Academy Sharing Knowledge

The NASA Source for Project Management and Engineering Excellence | APPEL WINTER | 2013

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Inside

The Thermal Design Challenge

solving Challenges Through 

mass CollaboraTion

The TooThbrush haCk
Scan this code with 

your mobile device 

to read ASK online.

 leow NerD/ASA: Ntidero CtohP

ON THE COVER

As the planned successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, even the smallest of parts on 

the James Webb Space Telescope will play a critical role in its performance. “Actuators” 

are one component that will help Webb focus on some of the earliest objects in the 

universe. Pictured is the Webb engineering design unit’s primary mirror segment, coated 

with gold by Quantum Coating Incorporated. The actuator is located behind the mirror. 
Contents

5

Departments

3

In This Issue 

By Don Cohen

4

From the Academy Director

Toward Knowledge Resilience 

By eD hoffman

54

The Knowledge Notebook

Saying the F Word

By LaurenCe Prusak

56

ASK Interactive 

InsIghts

15

Solving Challenges Through 

Mass Collaboration

By niCk skytLanD Skytland and his small 

NASA team are inviting thousands of 

interested citizens to solve technical problems.

23

Interview with Alan Lindenmoyer

By Don Cohen The manager of the 

Commercial Crew and Cargo Program talks 

about the process of NASA becoming a trusted 

and trusting partner of companies developing 

new launch vehicles and spacecraft.

38

Reducing Natural-Language Ambiguities 

in Requirements Engineering

By Lars sChnieDer anD susanne arnDt 

Being clear about what words mean is essential 

to writing effective project requirements.

49

Viewpoint: Attracting 

Tomorrow’s Engineers 

By amir s. GoharDani anD omiD GoharDani 

Creative teaching methods can inspire a 

new generation of rocket scientists.

51

The NESC Academy: Expertise 

for Tomorrow’s Engineers

By PatriCia PahLavani Assessments by 

NASA technical fellows help the Academy 

decide what knowledge to share online.

10 15

ASK MAGAZINE | 1
Issue no. 49

Staff

The Academy of Program/Project and Engineering Leadership (APPEL) and ASK 

Magazine help NASA managers and project teams accomplish today’s missions 

and meet tomorrow’s challenges by sponsoring knowledge-sharing events and 

publications, providing performance enhancement services and tools, supporting 

career development programs, and creating opportunities for project management 

and engineering collaboration with universities, professional associations, industry 

partners, and other government agencies.

ASK Magazine grew out of the Academy and its Knowledge Sharing Initiative, 

designed for program/project managers and engineers to share expertise and lessons 

learned with fellow practitioners across the Agency. Reflecting the Academy’s 

responsibility for project management and engineering development and the 

challenges of NASA’s new mission, ASK includes articles about meeting the technical 

and managerial demands of complex projects, as well as insights into organizational 

knowledge, learning, collaboration, performance measurement and evaluation, and 

scheduling. We at APPEL Knowledge Sharing believe that stories recounting the reallife experiences of practitioners communicate important practical wisdom and best 

practices that readers can apply to their own projects and environments. By telling 

their stories, NASA managers, scientists, and engineers share valuable experience-based 

knowledge and foster a community of reflective practitioners. The stories that appear 

in ASK are written by the “best of the best” project managers and engineers, primarily 

from NASA, but also from other government agencies, academia, and industry. Who 

better than a project manager or engineer to help a colleague address a critical issue on 

a project? Big projects, small projects—they’re all here in ASK.

You can help ASK provide the stories you need and want by letting our editors know 

what you think about what you read here and by sharing your own stories. To 

submit stories or ask questions about editorial policy, contact Don Cohen, Managing 

Editor, doncohen@rcn.com, 781-860-5270.

For inquiries about Academy Knowledge Sharing programs and products, please contact 

Yvonne Massaquoi, InuTeq LLC, 6303 Ivy Lane, Suite 130, Greenbelt, MD 20770; 

yvonne.massaquoi@inuteqllc.com; 301-837-9127.

2 | ASK MAGAZINE
In her reflection on seven years of learning and writing Given the rigors and complexity of NASA missions, 

about NASA projects (“What I’ve Learned from NASA”), ASK problems will sometimes occur no matter how much testing 

editor Kerry Ellis identifies adequate testing as an essential has been done. When they do, project teams devote all their 

contributor to mission success. She cites “test as you fly, fly attention and ingenuity to fixing or finding ways to work 

as you test” as a guiding principle: that is, design tests that around them. Haley Stephenson describes one example 

will mimic expected flight conditions as closely as possible in “The Toothbrush Hack.” When a stuck bolt prevents 

and then try to make sure actual flight conditions stay within astronauts from replacing an important switching unit 

the limits that testing has shown to be safe. Some of the on the space station, a team on Earth swings into action, 

articles in this issue of ASK emphasize the value of thorough, quickly improvising tools needed to solve the problem from 

thoughtful, and sometimes creative testing. a toothbrush and other materials available on station.

Mike Menzel makes the importance of testing clear in his Ellis’s “What I’ve Learned” article also points to good 

discussion of designing hardware that will keep the James communication as a requirement for project success. That’s 

Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, cold (“The Thermal Design a familiar ASK theme and several articles in this issue focus 

Challenge”). Because JWST is an infrared telescope, even a on it. For instance: in the interview, Alan Lindenmoyer talks 

miniscule amount of solar heat would interfere with observations. about the importance of knowledge-sharing and trustAnd because the telescope will be situated a million miles from building conversation with NASA’s commercial partners; 

Earth, no Hubble-style repair missions will be possible—they Lars Schnieder and Susanne Arndt discuss how to reduce 

have to get it right the first time. So Menzel’s team tested and ambiguity so written requirements clearly communicate what 

retested a full-scale model of JWST’s core area and a one- is being required (“Reducing Natural-Language Ambiguities 

third scale model of the sunshield to track down potential in Requirements Engineering”); and Jay Grinstead (“The Soft 

problems and refine their design. Skills of International Project Management”) considers the 

A team at the Applied Physics Laboratory devised new special challenges of communicating effectively with NASA’s 

vibration-testing equipment for the Van Allen Probes to international partners.

make sure the spacecraft would survive the stress of launch 

(“Radiation-Ready with a Little Rock ‘n’ Roll”). And the Don Cohen

information the probes are returning about the Van Allen Managing Editor

radiation belts should help refine testing for future orbital 

missions by improving our understanding of how much 

radiation they will have to withstand.

Thorough testing invites failures that will reveal the flaws 

and limitations of systems. It’s one illustration of the point 

Laurence Prusak makes in “The Knowledge Notebook”—

that failure is a great teacher. He sees the reluctance of 

people in many organizations to admit and analyze failure 

as a lost opportunity for valuable learning (and of course 

unacknowledged errors are likely to be repeated).

In This Issue

ASK MAGAZINE | 3
Eleven years ago, the Government Accountability efforts have been made to document the closeout 

Office (GAO) issued a report about NASA’s of Space Shuttle and Constellation to preserve 

effectiveness—or lack of effectiveness—as a the invaluable knowledge developed in the course 

knowledge organization. Conducting its audit in of those programs. Every center and mission 

the aftermath of the failures of the Mars Polar directorate has either a chief knowledge officer or 

Lander and the Mars Climate Orbiter, GAO a point of contact to serve as the advocate for the 

found “fundamental weaknesses in the collection knowledge needs of the organization’s practitioners. 

and sharing of lessons learned agencywide.” GAO Cross-agency support organizations such as the 

concluded that, “NASA needs to strengthen its NASA Safety Center and the NASA Engineering 

lessons learning in the context of its overall efforts Network foster knowledge exchanges that connect 

to develop and implement an effective knowledge practitioners throughout the agency. These 

management program.” interwoven threads are helping create a resilient 

The GAO report spurred a new focus on knowledge organization.

knowledge across NASA. Many centers and We are not there yet. Knowledge is not 

mission directorates either initiated or formalized universally accessible across organizational lines. 

existing knowledge management efforts. This was Half the NASA workforce is eligible for retirement 

a start, but it did not solve the issue overnight. and could walk out the door with critical knowledge 

Following the Columbia accident a year later, the that has not yet been passed on to others. Young 

Columbia Accident Investigation Board wrote professionals at the other end of the career path have 

that, “NASA’s current organization ... has not had fewer opportunities than previous generations 

demonstrated the characteristics of a learning at NASA to get hands-on experience.

organization.” The persistence of the problem So there is plenty left to do. But it has been a 

showed that knowledge effectiveness depends on decade of real progress. ●

more than just systems for sharing lessons learned 

or best practices. It also requires an open culture 

in which people can speak openly about what they 

know without fear of retribution. There was more 

work to be done.

Today, NASA is a different organization than 

it was a decade ago. The importance of knowledge 

has been recognized throughout the agency. When 

tough programmatic decisions arise, leaders such 

as Chief Engineer Mike Ryschkewitsch encourage 

capturing those stories as case studies or articles 

that include rich context and quotes from multiple 

practitioners with divergent views. Painstaking 

From the Academy Director

Toward Knowledge Resilience

 By ED HOFFMAN 

4 | ASK MAGAZINE
By HALEy STEPHENSON

Collaborative problem solving, a jumper lead, 

and a toothbrush turned around an unsuccessful 

late-August spacewalk. 

 ASA: Ntidero CtohP

NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams appears to touch the bright sun during a third 

session of extravehicular activity. Williams and Japan Aerospace Exploration 

Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide (visible in the reflections of Williams’ helmet visor) 

completed installation of a main bus switching unit. 
On Wednesday, August 30, 2012, NASA Astronaut Sunita The “Big 12” and Team 4

Williams and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Astronaut The story of the MBSU began in October 2011, when it 

Akihiko Hoshide were tasked with replacing a malfunctioning stopped communicating with the computers onboard station. 

main-bus switching unit (MBSU) on the center segment of While the unit was still functional and routing power as it 

the International Space Station (ISS), called the Starboard-0 should, it would need to be replaced. The MBSU is one of 

truss. The MBSU is one of four 220-lb. boxes responsible twelve items whose failure would render the space station “zero 

for routing power from the ISS solar panels to the U.S. and fault tolerant.” In other words, if one of the “Big 12” failed 

Russian segments. The uninstallation went smoothly, but the and then another item failed, maintaining research operations 

replacement did not. One of the two bolts required to secure the would become complicated. In the event the second failure 

new unit properly got stuck. happened to be another Big-12 item, the U.S. segment could 

During several attempts to drive the bolt down, the crew be lost completely. 

observed debris inside the bolt receptacle. They attempted to ISS Flight Director Ed Van Cise is part of the team 

clean it, but the bolt still refused to cooperate. After eight hours dedicated to developing contingency EVAs for items on the 

and seventeen minutes, Williams and Hoshide temporarily Big-12 list and worked on the plans for the MBSU replacement. 

secured the MBSU and returned to the station’s interior, In August 2012, Van Cise served as the lead flight director on 

completing what became the third-longest extravehicular EVA 18, during which the crew would remove and replace the 

activity (EVA) in history. unit. “That, of course, did not go very well,” Van Cise said. 

The unsuccessful MBSU installation meant the ISS was “The EVA was approximately six and a half hours in and 

running at 75-percent power, prompting NASA to initiate my management was already pulling together the groundwork 

power-mitigation plans, which were robust enough to maintain for what we call a ‘Team 4 Effort,’” said Van Cise. In mission 

ISS operations. However, the urgency to fix the problem control, there are three teams, each covering an eight-hour shift. 

stemmed from Canadarm operator and NASA Astronaut Joe Team 4 is called in when extra support is needed. “Pretty much 

Acaba’s scheduled return to Earth. With the desire to complete everybody needs to drop what they’re doing and we throw every 

the MBSU’s installation with the current crewmembers, who resource we need at the problem,” he said. “That was Thursday 

had direct experience with the task and EVA configuration, night. My role after that was lead for developing our response 

NASA wanted to resolve the issue sooner rather than later. to the problem.”

NASA Astronauts Sunita Williams and Joe Acaba (left), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, participate in an extravehicular-activity 

planning and preparation session in an International Space Station mock-up/trainer in the Space Vehicle Mock-Up Facility at Johnson Space Center. 

 ASA: Ntidero CtohP

6 | ASK MAGAZINE
There were three main challenges to address, Van Cise continued. Specific tools for these jobs didn’t exist on station, so 

explained. First, how would the team fit another EVA into an they had to be invented.

already-packed expedition schedule? Second, once they find 

time in the schedule, how do they install the MBSU properly? Tools for the Job

Third, what is the next worst failure if they are unable to install Inside Building 9 at Johnson Space Center, Victor Badillo, an 

the MBSU? In other words, what else might go wrong and how operations support officer and sixteen-year NASA veteran, was 

should they prepare for it? part of the team responsible for figuring out how to clean the 

One group was assigned to find time in the expedition bolt receptacle. “In situations like this, part of our job is to see 

schedule for the additional EVA; the rest of the team tackled what tools we have and try to imagine different uses for them,” 

the last two issues. After several briefings, the likely problem said Badillo. “We were wondering if we could make our own 

on the MBSU emerged: the bolt was getting stuck on the metal brush: a wire brush to clean out the bolt receptacle.” 

shavings and debris the crew reported. To fix it, the crew needed Badillo and another team member started making prototypes. 

to clean and lube the bolt threads. Badillo grabbed a 4-gauge jumper lead identical to one found on 

“The first place you start is, OK, if I had this problem at ISS, removed the insulation from one end, and frayed the wires 

home, what would I do?” said Van Cise. “My response to things inside, creating a brush. The team liked what Badillo developed 

like this is just go get my big torque wrench and torque it real and improved upon the tool by using EVA tape to make the 

hard, and if it breaks I go get a new one. The problem is that flimsy lead firm and finding ways to ensure the crew could grab 

in space we can’t run to the hardware store and buy a new nut and maneuver the tool with their oven-mitt-like gloves. 

if it breaks. Another team worked the lubrication challenge. After 

“When you throw out options like that, then you start surveying the inventory on station, the team settled on using 

thinking up alternatives. We needed to [lube] the threads, a toothbrush to lubricate the bolt threads. A quick trip to the 

and we needed to clean them out. How would we do that?” he drug store and the team was ready to start testing the two types 

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Astronaut Aki Hoshide participates in a third session of extravehicular activity. During the 6-hour, 28-minute spacewalk, 

Hoshide and NASA Astronaut Sunita Williams (out of frame) completed the installation of a main bus switching unit that was hampered by a possible misalignment 

and damaged threads where a bolt must be placed. They also installed a camera on the International Space Station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2.

 ASA: Ntidero CtohP

ASK MAGAZINE | 7
of toothbrushes onboard ISS: name-brand and bargain-brand. 

The name-brand brush had a bend in the neck that interfered 

with it accessing the threading. The bargain-brand fit, but the 

full-length brush bent too easily, so the team had to cut it down 

to make it stiffer and less likely to snap. 

The tools also had to be EVA-ready, meaning they needed 

to be tethered and able to survive the extreme cold. Once

members of the astronaut office and the safety office tested the 

wire brush and the toothbrush, performing evaluations such as 

a 30-lb. pull-test to ensure the toothbrush wouldn’t come off its 

EVA handle, they declared them ready for use. 

But their work wasn’t done. “We’re not only trying to put 

together the tools, but also thinking about the techniques for

using them and writing concise yet detailed procedures of what 

the crew needs to do in order to build these things and also use 

them,” explained Jeff Stone, an operations support officer who 

worked the toothbrush challenge. For the toothbrush, Stone 

and his team pared down the procedure to two pages.

By Saturday morning, the team had ready for the crew their 

procedures and tools: a wire brush made out of a jumper lead 

and a modified bargain-brand toothbrush. 

