of the things that
we are doing within NASA
and particularly here at Ames.
So now, let's turn and look at,
what do we do here at Ames
that we really take pride in
and that we think
contributes strongly
to the future of the Agency?
And we've grouped them
into these eight areas.
They're fairly broad,
but they do--
They don't cover the spectrum
of everything NASA does,
and they certainly exploit
the unique capabilities
that we have here at Ames
as well as by virtue
of the community that we live in
here in Silicon Valley.
And I'll have
a little bit more to say,
so I won't take too long
on each one of these.
Air Traffic Management
is one of our
main heritages
here in aeronautics.
We're making incredible
contributions there.
In Entry Systems,
we've been working
in Entry Systems for decades,
and we are still
the Agency leader
in developing and testing
new technologies.
Obviously,
our location has given us
a great advantage in developing
new computing systems
and information technologies
that have been used to benefit
all of NASA's missions.
Intelligent and Adaptive Systems
is another area that--
that really was an outgrowth
of our capabilities in computing
and has been applied
to building more
and more intelligence
into the machines
that serve us,
whether they are aircraft
or they're spacecraft
or planetary
exploration vehicles.
Low-Cost Space Missions,
and this is important.
It leverages our--
the spirit of innovation
that we have
here in Silicon Valley
and asking the question,
"Can we do the same thing
for less?"
Now, in many cases,
space is expensive,
sometimes very, very expensive,
but through some creativity
and through looking
at unique combinations
of technology capabilities,
we can ask,
"Well, couldn't we do the same
thing for a whole lot less?"
And, of course,
when you do that,
you're accepting more risk.
And so what we are pioneering
for the Agency
is developing low-cost
novel space missions,
admittedly accepting
additional risk,
but the payoff is there that
we're willing to take the risk
in order for a big payoff
that we can do science
and exploration
more inexpensively,
more quickly,
and we can take advantage
of higher technology
because of the shorter cycles.
So this is a new area
that's really taken root
within the Agency.
Aerosciences
is a very broad area
that applies to using the--
both the experimental
and computational capabilities
that we have here at the Center
to model and simulate
all types of vehicles
from aircraft to spacecraft
and to use the understanding
of physics
and the capabilities
of digital computing
to perform design trades
and optimize vehicles
much better than we
ever used to be able to.
Astrobiology and Life Science,
another area that we
pioneered for the Agency,
looking at the origins of life
and the existence of life
elsewhere in the universe.
And, finally,
in Space and Earth Sciences.
We have astronomers,
we have Earth scientists
who are Agency leaders
in unique missions
that help us
understand our planet
and also the existence
of other planets
and understanding the universe
in the broader context.
So these are
the general eight areas
that we put forward
as where we can make
unique novel contributions
to the Agency and really propel
the Agency forward
in its missions.
There's a relationship then
between these eight
and the broad visions
that the Agency has put out,
and so I want to kind of
step through some of those
and give you
a little bit better idea
of how we're contributing
in each of those areas.
So let me start with
the aeronautics theme.
We said, we're
"With you when you fly."
And these--this is just a list
along with some graphics
of some of the key areas.
I'll just touch on each one
very briefly
and then I'll go into a little
bit more detail on one of them
to give you a flavor of
how we're contributing.
In Transformative Aeronautics
Concepts we're looking
at changing the paradigm
of air transportation.
Right now, we get on
a large aircraft
that looks essentially the same
as it did 40 years ago.
It's an aluminum tube
with wings.
A lot has changed since then,
but the paradigm is very static.
Now, we're at an age
where we're starting to look
at whether things like personal
air transportation is possible,
whether we can
stop using fossil fuels
and make electric aircraft work.
These are transformative,
and so we are
looking at that here at Ames.
We are also looking
at the Operations & Safety.
I'll say a little bit more.
This gets to the air
transportation system,
but we also use
our data analysis capabilities
to understand
the aviation system
and where there might
be emergent safety concerns
and solve those problems
before they result in accidents.
UAS, Unmanned Aerial Systems,
Airspace Integration
is a really big deal here.
And any of you
who were here last week
might have noticed
a major event we had
down by Hangar One,
which was a convention
to address the very fascinating
and complex issues
associated with this.
Concerns not only about
how to fly and regulate drones,
but also, what are the concerns
about insurance
and privacy and security
and safety?
It was a fantastic event,
brought the community together,
and I think
it's going to help us
make a lot of progress there.
I mentioned about High Fidelity
Modeling & Simulations.
We continue
to have a heritage there,
and really, the fundamental
understanding of fluid physics
and acoustics to design
evermore capable aircraft.
Wind tunnels, you can't drive
around the Center
without seeing
a few wind tunnels,
including the largest
wind tunnel in the world,
and also one of the busiest
and most productive wind tunnels
right across the street
from the largest wind tunnel.
It's the one
with the white shell
and the NASA meatball
on it.
That's the most productive
transonic wind tunnel
in the country,
and just about every aircraft
that flies
in the transonic regime
goes through that tunnel.
Flight simulators,
also to assess
pilot handling capabilities.
We have three major
flight simulation assets here.
And then we have
the NASA Aeronautics
Research Institute.
It's one of our
three virtual institutes
here at the Center.
Virtual institutes
are a novel construct,
and I'll say a little bit more
about that in a minute.
This is what enables us
to network and connect
with the broader community,
academia and industry,
as well as partners
around the world,
to bring
the best minds together
to address problems.
In the area of
Air Transportation,
Air Traffic Management,
we've combined our knowledge
of how aircraft fly.
We had our heritage
in aircraft control,
so we have a detailed
understanding
of how aircraft fly.
Together with
a number of other disciplines
including information technology
as well as human factors
and operations research
to look at when you have
multiple aircraft in the sky,
what is the best way
to manage those flights
so that everybody
gets where they want to
safely in minimum time.
And as a result of this work
over the past decades,
we have developed
decision support tools
for both pilots and for
air traffic controllers
that help them manage
the efficient
flow of the airspace.
Now, looking to the future,
we're looking to ever higher
levels of automation
and that potentially
someday leading to autonomous
flight management systems,
both on aircraft as well as
sort of a central manager that--
that handles all the traffic
going around
the United States
and abroad.
So this has been
an area of huge success for us.
We have transferred
our technology to the FAA,
who has deployed it,
and now when you fly
anywhere in the United States,
your flight is being aided
and controlled by technology
developed right here
at Ames Research Center,
helping you get to where
you're going with minimum delay.
I'm not promising you
that you won't have delays,
I'm just saying
it's less than it used to be.
And the problem
is getting harder,
because there's more and more
traffic in the air
and there are also
new constraints
that we have to deal with,
like noise constraints
and having to deal with
carbon emissions
and minimizing that.
So
it's an ever-growing problem
but we've also got some
breakthrough technology
that should help us
solve those.
In the area of Earth Science,
really, a lot of different
things going on.
I'll highlight
the Earth Exchange
as one of the major
contributions we make
where we're using our
high-end computing capabilities
and data storage and management
to bring in the, literally,
terabytes of data
coming from satellites
and airborne platforms
on a daily basis
to bring it all together
and put it
into a manageable format
so that scientists
around the country
can access it
and use it to analyze,
to answer
scientific questions,
and help us deal
with the challenging problems
of Earth climate.
Airborne Science
is particularly one that
we have played a strong role
and will continue to.
And the future is really looking
at novel unmanned platforms
that we have a unique capability
here to look at those
either as single platforms
that are doing surveys
or to use swarms to really
understand the complexities
of the system
that we're interested in,
whether it's
a volcanic ash plume
or sea temperatures
and things like that.
Sustainability then feeds off
of these to look at,
how do we manage
the Earth as an ecosystem,
and how do we use that knowledge
to build a better ecosystem?
And we're also pioneering
the use of small satellites
and advanced computing
to benefit the understanding
of our home planet.
So this is one of our big UAS.
This is actually down
at Armstrong.
Armstrong Flight Research Center
down in the desert
of Southern California
operates the aircraft.
We do a lot
of the science payloads
and the definition
of the missions.
So that's one of the big ones,
and then on the small end,
we've got aircraft that are
no bigger than your arm span
that can fly very easily
and carry small instruments
to conduct novel missions.
International Space Station.
We have a large and growing
program in Life Science.
This is,
as I said earlier,
both about helping us
understand life here on Earth,
but equally importantly,
understanding the life in space.
the effects of radiation
and microgravity on life
and what we might
need to be concerned about
for longer term
deep space missions.
And so we have developed
a capability
to deliver life science
experiments
to the Space Station,
have them
conducted very efficiently,
and bring down the results.
That's a vibrant program.
We've also got
Robotic Free-flyers.
I'll say a little bit more
about it in a minute.
Efficient Crew Operations
I'll just touch on briefly too.
That builds off of our work
in intelligent systems
and autonomy.
And what we're doing here
is helping Johnson Space Center
manage crew time,
and it turns out
that on the Space Station,
crew time is the limiting factor
in many cases
for how much science can
get done on the Space Station,
because the astronauts on board
are busy from dawn to dusk,
and they have a lot of those
during a day,
running experiments
and managing them
and taking data,
and so the scheduling
becomes a huge challenge.
We've developed
some automation technology
that is being used
by Johnson Space Center
to optimize the crew time
so that we can get as much
science through the Station
as possible, and that's been
a big success story.
SPHERES is the free-flyer
that I referred to a second ago
and you can see
it's a very clever acronym
for a little ball
that's a robot
and it helps the astronauts
on board the Station
with routine tasks
that can be performed
by a computer.
But the computer actually drives
itself around the Station,
gets where it needs to be,
and does the function
that it needs to do
all by itself.
It's an autonomous system.
It's driven
by little carbon dioxide
pressure jets
to move it around
and I think this guy
is actually trying to juggle,
which is sort of a perplexing
concept in zero gravity,
but in any event,
this idea was started here,
and we actually
built these systems
and the embedded computing
is actually
right out of a very
high-end smartphone
that drives
the whole assistant there.
And so that's something
that the astronauts have
come to know and love.
In Space Technology,
we're also looking at
how we can advance capabilities
that are going to get us
to that Proving Ground
and into Earth independent.
We have partnered
with a company
right out here
in the Research Park
to put the first 3-D printer
on board the station.
And we're starting
to look at how we could
build spare parts and parts
that we need,
unique parts,
in space rather than
having to carry everything up.
Heat Shields,
I'll say a little bit more.
That's really one of our most
famous contributions
in space technology,
but we're also contributing--
We've done a lot of autonomy
work for Mars Science Laboratory
and the "Curiosity Rover"
to help it also
be as productive as it can
in collecting science.
And then we're looking
at this intriguing area
of Synthetic Biology.
Can we use
our understanding of biology
to serve our purposes better
in terms of producing elements
and compounds that we need
rather than having to synthesize
them here on Earth
and take them with us,
to use the best of biology
to further our sustainability
and our needs in space.
And then again, we've kind
of done the path-finding work
on small satellites,
like the ones shown here.
So in Heat Shields,
we have developed the materials
on the heat shields used
for just about every spacecraft
that has entered
an atmosphere.
Every heat shield
has had its materials tested
here in facilities that we have.
This mass
of wires here is actually
a facility called an arc jet
testing materials at
the temperatures and speeds
associated with entry from--
either from return from the Moon
or from deeper space.
And we've invented
some of the materials
that have proven
to be the most capable.
This material called PICA
enabled the Mars Science
Laboratory mission.
It was the heat shield material
of choice.
It was invented here and tested
and developed and proven.
So we have a long heritage,
and we're very proud
of what we contribute there.
So Mars,
where we're headed.
We've got
a long heritage of work
looking at the climate
and the environment on Mars.
Very important to life on Mars.
A quick show of hands.
How many of you have read
"The Martian"?
Okay.
How many of you are gonna
go see the movie?
Probably all of you,
I hope so.
I personally think that should
be required reading
for everybody
who works at NASA.
It is fiction,
but it is very good fiction.
And it actually
helps you understand
a lot about the challenges
of getting to Mars with people.
And so understanding
the environment, obviously,
the story starts with a story
about the environment.
And so it's very important to
understand that
so that we know what
we're going to deal with.
Astrobiology,
understanding, what do we even
look for if we're looking
for life?
What are the markers?
What are the precursors?
What are the fossil records
going to look like
in a completely different
environment?
And so our understanding
of astrobiology will inform
the types of activities
we want to conduct
when we get there.
Obviously, we're not going to do
it all with people,
we're going to need
teams of robots
and astronauts
working together.
