A publication of NASA Research Park

NRP POST The

Summer 2011

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

 Final Endeavour Launch Carried Kentucky 

Space Experiment to Space Station

KSTC, Inc.

Lexington, KY 

NASA Research Park partner Kentucky Space (KS) 

announced May 16 that Space Shuttle Endeavour’s final 

launch carried a unique biomedical experiment as part 

of the new Exomedicine Institute (EI) founded by KS. 

The experiment, called GlioLab, is a joint 

project between Kentucky Space/EI, led 

by Morehead State University (MSU) Space 

Science Center in Kentucky and the GAUSSGroup of Astrodynamics at the ”Sapienza” 

University of Roma. The launch and return of 

the payload is through KS’s strategic partner 

NanoRacks LLC.

The Exomedicine Institute (www.exomedicine.com) 

is a private, collaborative R&D enterprise 

focused on the development and application 

of new knowledge, technologies and possibilities that emerge from a deeper understanding of the influences of microgravity on 

the dynamics of living systems, and the rigorous application of these insights to advance 

medical solutions for the improvement of 

everyday life for all people.

Moon Express Lunar Lander 

Takes First Flight

by Doug Messier

Silicon Valley, CA

June 30, 2011 

NRP’s Moon Express, Inc. announced June 30 a 

successful flight test of a prototype lunar lander 

system being developed in partnership with NASA.

The company signed a Reimbursable Space Act 

Agreement with NASA last year to invest over 

$500K into the commercialization of technology 

developed by the agency. The agreement aims to 

develop new low cost spacecraft to deliver scientific 

and exploration payloads to the Moon and other 

destinations.

The flight test marks an important milestone in 

the collaborative agreement, demonstrating that 

innovative public-private partnerships can be utilized 

Moon Express lander cont’d on page 3

Kentucky Space cont’d on page 3

The Landing Test Vehicle (LTV), a prototype robotic lunar lander system, in NASA 

Ames Hover Test Facility

Space Shuttle Endeavour’s 25th and final launch on May 16, 2011 from NASA’s Kennedy Space 

Center in Florida

Photo by NASA/Tony Gray and Tom Farrar

Photo courtesy of NASA
NRP Post

2 www.nasa.gov

CONTENTS NRPWelcomes

AECOM

Bldg. 19, Room 2045

Commencement date: 7/1/11

AECOM is a global provider of professional technical and management support services 

to the transportation, facilities, environmental, energy, water and government markets. 

AECOM blends global reach, local knowledge, innovation, and technical excellence 

in delivering solutions that create, enhance and sustain the world’s built, natural, 

and social environments. Our architects, engineers, landscape architects, planners, 

ecologists, economists, program managers, construction managers and technicians work 

collaboratively to address complex challenges, particularly in support of highly technical 

facilities projects, at all scales and in all settings. 

Global Medical Device Partners, Inc.

Bldg. 19, Room 1071

Commencement date: 8/1/11

GMDP, Inc. is a medical device company whose mission is 

to support design and development of innovative medical 

technologies to improve patient quality of life. Key areas of 

focus include assessment and reduction of muscle loss and 

function resulting from disease or injury. 

National Disaster Resiliency Center 

Bldg. 19, Rm 2001 

Commencement date: 8/15/11

The NDRC is a member of the Disaster Management 

Initiative operated by CMU-SV. They are collaborating 

with CMU on the enhancement of emergency management and disaster preparedness, 

along with collaborative partnerships between researchers, educators, volunteers, 

vendors, charitable groups, community organizations and leaders, government agencies, 

businesses and others who would play a role in planning, preparation, response and 

recovery prior to, during and after any disaster or emergency event.

Kentucky Space on ISS . . . 1

Moon Express Lunar 

Lander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

New Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Google Lunar X Names 

New Chief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

KleenSpeed EV-X11 . . . . . . 4

KleenSpeed Eiata . . . . . . . . 4

CMUSV Disaster 

Management . . . . . . . . . . . 6

FutureMed Executive 

Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Packing for Mars NRP 

Lecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Benetech – Technology for 

Humanity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Intrinsyx Showcase . . . . . 11

Pete Conrad Spirit of 

Innovation Award . . . . . . . 12

Airship Ventures Tour . . . 13

Taksha University . . . . . . . 13

Five9 Network Systems . . 14

ReQall Rover . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Moon Express Announces 

Chief Scientist . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Moon Express, Inc.

Bldg. 19, Rooms 1002 - 1006

Commencement date: 4/16/11

Moon Express, Inc. is a privately funded lunar transportation and data

services company establishing new avenues for commercial space

activities beyond Earth orbit. This company is working alongside

NASA Ames scientists to build robotic landing systems for exploration

of the Moon and other low gravity destinations.
www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 3

NRP Post

The primary objective of the GlioLab experiment is to investigate if the combined effects of microgravity and ionizing 

radiation increase or decrease the survival rate of cancer cells 

affected by Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Glioblastoma is 

the most common and aggressive type of primary brain tumor, 

to establish new capabilities of mutual benefit to commercial 

space companies and NASA.

The successful milestone involved a controlled flight test of a 

Landing Test Vehicle (LTV). The LTV is a prototype robotic lunar 

lander system outfitted with a cold gas propulsion system and 

landing gear for use in a confined, ground test environment for 

relatively easy, quick, and repeatable ground testing. The LTV 

offers a unique capability to safely perform risk reduction

and testing on candidate spacecraft hardware and software in 

an actual flight environment. The LTV tests allow Moon Express 

to assess lunar vehicle design, including guidance, navigation 

and control software and new landing leg and mobility 

concepts designed by Moon Express engineers. The LTV is also 

being used to test a new mini-radar sensor developed by Moon 

Express under NASA’s Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data 

(ILDD) program.

The company plans to send a series of robotic spacecraft to the 

Moon for ongoing exploration and commercial development 

focused on benefits to Earth. “I believe in the long term 

economic potential of the Moon to produce resources essential 

to Earth’s energy future,” said Naveen Jain, Co-Founder and 

Chairman of Moon Express. “The recent discovery of abundant 

water on the Moon is the key we needed to economically 

liberate valuable lunar resources such as Helium-3 and 

platinum group metals to improve life here on Earth.”

The Google Lunar X Prize, a $30 Million Private 

Race to the Moon, Names New Chief

Space science veteran Alexandra Hall will oversee the 

Google Lunar X Prize as its senior director, the X Prize 

foundation announced July 11. Hall is the co-founder 

and former CEO of Airship 

Ventures, a company that 

uses zeppelins for passenger 

flights, science research and 

media purposes. She also 

served as executive director 

of the Chabot Space & 

Science Center in Oakland, 

Calif. Hall has a degree 

in astrophysics from the 

University of Leicester in the 

United Kingdom. She has 

written books about space for both children and adults, 

and she hosted the BBC Television show “Final Frontier”.

(From: http://wwww.space.com/12240-google-privatemoon-race-xprize-director.html)

Kentucky Space cont’d from page 1

Moon Express lander cont’d from page 1

Moon Express lander cont’d on page 5

Alexandra Hall

accounting for 52% of all primary brain tumor cases and 20% of 

all intracranial tumors. Certain cancer cells have been shown to 

reproduce more slowly in a reduced gravity environment. The 

team hopes to learn how microgravity affects cellular mitosis 

and RNA transcription in these cancer cells, which could ultimately lead to a better understanding of how to treat this type 

of cancer.

This initial phase of the GlioLab experiment exposed the 

Glioblastoma cell line to microgravity using a commercial platform—the Liquid Mixing Apparatus developed by PA-based 

Instrumentation Technology Associates, Inc. The experiment 

spent about two weeks on-orbit and has returned to Earth for 

analysis in Kentucky.

GlioLab team members include Dr. Ben Malphrus, Director of the 

MSU Space Science Center, Dr. Darrin DeMoss, MSU Professor of 

Biology, Chantal Cappalletti and Giocomo Marini, Ph.D. students 

at the University of Rome who are currently working at MSU. 

MSU students from the Space Science Center (Julia O’Brien) and 

the Department of Biology and Chemistry (Cara DeMoss and 

Will Grey) serve on the science team along with Daniel Erb and 

Twyman Clements from Kentucky Space.

For more information visit www.kentuckyspace.com The International Space Station as photographed by a crew member on 

the shuttle Endeavor. 