The Next Worst Failure, Almost

Even with the tools, everyone had to consider the next worst 

failure. If Williams and Hoshide couldn’t remove the bolt or 

drive it all the way down, the team would have to resort to 

removing the MBSU at its cooling plate, bringing everything 

inside station, and trying to fix the box. 

“That would have been a big deal,” said Stone. “[The unit] is 

designed to be changed out, but we don’t have a spare cold plate 

on orbit. We could send one on a subsequent cargo mission, but 

in order to do that there would be a whole lot more logistics, 

planning, and training.”

Fortunately, this did not come to pass. On Wednesday, 

September 5, Williams and Hoshide conducted another spacewalk. 

They cleaned and lubricated the receptacle and threads, drove 

down the bolt, and successfully installed the MBSU. 

From the beginning, the goal was to successfully assist the 

crew. There was no finger pointing and no turf wars, explained 

Van Cise. Just find a solution and implement it. “It was neat to 

be at the head of pulling that whole team together and watch 

them do all their great work. It was fun. Now that I’ve slept, it 

was fun,” laughed Van Cise.

“I think there’s a good parallel to a hack-a-thon-type event,” 

said Stone. “You just get everybody who might have an interest 

in a particular challenge together so they can talk about it, 

brainstorm, have this common experience, and implement this 

creative, innovative approach to solving a problem.” 

“It’s not always one person who works one particular task,” 

added Badillo. “We have a lot of talented people here, but 

when you put them all together on one problem, it’s amazing 

what we accomplish.”

Hindsight

Almost immediately after the second EVA, team members 

approached Van Cise to ask when their lessons learned meeting 

was to take place. “One of the things we work really hard on 

is going and asking what surprised us, why, and how can we 

prevent it from happening again,” said Van Cise. 

One lesson that came to light pertained to a specialized 

technique for installing hardware like the MBSU, Van Cise 

explained. On previous spacewalks, crews used an installation 

technique called “dithering” to replace ISS batteries, which have 

a similar two-bolt installation configuration to the MBSU and 

require a crewmember to be on the end of the fully outstretched 

robot arm on station. Dithering involves carefully wiggling 

the unsecured end of a piece of hardware while drilling down 

a bolt on the other end. The technique relieves any structural 

loads from building up between the bolt threads and receptacle, 

and mitigates the movement generated by the astronaut from 

travelling down the outstretched arm. 

For EVA 18, “We didn’t anticipate having any issues 

installing the box since we were not going to be in the arm 

configuration that called for the special dithering technique,” 

Van Cise said. “We learned afterward that dithering is needed 

for installing this type of hardware regardless of being on the 

arm or not.” 

After realizing the technique was needed for the MBSU, 

it is likely that other similarly configured hardware on the ISS 

ollidar Botcif Vy osetruos cotohP

Images of the jumper cable modified to create the wire brush tool. 

8 | ASK MAGAZINE
will, too. “We are now examining the remaining Big-12-type Kieth Johnson, lead EVA officer, remembering the horror stories 

boxes to see if they will require similar installation techniques and telling them to the other people on his team,” said Van Cise. 

or if there are problems we should anticipate when replacing this The other parts live in IT systems like databases. “The 

sort of hardware in the future,” Van Cise added. operations team, the engineering team, and the [operations 

support officers] all have their own databases,” he said. With this 

Where the Know-How Lives setup, one possible concern is that the solution to a problem could 

When asked how NASA knows how to solve problems like live in an operations database where an engineer might not think 

this, Van Cise replied, “We train hard not only on failure to find it. “How do we put things in a visible place where everybody 

recognition and resolution, but also on how to think ahead to can find the information?” asked Van Cise. Fortunately, a robust, 

the implications of the next possible failure and how to protect cross-database search capability mitigates this risk. 

for it. We have a culture of developing creative solutions, bred Stone, who joined NASA in 1989 and has worked events like 

out of the mind-set that failure is not an option. For a flight this on programs such as shuttle throughout his career, explained 

controller, when you’re not on console and hear that something that this is just business as usual. NASA trains for situations like 

failed, you feel bad for the team that is dealing with the issue. this. “We prepare people to have the right mind-set. You try to 

That said, on the inside you’re wishing you could be there, train so much that the initial reaction is instinctive on how to 

helping to resolve it. This is a key tenet to our training and what start handling a problem,” said Stone. “That was another neat 

it means to be a part of mission operations—not just for ISS but thing to see. We hadn’t seen this problem before, but we kind of 

for any program we support.” already knew what we needed to do to make it better.

Part of the Johnson Mission Operations Directorate’s mantra “We try to remind ourselves that at any given time our 

is “plan, train, fly,” explained Van Cise. Lessons learned are actions or our decisions could have the ultimate consequences,” 

documented and folded back into planning and operations, but he said. “Keeping that in the front of our minds, trying to 

also training for crews and flight controllers. They are built into analyze a situation, and actively learn the lessons and apply 

everything. “This way, we don’t just have to rely on someone like them in the future is just part of the way we operate.” ●

A fisheye lens attached

to an electronic still camera 

captured this image of

NASA astronaut Sunita 

Williams during the 

mission’s third session of 

extravehicular activity. 

 ASA: Ntidero CtohP

ASK MAGAZINE | 9
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled for launch in 2018, is expected to show 

us the most distant galaxies that formed in the early life of the universe. To do this, it has lightgathering capability unprecedented in a space telescope—its 6.5-meter-diameter mirror has more 

than six times the light-collecting area of Hubble’s mirror. Also, it is designed to “see” mainly 

infrared radiation so it can detect the red-shifted radiation of early stars and make out stars and 

planets that are hidden from visible-light telescopes by clouds of gas and dust.

10 | ASK MAGAZINE | story

By MIKE MENzEL
ASA: Ntidero CtohP

Technicians at Marshall Space Flight Center completed a series of cryogenic tests on six James Webb Space Telescope beryllium 

mirror segments at the center’s X-ray and Cryogenic Facility. The mirrors were subjected to extreme temperatures dipping to 

-415oF, permitting engineers to measure in extreme detail how the shape of the mirror changes as it cools. 

ASK MAGAZINE | 11
Dan McGregor, lead venting analyst at Northrop Grumman, 

places a sunshield test article in the vacuum chamber at 

Aerospace Systems’ test facility in Redondo Beach, Calif. smetsye Scapsoren Aammurp Gorhtro: Ntidero CtohP

Because infrared is essentially heat, JWST’s telescope and to determine where to place the thermal shields and radiators 

instruments must be extremely cold so those faint signals from that would disperse most of that residual energy. 

distant objects will not be overwhelmed by the “noise” generated The extreme vigilance required is hard to describe. We 

by the heat of the telescope and instruments themselves. To went into extraordinary detail in analysis and design, not 

maintain the required low temperature—around 40 K or wanting to overestimate the thermal insulation needs of 

approximately -233 ̊C—JWST will be located in deep space, JWST (and spend more mass and budget than necessary), but 

about a million miles from Earth, with a sophisticated system of guarding against unjustified optimism that would increase the 

shields and radiators to cool down the hardware to prevent solar risk of underperformance.

radiation from heating the telescope and instruments.

The challenge to JWST’s thermal design group has been Experience and Cooperation

to design and test the hardware that will keep the instruments The prior experience of team leaders Keith Parrish and Shaun 

of this very large observatory at a very low temperature despite Thomson from Goddard Space Flight Center and Perry 

being in an environment where it will constantly be bombarded Knollenberg from Northrop Grumman was essential to ensuring 

with 200,000 watts of solar energy—and to provide enough a robust thermal system. Through their past experience, they 

design margin to be certain the thermal design will work. understood the risks and challenges of designing a passively 

With JWST a million miles away, a Hubble-style repair cooled cryogenic system. People who have done cryogenic work 

mission is out of the question. If the thermal design fails, so before—even if less demanding work than JWST requires—

will the mission. have a feel for how much margin is needed and how much 

This task can be accomplished without radically new difference a seemingly tiny variation in temperature can make. 

technical innovation. The basic principles of the sunshields Newcomers to the field are likely to underestimate both. 

and radiators have been used before. But the extremes of the These team leads understood the critical cryogenic demands 

temperature requirements and the constraints imposed by mass and reminded the team to “concentrate on detailed heat-flow 

and budget limitations have made this a daunting task. diagrams and follow the milliwatts.”

Previous cryogenic space hardware had masses of not more Members of the JWST team also had prior large-telescope 

than about 500 kg; JWST needs to cool over 3,700 kg. Not experience from working on the Hubble, Chandra, or 

only did we have to make sure that no more than 1 watt of Spitzer telescopes. Part of the Hubble experience—being a 

the 200,000 watts of solar energy would get through JWST’s member of a “badgeless” system team where contractors and 

heat shield, we had to fully understand the paths that 1-watt civil servants worked side by side, not concerned about which 

seepage would take to “sneak” around from the hot side to the organization signed their paycheck—proved essential to the 

cold side of the observatory, tracking down to tens of milliwatts JWST work.

12 | ASK MAGAZINE
While updating the observatory thermal-integrated models A stovepiped organization can obstruct solutions that 

with results from engineering and component tests soon after involve give and take among elements to optimize systems 

JWST’s critical design review in April 2010, the team determined performance as a whole—the kind of teamwork we needed for 

that interface characteristics between components was not the thermal design. Stovepipes also can obscure problems, either 

adequately represented in the models. Many of the problems because a subgroup’s decision to solve a problem on its own 

found in the detailed heat-flow map did not lend themselves to keeps it hidden from the larger team or because the people who 

be cleanly allocated to discrete-element product teams because could recognize a problem are not party to essential “global” 

they resided in the interfaces between these elements and had information. Finally, stovepipes hinder a program’s ability to 

to be addressed at an overall system level. In other words, they form cross-organizational teams that draw on the people best 

could only be solved by a badgeless team concerned not with able to address problems regardless of where they are located.

ownership of the individual elements but with responsibility for To get rid of stovepipes and their negative effects, we were 

the system as a whole. able to consolidate systems engineering for JWST under a 

That meant bringing together people from a variety common Goddard-led team. For many members of the team, 

of organizations. The JWST program is an international this was an unfamiliar way of working, but in the case of the 

collaboration with Goddard as the mission lead and thermal systems team, the transition was extremely smooth. This 

contributions coming from the European and Canadian space was due in part to the urgency of solving the thermal problems 

agencies. In addition, Goddard holds contracts with Northrop and in part to the professionalism of the thermal leadership and 

Grumman as the observatory contractor, with Ball Aerospace the thermal team as a whole. We got the skills we needed to 

as telescope subcontractor, and with the University of Arizona. solve our thermal-engineering problems by creating a unified 

An effective systems team required participation from all these thermal-engineering group of people from Goddard, Northrop 

teams without parochial interests getting in the way. Grumman, our science teams, and the product teams (optical 

That multiplicity of players and the typical separations telescope element, integrated science-instrument module, and 

caused by the way money and work orders flow in the sunshield). Members of the group were not co-located, but they 

organizations meant that we had to avoid the dangers of so- traveled a great deal and met almost daily during periods of the 

called “stovepiping”—groups carrying out their assigned tasks most intense work. 

more or less isolated from one another. The telltale signs of Working closely with the science communities that will use 

stovepiping are groups saying, “Just tell us our requirements and the observatory was also essential to getting the design right. 

let us design the element,” or, “Leave us alone to provide an We needed to understand the sensitivity of mission science 

optimized product.” But the sum of optimized elements rarely objectives to subtleties of observatory performance. Some 

adds up to an optimized system. science instruments are inherently more sensitive to the noise of 

The telescope’s integrated 

science instrument module in 

the helium shroud, where it 

underwent cryogenic testing. 

The NIRSpec mass simulator 

is attached to its left side. 

 nnus GirhC/retnet Chgile Fcapd SraddoA GSA: Ntidero CtohP

ASK MAGAZINE | 13
Mike Menzel is the NASA mission systems engineer for the 

James Webb Space Telescope at Goddard Space Flight Center, a 

position he has held since he joined NASA in June 2004. 

higher detector temperatures. Working with the scientists, the

thermal team made what may appear to be minor tweaks to the

design but which resulted in higher margins for the instruments

that needed it the most.

We worked hard to keep international teams and

scientists informed of progress and problems during a weekly

teleconference. (We also held science group briefings every

three months.) That communication and the team’s focus

on the health of the program as a whole has led to important

cooperation. One example is our getting scientists to agree

on that proposal to keep the margins high on JWST’s mostsensitive instruments by lowering the margin a bit on the lesssensitive ones. In part, this agreement was facilitated by giving

scientists time to analyze the issue. In larger part, it built on the

connection and trust that already existed.

Testing, Learning, Fixing

To ensure our understanding of the thermal issues, we built a

one-third-scale model of the sunshield and a full-scale model

of the observatory’s core area (the complex transitional region 

between the warm and cryogenic portions of the observatory). 

As we tested those models and refined our understanding of the 

thermal issues, we discovered more and more potential threats to 

our thermal goals, reducing margins to levels we could not accept. 

Since March 2011, our Return to Green (RTG) thermalrecovery effort employed our best cryogenic experts to “follow 

the milliwatts” in an exhaustive effort to identify thermal threats 

and develop a strategy that gives us the margins we need without 

burdening the system with unneeded and costly protection. 

It would be hard to overstate the subtleties of the work. For 

instance, we had to make sure that our radiators have the best 

possible view to the cold of space. A 40-K radiator that “sees” a 

100-K heat shield would have to be larger than one that has no 

obstructions to deep space to shed the heat it absorbed from that 

“warm” shield. The team conducted some of the most detailed 

thermal analyses ever performed for any spacecraft, keeping 

careful account not only of these view factors, but also of the 

way in which the absorptive and emissive properties of these 

radiators and their environments varied with the wavelength of 

thermal radiation.

At the conclusion of the RTG thermal-recovery effort, the 

team produced a revised thermal architecture that not only 

restored the appropriate margins after addressing all the known 

risks, but also gained a 27-kg mass savings.

Thermal design is an absolutely critical element of JWST. 

It is one of many systems that must work together flawlessly. 

Outstanding teamwork, extensive expertise, and commitment 

to implement practices that eliminate institutional barriers that 

could hide risks are instrumental in ensuring that they willl. ●

14 | ASK MAGAZINE

evloxe: Ntidero CtohP

A one-third-scale model of the sunshield was built for testing and 

refining the team’s understanding of thermal issues. Here, one layer 

of the model undergoes tension testing at the Nexolve facility.

Line drawing of the James Webb 

Space Telescope. 

noitarop Cornmamur Gporhtro N:tider CegmaI
Solving Challenges Through 

Mass Collaboration

 By NICK SKyTLAND 

One of the things astronauts who have had the privilege of traveling to space talk about when the

return is what it’s like to see Earth from space, and the orbital perspective this brings. They talk abo

what it means to live in a world where we are more interconnected and dependent on one anoth

than ever before, and how it shifts their thinking. They talk about what Astronaut Rusty Schweika

first observed in 1969 on Apollo 9: a world where our boundaries disappear, our problems overla

and we realize the solutions are not one nation’s alone.

y 

ut 

er 

rt 

p, 

Photo Credit: Fumi Yamazaki

People all over the world—here, 

in Tokyo—participated in the 

2012 International Space Apps 

Challenge.

InsIght | ASK MAGAZINE | 15
Although only about five hundred people have had the chance

to physically experience this orbital perspective, the rest of us are 

starting to share this experience thanks to technology. We now 

live in an age where it’s possible for a record-setting eight million 

of us to watch Felix Baumgartner jump from the edge of space 

live on the Internet. We can take a photo on Mars and stream it 

to a mobile device nearly anywhere in the world just minutes later.

