Download NASA Ames Research Center - International Innovation

ANALYSIS: EXCLUSIVE
DR SIMON P WORDEN, DIRECTOR
NASA’S AMES RESEARCH CENTER, CALIFORNIA
NASA’S RENOWNED AMES RESEARCH CENTER HAS BEEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF
SPACE R&D FOR MORE THAN 75 YEARS. IN THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, DR SIMON
P WORDEN DESCRIBES THE CENTER’S EXCITING OUTER SPACE RESEARCH AND
EQUALLY IMPORTANT FOCUS ON IMPROVING LIFE ON EARTH
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INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION
ANALYSIS: EXCLUSIVE
Could you give a brief introduction to NASA’s Ames Center?
THE KEPLER MISSION
Ames is one of 10 NASA centres. Our job is to work with
the other centres, industry, universities and international
partners to execute NASA’s exciting programmes.
The NASA Kepler mission aims to discover exoplanets; planets
beyond our own solar system. Since its launch in 2009, Kepler
has found thousands of planetary candidates orbiting far away
stars. Most importantly, it has the potential to identify which
of the planets are in the habitable zone, ie. at temperatures
at which liquid water can exist. These habitable zone planets
therefore may harbour forms of life familiar to those on Earth.
How did you become involved with the Center?
I had long been a critic of some of NASA’s efforts. The previous
NASA leader, Dr Mike Griffin, was a good friend of mine. Soon after
he became NASA Administrator he suggested I stop complaining
and apply for a senior job at NASA to help fix the problems – that
was in 2005. In 2006, I was selected to run NASA Ames.
Has your leadership changed the direction in
which the organisation is moving?
Working at Ames has been the best job I’ve ever had. Much has changed
since I joined and in my opinion each year has presented even more
opportunities. NASA’s increased focus on both private sector as well as
international partnerships is key to its success. At the same time all of
the NASA centres have increased partnerships with each other. Ames,
in part due to our location in Silicon Valley, has become a leader in
many partnerships, which has led to significant advances in a number of
areas. I’m particularly proud of our successes with very small satellites,
as well as our leading role in fundamental biological research.
During your varied career, what has been the
most exciting moment for you?
There’s nothing like attending a launch when one of our payloads is
onboard. But when one of these missions, such as Kepler, discovers
something new – for instance the first detection of an Earth-sized
planet in the habitable zone around another star – that’s even better!
NASA’s Ames Center provides key advancements in technologies
as wide-ranging as entry systems, next-generation air
transportation and wind tunnels. For you, what is the most
exciting technology that the Center is working on currently?
You are asking me which of my children I like best! The search for
life in the Universe is to me the most exciting science objective.
We are working to actually image planets around the nearest
stars. Sometime in the 2020s we will succeed and may find out if
any of our near stellar neighbours have a life-bearing planet!
What are the most significant contributions that the organisation
has made to space research since its establishment in 1939?
There are three particularly big achievements. Starting with the
development of the blunt body re-entry concept in the 1950s, Ames
has led entry, descent and landing work for NASA; so much so that it’s
fair to say that if you want to go into space go to the rocket centres
– Marshall, Stennis and Kennedy – but if you want to return home
you need to work with Ames! Second is our lead role in developing
astrobiology – how did life begin, where else does it exist in the
Universe and, finally, what is its future? Finally, Ames has become
NASA’s partnership Center, both international and domestic. These
partnerships involve developing small satellites, new IT capabilities such
as quantum computing and using the new International Space Station.
Could you explain the inspiration behind your unique
‘GreenSpace’ initiative and the effect this has had on
linking aerospace with environmental sciences?
While much of NASA’s work is centred on outer space, a significant amount
is focused on making life better here on Earth. Many technologies, especially
those that enable us to live in space, such as on the International Space
Station, require careful use and reuse of resources such as air and water.
These same technologies can help us live better and more environmentally
responsibly on Earth. We applied many of these to build the greenest building
in the US Government, which we call Sustainability Base. It demonstrates
the same capabilities as the Space Station – recycling water, efficient
production and use of power, and careful control of thermal balance.
AMES RESEARCH AREAS:
Entry systems – safely
delivering spacecraft to Earth
and other celestial bodies
NextGen air
transportation
– transforming
the way we fly
Supercomputing
– enabling NASA’s
advanced modelling
and simulation
Airborne science –
examining our own
world and beyond
from the sky
Exoplanets –
finding worlds
beyond our
own
Autonomy
and robotics –
complementing
humans in space
Biology and
astrobiology –
understanding
life on Earth
and in space
Low-cost missions –
enabling high-value
science to low Earth
orbit and the moon
Lunar science –
rediscovering the
Moon
Human factors –
advancing humantechnology
interaction for
NASA missions
Wind tunnels
– testing on the
ground before
taking to the sky
WWW.INTERNATIONALINNOVATION.COM
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ANALYSIS: EXCLUSIVE
In what ways are the Center’s partnerships with academia, industry
and non-profit corporations key to achieving its goals?
NASA’s programme is very ambitious and the US Government
cannot achieve these goals alone. Help from emerging private sector
concerns for such initiatives as launch to low-Earth orbit is necessary.
Similarly, our exciting goals of enabling human occupation of Mars
require ideas, resources and support from the entire planet.
Have the Center and the research field encountered any
difficulties recently and how will these be overcome?
We face the same challenges as every government research centre.
The first is money. We are working to get more with what we have.
Increasingly relying on small, low-cost satellites is one solution. Another
is international and private sector partnerships. The second challenge,
especially in Silicon Valley, is hiring the best new people. While we can’t
offer as much money as our Silicon Valley neighbours, we can offer
them the Universe – to explore and research. This is a potent draw!
that planets the size of the Earth, and in the so-called habitable zone (where
liquid water could exist on the surface) are common. Perhaps one-quarter of
all stars have such a planet. The next step is finding if any of them bear life.
How do you see the organisation strengthening its role
in space research over the next five to 10 years?
Ames is a lead player in many key space technologies. We are
particularly focused on doing even more with small satellites –
especially enabling small satellites to explore much of the solar
system. Also, we have much work to do in fundamental biology. In
particular, we need to learn how to engineer biology to help us live
on other worlds. This is the emerging field of synthetic biology.
www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/home/index.html
What are the biggest questions in space research at the moment
and how is NASA’s Ames Center working to answer these?
To my mind the key question is ‘are we alone?’. Ames is on the forefront in
the search for life in the Universe with missions such as Kepler, which showed
WORKING AT THE
QUANTUM LEVEL
AMES ON ASTROBIOLOGY
Hundreds of biological studies have been carried out by
NASA in order to understand the effects of the space
environment, low gravity and high radiation on humans.
More uniquely, Ames is also part of research on some of
the fundamental questions surrounding our existence on
Earth and whether life exists elsewhere. The astrobiology
research taking place at Ames requires cooperation
between diverse disciplines, including astrophysics,
Earth science, microbiology and cosmochemistry. Ames
contributes to the field of astrobiology via the search
for habitable environments within and outside our solar
system as well as looking for evidence of life on Mars
and other planets and moons in our solar system.
Further to this, Ames conducts research in inhospitable
environments on Earth such as Antarctica, the Atacama
Desert in South America and deep-sea geothermal
regions where life somehow exists. Understanding how
microbial life on Earth survives such harsh environments
could improve our knowledge of how life evolved on our
planet and inform our expectations of what life will look
like on other celestial bodies.
In a partnership between
NASA, Google and the
Universities Space Research
Association (USRA – see p9), a
quantum computing research
team has emerged at the NASA
Advanced Supercomputing
(NAS) facility at Ames. The
team at the Quantum Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory (QuAIL)
is looking into how quantum
algorithms can help solve
problems in space exploration
and research including system
diagnostics, mission planning
and scheduling and machine
learning. By involving USRA,
the academic community is
able to use the D-Wave Two™
quantum computer for 20 per
cent of the time at zero cost
after a competitive selection
process, and also collaborate
with the teams at Google and
Ames Research Center.
A MISSION FOR EARTH
The result of the 2007 NASA ‘Renovation by Replacement’ competition, Sustainability Base was established – a 50,000 square
foot government building at NASA’s Ames Center. It is designed to fit with the surrounding environment and react intuitively to
changes in weather, seasons and building usage. Due to large windows and a narrow building that makes the most of the Sun’s
arc, artificial lighting is required for only 40 days of each year. Each employee has an ‘energy dashboard’ which shows how much
energy they are using and how they could conserve it at any one time, such as by opening or closing a window. The building uses
90 per cent less drinking water than a typical building of a similar size and generates all of its own power using photovoltaics,
a wind turbine and a fuel cell. Sustainability Base leaves almost no carbon footprint, providing a blueprint for how sustainable
buildings can be achieved in the future.
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INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION