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Improving NASA's Technology for Space Science (Chapter 1)
Improving NASA's Technology for Space Science
1
Introduction
STUDY ORIGINS
The role that advanced technology plays in the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration's pursuit of the nation's civil space goals is self-evident. Technology
underpins every aspect of space missions and ground operations. In common with other
high-technology organizations, NASA must periodically assess its processes for selecting
technology development tasks and choosing programs.
In December 1991, NASA asked the National Research Council (NRC) to identify
means of optimizing the future development of technology for space science and
applications (see Appendix A). As requested, this resulting study focuses on the technology
needs of the NASA Office of Space Science and Applications (OSSA), and the relevant
decision processes and programs of OSSA and the NASA Office of Aeronautics and Space
Technology (OAST).
REPORT MENU
NOTICE
MEMBERSHIP Two boards of the NRC, the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) and
PREFACE the Space Studies Board (SSB), advise OAST and OSSA, respectively. These boards
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY assembled a broadly representative committee of 26 engineers and scientists from industry,
CHAPTER 1 academia, and government: the Committee on Space Science Technology Planning. To
CHAPTER 2
perform this study the Committee reviewed the technology needs of the six OSSA science
CHAPTER 3
divisions, identifying gaps where possible; reviewed the processes by which the needs had
CHAPTER 4
been derived; and reviewed the OAST responses to the needs and the processes by which
ACRONYMS
these had been derived. After completing the above, the Committee has suggested a
BIOGRAPHIES
number of modifications and actions to improve coordination and transfer of knowledge and
BIBLIOGRAPHY
technology between OSSA and OAST.
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX B
The Committee met on May 22, 1992 and June 22-26, 1992. The first meeting was
APPENDIX C
devoted to briefings from OAST and OSSA officials on their programs and their
APPENDIX D
perspectives on the requested study. The week-long workshop expanded upon those
APPENDIX E
briefings in plenary session and permitted subcommittees to examine particular issues in
more detail. Subcommittees were formed in four areas: astrophysics and space physics;
earth and planetary sciences; life sciences; and microgravity sciences. Workshop
participants are listed in Appendix B. In October 1992, the Administrator of NASA
announced his intention to reorganize OAST and OSSA. OAST was divided into separate
space and aeronautics organizations. OSSA was divided into separate organizations for
different areas of space sciences and applications. As this organization occurred during the
editing of this report, the study committee had no opportunity to examine the reorganization.
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Improving NASA's Technology for Space Science (Chapter 1)
Despite the reorganization, however, the goals and responsibilities previously assigned to
OSSA and OAST are likely to endure and the results of this study should prove useful to
their successor organizations. Because of the changes in organization, and to avoid
cumbersome sentences, all references to OSSA and OAST should be taken to refer with
equal facility to the past structure or the successor organizations.
NASA AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
The Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology has been the NASA office charged
with funding and carrying out exploratory and proof-of-concept technology development in
support of other NASA entities. OAST's mission statement for its Space Technology
Directorate is to:
. . . provide technology for future civil space missions and provide a base of
research and technology capabilities to serve all national space goals.
[OAST shall] Identify, develop, validate and transfer technology to: increase
mission safety and reliability; reduce program development and operations
cost; enhance mission performance; and enable new missions. [OAST shall]
Provide the capability to: advance technology in critical disciplines; and
respond to unanticipated mission needs.1
In accordance with its mission, the Office of Space Science and Applications is:
. . . responsible for planning, directing, executing and evaluating that part of
the overall NASA program that has the goal of using the unique
characteristics of the space environment to conduct a scientific study of the
universe, to understand how Earth works as an integrated system, to solve
practical problems on Earth, and to provide the scientific and technological
research foundation for expanding human presence beyond Earth orbit into
the solar system.2
OAST's responsibilities encompass but extend considerably beyond serving OSSA's
needs. OAST categorizes its efforts into two areas: basic and focused technology
development. Basic research and development is supported by the Research and
Technology Base Program, referred to as the Base Program. The Base Program
addresses: aerothermodynamics, space energy conversion, propulsion, materials and
structures, information and controls, human support, and space communications. Focused
research and development is supported primarily by the Civil Space Technology Initiative
and is divided into five technology thrusts for the support of space science, operations,
transportation, platforms, and planetary surface exploration.
