Pushing the Envelope of Space Technology

By Chuck Oldham

When the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) was created in February 2013, it marked both a step into the future and another into the past, all the way back to NASA’s predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA).

“There is a really strong tie-back to NACA, from a culture and purpose perspective. They were doing R&D to solve problems. One striking thing is they were tackling real problems industry didn’t know how to solve. It also was a very test-rich program – flight tests, wind tunnels – a very applied, go-figurethis-out approach,” said then-Associate Administrator for STMD Michael Gazarik in a 2015 interview. Today, Gazarik is vice president of engineering for Ball Aerospace.

“We are here because technology drives exploration and trying to really get back to the NACA culture of workforce in the labs – flying, testing, occasionally breaking – and that’s OK because we’re learning along the way, developing technology and knowledge broadly applicable to the national aerospace community.”

STMD also represents a return to the early years of NASA itself, when the space agency was charged with sending a man to the Moon – and returning him alive – in less than a decade. At the dawn of the 21st century – more than 40 years after the last human walked on the lunar surface – STMD has turned its focus on new, piloted missions to the Moon and Mars.

“This time it’s not going to be about placing flags and footprints on the surface of the Moon, and it’s not about winning the Cold War,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said during a visit to NASA’s Langley Research Center. “It’s about having a permanent presence around the Moon for economic activity and eventually taking all of that sustainable architecture and replicating it on Mars.”

Some of the programs and projects associated with the new exploration mission include the Orion spacecraft, Exploration Ground Systems, the Space Launch System, the Human Research Program, the Lunar Orbital Platform – Gateway, Advanced Cis-lunar and Surface Capabilities, Exploration Advanced Systems, International Space Station, and the Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program.

Key areas in which STMD is invested in this new drive into the future include entry, descent, and landing on another planet, such as Mars. Going to Mars with humans requires a capability of landing much more than a metric ton, a challenge that has spurred a number of ideas on how to slow down a large spacecraft and land safely on the planet. These technologies will benefit both robotic and manned missions.

Technologies STMD is pursuing include the ability to get data back from deep space – increasing the throughput of communications. Most of the images robotic probes have taken on Mars, for example, remain there because there is not sufficient bandwidth to transmit them back to Earth.

Another example is propulsion. One of the most efficient ways to move is solar electric propulsion (SEP), which provides a low-level but steady thrust. The first major SEP spacecraft, Dawn, was launched in September 2007 to visit the two largest objects in the Asteroid Belt – one year orbiting the 330-mile-diameter protoplanet Vesta in 2011-12, then 16 months circling Vesta’s big sister, the dwarf planet Ceres (590-mile diameter), beginning in March 2015. Dawn became the first spacecraft to orbit an object in the asteroid belt, and the first spacecraft to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies. Dawn’s mission has been extended several times, providing much more than the research originally hoped for, and while it is now drawing to a close, it also succeeded in pushing the limits of solar electric propulsion.

STMD is working to enhance the power available from the sun, with a goal of 50 kilowatts, twice what current Earth satellites are able to generate. Increasing that power level means bigger solar arrays, pending the development of future new technologies that might pull more power from smaller arrays, as well as a better thrusting system.

Pioneering these systems benefits not only NASA, but the entire aerospace industry, as well as military and commercial spacecraft.

One indication of how important the exploration mission has become was the recent proposal to restructure STMD into a new Exploration Research & Technology (ER&T) organization to make its primary mission to support exploration.

“NASA is restructuring the agency to align with the new focus on exploration,” according to the 2018 ‘NASA Strategic Plan.’ “As a first major step, the former Space Technology Mission Directorate and advanced technology work in the Advanced Exploration Systems program will be merged into a new Exploration Research & Technology organization. Two further options for the next step in aligning NASA’s organizational structure with the agency’s focus on exploration are currently under review:

Option 1: Eliminating the current Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) and STMD structure and creating two new exploration-focused mission directorates:

• Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD), which will focus on the International Space Station (ISS), commercial low-Earth orbit operations, and crosscutting support areas required to support exploration, such as communications and rocket propulsion.

• Exploration Systems and Technology Mission Directorate, which will focus on deep space mission elements and technology development needs for sustainable human exploration.

Option 2: Creating a single “super” exploration-focused mission directorate by pulling together all the exploration-focused areas in the current HEOMD and STMD organizations.”

NASA planned to choose one of these two options (or potentially a hybrid option) in the spring and prepare for implementation with the FY 2019 budget, but after presentation to Congress, the decision on which of the options to take, if any, has been delayed.

In the meantime, STMD continues to mature near-term technologies needed to support the exploration mission as well as pushing leading-edge research that could contribute to the disruptive technologies that may be necessary for the challenging deep-space exploration missions of the future.

