What next for NASA?

On Monday, the President signed the 2010 NASA Authorization Act into law with little fanfare.  After an acrimonious debate that started with the February proposal of an FY2011 budget that would have dramatically shifted the agency’s goals and defied the traditional definitions of partisan warfare, the Senate’s compromise – championed by our own Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Florida’s Sen. Bill Nelson – won the day.

There are two things in the Authorization Act that stand out to me.  First, the Constellation Program, as envisioned by former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, is finished.  Congress has made it absolutely clear that his plan to abandon the International Space Station in 2015 is a non-starter.  NASA has been given clear direction to sustain the ISS through at least 2020.  Indications are that we are likely to keep it running for as long as is safe.

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“This is the best day of my life!”

Earlier this week, in a conversation with a friend, I mentioned that I had offered a friend a tour of Johnson Space Center. She told me that she had just given some family friends a tour of our facilities, and we commented on how sharing our work with our friends and family is one of the most enjoyable aspects of our job. She ended the conversation with something that I’ve been thinking for many months now: “I think doing these types of things should be a part of our job.”

Several months ago, I stood before a tent full of space enthusiasts, some odd one hundred and fifty of them, relating my experiences with training the crew of STS-132. The participants of the STS-132 NASA Tweetup came from all walks of life: in and outside of NASA, engineers, scientists, artists, journalists, students (you name it, and it was quite possible they were there) – all bound by one common thread: their passion for human spaceflight.

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Open Government Community Summit hosted by NASA

NASA will host an Open Government Community Summit on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 from 9pm – 12:30pm at NASA HQ. The Open Government Community Summit Series is an inter-agency collaborative event hosted by a different agency each month, facilitated by the Open Forum Foundation. The September workshop was hosted by the EPA and the November workshop will be hosted by the OPM. Previous summits and workshops have been hosted by the Department of Transportation, the General Services Administration, the US Department of Agriculture, and the US Department of Treasury.

NASA has a solid schedule planned with a heavy emphasis on remote participation for those that cannot attend in person. The first hour will include presentations from leaders in the Open Government Community as well as remarks from Astronaut Jose Hernandez. The presentations will be streamed on NASA TV and will begin at 9am and conclude at 10am. Afterwards, the participants will move into the collaborative workshop which will take place at NASA HQ and online. Due to the availability of live streaming and Internet access, this will be our most collaborative workshop so far. Registration is required to receive all the information regarding the event, so if you have not registered, do so today!

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JSC 2069

This post is cross posted with permission from Steven González Advanced Planning Office Blog (note: this link works only behind the JSC firewall).  Leave a comment either here or on the original post.

“This week I am introducing a new feature from the Advanced Planning Office. The idea for the project came from listening to all of the conversations around the center about the uncertainty and changes before us in 2011. Much of the conversation that I hear is focused on what we will not be doing and the loss of our workforce. Undoubtedly it is going to be a difficult transition as some of our colleagues will be leaving the JSC community and yet we WILL continue the Human Exploration of Space. JSC will carry the torch forward and what we do today will determine how quickly we get to extend our reach into our solar system. So with the inspiration of Pat Rawlings, we would like to engage the JSC community on a discussion of what we CAN DO today that will ensure the below vision of JSC at the 100th anniversary of our landing on the moon. Enjoy and let us know what you think.”

8 Keys to Creating and Building Lasting Enterprises

One of the great things about new digital platforms like openNASA is that they allow us to easily connect, share, discover and expand our experiences.  This includes sharing with each other those experiences that inspire us and impact the way we see the world.  Today, I thought I’d share a talk I heard the last semester of my MBA experience at the University of Texas by one of America’s greatest entrepreneurs, Gary Hoover.  Hoover created Hoovers.com, the world’s largest Internet-based provider of information about enterprises and is also well know for essentially creating the big box bookstore we know today.  His pioneering venture, Bookstop, was eventually sold to Barnes & Noble and became a cornerstone for their industry-dominating superstore chain. Today, Hoover is the “Entrepreneur-in-Residence” at McCombs Business School and spends much of his time today sharing his experience about creating and building lasting enterprises and inspiring students to do the same.  I’ve included a picture I took this morning of the back of his business card, which summarizes his talk.  It’s a list of 8 key ideas on how to create successful business and is a list that he has refined throughout his career.  Hoover gives this talk regularly, in fact he’s shared this now over 700 times on every continent but Antarctica.  This is also the topic of a book he wrote in 2001, called “Hoover’s Vision: Original Thinking for Business Success.” The rest of this post includes the detailed list (as posted on Hoover’s personal website) and if you’d like to watch Hoover give this talk, I’ve posted links to his webinar and the slides as well.  My hope in sharing this with you today is to spread these great ideas further, challenge us all to think differently, and inspire us to continue to do things that amplify our impact and reach.

Hooversworld blog | Gary Hoover Webinar | Presentation Slides

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An overview of NASA’s Desert Research and Technology Studies

If you haven’t heard about NASA’s Desert Research and Technology Studies (Desert RATS, for short), I encourage you to follow along over the next few weeks as astronauts, scientists and engineers meet in the Arizona desert to demonstrate the latest in NASA technology development research and plan for future missions to the surface of the Moon, Mars and other rocky bodies.  Desert RATS began in 1998, and today is one of the many cool things NASA is doing.  This year, four crew members will live in two rovers from Aug. 31 through Sept. 15 to demonstrate the use of a number of interesting technologies, including:

• Space Exploration Vehicles (PDF) – a pair of rovers that astronauts will live in for 7 days at a time
• Habitat Demonstration Unit/Pressurized Excursion Module (PDF) – a simulated habitat where the rovers can dock to allow the crew room to perform experiments or deal with medical issues. The Habitat Development Unit will be used to evaluate the geosciences laboratory in conjunction with the sample collections and to assess the spacesuit maintenance area inside. This team will also focus on procedures for keeping out the dust, the effects on the overall integrated communications and data system and how easy the habitat is for people to use.
• Tri-ATHLETEs, or -Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (PDF) – two heavy-lift rover platforms that allow the habitat, or other large items, to go where the action is portable communications terminals. The ATHLETE System, which consists of a pair of Tri-ATHLETE rovers, will be remotely controlled both in Arizona and from Houston to demonstrate long-traverse operations during lunar time delays and portable local operations from the personnel in Arizona.
• Centaur 2 (PDF) – a possible four-wheeled transportation method for NASA Robonaut 2
• Portable Utility Pallets, or PUPs for short – mobile charging stations for equipment
• Navigation systems to help guide spacewalkers and both solar and wind-powered equipment, will be demonstrated and tested.
• And a suite of new geology sample collection tools, including a self-contained GeoLab glove box for conducting in-field analysis of various collected rock samples.

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Search for LAUNCH:Health Innovators

Vote for SxSW Space Panels!

To build on Beth Beck’s earlier post (Space Buzz: The New High), we really need your help to represent space exploration at this year’s South by Southwest festival in Austin!  Last year, the Moon 2.0 panel at the SxSW was very successful and we really want to keep the momentum going!  A number of space superstars have submitted some really interesting panels for the 2011 SxSW festival.  This year, of the 2346 proposed panels, 4 are space related.  We’re hoping all four are selected, but even one would be awesome.

We need your help! SXSW is a community-driven event and voting accounts for 30% of the decision-making process for any given programming slot.  Of the 2346 proposed panels, only about 80 get selected.  The more votes we submit for the space panels, the more likely they will be included in the final SxSW program.  Voting ends 11:59 CDT on Friday, August 27, so please vote today!

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Space Buzz: The New High!

Sharing Space

I know that much of the success I’ve enjoyed in my life and my career is because of the support and encouragement I’ve received along the way.  That’s why I think it’s important to share my passion for space with kids and show them what they can accomplish if they are willing to work for it.

Over the past week, I’ve had the opportunity and privilege to volunteer with both the United Space School and the International Space Settlement Design Competition.  Both programs bring students from around the world here to Houston to participate in exercises geared towards the design of future ventures in space.

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