As people around the world become more technologically 

literate and experience this orbital perspective themselves, they 

will want to participate more directly in government affairs,

and with a purpose much bigger than space exploration. I know 

because I was one of them.

Finding a Way to Contribute

Like many others in my generation, I wanted to work at NASA. 

I wanted to be the guy who flew in space. But the problem I 

had was I grew up in North Dakota—pretty much as far away 

from a NASA center as you can be in America—and had no 

connection to NASA. No one in my family had ever attended 

college, and I was destined to be an auto mechanic or a farmer. 

Thankfully, I had a teacher in kindergarten who was equally 

inspired by space exploration and invited the rest of us to watch 

an upcoming Space Shuttle mission live on national television. 

That was the day that tragedy struck the crew of Challenger. 

Though I didn’t realize it at the time, it was also the day

that changed my life’s trajectory. It’s the day I realized I wanted 

be part of the solution to the grand challenges of our time—the 

ones that required the collective vision of us all. At the time, the 

only way I knew how to participate was to work at NASA. So 

that’s what I set out to do. 

Years later I had an opportunity to work at NASA. I packed 

myself up, drove as fast as I could 2,000 miles across country 

and showed up months before anyone had a work assignment 

for me. I was ready and waiting. I wanted to be put in the game. 

One month after I started at NASA full time, Space Shuttle 

Columbia broke up over the Texas skies. I spent my first few

months walking around the fields of East Texas picking up the 

broken dreams of our nation and thinking about how risky and 

unforgiving space exploration can truly be.

While I was in East Texas, I noticed the other people who 

were there. There were forest rangers and firefighters. People who 

drove across the country to participate in what we were doing. 

Thousands of people were helping NASA. They gave everything 

they had—their time, their talent, their resources—to participate. 

It was the largest mass collaboration I had ever seen.

The Columbia recovery effort was a testament to what 

people can do if given the proper resources and permission 

to work together. People around the world were willing to 

contribute to NASA. They wanted an opportunity to do that, 

but we weren’t set up well to do it. 

Collaborating on a Larger Scale

Over the next couple of years, I realized many of the 

assumptions we had as a government about how to engage 

citizens in space exploration were wrong. Or at least wrong 

given the changing environment. 

It’s true citizens want to participate in NASA’s mission, but 

they want to do so on their terms, using common technology. 

They want not only to read about the Mars Curiosity rover, 

they want to drive it while sipping coffee in their pajamas 

somewhere in Idaho and thinking about how this might 

contribute to something locally relevant to them.

Thankfully, technology is opening doors so everyone can 

collaborate with government to help shape solutions to the 

grand challenges of our times: the ones that require not only 

government participation but participation by us all.

What this means for governments worldwide is participation is 

no longer limited to showing up to vote on election day, expressing 

concern by protesting about a cause, or accepting a government job. 

There are now ways to participate directly in government. 

Admittedly, engaging citizens is something that is not easy 

to do. Although government has always been a platform for 

OVER THE NExT COuPlE OF yEARS, I REAlIZEd MANy OF THE ASSuMPTIONS WE 

HAd AS A GOVERNMENT ABOuT HOW TO ENGAGE CITIZENS IN SPACE ExPlORATION 

WERE WRONG. OR AT lEAST WRONG GIVEN THE CHANGING ENVIRONMENT. 

16 | ASK MAGAZINE
collective action (at least in the United States), the problem is 

it’s never been an efficient one at connecting people together for 

a common purpose and scaling their participation in a focused 

and useful way. But thanks to technology, connecting people to 

what we do inside government does not have to be complex. It 

is not rocket science.

Here’s the key: it’s not just about individual participation; 

it’s about mass collaboration. It’s about creating platforms that 

allow us to take advantage of the exponential power of what 

happens when a thousand eyes look at our toughest problems 

and we collectively develop a solution.

Mass collaboration is possible today because of the Internet 

and our place in history. Technology enables the creation 

and application of ideas at scales previously unimaginable, 

in a focused way. There are many good examples of mass 

collaboration at work today. If masses can peer-produce an 

operating system, write an encyclopedia, or co-create the 

Icelandic constitution, we should carefully consider what 

might come next.

Mass Collaboration at NASA

I have the privilege of leading a team of entrepreneurs and 

technologists who are focused on considering what comes 

next for government, specifically at NASA. Our core team 

consists of only four people, but we have been able to engage 

thousands in NASA’s mission by applying our experience 

in mass collaboration. We focus on scaling collaboration, 

using information technology to exponentially multiply the 

impact on the agency. This starts with the agencywide opengovernment plan that lays out the entire vision, with more than 

one hundred initiatives that include open software, open data, 

and technology, and highlighted initiatives like general robotics 

and collaborative spaces. 

In implementing NASA’s plan for open government, we quickly 

learned the agency has never really had an effective way to engage 

citizens on such a scaled and relevant way, so we set off to create one. 

U.S. Embassy Jakarta partnered with NASA to bring 

the International Space Apps Challenge to Indonesia 

April 21–22, 2012, at high-tech cultural center @america. 

aisenodn, Iatrakay Jssabm. ES.U/tnemtrapee Dtat. SS.: Utidero CtohP

ASK MAGAZINE | 17
A team in San Francisco puzzles over The Pineapple Project, a software 

challenge to apply climate data to agricultural planning, during the 2012 

International Space Apps Challenge.

Our vision was to engage people around the world in NASA’s 

mission and create a mechanism for them to collectively develop 

new solutions to challenges facing us here on Earth and in 

space. We have experimented with developing online platforms, 

leveraging our networks and social media, and partnering with 

industry leaders to plan technology development events all with 

the goal of connecting more people to what NASA is doing. This 

experience culminated in an event we first hosted in April 2012 

called the International Space Apps Challenge.

The International Space Apps Challenge took place in 

twenty-five countries and resulted in more than one hundred 

solutions to challenges offered by NASA and its partners. It was 

the largest government-led mass-collaboration event to date, and 

a testament to what people can accomplish together if given the 

permission, opportunity, and resources. After 48 hours, more 

than 2,000 people around the world collaborated to develop 

new technology that had never existed before. 

Two of my favorite innovations to come out of last year’s 

Space Apps Challenge are ExoAPI and Strange Desk. ExoAPI 

offers data from Kepler via an application programming 

interface (API) to make the data readable. NASA doesn’t have 

many APIs, but we have a lot of data, so we anticipate solutions 

like this setting the standard for what we might be able to do 

with the many terabytes of data we collect through our space 

missions in the future.

Strange Desk is an app that allows people to crowdsource 

observations of strange things—for example, weird weather, 

black swans, or dead bumblebees. The idea is if you have people 

around the world recording this information, you can see trends 

at a macro level that you might not have noticed before. The 

app is a great example of how citizen science can be applied to 

solving NASA challenges.

The International Space Apps Challenge demonstrated that 

the creativity and innovation that used to take place primarily 

behind closed doors within large institutions is increasingly 

taking place by people connected together online. The solutions 

developed were so impressive, and the demand to do another 

event so strong, we decided to host a second International Space 

Apps Challenge April 20–21, 2013. (See “ASK Interactive” on 

p. 56 for additional information.) 

The International Space Apps Challenge has inspired other 

government agencies to consider nonmonetized collaboration 

to help address technical needs. We recently advised the 

Peace Corps on the creation and implementation of their own 

innovation challenge. The Peace Corps Innovation Challenge 

was held on December 1–2, 2012, in cities around the world. 

We are also helping with two other mass-collaboration events—

Random Hacks of Kindness and the National Day of Civic 

Hacking—which will focus on improving our communities 

and the governments that serve them around the United States. 

There are many challenges that need to be solved, and we 

believe that governments need to continue to be bold, to take 

risks, to do what intimidates most others, like when we went to 

the moon or landed a rover on Mars. We need to do the things 

that not only inspire our nation, but our world. We can’t do this 

alone. Solving the grand challenges of our time will require all 

of us. Just imagine what we could do together if we all shared 

an orbital perspective. We could improve our cities, reshape 

our economy, develop game-changing technology, improve 

outdated, outmoded, inefficient government—at all levels. 

After all, once you see Earth from space, you realize we are all 

in this together. ●

Portions of this article have been adapted from the TEDxHouston 

talk, “We’re in This Together,” given on November 3, 2012.

teab Shteabzil E:tider CotohP

18 | ASK MAGAZINE
Title

By the

Intro

of

On a small farm in the Middle of Nowhere, Arkansas, the sky was beautiful at night. Looking up at 

all those stars is how I became interested in astronomy as a child. Later on, Hubble began to release 

its beautiful images, which made me start asking those big science questions, such as, “How are 

those stars formed? How did we get here? What all is out there?” Years later, I’m able to study some 

of these intriguing questions thanks to my work at NASA.

Lead scientist Amber Straughn and observatory manager Paul Geithner answer questions during 

James Webb Space Telescope Night at the NASA Goddard Visitor Center on August 26, 2010.

kybyrl HliB/retnet Chgile Fcapd SraddoA GSA: Ntidero CtohP
I first got hands-on experience with Hubble during my graduate 

studies several years ago, when I used data from its ultra-deep 

field as part of my dissertation work at Arizona State University. 

Later, I was able to work with Hubble’s wide-field camera 3, 

which was installed during the last servicing mission in 2009. 

With that instrument and several others, we gave Hubble new 

eyes, extending its capability into the near infrared and also the 

ultraviolet. This allowed us to look at the universe in greater 

detail and learn more about the universe around us.

Although Hubble’s new instruments extend its capability 

into the near infrared, in order to push the boundaries and 

answer the biggest astronomy questions of our day, we need a 

much larger telescope that also extends into the mid-infrared. 

Not only does this help us peer through dust, as in the case of 

newborn stars inside their dusty cocoons, but it also gives us a 

better view of distant galaxies.

For example, when we look at ultra-deep-field images from 

Hubble, we find the most distant galaxies in those images are 

tiny red dots. The light we receive from these distant galaxies 

has been shifted to longer wavelengths by the expansion of the 

universe—the more distant, the redder their light. In order to 

see them, we need to see light that is redder, and that’s exactly 

what infrared light is. That’s one of the big reasons the James 

Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was designed to be an infrared 

telescope: it will detect the very first galaxies to be born in the 

early universe.

In addition to improving our vision of these distant galaxies 

and learning more about how stars form, JWST will also reveal 

more about how galaxies assemble over time and expand our 

study of exoplanets—planets orbiting other stars outside our 

solar system. With this, JWST will study every phase of our 

universe: from the very first galaxies to form more than 13 billion 

years ago to the very recent formation of planets that could be 

capable of supporting life. JWST will observe the universe near 

its distant edge, and also in our own “backyard” as it helps us 

learn more about objects within our own solar system. 

Succeeding in building this new telescope is only part 

of our mission—of any NASA mission. Another important nn GuisrCh/ASA N:tide CrothoP

FINdING TIME ANd BudGET TO 

COMMuNICATE FREquENTly CAN BE A 

CHAllENGE, BuT IT’S SO IMPORTANT 

ANd REWARdING. THE SCIENCE MISSION 

dIRECTORATE REquIRES A MINIMuM OF 

1 PERCENT OF All MISSION FuNdING GO 

TO EduCATION ANd PuBlIC OuTREACH. 

Technicians and scientists check out one of the Webb telescope’s flight mirrors in the 

clean room at Goddard Space Flight Center. Wavefront-sensing technology was used 

to measure the shape of each mirror and has spun off into ophthalmology, where it has 

been used to more perfectly measure the topography of the human eye. 

20 | ASK MAGAZINE
Behind-the-scenes photo from the 

filming of the”Hubble Gotchu!” segment 

from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. 

ittes Maeigg/MaASA N:tide CrothoP

component of what we do is outreach, telling people what 

we’re doing and why.

Successful Outreach

Since what we do at NASA involves complex engineering of 

one-of-a-kind missions, explaining the intricacies of what we 

do in a way that’s easy to understand is important not only to 

maintain support for the mission, but also to engage people 

in what we’re doing.

To engage an audience, first they have to be interested in 

what you have to say. One of the great things about astronomy 

is it’s something the public is interested in and captivated by. 

The sky is beautiful; the images we get back from Hubble 

are inspiring and appeal to the public. Astronomy is a good 

starting point for getting the public interested in science and 

technology in general. And once you have that entry point, 

it’s easier to expand upon the engineering required to build 

these big missions and do the great things NASA does.

Kids and adults alike are drawn in by the captivating 

images from Hubble, Spitzer, and all the other space telescopes, 

as well as the cutting-edge technology that goes into building 

them. Additionally, discussing spin-offs of our technology 

that apply to their everyday lives helps keep them engaged.

One of the really cool examples of technology spin-off 

with JWST involves the way we ensure the mirrors are perfect. 

We used a technology called wavefront sensing to measure 

the shape of each mirror, and this technology has spun off 

into the medical field of ophthalmology. Ophthalmologists 

have used it to more perfectly measure the topography of the 

human eye. 

Another spin-off example involves JWST’s cryogenic 

application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). ASICs are 

very small and can contain an entire circuit board’s worth of 

electronics. These circuits were installed on Hubble as part of its 

advanced camera for surveys, and JWST’s investments enabled 

these circuits to be programmable, which was important when 

the camera needed to be repaired. This became a case of 

“future heritage,” where a program in development invents a 

technology for a program well into operations.

ASK MAGAZINE | 21
NASA Astrophysicist Amber Straughn 

emonstrates the cold environment where 

the Webb telescope will be by dipping 

flexible rubber surgical tubing into liquid 

nitrogen in a demonstration video.

d

And those are just two examples of spin-offs that come 

from the big, bold research-and-development efforts that go 

into building our huge missions. There are thousands more.

These are ways to structure successful outreach

communication, but I think the most important thing is to be 

enthusiastic about what we’re sharing with the public. Excitement 

is contagious, and I truly love my job. Ever since I looked up at 

those Arkansas skies I wanted to be involved with studying the 

universe, and I find sharing my personal story is a great way to 

convey my enthusiasm for what we do. It’s also a great way to 

engage students, showing them one path into space exploration. 

It’s important for the future of our country to get kids interested 

and educated in science, technology, engineering, and math—

and on the path to making new discoveries in the future. 

One question I often get about JWST specifically is why 

it looks the way it does. Indeed, it is an odd-looking telescope. 

One generally thinks of tubes and circular mirrors when they 

envision a telescope—Hubble is of this design, of course. But 

the answer to that question is we are building it to function 

optimally for what it’s designed to do: observe in the infrared. 

Because of this, its mirrors and instruments have to be shielded 

from the sun (hence the tennis-court-sized sunshield). People 

are always fascinated by the design of this observatory.

Finding time and budget to communicate frequently can 

be a challenge, but it’s so important and rewarding. The Science 

Mission Directorate requires a minimum of 1  percent of all 

mission funding go to education and public outreach. It’s a good 

structure because it allows us to do the great things that get the 

mission science out not only to students and teachers but also 

the general public. Creating stunning visuals is one aspect of 

that. We have a team here at Goddard Space Flight Center who 

put together stunning visuals, videos, and imagery to go along 

with the story of the science, which really helps draw in the 

audience and communicate the science on a deeper level. 

Social media has become another of the primary means by 

which we communicate news, and we have a great team here at 

Goddard that ensures we are on the cutting edge of new media 

and new communication.

I’m so glad that part of my official mission duties include 

communication and outreach. I’ve been fortunate to be involved 

in some cool, quirky things. We filmed with a crew from 

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon a couple years ago for their 

“Hubble Gotchu!” segment. They were here all day, and we got 

to do a funny rap video about NASA that aired on the show. 

That got a lot of attention and response, and it was a fun and 

positive experience overall.