According to the 2018 “Strategic Plan,” these efforts include:

• Continued development of high-powered solar electric propulsion (SEP) technologies. SEP will enable efficient orbital transfer as well as meet the increasing power demands of satellites, but perhaps most importantly will be incorporated into the “human exploration architecture for deep space missions.”

• In-space demonstration of a deep-space atomic clock for advanced navigation while out of range of existing technologies such as GPS and ground-station navigational systems.

• In-space demonstration of a new high-performance propellant alternative to hydrazine, which is efficient but highly toxic.

• Completing flight hardware development for the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration and four other technologies for the Mars 2020 mission.

• With industry partners, conducting “In-Space Robotic Manufacturing & Assembly ground tests to reduce the risk associated with robotic manipulation of structures and remote manufacturing of structural trusses.”

• Developing “a diverse portfolio of early-stage research and technology creating a technology pipeline to solve the agency and the nation’s most difficult exploration challenges by partnering with researchers across academia and industry.

• Continuing “to prioritize ‘tipping point’ technologies through public/private partnerships and early-stage innovation with over 600 awards to small businesses, private innovators, and academia to spark new ideas for the benefit of U.S. aerospace and high-tech industries.

In pursuit of these goals, STMD has conducted an array of technology developments, running from early-stage research to flight demonstrations, with a primary focus on problems NASA faces in future deep-space exploration missions. Like the NACA did in the pioneering years of aviation, STMD is forging strong partnerships with industry and academia that fuel the development of high-payoff technologies.

The directorate’s merit-based competition model spans a wide-ranging portfolio of discipline areas and technology readiness levels (TRL), from basic technology research (TRL 1,2) to technology demonstrations and even system and subsystem development (TRL 7,8). STMD sponsors, supports, or enables research through a number of prizes and challenges, support to NASA Centers through the Center Innovation Fund, supporting relevant industries and institutions neighboring NASA Centers, and through Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer, among other programs, including:

Centennial Challenges NASA Centennial Challenges began in 2005, offering incentive prizes to generate revolutionary solutions from diverse and non-traditional sources to problems of interest to NASA and the nation. Awards are made to successful teams when the challenges are met. A 3D-Printed Habitat challenge, for example, has now progressed to the third of three stages with an On-Site Habitat Competition, where teams are required to autonomously construct a habitat, culminating in a head-to-head habitat print in April 2019.

Emerging Space Office NASA’s Emerging Space Office, managed by STMD, supports private-sector individuals and organizations investing their own time and money in space activities. The success of a number of emerging private space firms such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Scaled Composites, as well as the space flight divisions of corporations such as Boeing and Northrop Grumman, demonstrate that commercial spaceflight is becoming a major force in American space developments.

“Right now, the United States of America is on the precipice of launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil for the first time since the retirement of the Space Shuttles in 2011,” wrote NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in a September 2018 blog post. “Unlike previous human launches, NASA will not own and operate the rockets. Instead, NASA will be a customer of a robust, domestic, commercial industry currently providing access to low-Earth orbit.

An artist’s conception of a Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY) system on the Moon. The STMD program successfully demonstrated a new nuclear reactor power system that could enable long-duration crewed missions to the Moon, Mars, and destinations beyond.

“The industry itself is a NASA success story and an American victory,” Bridenstine wrote. “Because of NASA’s investments in the American launch industry, space launch now represents a net export for our country. In fact, from 2011-2017, the United States grew its market share of commercial launch from 0 percent to 54 percent in the global economy. In 2018, the United States could reach 65 percent.”

Flight Opportunities The Flight Opportunities program provides access to space-relevant environments through the use of commercial reusable suborbital launch vehicles (sRLVs), rocket-powered vertical takeoff vertical landing (VTVL) platforms, high-altitude balloons, and parabolic aircraft flights. The program consists of Suborbital Flight Testing and Capability Development, where NASA selects promising technologies from industry, academia, and government, and tests them on commercial suborbital platforms; and Small Launch Vehicle Technology Development, where NASA accelerates the development of commercial capabilities to allow frequent launch of small satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) at a much lower cost per kilogram of payload than current platforms.

Some of the fruits of the Flight Opportunities program include developments in printing in space and radiation-hardened computers, as well as funding the parabolic and suborbital flights that matured NASA’s Kilopower technology’s titanium water heat pipes by exposing them to space-relevant environments through the use of commercial reusable suborbital launch vehicles.

Game Changing Development This program seeks to identify and rapidly mature capabilities and technologies that have the potential to revolutionize future space missions, and that are at the mid Technology Readiness Level (TRL) range of (3-5/6) generally taking technologies from proof-of-concept through component or breadboard testing in a relevant environment. The goal is to advance space technologies that may lead to entirely new approaches for future space missions.