The funds allocated to OAST represented, and it is anticipated that those allocated
to the successor Office of Advanced Concepts and Technology will continue to represent,
the largest discretionary resources that NASA can apply to technology development. In
fiscal year (FY) 1992, NASA invested $306 million through OAST to create new
technological capabilities. In focused research and development, $13:5 million was
allocated specifically to the space science thrust. An estimated $27.7-$47 million more from
the $150 million Civil Space Technology Initiative also contributed to space science
technology. According to OAST, $67.8 of the $155.9 million in the Base Program
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Improving NASA's Technology for Space Science (Chapter 1)
contributed to space science objectives in a more general way.
OSSA divisions fund advanced technology development activities that are generally
carried out in support of comparatively near-term requirements of well-defined missions.
Ideally, OSSA's technology development activities would begin where those of OAST end,
and would lead to jointly-developed flight hardware. OSSA has estimated that it invested
$48.8 million in technology development for the space sciences in FY 1992. These
estimates and OAST's allocations, which do not include the cost of civil servants, are
discussed in Appendix C.
Because NASA is inherently a high-technology organization, and because its
programs are so diverse, technology development is a pervasive, distributed function across
all of NASA's offices, programs, and centers. Technology development may occur within the
framework of research or operational missions, or in support of projected future needs.
Within NASA, each program and office is largely free to choose its technology according to
its own perspectives, establish its own priorities for development, and conduct its programs
according to its own procedures.
There are few incentives to promote collaboration or the transfer of technology
across program or NASA center boundaries. Thus, the collaboration between OSSA and
OAST that is a principal subject of this report has been a voluntary one. The complexities of
NASA organizational structure and the separate budgets employed to fund activities
produce the potential for impediments to technology transfer.
One of the most powerful pressures for the integration of programs and activities
ordinarily occurs in the development of a budget. The overall NASA budget, however, can
be depicted as largely independent segments that are separately examined in the budget
process. Each office's budget is individually defended before the NASA Administrator, the
Office of Management and Budget, and Congress. Therefore, each office naturally feels that
it "owns" and has earned its individual budget. Except in the broadest sense, the
coordination of activities is left to voluntary efforts among managers.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, both OAST and OSSA experienced significant
but inconsistent budget growth. From 1980 to 1992, in real dollar terms, OSSA's budget
grew approximately 70 percent, and OAST's space technology budget grew approximately
55 percent. The OSSA and OAST space technology budgets from 1980 to 1992 are shown
in Figure 1.
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Improving NASA's Technology for Space Science (Chapter 1)
Figure 1 OSSA total and OAST space technology budgets 1980-1992.
THE INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGY PLAN
In response to a recommendation by the Advisory Committee on the Future of the
U.S. Space Program,3 OAST prepared the Integrated Technology Plan for the Civil Space
Program (ITP). The ITP is to:
. . . serve as a strategic plan for the [OAST] space research and technology
(R&T) program, and as a strategic planning framework for other NASA and
national participants in advocating and conducting technology developments
that support future U.S. civil space missions.4
The preparation of the ITP inns a major effort that addressed the technology needs
of all areas of the NASA space program, other interested government agencies, the
commercial space industry, and recommendations of advisory groups. A diagram depicting
the flow of space science technology needs through OSSA and OAST, and consistent with
the activities taking place during the development of the ITP, is shown in Figure 2. The ITP
and its subsequent review by the NASA Space Systems and Technology Advisory
Committee (SSTAC) were the final major elements leading to the current study.
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Improving NASA's Technology for Space Science (Chapter 1)
Figure 2 The flow of space science technology needs through OSSA and OAST.
A number of important reports over the last decade have served as background for
this study. Appendix D contains summaries of the past recommendations made by several
advisory bodies that relate to technology for space science and applications. These form the
backdrop and in many cases the rationale for OAST's current program and plans. These
studies were the point of departure for the development of the OAST Integrated Technology
Plan and its subsequent review by the NASA Space Systems and Technology Advisory
Committee.
NOTES
1. OAST presentation
2. OSSA 1991 Strategic Plan, p 6
3. Report of the Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program
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Improving NASA's Technology for Space Science (Chapter 1)
4. Integrated Technology Plan, p ii
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