Right now, we've done
each one separately.
What we really need
to figure out
is how to deploy a team,
mixed initiative team,
of humans and robots
that can accomplish
a mission objective
very efficiently and in
a very coordinated fashion.
And of course, the heat shields
just need to keep getting better
because the entry speeds
are higher
and the payload masses
are higher.
And so getting heavy payloads
to the surface of Mars
is one of the pacing items
in enabling
the manned Mars mission.
It will require capabilities
beyond anything
that we have now.
And furthermore, so I mentioned
about the autonomy
that we're contributing
to the Mars Science Laboratory
and helping JPL schedule
the science operations
of the Rover.
Great success story there,
and we'll certainly be using
that as we go forward
with future missions,
like Mars 2020.
In addition to that, we have
very creative scientists here
who develop instruments
to meet unique requirements
and one of them here
is the one we call CheMin,
which is an X-ray diffraction
spectroscope.
That alone is not unique.
Those devices have existed,
but all
the previously existing
X-ray diffraction
spectroscopes
were far too big and heavy
and required too much power
to make it onto a payload.
What our scientists
figured out is
how to miniaturize that
to the point that
we could put one of these
on the Curiosity Rover.
And we won that proposal,
built the device,
and it is up on Mars
working right now
on determining
the chemical constituents
of the Martian regolith
to determine if
there are markers
of things like the existence
of liquid water
and any compounds that might be
associated with
precursors of organic life.
So that's a heritage that
we will also be continuing.
Finally, getting in
to the Solar System and Beyond.
We've got
a number of missions that
we're very proud
to have lead here
and look forward to a future
that continues to contribute.
Kepler I'll say a little bit
more about in a minute,
very exciting planet--
exoplanet hunting vehicle.
SOFIA is the aircraft
shown here,
the Stratospheric Observatory
for Infrared Astronomy.
Cut a huge hole in a 747,
hope nothing goes wrong.
Actually,
we did the engineering
to make sure
nothing would go wrong.
Put a big telescope in there
and do infrared astronomy
from the stratosphere,
where you're above
99% of the Earth's water,
which absorbs infrared,
and so you can make observations
that are space quality
observations
from an aircraft
that can return home
every morning
to be refurbished, resupplied,
and we can bring on
new scientists.
So this is a very active
and productive aircraft.
It flies out of Armstrong.
The science team is here,
and just as of the beginning
of the next fiscal year,
we will be operating
the entire program
from Ames Research Center.
And then the rest of the list
are things that have
already mentioned that
impact all of our missions
and heat shields
and the robotics.
And then down toward
the bottom of the list, there's
the Solar System Exploration
and Research Virtual Institute
and the NASA
Astrobiology Institute.
Those are the other
two virtual institutes
that are contributing
to our capability
to bring the entire world
community together.
Kepler,
this is the exoplanet hunter.
You may have heard
a lot about it already,
so I won't belabor the point,
except to say that
it's a tremendously successful
mission.
Doing transit photometry,
staring at one little region
of space
to look for variations
in the brightness of stars
that might be associated
with a planet
transitting in front of
the star.
And through a lot of
independent observation
and data reduction,
we can identify
and conclusively determine
the size, the orbit,
and composition of many of
those planets.
Now, our creativity
came into play recently
when the nominal Kepler mission
suffered a failure
of two of its gyros.
It has four gyros,
one was redundant,
so we had three gyros to control
the three spin axes.
And due to a defect,
two of the gyros failed early.
Well, with only
two working gyros,
you can't stabilize
all three axes
of the spacecraft,
and it looked like the mission
might be lost at that point,
because it is
a critical requirement
for extremely stabile pointing
for this spacecraft to
achieve its mission.
Through a lot of creativity,
our engineers and scientists
here figured out
how to do this with two gyros,
still stabilize the spacecraft
and continue its mission.
That's why we call it K2 now,
and it is continuing.
It's lost just a little bit
of scientific productivity
but the mission goes on.
And K2 is now continuing to find
lots and lots of exoplanets
that give us a lot
of inspiration about
where we might go looking for
precursors of life elsewhere.
Partnerships are a big deal.
I've mentioned
the community here,
and we really benefit from
all kinds of near neighbors
who have either
related interests
or synergistic interests
with us,
and you can see
many of them here.
It includes the great
universities we have here,
the large companies,
the nonconventional ones
that are working in high tech,
as well as government partners.
So through this combination
here within
just our neighborhood,
we can work together
with lots of people
who help us be creative
and innovative.
In the Research Park,
we've got over a hundred
entities represented,
some of them here
that are working with us
to accomplish our goals
and also pursue their own goals.
And looking more broadly,
and I'll point out this one
virtual institute
as a particular example,
we can network internationally
with these virtual institutes
that really are not a physical,
large institution
but rather networking
through social media
and internet connections
and video connections
to bring the greatest minds
together
and build diverse teams
very quickly
to address
fundamental problems.
And in the case of
the Astrobiology Institute,
how cool would it be to say
you're working on questions
like these?
What is the origin
and nature of life?
Where else does it exist
in the universe?
Where should we go look?
What was the habitability
of early Earth?
Profound questions
and the Astrobiology Institute
is helping us with those.
The other two virtual
institutes,
Solar System Exploration
and Aeronautics
are similarly approaching
profound questions
in their areas
and using that same capability
to bring
the entire community together.
So now put your binoculars on
and let's look
even farther ahead.
I just brainstormed
a short list here
of where I see
the major themes of Ames
contributing to the future
of the Agency
and where we might go
in the future.
So I've said it
a few times already,
autonomy is a big deal.
It is one of the major enablers
for aviation, aeronautics,
space exploration,
life in space,
and we have
a great capability here
that it will be used
in greater focus
to these--
all of these missions,
and specifically
in the aeronautics arena,
pilotless flight.
Drones will be delivering
your Chinese food
in years to come.
I guarantee you that.
We're gonna figure that out.
Everybody wants it, right?
[laughter]
So drones are the--
one instantiation
of pilotless flight,
but the next one
would be passenger aircraft
or cargo aircraft.
FedEx would like to experiment
with this with us.
So they would be
a great partner.
Looking at cargo applications
of pilotless flight,
and eventually I do think
that we're gonna take a look
at pilotless flight
for passenger aircraft.
Using our Earth Science
capabilities,
climate change impacts
are going to be very important,
sea level rise,
temperature rise,
drought, all of these things
are very important
for us to understand
so that we not only can
continue to live comfortably
where we are,
but we can ensure
that everyone on the planet
has a quality of life.
Supporting the commercialization
of low Earth orbit.
Had very good success stories
so far,
and I think we're right
on the cusp
of lots of commercial
opportunities.
Not just tourism,
but commercial applications.
If it's developing
unique materials
and also potentially
pharmaceuticals
in microgravity
that we can't really do here
in the gravity environment.
Robotic space science
and exploration.
I think I've said enough about
that already to explain that.
We're headed for Mars.
Looking forward to it.
We want to help.
Quantum computing
is an intriguing area
that could be extremely
revolutionary
and it might take
a hundred years to get there.
But once we do, it could
change the way we do computing.
I encourage you
to look into it more.
I am highly under-qualified
to comment on it.
It's physics that
I only briefly understood
when I was in college,
but it's a fascinating area.
Data analytics
is a big growth area
and that's where we can really
leverage our local community
to be the leader
for the Agency.
Space biology,
a major importance to us
in understanding where
to look for life
as well as how to live.
And, you know,
just finally,
we want to be
the innovation Center.
We are already,
and we want to keep doing it.
75 years, this is another
3-hours talk here
that I could give.
You can look back 50, 60 years
or more,
and point
to examples where Ames
has had the culture
of innovation
that has enabled
all kinds of capabilities
that have become
absolutely crucial
to the success of the Agency.
So I think that, you know,
this is our legacy.
We've got a great future.
Let's go make it happen.
Thanks very much
for your attention.
[applause]
- Thank you, Tom,
for an excellent talk.
We have time for questions.
If you have a question,
please raise your hand,
wait for the microphone,
and ask just one question.
Thank you.
- Hi. Is it on?
I was wondering, is it possible
they could commercialize
the SPHERE that was floating
around in the--
in the spacecraft?
I mean, as much as I like
the Roomba,
I would love to see
that SPHERE
floating around my house
doing jobs.
- We're gonna have to work
a little bit harder on
how to levitate
in that situation.
I mean, it's not
a pejorative thing.
We could figure that out,
and that would be
a nice personal assistant
to have around your home.
To have it float next to you
is either going to require it
to be lighter than air,
and we have a little bit
of experience in that,
or figure out how to
repel the force of gravity,
but absolutely,
and we do look for
commercialization partners
when these things come along
so that we can take
what we've done
and let life on Earth be
better as a result.
- So it was
just announced that
Mike Suffredini's
leaving, right?
And it impacts
quite a few things
that we're doing, right?
But specifically, you know,
from my own knothole,
the Human Systems Integration
work that we do.
And you mentioned the--
you know, we did the--
the mission planning systems
for MSL and all the other ones
and that got transitioned with
a lot of direct input from Mike
to--first mission control
planning of correctivity,
but now, just this week it got
radiated up to the Space Station
for the first test
on Station to look,
not only at crew efficiency,
but at enabling
deep space missions
where you can't
talk to Earth, right?
"Can crew plan
their own time?"
And I guess I do worry
a little bit about that change.
So I don't know--It's sort of
a crystal ball question,
but I don't know
anything about
the person who's taking over.
You know, what's the--
Do you guys have any intel?
- I can't tell you too much.
It's very new information.
I have met the gentleman once.
He was a Deputy Center Director
up until recently,
and so he was part
of my peer community.
And I--We just hope we have
good knowledge transfer
from Suffredini to--to Kirk,
and that they've recognized
our contribution.
And we also have good
relationships,
so I think it's time for us
to start talking to the new guy
about all the great stuff
we have done and what we can do.
Everybody knows there's
a free lunch, don't they?
[laughter]
- Okay, so--
- There's one more up--
- Right.
- The question is about
partnerships,
and from your experience
of doing partnerships
with the commercial sector,
I wonder if there are any
that stick out to you
as really good,
strong partnerships,
and what do you
think are the principles
of a good partnership if
you're looking to do a new one?
- Mm-hmm, good question.
Thank you.
You know, we have a great
opportunity here to partner,
because we have
the NASA Research Park,
so not only can we
strike a deal,
but we can collocate here
and that's something that
we are somewhat unique
within the Agency
in our ability to do.
So we have used that
to good effect so far,
and we really want
to focus now on the future
on being very strategic
about who we bring
this limited resource
in to do unique things
that you could only do
with colocation.
Clearly, any partnership
flourishes on mutual benefit.
We know where we're going.
We want to understand
where our partners are going
and where that
intersection occurs.
Sometimes it's a fortuitous
alignment of capabilities.
For example, in high tech,
data analytic capabilities
benefit commercial interests,
they also benefit
NASA interests.
And so we can work together
on things like
self-driving cars
or autonomy technologies
or data mining
and we both come away
with something
that's very successful.
Others flourish based on
a technology transfer,
where we work together
to accomplish something
that's fairly focused
on the NASA mission,
but once that capability
is established,
it can be diversified
into commercial products.
And so those are really
two of the key attributes
that we're--we look for,
that we have a partner
who's willing to acknowledge
and work with us
on our mission,
and we will do the same
with them.
Kind of a generic answer,
but I think that all those
that I showed you there
are examples of
where we could explain
what we got and what they got,
and that's a pattern
we continue to follow.
- We have a question.
- Okay, so hi, Tom.
So thanks very much for--for
sharing your insights there.
My question is--
revolves around the idea
of how to be
an innovative Center
in a conservative Agency.
And so part of being
innovation means--
or having innovation means that
you've got to accept failures.
Accepting failures is not
something that NASA does well
as an Agency,
and so you have to end up
walking kind of a tightrope.
And I wondered
if you could tell us
a little bit about how you think
that's gonna work in the future.
- Thank you for that incredibly
difficult question, Tony.
[laughter]
- I think that there is--
It is possible
to be both
aligned and innovative.
That's--the discussion
that we had with Headquarters
when Eugene and I were kind of
coming on board is,
you know, what--
what do we do here?
Do we, you know--
do you want us to be more,
you know,
straight and narrow,
or do you want us to just
always be out there?
And the discussion lead to,
we want both.
We want alignment,
and alignment means that we are
clearly supportive
of NASA's overall direction,
but at the same time,
be innovative.
And I can share with you that
we both were implored
early on not to have
the pendulum swing too far back.
They--they really see Ames
as the innovation Center,
and they want us out there
and there is a more
vigorous dialogue these days
about what it means
to accept risk.
So we want to be responsible
in the way we accept risk.
We don't want to imperil
people's safety
and we don't want to spend
the taxpayers' money foolishly.
We want to
deliberately take risks
where they are warranted,
where they have a high payoff,
and that we would acknowledge
that when you take high risks
you're going to have failures.
So the dialogue is increasing,
and that's a little bit
promising
that we need
to test that premise
and know that we're gonna fail
once in a while
and that should not have
negative repercussions.
So how do we do that?
Eugene and I are working
with the Center leadership
to make sure
that we're aligned.
So we're kind of going through
all of our capability areas
that I went through
and the missions
and seeing that we have
a relevance
to those NASA missions.
That's gonna take care of
the alignment part.
Now, we need to keep the focus
on the innovation part
but be able to
trace that back to these
aligned missions
that we're going after.
So we're doing
a lot of things,
working with outreach
and education,
bringing interns
in to keep us, you know,
really refreshed
and energized,
and we're just going to be
looking at all the mechanisms
that we can pursue
to foster innovation.
Hopefully,
we'll bring those together,
and we need all of your help
to make that happen,
because any one person will tend
to get stuck in their ways.
So we've always been a little
controversial as a Center.
We're gonna keep doing that,
but we're just gonna show
how it matters to the Agency.
Mm-hmm?
- My question kind of--you kind
of answered a little bit of it
with the last question.
With--with the future
of the Center,
what kind of ways are you
kind of guaranteeing,
like, for bringing in new--
like, fresh minds out of,
like, the universities
and things like that
to kind of help promote
a more--
more innovativeness
on the Center?
I know that, you know,
a lot of times
whenever you go--whenever
we're exiting university,
like, three to five years
of experience, but where do--
Do you expect to offer
more opportunities
for people who maybe don't have
three to five years
of experience as well?
- Mm-hmm.
I'm very empathetic to that.
I have recent college grads
who apply for jobs
and the first question
often is,
well, what experience
do you have?
And you're kind of like,
"What do you expect?
I just got out of college.
How do I have experience?"
I would respond to that
first by saying
part of the--as we are working
to align the Center,
one of the areas
that we're looking at
is trying to envision
the workforce of the future.
So we're talking about
the future now.
And let's say we're talking
about the Mars mission,
that a lot of technology work
for that mission
is going to be done
in the 2020s.
We need a workforce
in ten years or so
that is going to have
the capabilities
and attributes we want
to make our contributions
to that Mars mission.
So we're first--
we're starting with
a little kind of envisioning.
What does that
workforce look like?
And then
looking at where we are,
and what does it take
to get there?
It's going to take
a lot of mentoring
and knowledge transfer
as we pass capabilities
from one generation to the next.
We're going to need to be
very deliberate
about the skill sets
and interests
that we're going after,
so that we reinforce
our capabilities
that we want to preserve,
where we establish
new capabilities
that we believe are needed
for the future,
and that will guide us
in our recruiting
and our hiring strategies
that we go forward with.
So that--that's sort of
the big picture philosophy
and logic behind it.
And with that information
in hand,
then we can very explicitly
figure out
where to go for recruiting.
We want a diverse
and capable workforce,
and so we're going to have
a better idea of
where to go to get the workforce
attributes we want.
The senior management
is going to be able
to evaluate the opportunities
better so that we--
We don't get to hire
all that much,
so when we do hire,
we want to be really confident
that it's going to work.
So we're gonna be able to match
the overall strategy
with the approach
that we're taking
on any specific situation.
In addition to that,
we are delighted to host
800 to 1,000 students
here every summer,
and that's something
that has created opportunities
for the students in the future,
and also for us,
to see what's that workforce
going to look like
and understand
how we get ready for it.
And so we definitely will
continue doing that
as well as other
outreach opportunities
so that our message
gets out there,
and the people who think they
want to get on board with us
can self-identify also.
- So please join me in
thanking Dr. Tom Edwards
again for an excellent talk.
[applause]
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