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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 6 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 7 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. 8 INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION