NASA Advisory Council Recommendation 

Research Subcommittee of the 


Human Exploration and Operations Committee 


2013-02-01 (HEOC-Ol) 


Recommendation: 

NASA should add commercial expertise to the already impressive membership ofthe 

Research Subcommittee ofthe Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Committee. 

Specifically, the committee should receive input from research, development and 

commercialization leaders in one or more ofthe relevant industries (e.g., pharmaceutical, 

biological, materials science, etc.) that have experience in applied research. 

Major Reasons for Proposing the Recommendation: 


The current subcommittee is populated by an impressive cadre ofresearch leaders from 


academia but commercial opportunities for research in microgravity are also important, 


as evidenced by several projects that have been achieved to date. Further, such input 


would provide a valuable link to the activities ofthe Center for the Advancement of 


Science in Space (CASIS), which has relationships with the NASA Space Life and 


Physical Sciences (SLPS) program. 


Consequences of No Action on the Proposed Recommendation: 


Subcommittee deliberations will reflect only the viewpoints and perspectives of 


academia, and therefore will not provide NASA with the broadest possible guidance from 


other important contributors to the research community. 


NASA Response: 


NASA concurs with this recommendation in principle. Commercial or industrial research 


is an important component ofInternational Space Station (ISS) utilization, and effective 


advice from subject matter experts is vital to the successful accomplishment ofAgency 


objectives. Recognizing that commercial research is an important component ofISS 


utilization, NASA was directed in the 2010 NASA Authorization Act to "enter into a 


cooperative agreement with an appropriate organization ... to manage the activities of 


the ISS National Laboratory ...." The organization selected to manage the ISS National 


Laboratory, CASIS, receives guidance from a Board ofDirectors and a Science Advisory 


Board. These boards are the primary sources ofoversight and guidance for the 


management ofCAS IS. The communication and interaction between the Research 


Subcommittee and the CASIS boards will evolve as the CASIS boards evolve. At this 


time the CASIS boards are still expanding. We will evolve the membership ofthe 


Research Subcommittee accordingly. 


The membership ofthe Research Subcommittee is limited in its Terms ofReference 


(TOR) to eight, and it currently has seven members. These members were chosen and 


selected following the criterion described in the TOR as: "[having] a broad awareness of 


the goals, capabilities, and requirements ofhuman spaceflight and a familiarity with the 


national research and education community in science and engineering relevant to human 


Enclosure 
2 

spaceflight." The members were not expected to represent the perspective ofindividual 

scientific disciplines or communities, but rather to assist NASA in developing a stronger 

strategic connection between research and human exploration. The task ofthe Research 

Subcommittee is described in the TOR as "[to] review and assess NASA's approach, 

progress, and plans for developing strategies and capabilities that reduce technical 

barriers to exploration missions and strengthen national research participation in human 

space exploration." In the perfonnance ofthis assignment, representation from the 

private sector could be valuable, but the perspective most needed might well be from 

medicine or industrial research and development. As the Research Subcommittee takes 

up this assignment and its efforts begin to mature, NASA believes that the range of 

perspectives needed to provide sound advice on the role ofresearch and the involvement 

ofthe research community in human exploration will become clearer.