These are only a few examples of how to engage others 

in what we do at NASA. It’s important to do because our 

missions wouldn’t exist without support and interest from the 

community. And it helps engage the next generation so they 

can continue exploring wherever we leave off. Who knows 

what JWST will teach us along the way, and where we’ll go as 

a result of what we learn? The only thing we can be sure of is 

we will need future explorers to take us there. But making sure 

they’re involved to ask the next big questions of tomorrow takes 

communication today. ●

ASA: Ntidero CtohP

22 | ASK MAGAZINE
Originally a co-op student at Goddard Space Flight Center, Alan 

J. Lindenmoyer has worked on human spaceflight programs for 

more than thirty years. In 2005, he was appointed manager of 

the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program, which manages

Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS), at the

Johnson Space Center.

 INTERVIEW WITH

Alan 

 Lindenmoyer

By DON COHEN

InsIght | ASK MAGAZINE | 23
of the traditional approach of writing capabilities with the goal of achieving 

requirements and hiring a contractor, we safe, reliable, and cost-effective access to 

decided to become a lead investor and a low-Earth orbit. We said we would focus 

consumer of services. We had to learn on cargo demonstrations first and then 

how to become an investor instead of a would discuss the possibility of extending 

technical director, a partner providing our agreements or establishing other 

financial and technical assistance. We agreements for crew transportation. 

wanted to do it not only to meet NASA 

needs but for a larger public purpose. cohen: Attracting non-NASA customers 

depends on reducing the cost.

cohen: How did you choose the industry 

partners? lInDenmoyer: Absolutely.

lInDenmoyer: The first step was to put cohen: So what would allow these 

together program goals and objectives companies to reduce cost?

and the evaluation criteria. This wasn’t to 

be a handout; it wasn’t to be a grant. It was lInDenmoyer: We identified a range a 

to be a competitive award of agreements capabilities of interest to NASA, not a firm 

with industry that would reduce the cost set of requirements to meet. Companies 

of access to low-Earth orbit, which is key could choose which capabilities to provide. 

to opening new markets and helping build Traditionally we write requirements, 

a vibrant space-transportation industry. we direct their implementation, and 

We would facilitate the demonstration companies build what we ask for. We 

of cargo and crew space-transportation wanted to provide flexibility for these 

OuR CHALLENGE WAS TO TAKE THE experience, lessons

LEARNED, AND THE technologies WE’VE DEVELOPED OVER 

THE last fifty years AND MAKE THEM available TO INDuSTRY 

TO HELP generate THIS NEW CAPABILITY.

24 | ASK MAGAZINE
companies to innovate and optimize their everything else was goal related. We had a wanted to build a portfolio of companies. 

systems to the maximum extent possible healthy competition. We wanted to level Competition is a very important element 

to reduce cost. If the result was a capability the playing field so that both emerging of keeping cost and price down.

that only the government could afford, companies and established companies 

that wasn’t going to meet our objectives. could compete equally and fairly. cohen: And if more than one succeeded ...

cohen: Was choosing the winning cohen: How did you go about evaluating lInDenmoyer: If they succeeded, we 

companies difficult? those different proposals? wanted to be able to be the customer 

for multiple companies. Another thing 

lInDenmoyer: We competitively selected lInDenmoyer: We evaluated three elements we learned was that new ventures like 

a portfolio of companies we had the of the proposals: the technical approach, this don’t all succeed. In highly complex 

highest level of confidence could achieve the business plan, and the cost—not so ventures, maybe one out of ten gets all the 

those capabilities. We went about it in much the relative cost of one proposal way to the end. We knew it would be best 

a very rigorous way. Instead of scoring to the other, but our confidence in the to include as many as we could in our 

proposals the way we usually do, we ability of the organization to complete portfolio, knowing that they may not all 

had to find a new way to evaluate the demonstration effort within the make it. If we get at least one by the end, 

because companies weren’t all going proposed cost. This became another that would be good. Having multiple 

to meet the same set of requirements. important characteristic of our program. capabilities would even be better.

Everyone was planning to do something We would not be paying the full cost of 

different. Some might propose developing the demonstration. It was to be a shared- cohen: How many companies were 

pressurized cargo; some would talk about cost effort. If the company was confident initially selected?

unpressurized carriers; some would talk that they could develop a capability that 

about doing crew transportation; some could be used for other customers, they lInDenmoyer: We had approximately 

would propose cargo return and others should put skin in the game and share the $500 million available over five years to 

wouldn’t. We allowed companies to bid cost risk with us. The business plan was invest in these companies. We picked two 

on any combination of these capabilities. very important. NASA is not accustomed companies in 2006 to share the $500 million 

We kept the requirements to a minimum. to evaluating a company’s business plan, and kept just 3 percent—$15 million—

The only firm requirements we insisted so we hired a venture-capitalist consultant for our program operations. We wanted to 

on were with the interfaces to the space to help us. He helped write a request for make sure that the majority of resources 

station. Obviously if companies elected a business plan. We didn’t know how were in the hands of the companies. 

to do a demonstration to the station, to ask for one, let alone evaluate one. We picked two: Space Exploration 

they had to meet the physical- and data- Our consultant helped us ask for what Technologies (SpaceX) and Rocketplane 

interface requirements and comply with we now know are the standard elements Kistler (RpK).

our safety requirements. Once the vehicle of any business plan: business strategy, 

enters the control zone of the space market assessment, governance structure, cohen: Has setting goals rather than 

station, there is no compromising the level management team, sources of financing, establishing requirements encouraged 

of safety. They weren’t required to go to revenue, and projections of cash flow innovation?

the station, but if they elected to attempt and expenses. We had to be educated to 

to do that, we said we would make it evaluate all that information because a lInDenmoyer: It absolutely has, but we weren’t 

available and help with the integration company that didn’t have a viable business necessarily looking for new technologies. 

of their vehicle to the station. Those wasn’t going to help us no matter how good We shouldn’t expect companies to develop 

were the only firm requirements we had; the technical accomplishments. We also cutting-edge technology. It’s NASA’s 

ASK MAGAZINE | 25
job to do that. We wanted to share our system. They also were using liquid- agreement and quickly turn around a 

technology and let industry operate and fueled engines, but they wanted to have second competition to invest the balance 

develop capabilities in new and effective a fly-back booster that would land and be of our funding.

ways. That’s what we saw with SpaceX. turned around and quickly reused. That 

They have developed a new medium- was their innovation. We were planning cohen: So one benefit of the milestones 

class booster using standard liquid-fuel to invest up to $207 million; their was telling you when to call it quits.

technology—kerosene and liquid oxygen. program required another $500 million 

That technology was not new, but they at least. Their challenge was to raise that lInDenmoyer: Milestones were key in 

were able to develop their engines, put financing up front. Unfortunately, they many ways. They were fixed price and 

together the first stage, second stage, weren’t able to get there. We knew that predefined. We found that they were an 

and a capsule spacecraft in very cost- was a risk going into this partnership, extremely effective way to incentivize 

effective ways. That was the strategy so we made a financial milestone one cost control and schedule. They were 

of their company: to develop reliable of our progress gates up front, stating getting reimbursed after the fact, after 

low-cost access to space. It wasn’t a new they needed to raise at least one round they completed a milestone. They had 

technology, but it sure was a new way to of financing before we continued. They to keep their costs to a minimum, and 

do business. chose to combine all three rounds of they had to work as quickly as possible in 

financing and raise $500 million in one order to get the payment.

cohen: How did they keep costs down? round. We were very patient with RpK 

and gave them every opportunity to cohen: After you ended the RpK agreement, 

lInDenmoyer: They controlled costs succeed but we recognized that it just did you look for other partners?

by doing a majority of the design and wasn’t going to happen. The market took 

development in house. That was the a downturn and financing dried up for lInDenmoyer: Within four months we had 

SpaceX innovation. Rocketplane Kistler’s that level of investment. Within about re-competed the second round of COTS 

concept was to develop a reusable launch a year, we had to disengage with that demonstrations, had an entirely new set 

IF THE COMPANY WAS confident THAT THEY COuLD develop

A capability THAT COuLD BE uSED FOR OTHER customers, 

THEY SHOuLD PuT skin in the game AND SHARE THE 

cost risk WITH uS.

26 | ASK MAGAZINE
of proposals and concepts to evaluate, and lInDenmoyer: We had frequent reviews needed right there in the company, with 

awarded our second-round agreement to with SpaceX. The milestones came some decisions delegated down to the 

Orbital Sciences Corporation. quickly in the beginning. We also had responsible engineers. They were able to 

at least quarterly management reviews take chances and do rapid prototyping. 

cohen: How hard was it for NASA where we engaged in a lot of interaction. If something didn’t work out, they would 

to learn how to manage these new My project executive and his technical turn around and try something else. 

relationships? support spent a good deal of time out at Our programs don’t typically have that 

the company’s factory. We held multiple flexibility. We have many subcontractors 

lInDenmoyer: We had to learn how to technical interchange meetings. A lot of and international partners; one small 

become a trusted partner. We did this time was spent face to face; a lot of team change here can affect something else 

with a very small group. My program building went on. That evolved into a somewhere else. We’re also dealing with 

only averaged about ten people in the very good relationship, where there was very expensive science instruments and 

program office. I assigned a project a lot of learning on our side on how human safety. Another point is, when 

executive to each company who would be these companies operate in such an agile we commit to do a program, you can be 

the lead in the day-to-day interface with manner, and they were learning from us assured that, given time and money, NASA 

the company. The project executives had what was important in terms of safety will deliver. For our COTS partners, it just 

a deputy and the support of a safety and and reliability. may not happen. So the circumstances are 

mission assurance officer. That was it for completely different. I wouldn’t say one 

the primary team. Then we assembled a cohen: Was it hard to break the habit of is better than the other. Their ability to 

team of technical experts from across the very strict oversight? make quick decisions is maybe something 

agency, the COTS advisory team. There we could learn.

were about one hundred people across lInDenmoyer: Our COTS advisory team 

thirty technical disciplines. If the company certainly had an initial expectation of cohen: Have there been things in this 

needed help with a particular issue, we getting volumes of documentation and experience that surprised you?

would call on an expert in that field. engineering data. But we worked differently. 

We also used them to help us review the In some cases our commercial partners lInDenmoyer: Early on, I was pleasantly 

progress of a company. They helped both didn’t provide a great deal of written surprised by how much this new way of 

us and the companies on an as-needed documentation. A lot of their work was doing business was embraced by leadership 

basis. We had the same level of insight done with analysis of models and databases. at all levels at NASA. The other thing 

into how the company was operating and Rather than spending a great deal of time that pleased me was the patience that 

what decisions they were making that a documenting, they would manipulate their was shown by all our stakeholders and 

member of the board of directors would models and look at the data directly. We other organizations. They understood 

have. We developed that relationship over eventually got accustomed to that, but it that this is complex work; there are going 

the years and had a great deal of insight certainly was a change for us. to be challenges and delays, just as there 

both technically and financially into the are in any space development program. 

operations of the companies. That helped cohen: Are there ways in which NASA They were able to be patient and believe 

give us confidence that they could succeed might copy SpaceX’s more agile approach? that this investment will have a good 

even though there were tough times and payoff. Members of Congress and their 

delays and challenges. lInDenmoyer: SpaceX is very vertically staff and members of the administration 

oriented, with relatively few subcontractors recognized that performing not exactly 

cohen: What was working with and suppliers. They had the ability according to plan was part of the deal. If 

SpaceX like? to make almost all the decisions they we got to the point where we thought it 

ASK MAGAZINE | 27
wasn’t going to be successful, we needed to Orbital and SpaceX, which was the 

to make that call and move ahead in second phase of the program. SpaceX 

a different manner, which we did in has concluded its first operational service 

reference to RpK. mission. Orbital is getting very close to 

doing a demonstration and is planning a 

cohen: Are there differences in how supply mission next year.

NASA works with SpaceX and Orbital?

cohen: How has the agreement with 

lInDenmoyer: SpaceX is a small emerging Orbital been going?

company; Orbital Sciences is a much 

more traditional large company. They lInDenmoyer: The agreement started a 

use two different models. We’re more year and a half later than our agreement 

accustomed to working with companies with SpaceX, but they’re very close to 

like Orbital. Here’s a small emerging fielding their capability. There is a brand 

company with new in-house capabilities new launchpad at Wallops Island. A lot 

versus a large contractor with multiple of people don’t know that we have a very 

suppliers using heritage hardware. capable launch complex there in Virginia. 

That was part of the deal, too—having The vehicle is rolled out; it’s undergoing 

a balance of risk in our portfolio. A wet dress-rehearsal testing now and 

larger, more established company was hopefully by early next year we’ll see the 

considered to be the lower risk. But it maiden flight of a brand new vehicle and 

had higher cost, too. We certainly got its spacecraft.

the payoff from SpaceX. Back in 2008, 

we awarded actual service contracts cohen: What is it called?

WE wanted to share OuR TECHNOLOGY AND LET INDuSTRY 

operate and develop CAPABILITIES IN new and effective ways.

28 | ASK MAGAZINE
ASK MAGAZINE | 29
Radiation is one of many hazards in space exploration. It causes electronics to fail, degrades sensitive 

instrumentation, and affects astronaut safety—just a few of the things NASA protects against when 

launching missions to space. And our planet is surrounded by radiation: most notably the Van Allen 

belts. To help us better understand the generation, intensity, and variability of the radiation belts and 

how they and Earth are affected by space weather, the Radiation Belt Storm Probes—renamed the 

Van Allen Probes—were launched in August 2012.

By KERRy ELLIS

Using a black light, a technician closely inspects one of NASA’s Van Allen Probes. Black-light inspection 

uses UVA fluorescence to detect possible microcontamination, small cracks, or fluid leaks.

ttelfihm SiK/ASA: Ntidero CtohP

30 | ASK MAGAZINE | story
The term “space weather” might conjure up ideas about asteroid series on the mission’s Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) site. “If 

hail or gale-force winds, but the winds in space are different from you just flew your computer through the radiation belt, it really 

those we experience on Earth. The gases that blow are ionized, wouldn’t work. It would damage the hard drives. The processor 

and their bluster affects our planet in strange—and magnetic— would constantly ... reboot itself.” 

ways, such as disrupting satellite communications. When space Since the Van Allen Probes have to safely transmit data about 

weather intensifies, populations of charged particles trapped in big radiation events, the team took extra precaution to ensure such 

the radiation belts also intensify, becoming swirling clouds that failures wouldn’t affect the spacecraft. Andy Santo, deputy project 

react in unpredictable and surprising ways. But how much do manager, explained some of the precautions the team took to protect 

these changes affect our space technologies and astronauts? And the sensitive instruments. “For example ... we covered each solar 

how do the changes occur? panel with a thin slab of glass ... to protect from the radiation,” he 

To answer that latter question in particular, two probes said. “The electronics are very susceptible to radiation, so we put 

are needed. This allows the mission to not only measure how a slab of aluminum over the very sensitive pieces.”

much radiation increases during a space-weather event, but how Adding these protective measures also adds mass, which 

long it takes for us to feel the effects, and whether the effects can affect any project’s budget, either through the direct cost 

are from one event moving through the belts or from different of materials or by requiring a larger launch vehicle to lift the 

events altogether. heavier spacecraft. Many space missions are overdesigned in 

Nicky Fox, deputy project scientist, explained the logic this way to ensure spacecraft can survive large radiation events 

behind this strategy in a NASA feature about the probes: “If without failing. Engineers hope the Van Allen Probes will tell 

you imagine having two buoys in the ocean, and one goes up, them if they’re overdesigning too much.

and comes down again, you don’t know anything about what “Often people just have to overdesign because they don’t 

caused that to go up and down. If both of them go up, then you know what the radiation is really like, so you just have to take 

know you’ve got a very big feature that is affecting both of them the worst thing you think you’re going to have. Sometimes you 

at the same time. If one goes up, then the other goes up, you don’t predict that enough, and you get a big storm and it kills 

can measure how fast that wave has traveled between them, and the spacecraft. Other times you overdesign, you have more mass 

what direction it’s going in. And if only one goes up and comes than you really needed, and you could have saved money by 

down again, then you’ve got a very, very localized feature that producing a simpler spacecraft,” said Fox. The data from the 

didn’t travel anywhere. Van Allen Probes will help the mission team improve models of 

“So in order to be able to really understand what is going the radiation environment in low-Earth orbit, so future missions 

on [with] these very fine-scale features in our radiation belts, we will have a better idea of what the environment is like and can 

have two spacecraft to do that,” she said. design their spacecraft with more accuracy. 

And both probes have to survive these intensified waves of In addition to these radiation models, the team plans to 

radiation multiple times. create physics-based models to help forecasters predict space-

“Radiation is bad for electronics,” Jim Stratton, mission weather events and warn astronauts and spacecraft operators 

systems engineer, explained as part of an educational video about impending hazards. 

 resha Nesisr/ChaASA N:tide CrothoP

Inside the Astrotech payload 

processing facility, technicians 

monitor progress as Van Allen 

Probe A undergoes a spin test, 

where the spacecraft is turned 

at a rate of 55 rpm to ensure it is 

properly balanced. 

ASK MAGAZINE | 31
THE dATA FROM THE VAN AllEN PROBES WIll HElP THE MISSION TEAM IMPROVE 

MOdElS OF THE RAdIATION ENVIRONMENT IN lOW-EARTH ORBIT, SO FuTuRE 

MISSIONS WIll HAVE A BETTER IdEA OF WHAT THE ENVIRONMENT IS lIKE ANd 

CAN dESIGN THEIR SPACECRAFT WITH MORE ACCuRACy.

The identical Van Allen Probes will follow similar orbits that 

will take them through both the inner and outer radiation 

belts. The highly elliptical orbits range from a minimum 

altitude of approximately 373 miles to a maximum of 

approximately 23,000 miles.

yrotarobas Lcisyhd Peilppy Atisrevins Unikpos HnhoJ/ASA: Ntidere CgamI

32 | ASK MAGAZINE
The Twin Spacecraft Challenge of performance required a tremendous amount of sophisticated 

Building two of everything can be a blessing and a curse. In the analyses of the dynamics of the system. 

case of the Mars Exploration Rovers, it allowed the team to halve Before they could place the probes in their proper orbits, 

the testing time, putting one rover through one set of tests and however, the team needed to ensure the spacecraft would 

the second rover through another. But building two spacecraft survive the journey there. To help decrease risk during mission 

can also add time, as well as money and mass. With extra mass development, the team at APL set out to create a new test on site 

to shield electronics from radiation already required for the Van to ensure both spacecraft would survive the launch.

Allen Probes, keeping overall mass in check was vital. Especially 

since both spacecraft would launch on the same vehicle. Shake and Bake

“The challenges of designing a mission with two spacecraft For any mission to succeed, the spacecraft must survive the 

is basically double the work,” said Fazle Siddique, from the vibration of launch and the environment of space. To ensure 

mission design and navigation team. “Each spacecraft has its this, engineers put the hardware through a series of tests—what 

own trajectory, and we have to run each spacecraft through its they refer to as “shake and bake.”

own science requirement validation .... Also, because it’s a twin “We call it shake and bake, to put it simplistically, because 

spacecraft mission going up on one rocket, we have to make that’s essentially what we do,” said Hadi Navid, environmental 

sure the launch-vehicle provider drops off each spacecraft in its test facility supervisor at APL. “We always do the vibration 

correct orbit. And part of our early operations is doing some test, which simulates the launch environment, and then we do 

maneuvers to make sure the spacecraft don’t hit each other.” what is called the thermal-vacuum test, which simulates the 

Maneuvering both spacecraft in their respective orbits post-launch or on-orbit environment.” Thermal-vacuum testing 

is further complicated by the boom system implemented on ensures hardware can survive in the harsh environment of space 

both probes. To decrease the risk of interference from onboard by rapidly heating up and cooling elements several times. 

electronics, some science measurements will be taken by In the past, APL has had to transport spacecraft to other 

instruments located at the end of long booms, some 164 feet facilities for the vibration-testing portion of the shake and bake. 

away from the body of the spacecraft. Because of these booms, This not only adds time to the development schedule—as the 

rotating each spacecraft has to be done slowly and accurately to team has to wait for hardware to travel to the testing facility—

avoid any changes in trajectory. but also cost. Transporting hardware also increases risk that 

“When you have long wire booms, it tends to make it a very something might be damaged in transit. To address these 

stiff system. When I say stiff, it’s like a spinning top where once problems, APL set out to create a new test that would enable 

it’s spinning, it doesn’t want to change its orientation,” Santo them to shake the Van Allen Probes on site.

explained. “So for us to change the orientation of a system Many vibration tests are done using acoustics in a 

with these long booms takes a lot of time and very small pulses reverberant chamber: sound is blasted at the walls and the 

because we don’t want the system to react in a way we can’t sound waves bounce back onto the spacecraft to set it shaking. 

predict.” Since the fully deployed wire-boom configuration Because these chambers tend to be large and specialized, and 

could not be fully tested on the ground, preflight verification APL wanted to keep the testing in house, the team began to 

Technicians attach a solar array with its associated science boom to Van Allen Probe B at the Astrotech facility.

ttelfihm SiK/ASA: Ntidero CtohP

ASK MAGAZINE | 33
explore direct-field acoustic testing. Essentially, they would turn 

the speakers around.

“Since it’s somewhat of a new test method, we had to first 

qualify it to make sure it was satisfactory to our analysts, to our 

sponsor, and at the same time make sure that our facilities could 

support it,” said Navid. “What it does essentially is uses speakers 

and subwoofers to simulate the sound field within the launch 

vehicle’s fairing.”

And that sound field is very loud, even outside the ring of 

speakers. So loud, the team had to make sure not only their 

hardware would be safe, but their facilities would be, too.

“We made sure that the overhead lights and things that are ... 

in the ceiling are covered up, that there’s extra screws, and we have 

netting in place,” said Ken Turner, lead vibration test engineer. 

“And after each test run we go out and inspect our facility.”

Once they confirmed the facility could handle direct-field 

acoustic testing, the team had to convince everyone involved 

that the hardware would survive as well. Gordon Maahs, senior 

structural engineer, explained that this took a lot of coordination 

to achieve: “We had sound technicians come in. We worked 

with the facilitators from the Vibration Lab. We had to talk to 

scientists that had instruments on the test. And we had to give 

everyone a basic understanding of just how the test works. It 

took months of work, but it was great to work with all these 

different people in different fields to get it to come together.”

But before any actual hardware entered the ring of speakers, 

mechanical engineer Simmie Berman explained that they first 

created a mockup to undergo the testing. Loaded with sensors 

to obtain measurements, it allowed the team to ensure this new 

way of testing wouldn’t harm their spacecraft. “The mockup 

is just a four-sided aluminum structure made of honeycomb 

and 8020, which is like Legos for big kids,” she said. “It’s the 

approximate height and width of the actual [probe] structure. 

On the spacecraft itself we taped I think fifty-nine accelerometers 

on different locations all over to collect data.”

Facilities and mockups tested, APL was ready to expose the 

Van Allen Probes to the 143 decibels inside the ring of speakers. 

The sound was so loud, the team had to shut off the speakers 

after twenty seconds to allow them to cool down for an hour, 

according to Maahs. “... Just imagine standing in front of a rock 

concert speaker a foot away at full blast,” he said. The sound is 

about twice as loud as the actual launch, so if the probes survived 

the speakers, the team was positive they would survive the launch.

Which they did on August 30, 2012, when the Van Allen 

Probes successfully launched on their two-year mission as 

part of NASA’s Living with a Star program. So far, they have 

revealed the sounds of “chorus” radio waves emitted by particles 

in Earth’s magnetosphere and captured energetic events that 

reveal the sun’s influence on space weather is even greater than 

scientists had thought. This information, and what the probes 

reveal over the next two years, will help keep future missions 

and astronauts safer from the effects of our turbulent Van Allen 

radiation belts. ●

Interviews were originally conducted by APL and can be found at 

vanallenprobes.jhuapl.edu/mission/conversation/overview/index.php.

THE CHAllENGES OF dESIGNING A 

MISSION WITH TWO SPACECRAFT IS 

BASICAlly dOuBlE THE WORK ...

Near Kennedy Space Center, technicians inside the Astrotech payload processing facility 

use a crane to position the Van Allen Probes spacecraft A for stacking atop spacecraft B. 

nnamssorm GiJ/ASA: Ntidero CtohP

34 | ASK MAGAZINE
NASA’s current arc-jet test capabilitie

have worked well—like for this testing 

of the Mars Science Laboratory entry, 

descent, and landing instrument—but 

will not meet the most demanding 

requirements of future missions. This 

is why NASA has partnered with CIRA 

to use the Italian agency’s Scirocco 

facility, the newest, largest, and most 

advanced arc-jet facility in the world. 

s

When I took the International Project Management (IPM) course at Kennedy Space Center in the 

winter of 2012, I had already had some experience working with NASA’s international partners. In 

fact it was that work, which introduced me to some of the cultural and organizational complexity of 

working internationally, that convinced me to sign up for the course and learn more.

T

iretneh C

he SofT SkillS of

craeses Rem

PA ASA: Ntidero Cto

nternational 

hP

roject 

ManageMentBy JAy GRINSTEAD

retneh Ccraeses RemA ASA: Ntidero CtohP
I am a research scientist and project manager in the dealt with those and similar issues. There were useful descriptions 

Aerothermodynamics Branch, Entry Systems and Technology of how different cultures work, videos of actors assuming the 

Division, at Ames Research Center. From late summer 2009 negotiating styles typical of various nationalities, and rolethrough 2011, I was project manager for the Hayabusa Reentry playing exercises for the class, which included participants from 

Airborne Observation project, an Ames-led international effort many of NASA’s international partners.

to observe and record the atmospheric reentry of the Hayabusa For me, the course confirmed the importance of soft skills 

sample-return capsule over Australia on June 13, 2010. in international project work. I learned, for instance, that in 

Hayabusa was an asteroid-exploration mission conducted working with partners with strong social and familial bonds, 

by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). Its return it was essential to spend time developing personal relationships 

was a rare opportunity to collect data from the reentry of an before getting down to business—an important lesson for 

atmospheric entry capsule. NASA’s DC-8 airborne laboratory Americans who tend to want to jump in and get to work quickly. 

was equipped with optical instruments that tracked the The course showed us examples of how the ways of conducting 

luminous reentering capsule. The data are being used to business in another country may seem counterintuitive and 

validate simulation tools applied to the design of NASA’s future even counterproductive or ineffectual to an American. But 

atmospheric entry vehicles. The project had participants from that’s not for us to decide. Those in other countries may draw 

four NASA centers, JAXA, the SETI Institute, and research the same conclusions about how the Americans work. The 

institutions and universities in the United States, Europe, Japan, primary objective of the course was to prepare us to read the 

and Australia. I assisted NASA’s Office of International and unspoken and unwritten language of cultural norms of other 

Interagency Relations in negotiations with our international countries. Once the motivating forces of international partners 

partners to secure the agreements that enabled a U.S.-led team of are understood, potential frustrations can be avoided and 

researchers from seven countries to fly a NASA jet in Australian replaced with strategies for success.

civil air space to observe the reentry of a Japanese spacecraft. 

I found that technical discussions with our Japanese partners Putting the Lessons to Work

were easier than the managerial and administrative ones. We all My first opportunity to put some of what I learned to work 

spoke the same technical language, but our different cultures came in July 2012, when I engaged in discussions with the 

led to some different ways of working. The clearest example Italian Aerospace Research Centre (CIRA, the Centro Italiano 

came from the Japanese norm of developing group consensus Ricerche Aerospaziali) to secure a contract for NASA’s use of 

before a decision is made. That made it harder than I was their arc-jet facility, Scirocco. Arc jets are high-temperature 

used to to get a quick response to questions and to understand hypersonic wind tunnels used to test heat-shield materials at 

exactly who exercised executive authority for the Japanese conditions that approximate the intense heat of atmospheric 

team. It meant that things happened a bit more slowly than entry. NASA’s current arc-jet test capabilities will not meet the 

I was used to and additional correspondence and face-to- most demanding requirements of future missions (for example, 

face meetings were needed to arrive at a decision. Technical robotic sample and crewed vehicle return from Mars). The 

knowledge is important in these partnerships, but it was clear Scirocco facility, patterned after NASA’s own arc jets, is the 

that diplomatic skills are, too. newest, largest, and most advanced of its type in the world. 

The purpose of the test series is for NASA to collect 

Insights from the IPM Course performance characterization data at the extremes of Scirocco’s 

The five-day IPM course confirmed and helped explain my operating envelope. The data, along with insight into Scirocco’s 

experience on the Hayabusa project and showed me how others supporting subsystems, will inform NASA’s efforts to expand ynceg Anoitaroplx Eecpaosre Anpaa J:tide CrothoP

The Hayabusa spacecraft's sample-return 

capsule on the ground in Australia.

36 | ASK MAGAZINE
its capabilities to meet future requirements. My responsibility 

was to continue previous high-level discussions between

Ames and CIRA regarding the collaboration. The result was 

a procurement contract awarded to CIRA for testing services 

with negotiated milestones and deliverables. I got the job

partly because I raised my hand—I was enthusiastic about

doing more international work—but also, I think, because

of my Hayabusa experience and my participation in the

IPM course.

The negotiations did not present any significant difficulties: 

NASA was interested in using the Italian facility; CIRA was 

interested in finding customers for it. But there was still a lot of 

work to do to fine-tune the details of a procurement contract: 

negotiating the scope and schedule of the tests, accommodating 

on-site NASA observers, sharing relevant facility design

documentation, and—most importantly—reaching agreement 

that CIRA would operate their facility at its design limits. 

Developing personal connections before getting down to 

serious negotiation work proved as important as the IPM course 

suggested it would be. While the framework of the NASA–

CIRA collaboration was established prior to my arrival, I needed 

to introduce myself and our procurement specialist to the CIRA 

representatives, and they to us. 

All our discussions leading up to contract award were

conducted through teleconferences (with a nine-hour time

difference between us). We had not met face to face previously, 

and the initial correspondence with my counterpart at CIRA 

was conducted through e-mail. Our Italian colleagues

all speak English—a skill more common than one might

think—which brings peace of mind to those, like myself,

who know no Italian. I opened our first meeting with short 

summaries of who we were on the NASA team, our roles and 

responsibilities, and how important this collaboration is to

Ames and the agency. My counterpart on the CIRA team did 

likewise, and we spent a few minutes sharing some personal 

experiences on the easy, shared subject of travel. After that, 

I described NASA’s expectations for the contract discussions 

and the schedule we needed to keep in order to award before 

the end of the fiscal year—an immovable deadline. 

We met frequently via telecon to develop and refine the 

test plan and statement of work. Concurrently, the Ames 

procurement specialist worked with the CIRA business manager 

to assemble all necessary documentation for NASA to contract 

with CIRA. Our meetings were suspended for the entire month 

of August to accommodate the traditional European summer 

holiday. But negotiations went smoothly, and we were able to 

award on September 26, 2012—just under the wire.

Conducting business solely through telecons with an 

international team I had never met presented some peculiar 

challenges. The cues one acquires visually in conversation were 

absent, and the accented English of our colleagues was at times 

hard to parse. The lack of nonverbal feedback on occasion caused 

confusion. But patience and polite queries to repeat questions 

or answers often resolved misunderstandings. Though it is a 

common practice for just about every nontrivial collaborative 

effort, end-of-meeting summaries and reviews of action items 

were particularly effective tools in these circumstances to assure 

both parties that we were in agreement regarding expectations. 

I believe that all of us charged with responsibility for 

collaboration have innate common sense and a desire to act 

reasonably and rationally. How these characteristics are expressed 

reflects the culture of both individuals and groups. Establishing 

a very modest personal connection—even over the phone—can 

draw groups together with a shared enthusiasm to succeed. That 

worked for us in the contract negotiations with CIRA. The only 

thing we lacked in the end was a firm handshake to celebrate 

our achievement. ●

retneh Ccraeses RemA ASA: Ntidero CtohP

Observing the reentry of JAXA’s Hayabusa, here shown breaking up after 

reentering the atmosphere, required international collaboration among the 

United States, Europe, Japan, and Australia. The spacecraft's asteroid samplereturn capsule is the small dot on the lower right.

ASK MAGAZINE | 37
Reducing Natural-Language Ambiguities 

in Requirements Engineering

 By LARS SCHNIEDER AND SuSANNE ARNDT

Interdisciplinary and interorganizational project collaboration is a challenge. One of the most 

essential tasks in big and heterogeneous projects is requirements engineering, which, done 

properly, helps master complexity and reduce misunderstanding. Requirements engineering is a 

communication process that involves understanding and coordinating terminologies from different 

disciplines. In order to obtain an unambiguous and precise specification of what is required, 

requirements engineers need to be aware of the potential pitfalls of drawing up requirements in 

natural language. Requirements engineering needs the support of tools that include models of 

domain-specific terminologies and conventions about their use to reduce the likely ambiguity and 

vagueness of requirements expressed in natural language.

38 | ASK MAGAZINE | InsIght
Requirements Engineering in Complex Projects collaborations effective is language. Terminology that belongs 

Research and development projects inherently involve a lot of to one knowledge system is often misunderstood by people 

planning and modeling. In general, this work begins with the who work with another knowledge system. Overcoming the 

collection of requirements. These are discussed and modified linguistic barriers between these systems is essential.

over time to arrive as far as possible at a requirements specification 

that is testable, unambiguous, complete, and correct. The project Ambiguity 

manager of a complex research-and-development project needs Ambiguities are a problem because they can lead to two or more 

to ensure that requirements are adequately administered, guided, different interpretations of the same word. They are often part 

controlled, and used throughout the project. For this reason a of the subconscious, so requirements writers will not necessarily 

suitable requirements management process and an adequate recognize these potential sources of misunderstandings. 

tool such as IBM Rational DOORS or IBM RequisitePro need There are different kinds of ambiguity. Lexical ambiguity

to be in place. refers to single expressions that may be reasonably interpreted in 

Failure to pay appropriate attention to requirements can more than one way. One simple example is the German adjective 

have fatal consequences for project success: needs of the user not einfach, which implies two different meanings. The first 

being met (development of required functions does not happen), meaning refers to the “ease of doing something.” A requirement 

resources of money and staff being wasted on unimportant work containing einfach could be taken to mean, “The sensor shall 

(for example, on the development of non-required functions), be easy to install.” The second meaning of this adjective refers 

and the greater likelihood of bugs or errors. to the “frequency of an activity.” So a requirement containing 

einfach could also be read as, “The sensor shall be installed only 

Collaboration once.” The second interpretation is not the intended meaning, 

The more complex the research subjects or products, the more as often sensors should feature a bracket to reattach them at 

care and expertise are required to implement them professionally. some other location. Once an ambiguity like this is detected, 

This includes a rigorous collaborative approach toward the author should be guided toward a clear, alternative wording. 

requirements engineering. Misinterpretation can also result from syntactic ambiguities. 

First of all, researchers of different departments of one The syntactical structure of a requirement—for example, 

organization work together to specify required technical when pronouns and relative clauses can refer back to two or 

features of the system (intraorganizational collaboration). In more other elements of the preceding sentence—might also 

addition, external suppliers need to understand the expected lead to different interpretations. In addition there might be

deliverable. Customer and supplier need to find a common discourse ambiguities, which are defined as incompatibility 

language (interorganizational collaboration). Complex projects between several requirements.

often require contributions from different domains. Since no 

single domain can completely capture all relevant requirements, Vagueness 

experts from various disciplines need to get together—and they In cases of vagueness, it is difficult to form any interpretation at 

must understand each other (interdisciplinary collaboration). the desired level of specificity. This is in contrast to ambiguity, 

This is where the greatest problem lies. where more than one interpretation is evoked. 

As productive as different perspectives on collaborative 

requirements engineering can be in an ideal situation, it is • U se of the passive voice can prevent a reader from 

difficult to get those benefits in reality. The key to making these understanding the meaning intended by the author of a 

ASK MAGAZINE | 39
requirement as it lacks explicit reference to the actor. In Future work will be directed to modeling rules for avoiding 

contrast to this, the active voice clearly identifies who is syntactically ambiguous sentence structures. Together with 

performing that action. A sample requirement that reads, the detection of lexical ambiguities, this has the potential 

“Video streams of critical vehicle movements have to be to significantly improve the linguistic clarity and quality 

stored,” fails to indicate which technical or organizational of requirements. Future work will be directed toward the 

entity is responsible for data storage and where the storage continuous improvement of the current prototype tool. The 

will be allocated. ultimate goal will be to use the tool for linguistic checks based 

• U se of participles to modify nouns also leaves open the on both the available terminology and the syntactical rule set. 

agent of action. A sample requirement that reads, “Installed Early experience has shown that especially the first steps 

sensors must measure the weight of the vehicles,” leaves of linguistic analysis and modeling need to be done by experts 

open the question of who will install the sensors. who are highly aware of potential natural-language problems. 

• The use of unspecific adjectives is another likely source It also is clear that correcting faults requires close cooperation 

of vagueness. For instance, “Components installed in the between linguists and domain experts whose knowledge is 

public road space should have an unobtrusive appearance,” required to recognize and remedy linguistic faults. Terminology 

leaves open the possibility of interpreting “unobtrusive” and existing syntactical rule sets need to be continually updated 

in many ways. More detailed requirements that specify for new application contexts. In the future, we expect that 

a maximum size and a desired color of the components requirements engineers will eventually have a tool that will allow 

avoid the problem. them to model their own semantic networks and terminology 

systems to the benefit of their requirements engineering work. ●

Improving the Quality of Natural-Language 

Requirements

These kinds of problems can be identified by means of strict 

detection routines. Requirements engineers can then remedy 

flaws and improve quality. At the DLR (German Aerospace 

Center), we have taken some steps in this direction:

• An in-depth initial linguistic analysis of the requirements 

repository identifies a list of critical and ambiguous terms 

that can serve as a basis for future requirements reviews. 

• A prototype terminology management system plugin for the requirements management tool is under 

development, which allows for modeling domainspecific terminologies. Using this plug-in, engineers 

can organize relevant terms according to the semantic 

relations between them. The plug-in includes ambiguous 

words and links to the associated different readings larS Schnieder works at the German Aerospace Center, Institute of Transportation Systems.

they can have. It indicates terms to avoid because of the SuSanne arndt works at the Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institute for Traffic 

ambiguity they create. Safety and Automation Engineering.

TERMINOlOGy THAT BElONGS TO ONE KNOWlEdGE SySTEM IS OFTEN 

MISuNdERSTOOd By PEOPlE WHO WORK WITH ANOTHER KNOWlEdGE SySTEM. 

OVERCOMING THE lINGuISTIC BARRIERS BETWEEN THESE SySTEMS IS ESSENTIAl.

40 | ASK MAGAZINE
Bioreactors

Drive Advances

It was an unlikely moment for inspiration. Engineers David Wolf and Ray Schwarz stopped by 

their lab around midday. Wolf, of Johnson Space Center, and Schwarz, with NASA contractor 

Krug Life Sciences (now Wyle Laboratories Inc.), were part of a team tasked with developing a 

unique technology with the potential to enhance medical research. But that wasn’t the focus at the 

moment: the pair was rounding up colleagues interested in grabbing some lunch.

Tumor cells grow on microcarrier beads 

within a NASA bioreactor. These cells 

were grown as part of NASA-sponsored 

breast cancer research. 

fofnipS A SAf Ny osetruoo ctohP
One of the lab’s other Krug engineers, Tinh Trinh, was doing But after running chemical analyses, Wolf and his colleagues 

something that made Wolf forget about food. Trinh was toying realized the cells had died from an altogether different reason 

with an electric drill. He had stuck the barrel of a syringe on than before: They had run out of nutrients because they grew 

the bit; it spun with a high-pitched whirr when he squeezed the too fast. The new bioreactor was, in a sense, too effective. 

drill’s trigger. The bioreactor’s rotating wall eliminated the problematic 

At the time, a multidisciplinary team of engineers and mechanical forces that had damaged previous cell cultures, 

biologists—including Wolf, Schwarz, Trinh, and project creating a constant free-fall effect within the media and 

manager Charles D. Anderson, who formerly led the recovery suspending the cells in a way very similar to microgravity. As the 

of the Apollo capsules after splashdown and now worked for team discovered means of supplying nutrients and oxygen and 

Krug—was pursuing the development of a technology called removing waste at high enough rates to support the cell cultures, 

a bioreactor, a cylindrical device used to culture human cells. they noticed new structures forming within the bioreactor. 

The team’s immediate goal was to grow human kidney cells to While standard human-cell cultures grown in Petri dishes 

produce erythropoietin, a hormone that regulates red blood-cell settle into flat layers thanks to gravity, the NASA bioreactor’s 

production and can be used to treat anemia. But there was a major microgravity mimicry produced very different results. 

barrier to the technology’s success: moving the liquid growth “These were three-dimensional structures that very 

media to keep it from stagnating resulted in turbulent conditions accurately represented the way human tissue is structured in 

that damaged the delicate cells, causing them to quickly die. the body,” said Wolf. The bioreactor performed even better in 

The team was looking forward to testing the bioreactor space, as was later demonstrated by Wolf himself as an astronaut 

in space, hoping the device would perform more effectively onboard the STS-86 mission to the Mir space station. 

in microgravity. But on January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle “When I first put the space-grown tissue samples under the 

Challenger broke apart shortly after launch, killing its seven microscope, I was astounded. With many years of experience 

crewmembers. The subsequent grounding of the shuttle fleet culturing tissues, I had never seen any so well organized and with 

had left researchers with no access to space, and thus no way to such fine structure,” Wolf said. It was another breakthrough 

study the effects of microgravity on human cells. moment, he said, similar to when the team first discovered the 

As Wolf looked from Trinh’s syringe-capped drill to where ability to assemble 3-D tissue on Earth using the simulated 

the bioreactor sat on a workbench, he suddenly saw a possible microgravity of the NASA bioreactor. Wolf, Schwarz, and Trinh 

solution to both problems. won NASA “Inventor of the Year” honors for their innovation.

“It dawned on me that rotating the wall of the reactor 

would solve one of our fundamental fluid mechanical problems, Partnership 

specifically by removing the velocity gradient of the tissue- In 1990, Anderson and Schwarz licensed patents for the rotatingculture fluid media near the reactor’s walls,” said Wolf. “It wall bioreactor technology and founded Synthecon  Inc. to 

looked as though it would allow us to suspend the growing commercialize the device. 

cells within the reactor without introducing turbulent fluid “When they saw what the technology could do, they thought, 

mechanical conditions.” ‘Wow, we really have a better mousetrap,’” said Bill Anderson, 

The three engineers skipped lunch. They quickly built a Charles Anderson’s son and current president of the company. 

prototype from components lying around the lab and tested Synthecon’s founders saw great potential in the bioreactor not 

the bioreactor that night using hamster kidney cells (cheaper only as a powerful tool for growing healthy cell cultures, but also 

than their human counterparts). When the team returned in as an enabler for more effective drug development and production 

the morning, not much had changed; the cells were all dead. techniques and even entirely new fields of medicine. 

42 | ASK MAGAZINE

THE BIOREACTOR’S ROTATING WAll ElIMINATEd THE 

PROBlEMATIC MECHANICAl FORCES THAT HAd 

dAMAGEd PREVIOuS CEll CulTuRES ...
The problem was waiting for the rest of the medical industry want to test candidate compounds on RCCS-grown, 3-D cells to 

to catch up, explained Anderson. Scientists were satisfied using get a more accurate sense of a potential drug’s effects. Synthecon 

flasks to culture cells, and drug companies were relying on the is also scaling up the bioreactor technology for the production of 

resulting two-dimensional cells, unlike any in the human body, recombinant proteins and antibodies. (Recombinant proteins are 

to provide them with data for their pharmaceutical compounds. expressed from cells containing genetically modified DNA; this 

“The technology was seven to eight years ahead of its time,” is the method used to create human insulin and the hepatitis B 

Anderson said. vaccine among other vaccinations and disease treatments.) The 

While Synthecon worked to demonstrate the potential of the company has found that an RCCS can churn out multifold 

rotating-wall bioreactor, it received significant support from NASA. more product than standard systems because it treats cells so 

“We were fortunate in the early days that NASA saw the gently, meaning the cells expressing the proteins do not spend 

importance of the technology and formed a grant program around energy on repair, a major drain on their productivity. A 100-liter 

it,” Anderson said. The agency funded researchers from schools like RCCS can thus generate the same output as a 1,000-liter 

Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology standard system. 

to test the device’s value for what was then a burgeoning medical 

field—tissue engineering, seeding an artificial matrix with cells 

that grow into implantable human tissues. Synthecon provided WE WERE FORTuNATE IN THE EARly dAyS 

THAT NASA SAW THE IMPORTANCE OF 

THE TECHNOlOGy ANd FORMEd A GRANT 

PROGRAM AROuNd IT ...

the bioreactors for these studies, and the results—success 

growing different tissue types, as well as tumor models for 

testing cancer treatments outside the body—led to numerous 

published findings that added relevance to the technology. 

“It really helped us stay alive when most small businesses 

don’t get that benefit,” said Anderson. 

Benefits

Synthecon has since built a portfolio of patents based on the Another developing area of medical research in which 

original NASA bioreactor and improved upon the original Synthecon’s NASA technology promises to be a major contributor 

technology in a number of ways, creating models inexpensive is regenerative medicine. Much has been made in recent years 

enough to be disposable, as well as automated versions that can about the prospects of stem cells to treat conditions as varied as 

change the growth media without stopping the reactor’s rotation. cancer, diabetes, and sickle cell anemia. (In simple terms, stem 

Now the company’s NASA-developed rotary cell culture systems cells are special cells that can transform into other cell types, 

(RCCS)—an “R&D 100” award-winning technology—are key offering the potential to replace damaged or malfunctioning 

tools for medical research being conducted around the globe, cells with healthy ones.) A major obstacle, however, is supply. 

and the company, bioreactor technology, and original NASA Synthecon is currently engaged in studies using its RCCS devices 

innovators were all inducted into the Space Technology Hall of to multiply stem cells from umbilical cord blood—a plentiful 

Fame in 2011. source without the ethical concerns raised by embryonic stem 

“It might have been ahead of its time, but our technology is cells. Cord-blood transplants have already been demonstrated to 

really filling its shoes quickly,” Anderson said. treat leukemia and other cancers, Anderson said, and the RCCS 

Major pharmaceutical companies, Anderson explained, offers the means to efficiently generate the amounts of healthy 

spend significant amounts of money on drug discovery and now stem cells necessary for medical use. fofnipS A SAf Ny osetruoo ctohP

Astronaut David Wolf performs maintenance on a NASA 

bioreactor unit onboard the Mir space station. Experiments 

conducted by Wolf demonstrated that the bioreactor produces 

even more effective cell-growth results in space.

ASK MAGAZINE | 43
“We think the bioreactor is going to provide a lot of benefit Wolf believes that the lunchtime epiphany that led to the 

to a lot of patients moving forward,” said Anderson. “The development of the NASA bioreactor is indicative of how true 

applications seem to grow every year.” innovation works. 

“I think it is reasonable to say that the fields of regenerative “Innovation is an inherently messy process,” he said. “It’s 

medicine and molecular biology have evolved in the interim based on the correct balance of sticking to the original plan 

years to complement this technology,” said Wolf, who says he but also being able to appropriately deviate and adapt to new 

is proud to see a technology conceived within the government information and discoveries. The future of NASA, our country, 

make a successful transfer to the private sector. “We have a very and world is depending on this process for ever more innovations 

powerful set of tools to make the next set of innovations and for deep-space exploration and for improving life on Earth.” ●

contributions to future medical science.”

fofnipS A SAf Ny osetruoo ctohP

Synthecon Inc. has further advanced 

the bioreactor technology, creating 

platforms like this perfused culture 

system that allows the cell-growth 

medium to be exchanged, sampled, 

or modified without stopping the 

bioreactor’s rotation and potentially 

damaging the cells.

44 | ASK MAGAZINE
Robonaut 2 (R2) onboard the International Space Station. General Motors, NASA’s partner in R2’s development, plans to use the robot to test advanced vehicle 

safety systems and create safer manufacturing options. This is just one way NASA technology contributes to improved health and safety on Earth.

By KERRy ELLIS

Seven years ago, I was hired as an editor for NASA’s ASK Magazine. Being a rare English major–

math minor hybrid and a generally curious sort who liked taking things apart to see how they 

worked, I was thrilled for the opportunity to get an inside look at NASA.

ASA: Ntidero CtohP
I was overwhelmed by how much I didn’t know about our 

nation’s aeronautics and space program. Thankfully, there were 

hundreds of scientists, project managers, and engineers who were 

as excited to teach me as I was to learn. (There are thousands 

more I’ve yet to meet.) And what I’ve learned is aeronautics and 

space exploration are hard, much harder than I’d imagined. In 

addition to that basic truth, I also learned there are important 

common lessons to be had from these one-of-a-kind missions.

Communication Matters

We’ve heard this countless times, but every story makes the 

point in a new way. The underlying message is the same—

communicate openly and often!—but how it’s delivered can 

change. I learned that the root cause of most mishaps, be they 

in hardware, software, or requirements, could be traced back to 

miscommunication or a lack of communication.

I learned this early with one of the first projects I wrote about 

for ASK: Genesis. Before Mike Ryschkewitsch became NASA’s 

chief engineer, he was the deputy center director for Goddard 

Space Flight Center and spoke with me about the mission that 

unexpectedly crash landed upon reentry. He taught me why 

clear communication trumps heritage hardware in ensuring a 

mission flies as planned:

 “You can’t just say, ‘don’t install g-switches upside down,’ 

as a lesson learned from Genesis,” said Ryschkewitsch 

.... “There was confusion around what testing needed to 

be done and what the tests meant. One part of the team 

understood that repackaging the [Genesis] electronics meant 

losing the ‘heritage’ from Stardust. Other parts never clearly 

understood that, and it was never clearly communicated 

between those teams.” So when one team verified that the 

switches did what they were supposed to—which to them 

meant flipping from one orientation to another—another 

team thought full testing had been done, ensuring the 

switches flipped and made the correct connections. 

Falsely assuming communication has occurred or 

understanding has been reached by all involved is a common 

problem. It’s the reason behind another often-heard adage at 

NASA: “Trust, but verify.” Though I first heard this repeated 

among systems engineers, it applies to all parts of a project. 

Everyone is working together to create a successful mission—

which can be thought of as a system itself. 

 “I remind everybody constantly that we are all systems 

engineers,” explained [Bryan] Fafaul [from Goddard]. “I 

expect everybody, down to the administrative staff, to say 

something if they see or hear anything that doesn’t seem 

right. Remember, you need to be a team to be an A team.”

Resolving communication issues can help prevent larger, 

technical issues down the line. Speaking up can be difficult, but 

not doing so can result in disastrous mission failures.

The type of communication that occurs can also make a 

difference. While the consensus is to talk often, many agree 

that face-to-face conversations offer the most benefit, followed 

by teleconferences, then e-mail. Being able to see people’s 

expressions and hear their voices helps eliminate uncertainty 

ASA: Ntidero CtohP

Close-up of the Genesis capsule shortly after return. Miscommunication resulted 

in misunderstanding about tests performed, which resulted in the capsule’s crash 

landing after reentry.

46 | ASK MAGAZINE

et utit snI ecn ie cS ecap /S hcetl a C-LPJ/ ASAN:t di er Co ot hP

A glorious view of Saturn, taken while the Cassini spacecraft 

was in the planet’s shadow. A systems engineer insisting on 

full-up testing for data telemetry from Huygens revealed a 

problem that would have resulted in data loss from the 

Cassini-Huygens mission.
around meaning or motives. It also helps build the trust these Test as You Fly, Fly as You Test

collaborations require. I first heard this mantra at one of the Academy of Program/

Project and Engineering Leadership’s Masters Forums, and since 

Ed Rinderle, a Viking programmer, attributed some of then I’ve heard it repeated often as a core lesson learned from 

Viking’s success to the working environment: “We were all many NASA missions. It seems obvious from the outside—test 

gathered in one big bullpen, an open area, no cubicles or for the planned mission conditions and operations, then operate 

partitions. You got to know each other on a different level according to plan—but the thing about one-of-a-kind missions 

than had we been separated.” is the plan always involves the unexpected. (It’s tough to plan 

for discoveries you haven’t yet discovered.) And replicating 

According to Mike Landis [former NextGen project manager], conditions in orbit or deep space on Earth is never easy. 

“Real estate agents talk about location, location, location. In one instance with Cassini, an engineer insisting on full 

From a project manager’s perspective, it’s communicate, testing revealed a flaw that would have resulted in data loss:

communicate, communicate. It’s not just sending an 

e-mail out, it’s sitting down with the line management and The team asked the Goldstone Deep Space Network 

researchers, understanding their requirements, and ensuring (DSN) station located near Barstow, California, to transmit 

they have the resources they need to execute our plan.” a signal to Cassini that would simulate the signal coming 

from Huygens .... The team would then record the signal 

“When we actually went to their [Roscosmos] cafeteria on board and play it back to Earth .... They originally 

and were able to eat with them, sit down with them, that proposed using only a carrier signal, but one of the ESA 

helped,” added [Harold] Beeson [an expert on materials [European Space Agency] engineers, Boris Smeds, pushed 

flammability in high-oxygen conditions from White Sands to make it a full simulation with telemetry. ... “Most people 

Test Facility]. “A meal is always a good thing to share.” thought this was overkill, but we agreed to let him do it,” 

The working relationship among the team swiftly [project manager Robert] Mitchell says. As it turned out, 

improved after that. [David] Urban [microgravity scientist the carrier signal was received just fine, but the telemetry 

from Glenn Research Center] explained, “We’d built a was not. If they had done no test, or just the carrier test, the 

familiarity, they were relaxing, we had spent some time team would have lost a significant amount of Huygens’ data 

together and communicated during meetings.” and would not have known about the problem until after 

the mission was completed.

Building trust through communication also relies on 

following through on commitments—exactly as agreed to. We can never solve the problem of “we don’t know what 

Doing things as stated—whether in conversation or written we don’t know,” but by acting on what we do know, and testing 

requirements—also contributes to mission assurance. It’s why according to that knowledge, we may be able to oust some of 

every piece of hardware and software goes through verification those unknown unknowns before they become problems.

and validation. If you don’t thoroughly communicate changes, In the projects I’ve learned about, the factors that most 

everyone will operate under the assumptions of what was often make or break a NASA mission are the quality of 

previously written or heard. communication and the thoroughness of testing. Getting those 

I expect everybody, down to the administrative staff , to say something if

they see or hear anything that doesn ’t seem right . Remember , you nee d 

to be a team to be an A team .

ASK MAGAZINE | 47
two things right goes a long way toward ensuring the technical I don’t mean just the scientific knowledge we gain by studying 

and operational success of any project. Earth, other planets, and galaxies. 

But no NASA project exists in a vacuum. To compete Because NASA is building one-of-a-kind missions, a lot of 

successfully for scarce funding, missions must make a new technology gets invented along the way. That technology 

convincing case for their scientific and societal value, so another is reused and repurposed in thousands of ways. Better known 

vital aspect of project success is stakeholder support. And the as “spin-offs,” these innovations are embedded in our local 

biggest stakeholder for NASA is the general public. communities. What’s surprising is how few people outside the 

agency realize this.

Reach Out for Support

Many project managers and systems engineers tout the benefits to

of networking when problem solving—reaching out to other 

experts to gain their expertise or insight. A different type of 

reaching out can have a greater impact in keeping a project 

going: public outreach. Support from the public, or from 

scientists wanting new data, can be a strong argument against 

project cancellation.

For example, working in space has allowed NASA engineers 

 help remote villages obtain clean water.

“ We’re working in extreme environments in both cases,” 

said [Dan] Garguilo [a systems engineer at Johnson Space 

Center]. “When you have to plan project implementation 

in the developing world, you have a finite amount of 

money and resources to do the project; it’s almost like 

working in space. You have to plan everything out to 

 “The reality is that every year you have to defend your the nth degree, account for all the tools you’re going to 

program,” [Dougal] Maclise [who worked on the solar- need, know what materials are available for you. You 

powered Pathfinder unmanned aerial vehicle] says. have to work efficiently and take your environment into 

“The best way to keep a program alive is to get the user consideration. All these things are similar to when we’re 

communities to say they need the data your program working on ISS [International Space Station] or other 

provides them. Thus it behooves you to spread your base of planetary missions.”

support far and wide.”

Thanks to NASA spin-off technologies, doctors can help 

The Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor diagnose patients located thousands of miles away. Firefighters 

Technology program’s Pathfinder project appealed to local can put out fires faster. Farmers can remove harmful chemicals 

farmers, children, and universities. Word eventually made its from soil. Ophthalmologists can diagnose diseases earlier 

way back to NASA about everything the team was doing to and more accurately. NASA technology is also responsible for 

support the local community. polished brass coating on plumbing fixtures, cordless handheld 

vacuums, UV blocking in sunglasses, shock-absorbing sports 

“ Suddenly money that hadn’t been available before appeared shoes, wireless headsets, and refrigerated display cases at grocery 

[from NASA], and this gave the project some extra lift, so stores. And this is a very small sampling from thousands of 

to speak, making our attempts at another world-record- examples. What we put in to NASA we get tenfold in return. 

altitude flight an even more viable goal,” [Jenny] Baer- (See NASA’s annual Spinoff publication for more examples.)

Riedhart explains.

More to Know

Getting the public, international partners, and scientists on Perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve learned is no matter how much 

board gives projects extra voices to fight for mission completion. we know about aeronautics and space exploration today, there’s 

It can also result in unexpected and beneficial collaborations always more to learn. Stories and experience from past and 

beyond aeronautics or spaceflight, like when industries learn current missions are continuously captured and told to help 

about new technology created for NASA projects and brainstorm today’s missions and those who will innovate in the future. And 

new ways to use it. every mission has multiple stories—different knowledge and 

perspectives from everyone who worked on them. 

Expanding Technology Innovation Sharing those stories and that knowledge is why I do what 

One of the most important things I learned working for I do every day. Not just for the obvious value of getting that 

NASA, and something I think is often lost when the general know-how circulating across centers, agencies, academia, and 

public thinks about the agency, is how much of what NASA the world, but because I love learning and telling those stories.

does affects our daily lives. The knowledge obtained by doing What NASA does is amazing. I’m proud to be one small 

these missions does not stay locked inside the government. And part of it. ●

48 | ASK MAGAZINE
Are there underlying reasons for these losses and, if so, how is learner-centered teaching practices can help retain student 

it possible to avoid them? The answers to these questions are interest in aeronautical/aerospace engineering. Educators can 

contingent upon two crucial elements: education and research. enhance or abandon traditional lectures by incorporating 

new interactive tools in their teaching—tools that range from 

Aeronautical/Aerospace Engineering Education podcasts and audio clips to posters and animations, as well as 

Today, the average aerospace engineering student has a much hands-on experience. For instance, aircraft stall can be taught 

more comprehensive curriculum than students of only a few theoretically as the separation of the airflow from a wing section 

decades ago. A combination of novel experimental techniques, and a follow-up discussion on the consequence of lift loss. Or 

more sophisticated computational models, and an overall greater it can be experimentally verified in a wind-tunnel setting using 

wealth of knowledge provide today’s students with a refined smoke visualization and instrumentation to record lift reduction 

tool set to tackle future engineering challenges. and augmentation. Actually watching a wing section drop is 

But a basic element of the discipline—lessons to develop understood more easily and remembered better by students 

mathematical and computational skills—has a negative impact than its theoretical counterpart. 

on many, usually during the early undergraduate years. Fear Such additional routes to learning engage the students with 

of these subjects is common; the task of overcoming it is so these topics without the discouraging fear created by theoretical 

arduous that a notable number of students choose to abandon complexity and abstraction. This step is vital to maintaining 

their aeronautical/aerospace engineering dreams entirely. a diverse student body capable of meeting the needs of future 

Certainly, there should be no compromise regarding the aeronautical/aerospace sectors. 

requirements for acquiring essential knowledge and skills. But 

one of the challenges the educator faces is how to keep students The Lure of Research

interested even when the heavy clouds of mathematics and NASA’s involvement in various programs for children and young 

sciences blur the view of their goals. adults and other community-outreach endeavors inspire many 

We believe that modern educational approaches such as youngsters in the United States and other parts of the world. 

Dreams of flight have captured the human imagination for centuries. Children worldwide imagine 

dancing among the stars and soaring into the blue. Will their visions become reality? The dream 

of flight has motivated generations to experiment with the physical and scientific world, including 

those children who—against their parents’ advice—stretch out their hands from the windows 

of cars in order to feel the air resistance against their palms. In the early phases of our careers 

in education, we saw the dreams of flight among the majority of high-school students. Younger 

generations are always interested in aviation and space sciences. We were asked similar types of 

questions whether we gave an aviation/aerospace lecture in a school in Tucson, Arizona; Gainesville, 

Florida; Stockholm, Sweden; or London, England. For many, though, the dream of working in 

aeronautical and aerospace engineering slowly evaporates and is lost.

Viewpoint: Attracting Tomorrow’s Engineers

By AMIR S. GOHARDANI AND OMID GOHARDANI 

InsIght | ASK MAGAZINE | 49
The bridge between academic studies and research is a golden aerospace industry, unforeseen events such as budget cuts or 

limited manpower add complexity to the overall implemented 

management and time management practices. So it is important 

to attract students whose skills and interests go beyond science 

and engineering.

The experiences of one of us with a multinational

European Commission FP7 program shows that collaboration 

across borders makes cultural awareness, leadership qualities, 

communication, and language skills essential. The other author 

has been involved with the Solar Orbiter mission, in which 

NASA and ESA jointly aim to address the central question 

of heliophysics: How does the sun create and influence the 

heliosphere? The skills needed by the leaders of this project 

stretch far beyond technical skills. 

