Dr. Andrew Keys on Marshall Space Flight Center

During the Sample Return Robot Challenge NASA Social, we got to meet and listen to several people from NASA who work at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Dr. Andrew Keys is the Chief Technologist at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Dr. Keys works with Sam Ortega, the Program Manager for the Sample Return Robot Challenge.

NASA has ten field centers across the United States. Each has a Center Chief Technologist. MSFC runs and hosts the Centennial Challenge Program. MSFC is known for rocketry with a heritage of Wernher von Braun. Braun came from Germany after the war and was hired by the Army. When the Army’s ballistic agency was turned into Marshall Space Flight Center, Braun became the center’s director. He was also the manager of the Saturn V program which got the United States to the moon.

NASA is still a very active agency, still looking to do great technological things in space. A general public perception is because the Space Shuttle Program has ended and Constellation has been cancelled, that the agency is closing up shop. That is completely incorrect.

One of the things the agency is looking at is a National mission to do an asteroid retrieval mission.

At MSFC, they are focusing on the Space Launch System (SLS), a heavy lift rocket. In its initial inception, it will lift 70 metric tons of payload. They expect to mount the Orion capsule on top and do manned mission eventually to whatever asteroid they wind up retrieving and other destinations like Mars and Lagrange points, or lunar destinations.

As a federal agency, NASA gets directions, orders, and funding from Congress and the White House.

MSFC is also doing things related to additive manufacturing, 3D printing, and advanced materials and manufacturing capabilities. They are involved in developing the first in space additive manufacturing 3D printing payload for the space station. They expect to launch it in the next 18 months.

Having a 3D printer will help avoid having to launch spare parts or find a part in the closet on board. These extra parts are a lot of mass and cost money to launch.

Ideally the design would be uploaded through telemetry transmission to the spacecraft and loaded into the printer. The tool can be used and then put in the hopper to be recycled into a new part.

Environmental life support is also another thing MSFC focuses on. Air, water, and waste reclamation and recycling. Instead of launching fresh water, being able to recycle and filter human waste in a closed system is important. With a mission to Mars which will last over a year, we need to figure out how to continue to recycle.

Besides getting rockets to get into orbit, MSFC is looking at ways to get from orbit to other destinations. Solar Sails use proton pressure from the sun to propel objects across the solar system. Electrodynamic tethers, made by stringing out a piece of conductive metal and putting it in a magnetic field creates an electric current. That current has a certain force that can possibly be used to move objects around in Earth orbit.

Ion propulsion includes propelling ions away from a magnetic field. When the ions are accelerated away from the spacecraft, an opposite force can move the spacecraft.

Dr. Keys was involved in hardening electronics for deep space use. Outside of Earth’s protective magnetic field, humans and equipment are exposed to radiation in space. Exposrure to a lot of radiation can cause sickness, cancer and death. We have to figure out ways to shield from the radiation or get places faster to limit the amount of exposure. Sensitive hardware can be damaged or locked up from exposure to radiation.

The Centennial Challenge Program is a new way of developing technologies that involves citizen inventors working on their own to solve a problem. During events like the Sample Return Robot Challenge, the inventions are tested against a minimum set of requirements. Inventors can win award money for their inventions. The challenges are meant to be challenging. No one won anything last year.

NASA puts out solicitations for technology proposals. Whoever wins that proposal receives money to develop the technology and bring it back to NASA within a specified schedule. That is expensive.

The Centennial Challenge invites everyone to submit technology inventions and then money is awarded. NASA is getting many very innovative solutions to the things they are proposing.

With the Sample Return Robot Challenge, NASA wants to autonomously go to some location, program what it looking for (for example a geologic formation or spaces where water is likely is to be resident), and allow these autonomous robotic units to find these things without human intervention. The rovers currently on Mars are carefully monitored by JPL and orchestrated step by step.

How does using robots on Earth translate to the moon?

The challenge is sort of designed to simulate the lunar environment. Teams can and often do put a beacon or indicator down where the robot lands. The robot has to leave the landing pad, retrieve the sample, and return back to the landing pad. One team asked if balloons were permitted. But you probably don’t want to use a balloon because there is no atmosphere on the moon and it would not float.

Dr. Keys mentioned that the sun was a factor one day. As the sun moved and clouds formed, the shadows affected how some robots behaved. Those factors are not exactly the same on the moon.

The technology developed on Earth may not translate directly to places like the moon. But the software, algorithms, techniques, LIDAR, and image processing can be used in the actual missions.

How does SpaceX and what they are doing relate to what NASA is doing?

NASA is trying to stay an arm’s length distance from private industries but subsidize them to help them succeed. Space flight is no longer the exclusive domain of the government agency. NASA’s budget is one-half of one percent of the output of each annual federal budget. While NASA does a lot with that money, the agency can’t do everything. NASA did all the Apollo and Mars stuff, but technology is now so accessible to everyone that can privately fund it.

Elon Musk from SpaceX, Sierra Nevada, and other companies are putting together privately owned launch vehicles and are working on services for NASA. That allows the agency to free up resources devoted to transport and instead focus on things that either the private industry can’t afford to do or has no business incentive to do. It has turned into a very beneficial business partnership.

The Dragon spaceship from SpaceX has successfully delivered cargo to the ISS. They are looking into certifying spacecraft to carry humans safety to the ISS. It is the company’s liability because they own the spacecraft. NASA isn’t liable for it.

With aircraft on Earth, the FAA certifies the aircraft for safety. With spacecraft, there is still a discussion if a central agency should oversee the certification. NASA doesn’t regulate the private industry, but does advise and subsidize it.

Nuclear propulsion could get to a quarter of the speed of light. Is NASA working on that?

NASA is working on nuclear propulsion, but it is hard to deal with. You have to use it safely. Nuclear propulsion does provide the most amount of power in the most compact volume and mass you can launch. NASA is looking at how they can use it to power ion propulsion. But the agency isn’t there yet.

The Department of Energy also regulates anything that uses nuclear and needs to understand what NASA is doing with it.

Isn’t Cassini nuclear powered?

Cassini is nuclear powered by Radioative Thermoelectric Generators (RTG). The RTG uses the decay of plutonium and the heat it generates and transduces it into electricity for the spacecraft. It is not an active nuclear reactor like we have in power plants on Earth.

NASA wants to get to the point of using more active nuclear materials to produce a higher level of energy. There are two parts to nuclear, power and propulsion. One way to get nuclear propulsion is to use a reactor that generates lots of heat that you then flow liquid fuel like hydrogen through. The hydrogen picks up that heat and is expelled like in a rocket engine. The propulsion comes from the quick heating and expansion of the hydrogen.

How does sequestration affect what NASA is doing?

NASA is one of the few government agencies that didn’t have to furlough employees. Sequestration has slowed down things. It has put additional restrictions on attending technical conferences and travel. Because the agency has a responsibility to be innovative and provide information back to the taxpayers, it is important to travel to these technical conferences. It is a hindrance but there are ways around it.