Just one of many promising projects under STMD’s Game Changing Developments program is the Kilopower program mentioned above. The Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Technology (KRUSTY) is a small, lightweight fission power system. “The prototype power system uses a solid, cast uranium-235 reactor core, about the size of a paper towel roll. Passive sodium heat pipes transfer reactor heat to highefficiency Stirling engines, which convert the heat to electricity,” according to NASA, capable of safely providing up to 10 kilowatts of electrical power continuously for at least 10 years. Four Kilopower units could power an outpost on the Moon or Mars. “Safe, efficient and plentiful energy will be the key to future robotic and human exploration,” said Jim Reuter, NASA’s acting associate administrator for the STMD in Washington. “I expect the Kilopower project to be an essential part of lunar and Mars power architectures as they evolve.”

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program supports ideas at the low technology readiness level (TRLs 1,2,3) concepts that could create breakthroughs to future NASA missions through radically better or entirely new aerospace architectures, systems, or missions. NIAC engages American entrepreneurs and innovators to study early, innovative, technically credible, advanced concepts.

The iTech Initiative NASA’s iTech initiative is a yearlong effort to find innovative ideas that address challenges and will fill gaps in five critical areas identified by NASA as having a potential impact on future exploration. The critical technology areas are: artificial intelligence; augmented reality advancement; autonomy; highperformance computing; medical breakthrough; and x-factor innovations – solutions for unspecified future challenges. NASA iTech is an initiative by the Space Technology Mission Directorate and managed by the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) in Hampton, Virginia.

Small Spacecraft Technology Program The Small Spacecraft Technology program identifies and supports the development of new subsystem technologies to enhance or expand the capabilities of small spacecraft; supports flight demonstrations of new technologies, capabilities, and applications for small spacecraft; and uses small spacecraft to test and demonstrate technologies and capabilities that might be applied to spacecraft of any size. Some of the program’s missions include investigations of integrated solar arrays and “reflectarray” antennas; high-speed optical transmission of data and small spacecraft proximity operations; CubeSat rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking; CubeSat testing of new propulsion systems and laser communications systems that will greatly increase data throughput from the spacecraft to the ground.

Space Technology Research Grants Space Technology Research Grants (STRG) seek and empower a range of academic researchers to aid in the development of high-risk/high-payoff technologies to support future space science and exploration needs. STRG consists of competitively selected research grants from four solicitations: Early Career Faculty (ECF), Early Stage Innovations (ESI), Space Technology Research Institutes (STRI) and NASA Space Technology Research Fellowships (NSTRF).

Technology Demonstration Missions NASA’s Technology Demonstration Missions program seeks to mature laboratoryproven technologies to flight-ready status. Some of the technologies being matured in Technology Demonstration Missions include the Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC), Deep Space Optical Communication (DSOC), Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM), In-space Robotic Manufacturing and Assembly (IRMA), Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID), Satellite Servicing, and Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP).

Technology Transfer NASA’s Technology Transfer Program maximizes benefits of technologies developed for missions in exploration and discovery by making them more easily available to the public. Some technologies developed in whole or in part by NASA include water filtration systems that are eliminating waterborne diseases worldwide, the technology behind computed tomography (CT) and MRI scanners, advanced pacemakers, lightweight advanced firefighting equipment, lightning protection, grooved highways, aircraft winglets, and other devices to increase safety and efficiency, and hundreds of other processes and technologies.

This time around, the way to the Moon and on to Mars will be paved with greater commercialization of low-Earth orbit (LEO), and partnerships between NASA, international partners, academia, and commercial aerospace and other firms working hand in hand in this next giant leap.

“Technology takes time to mature – problems to solve, things to learn,” said Gazarik. “So by default, the trick is to learn quickly, ‘fail quickly,’ we call it, and keep a sustained investment. NASA’s ‘failure is not an option’ culture is important, certainly for human spaceflight, but for technology, risk intolerance probably is a failure. We are trying to do things more the DARPA way – doing the hard things and, on occasion, breaking things, in an agency that is not used to failing in any shape or form. Technology drives exploration, and we have a lot of exciting work to do, now that we are established and on our way, pushing boundaries and developing new knowledge and technologies the nation needs to explore.

“In just a few more years, we will have more exploration capability than the world has ever seen. We’re in the trenches right now, but in a few years, we’ll look back and say, ‘Wow.’ One paradigm shift we’ve seen already is the use of commercial capabilities to get to LEO and eventually to the Moon, and dealing with the resources there. American industry has always built the hardware we use, so it’s just a slight paradigm shift to greater involvement by the private sector, as with NACA and the airline industry. We will do this together and I think that will prove to be the smart way to pave the way for future exploration.”