The success of such projects in the future will depend 

on the willingness of younger generations to engage with the 

engineering discipline. Ensuring a bright future for aeronautical/

aerospace engineering rests in the decisions made by government 

entities, policymakers, educational and research institutions, 

and, perhaps most importantly, by all the individuals who 

interact with the young men and women who will be the future 

of aeronautical/aerospace engineering. ● 

one for career involvement and advancement. If educators

worldwide help students envision the structure of this bridge

before its final construction, they have already contributed to

a source of inspiration for further progress. Young individuals

EduCATORS CAN ENHANCE OR 

ABANdON TRAdITIONAl lECTuRES 

By INCORPORATING NEW INTERACTIVE 

TOOlS IN THEIR TEACHING ...

can be inspired by aeronautical/aerospace research, but they

are not drawn to the successful efforts in aeronautics and space

exploration as much as they should be. For some students,

exposure to research efforts, environments, and outcomes has

been marginal at best. Our teaching experiences indicate that

giving children the chance to observe aeronautical/aerospace 

research at early ages means they will tend to follow these 

subjects more frequently and actively. We see improvements 

in this regard, but additional efforts would contribute to 

tomorrow’s aeronautical/aerospace workforce. 

New Skills for Global Projects

Our collective collaborations with NASA, the European Space 

Agency (ESA), and the European Commission’s FP7 program 

have shown that aeronautical/aerospace research has never been 

as global as it is now. Project and program management in such 

an environment requires a new set of approaches that includes 

personal development and visionary thinking and a variety of 

skills other than technical expertise. Multilingual skills and 

insight into cultural differences have a more pronounced role 

than ever before. Given the dynamic nature of the aeronautical/

50 | ASK MAGAZINE
The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) recently 

implemented the new NESC Academy (nescacademy.nasa.gov), 

an innovative online academy documenting hundreds of lessons 

learned from senior engineers and subject-matter experts working 

some of the most complex technical challenges at NASA. 

Since 2005, the NESC Academy has captured, preserved, 

and shared the knowledge and experiences of senior NASA 

engineers and scientists that are invaluable to the work of the 

next generation of NASA technical professionals. Beginning in 

2009, NASA technical fellows and their colleagues, who served 

as subject-matter experts, delivered courses in a two- to three-day 

classroom environment. After nine such instructor-led courses, 

the NESC leadership decided the courses were too costly and 

required excessive preparation from the experts, whose primary 

NESC mission is to evaluate critical, high-risk NASA projects. 

The NESC Academy: Expertise 

f or Tomorrow’s Engineers

By PATRICIA PAHLAVANI

“The only source of knowledge is experience.” 

— Albert Einstein

InsIght | ASK MAGAZINE | 51
In 2010, the NESC began reviewing and benchmarking moderator, and producer to reside in different locations. Live 

modern capture and delivery mechanisms with the goal of webcasts are recorded for later viewing. All upcoming and 

reinventing the Academy while reducing costs and lessening recorded webcasts are available from the NESC Academy web 

the demands on experts’ time. The NESC’s systems and site at nescacademy.nasa.gov/#features=2. To date, the NESC 

communications team was given the challenge. The team used has captured more than 200 videos, with 123 published, that 

the Khan Academy, started by Salman Khan, as a model.1 document work across thirteen technical disciplines online. The 

The Khan Academy began as short, online courses in science, new online NESC Academy officially launched on September 8, 

technology, engineering, and math to tutor remote family 2012, and has had more than three thousand viewings to date.

members. It has since grown to more than 3,500 micro-lectures, The NASA technical fellows are passionate about sharing 

with over 190 million views. The NESC team benchmarked technical knowledge. They and their discipline teams solve some 

products that could facilitate the effective capture and delivery of the most varied and difficult technical problems at NASA. 

of the NESC online lessons. The team also collaborated with This experience gives them a clear picture of where their discipline

the NASA Safety Center, which uses Mediasite to capture and excels and, more importantly, where critical investments are 

stream content to the Internet. required to advance NASA’s technical capability. As stewards 

Because NESC’s experts are spread across the country, of their disciplines, they use their experience to develop and 

capturing content from remote locations, including a user’s document a state-of-the-discipline assessment, identifying 

desktop, was a challenge. Initially, a “training toolbox” was knowledge gaps and proposing strategies to fill them. Conducting 

physically sent to the expert’s location. It contained all the reviews and assessments daily, they look for opportunities 

software and hardware necessary to record a lesson. A simple to address these shortcomings and capture knowledge and 

PowerPoint plug-in and new server software (Camtasia Relay), experience that might otherwise be lost or forgotten.

which enables lessons capture directly from the user’s desktop At a technical interchange meeting sponsored by the 

and transfers the data remotely to the NESC servers, replaced aerosciences technical discipline team, for example, the NESC 

the toolbox. This technology enables remote video capture recognized that there was a wealth of NASA knowledge and 

without requiring travel, complicated data file transfers, and experience in the aerosciences discipline of significant benefit 

extensive upfront preparation. to both the commercial crew partners developing the next 

Once the NESC’s servers receive the video lessons, they are spacecraft servicing low-Earth orbit and the NASA team tasked 

processed using an eleven-step method that includes editing, with the evaluation and selection of these concepts. The meeting 

course-material insertion, export-control review, and closed was designed as a series of case studies and briefings outlining 

captioning. To track the processing, the NESC Academy team uses flight-development projects, including the shuttle orbiter, 

a tool called TrackVia, an online, cloud-based tool configured to HyperX/X-43A, X-38, Ares, Ares I-X, and Orion. Presentations 

monitor progression. It provides workflow, tracking, dashboards, focused on the aerosciences philosophy, strategies, techniques, 

and processing support for all video production. experiences, and lessons learned in predicting aerodynamic 

In 2011, the NESC began collaborating with the NASA performance, constructing aerodynamic databases, predicting 

Engineering Network (NEN), also within the Office of the flight environments, and managing uncertainty. Participants 

Chief Engineer, to provide live, online webcasts. Using Academy included the NESC, Langley Research Center, Johnson Space 

hardware, these webcasts give NASA technical fellows and Center, Ames Research Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, 

their colleagues the ability to present material remotely to commercial crew partners, the NASA Commercial Crew and 

large audiences in real time. Webcasting allows the presenter, Cargo Program Office, and other industry and agency guests. 

[TECHNICAl FEllOWS] GET IMMENSE SATISFACTION KNOWING 

THEy ARE PRESERVING TECHNICAl KNOWlEdGE THAT REMAINS 

VIABlE ANd ACCESSIBlE TO THE CuRRENT ANd FuTuRE 

COMMuNITy OF NASA PROFESSIONAlS.

52 | ASK MAGAZINE
All the case studies and lectures were recorded. The content is 

now being placed on the NESC Academy web site. 

Since the technical fellows’ technical discipline teams 

consist of experts from all NASA centers, along with other 

government agencies, industry, and academia, members live 

and work all across the country. Each team assembles in annual 

face-to-face meetings to share experiences, strategize discipline 

advancement, and network. In 2011, at a joint meeting of the 

aerosciences, flight mechanics, and guidance, navigation, and 

controls teams, a member with extensive experience in the 

development of Gemini, Apollo, and the shuttle orbiter gave 

a presentation entitled “Lessons Learned on Previous Manned 

Spaceflight Programs That Seem to Have Been Forgotten.” 

While that original presentation was not recorded, an encore 

presentation to the broader NESC a few months later was 

captured on video and is available on the NESC Academy site. 

This is a good example of how engineering knowledge and 

experience is captured by the technical fellows, in near real time, 

and preserved by the Academy.

The NASA technical fellow community has enthusiastically 

embraced the new, user-friendly methodology. They get 

immense satisfaction knowing they are preserving technical 

knowledge that remains viable and accessible to the current and 

future community of NASA professionals. Technical fellows 

and their discipline teams determine the courses to capture and 

make available on their NESC Academy catalog. The disciplines 

and other webcast presenters also suggest future topics.

Classroom courses previously videotaped are now being 

converted to the new NESC Academy online format, the results 

streamlined and improved by applying additional editing and 

cleanup. The content is now more accessible to users than in the 

past, as there are no prerequisite reading requirements. Of course, 

in an exclusively online format, the hands-on aspects of viewing 

hardware and models in the classroom and the back-and-forth 

dialogue and networking with colleagues and senior professionals 

are lost. To compensate, all webcasts offer a question-and-answer 

period at the end of each session. The subject-matter experts 

answer questions and address issues that were either not addressed 

or needed clarification. All questions and answers are retained as 

part of the webcast and are available on the NESC Academy web 

site and to the communities of practice on the NEN.

An exciting new development is the rebroadcasting of 

a webcast within university settings, followed by the subjectmatter expert connecting to the classroom via Skype to address 

students’ questions live. The NESC team may explore more 

possibilities of this kind to increase the level of interaction. 

Currently, the NEN communities of practice serve as the avenue 

for interacting with other technical professionals and providing 

feedback on webcasts and other content so that continuous 

improvement becomes a part of the process. 

Amadou Hampâté Bâ, an African ethnologist, famously 

stated, “... when an elder dies, it’s a library burning.” With the 

new approach to capturing and delivering content, the NESC 

is attempting to preserve NASA’s “technical library.” In short, 

there is more to acquiring knowledge than what is in textbooks; 

knowledge also develops from lived experience, and veteran 

NASA experts possess decades of knowledge and experience 

that is invaluable to the aerospace community. 

While the NESC Academy has changed, the core mission 

remains the same: to help senior NASA scientists and research 

engineers pass on critical technical expertise and problemresolution skills to the younger workforce to support continuing 

and future mission success. ●

Patricia Pahlavani has served as a program analyst in the 

NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) since 2007. Currently 

a member of the systems and communication team, she is 

responsible for designing communication materials and supporting 

the NESC Academy, the NESC web site, and the annual Technical 

Update. She ensures there is relevant and current content available 

to these outreach efforts and organizes and distributes outreach 

content in a variety of other publicity efforts as they occur.

1. www.khanacademy.org.

ASK MAGAZINE | 53
Saying the F Word 

By LAuRENCE PRuSAK 

The Knowledge Notebook

I’d like to talk about an F word that is probably in Vietnam? Or, to take a less contentious issue, 

heard less in most organizations than that other did any major financial firm try to look carefully 

F word—the one you thought I meant. The F word at what happened in 2008? What about internal 

I have in mind is “failure.” examination of a disastrous merger like that of 

I’m sure I needn’t belabor the point that most Time Warner and AOL? 

private and public organizations rarely admit their What can one learn from failure? If done 

failures. (NASA is of course an exception to this with a modicum of sensitivity and good will, 

rule. Its failures tend to be front-page news and discussions of failure are worth their weight in 

are endlessly discussed and analyzed inside and acquired wisdom and improved judgment. As a 

outside the agency.) But failure is slowly being result of extensive, frank analysis of the Challenger

recognized as a valuable subject. One can learn a and Columbia disasters, NASA has developed 

lot from the failure of projects, technologies, states, processes and cultural norms that support greater 

and virtually any other human endeavor. openness and safety consciousness. But how many 

There is now a movement within the world of other such examples can we name? And if failures 

philanthropy and non-governmental organizations are not admitted and discussed, they are likely to 

to begin to discuss failed activities openly. It is happen over and over again.

called FAILFaire. Its distinctive punning name is of So what stops this most valuable activity from 

course deliberate. FAILFaire is all about being fair- happening in most organizations? Surely the blame 

minded when talking about things that do not go game is at or near the top of the list. In spite of 

as planned. It recently held its third annual meeting protestations to the contrary, discussing failure is 

in Washington, D.C. Representatives of several not possible in many organizations because “failure 

organizations stood up and discussed in detail is not an option” and the individuals blamed for 

projects that went wrong for systemic reasons—not the failures that inevitably occur are punished. 

as a result of simple human errors but because of In those rare cases when failure is discussed, it is 

faulty ideas about how things would work. usually seen as idiosyncratic and individual, so 

 The meeting was held this year at the World little learning takes place. 

Bank; several people I work with at the World Bank Another reason—perhaps a more valid one—

attended. It has been written up in the New York is what philosophers call “causal ambiguity.” It 

Times and on the web. It is also reported that the is hard to understand the causes of a failure in a 

Bank is having its own internal FAILFaire meeting complex organization—or even in such a small 

soon under the transparency initiative the Bank is theater of activity as one’s own mind. A story told 

committed to. about the great Elizabethan adventurer Sir Walter 

Can you imagine such a meeting being held Raleigh illustrates this point. 

at the end of a war? Did Japan or Germany do When he was imprisoned in the Tower of 

this in any public or private way? Did the United London in the early 1600s, Raleigh decided to 

States look closely and openly at what happened write a history of the world. Staring out of his 

54 | ASK MAGAZINE
prison cell one day, thinking about how to proceed, he saw a

man being killed right under his window. Raleigh was appalled.

He asked his valets and other servants to find out what had

happened. His men were never able to get to the bottom of the 

crime. That discouraged him from writing his history: if he

couldn’t even understand what had happened under his own

window, how could he possibly understand what happened

hundreds of years ago? 

Yet a third reason for not discussing failure is fear of putting 

off donors, patrons, clients, investors, congress people, and

anyone else whose support one needs to carry on the work. It is 

hard to put a good spin on a failure that has potential and real 

liabilities for stakeholders (even though looking at the failure

would ultimately benefit them, too). 

Overcoming these barriers to open examination of failure

is important because of all we can gain by encouraging such

transparency in our working and social and political lives. That

is often the only way we can learn things that are not taught

or often even considered in our rushed day-to-day lives, and

sometimes the only or the best way organizational truth can

grow. I think the movement toward transparency and learning

from failure is one of the more remarkable trends in recent years.

It should be applauded and encouraged. Two cheers for failure! ● 

IN SPITE OF PROTESTATIONS TO THE 

CONTRARy, dISCuSSING FAIluRE IS 

NOT POSSIBlE IN MANy ORGANIZATIONS 

BECAuSE “FAIluRE IS NOT AN OPTION” 

ANd THE INdIVIduAlS BlAMEd FOR 

THE FAIluRES THAT INEVITABly OCCuR 

ARE PuNISHEd.

ASK MAGAZINE | 55
ASKinteractive

For More on 

Our Stories

Additional information 

pertaining to articles featured 

in this issue can be found by 

visiting the following web sites:

• James webb 

space telescope: 

www.jwst.nasa.gov

• Van allen probes: 

vanallenprobes.jhuapl.edu

• nasa open government: 

open.nasa.gov

International Space Apps Challenge 2013

After a successful event in 2012 that resulted in dozens of innovative 

solutions, the International Space Apps Challenge is gearing up for its 

second event April 20–21, 2013. The International Space Apps Challenge 

is a two-day technology development event during which citizens from 

around the world work together to address current challenges relevant to 

both space exploration and social need. To learn more about the event, 

and register to participate, visit spaceappschallenge.org.

This year @ NASA: 2012

NASA takes a look back on the many accomplishments of 2012 in an 

interactive feature showcasing images, articles, and video from the 

year. Experience again the “seven minutes of terror” when the Curiosity 

rover landed on Mars, the Space Shuttle’s retirement, advancements in 

commercial space partnerships, new scientific discoveries, and more at 

www.nasa.gov/externalflash/yIR12. Also watch as those behind these 

achievements reflect on them and what it took to succeed: www.nasa.gov/

multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=157200021.

NASA in the News

NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, caught the glow of two 

black holes lurking inside spiral galaxy IC342, which lies 7 million light-years away in 

the constellation Camelopardalis (the Giraffe). Previous observations of this galaxy 

from the Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed the presence of these black holes, 

called ultraluminous X-ray sources (uLXs). 

How uLXs can shine so brilliantly is an ongoing mystery in astronomy. “High-energy X-rays hold a key to unlocking 

the mystery surrounding these objects,” said Fiona Harrison, NuSTAR principal investigator. “Whether they are 

massive black holes, or there is new physics in how they feed, the answer is going to be fascinating.”

Read more about the new image and what it reveals at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/nustar/news/nustar20130107.html.

feedback

We welcome your comments on what you’ve read in this issue of ASK and your suggestions for articles you 

would like to see in future issues. Share your thoughts with us here: askmagazine.nasa.gov/about/write.html.

56 | ASK MAGAZINE
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