Photo courtesy of NASA

Photo by KQED Quest
NRP Post

4 www.nasa.gov

by Dean Seven

KleenSpeed Technologies' sleek EV-X11 shattered the lap 

record for Electric Vehicles on the Mazda Raceway circuit 

June 26 at ReFuel 2011. Piloted by KleenSpeed Technologies 

President Tim Collins, the racecar of tomorrow set a new lap 

record of 1:38:858 for 

EVs, breaking the 2010 

record of 1:42.5 set 

by KleenSpeed’s prior 

model, the WX 10.

The sound of the future 

pierced Laguna Seca 

hills as the EV-X11 

flashed down the front 

straight at over 120 

mph, its eerie high tech 

whistle bringing the 

message of a powerful 

new technology. 

“The EV-X11 is a unique 

thrill to drive and is truly 

the fastest electric track racing car in the world. A completely 

new Kleenspeed electric power system with a more powerful 

UQM electric motor and controller increased our acceleration 

and overall speed. The new system is more powerful, more 

sophisticated and lighter. The car was more responsive, had 

improved braking control and created more G force in the 

corners adding grip,” said Collins. 

 

KleenSpeed Eiata Claims First!

by Dean Seven

KleenSpeed Technologies demonstrated their world class 

electric vehicle propulsion engineering with their Eiata’s first 

place win in the EV production vehicle conversion class. This 

is in addition to their outright title of world’s fastest EV in the 

prototype category won by the KleenSpeed EV-X11. 

Driven by KleenSpeed president Tim Collins, the Eiata won in 

a diverse field of EV conversions with a lap time of 2:22.972 –

over 19 seconds faster than the 2nd place finisher, a converted 

Porsche 914. This is a remarkably quick time for an EV with 

the power and capacity specs of the KleenSpeed LITE SYSTEM, 

considering that the Eiata chassis is essentially stock, running 

on street tires, with no significant track modifications. For 

comparison, a stock gas-powered Miata typically laps Laguna 

Seca in the 2:05 -2:10 range.

“The car runs at full throttle and full braking with no heat or 

power limiting problems, and no performance degradation 

until it runs out of energy, which is about seven laps or 12 

minutes, with our patent pending 15.4 kWh KleenSpeed ESS 

battery pack. Three 

years of R&D and tireless 

effort by our KleenSpeed 

engineers, advisors and 

component sponsors 

produced this car.”

KleenSpeed CTO 

Dante Zeviar: “The new 

KleenSpeed Battery 

Management System 

(BMS) is the brain of our 

electric storage solution 

featuring our patentpending KleenSpeed 

Electric Storage Interface 

and KleenSpeed battery 

containers. We powered 

this car with lithium polymer cells, which substantially reduced 

weight, gave us more energy density and increased total energy 

to 15.4 kWh. 

“Our power train incorporated a Gate’s carbon fiber belt 

within a KleenSpeed drive system. Our KleenSpeed telemetry 

technology gave our engineers 20 streams of data monitored 

Tim Collins: “The LITE SYSTEM performed impressively, and 

offered very steady and controllable power, with no heat issues 

or power limitation problems. It is an absolutely bullet-proof 

system and an elegant conversion. The vehicle integration 

engineering by KleenSpeed balanced the system perfectly.”

The KleenSpeed Eiata

EV-X11 cont’d on page 5

The winning KleenSpeed team and their EV-X11, the racecar of tomorrow. “Dante and 

the tech team's technology gains over the last year created the electric system power 

and reliability to break our record again,” said KleenSpeed President Tim Collins. 

Photo courtesy of KleenSpeed

Photo courtesy of KleenSpeed

World’s Fastest EV Prototype Race Car – KleenSpeed's EV-X11

Epic Record Run Reasserts KleenSpeed’s EV R&D Leadership
NRP Post

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 5

Dr. Barney Pell, Co-Founder, CTO and Vice Chairman of Moon 

Express, believes that exploration and development of lunar 

resources are two of the most important activities for humanity’s 

future. “The Moon has never been explored before from an 

entrepreneurial perspective,” he said. “I believe the Moon may 

be the greatest wealth creation opportunity in history. It’s not a 

question of if, just of who and when.”

Moon Express plans to adapt NASA’s Common Spacecraft Bus 

for use in small, low cost spacecraft designed to deliver payloads 

to a variety of locations, including lunar orbit and lunar surface, 

Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Earth-Moon Lagrange points, and Near 

Earth Objects (NEOs). The Common Spacecraft Bus design allows 

the company to design low cost missions, launch on a variety 

of commercial rockets and deliver flexible payloads to the lunar 

surface and various orbits.

For Moon Express, the opportunity to commercialize NASA 

knowledge and technology to create a commercially viable lunar 

lander system is a force multiplier of its private investment. Small 

spacecraft missions promise great value given their significantly 

lower cost structure, rapid development and deployment schedules, 

resulting in more frequent missions within a set budget and time 

frame compared to the status quo. The Moon Express partnership 

agreement with NASA is consistent with initiatives to embrace 

commercial entities to help move the whole industry forward.

The company views NASA’s partnership as exemplary of a 

commitment to help nurture the burgeoning commercial spacecraft 

industry. Under the agreement, Moon Express is reimbursing NASA 

for technical assistance interpreting NASA designs of the Common 

Spacecraft Bus for applicability to the company’s new lunar vehicle 

design and in the evaluation and testing of new spacecraft systems 

and software in a newly refitted hover test facility.

Following the successful flight test, Moon Express CEO Dr. Robert 

(Bob) Richards stated that White House policies supporting NASA’s 

openness to commercial partnerships combined with Silicon 

Valley culture has been a winning combination for the company. 

"Locating the company in the NASA Research Park puts us at the 

crossroads of the future,” Richards said. “Silicon Valley has embraced 

commercial space and Moon Express is benefiting greatly by our 

proximity to the NASA Ames Research Center.”

Moon Express cont’d from page 3

EV-X11 cont’d from page 4

while the car was 

in motion from 

our KleenSpeed 

BMS and the UQM 

controller. Thanks 

to our patent 

pending Energy 

Storage System 

and proprietary 

BMS with built in 

telemetry, we know exactly what is going on with our 

car in real time.“ 

Competition forges the greatest advances in vehicle 

technology. KleenSpeed is developing an electric 

racecar for track events to meet the challenges of their 

definition of overall EV performance– to optimize all 

relevant EV system factors – acceleration, top speed, 

range and power management. Legendary Mazda 

Raceway is one of the world’s most challenging circuits 

for man and machine, with 2.238 sinuous miles, 11 

unique turns and considerable elevation changes. 

“We are just beginning to assess the EV-X11 potential, 

as we were running at 65% of maximum torque to set 

this new record," said Collins. “We look forward to taking 

the EV-X11 to other famous venues to establish new EV 

lap records and demonstrate the viability and incredible 

performance of KleenSpeed ‘s EV technology.” 

Dante Zeviar and Tim Collins

Photo courtesy of KleenSpeed

Photo courtesy of KleenSpeed

Representatives from Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) toured 

a number of NRP partner facilities and finished with a tour of NASA 

Sustainability Base led by NASA Ames Associate Director Dr. Steve 

Zornetzer with NASA HQ Director for Partnerships Doug Comstock.

Chrysler executives visited NRP on June 16, 2011. NRP 

Director Michael Marlaire gave an extensive briefing on the 

NRP followed by a tour.
by Sylvia Leong, Director of External Relations and Admissions, 

Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley

The little kid in all of 

us became excited 

when we caught a 

glimpse of the large 

vehicles in the parking lot. Even though 

their sirens weren’t 

wailing, the chance 

to see the state-ofthe-art equipment 

they contained 

piqued our interest.

Sponsored by 

California Fire Chiefs 

Association (CFCA), 

California Emergency 

Management 

Agency (CalEMA), 

Carnegie Mellon 

University Silicon 

Valley (CMUSV), and hosted by NASA Research Park, the 

Second Annual CMUSV Disaster Management Initiative 

(DMI) Workshop, held jointly with the California Mobile 

Command Center (MCC) Vehicle Rally, saw first responders, 

technologists, volunteers, and government officials descend 

upon the CMUSV campus to learn about new innovations and 

collaboration for the work they perform every day.

The action-packed two day workshop featured keynote 

speakers and expert-filled panels covering public and 

private partnerships, emergency communications at a largescale festivals, and how to involve volunteers in disaster 

management collaborations. The first keynote speaker, Major 

General Scott Johnson, shared personal reflections on his 

deployment in response to Hurricane Katrina. He offered 

difficult lessons learned and discussed the specific role of the 

40th Infantry Division of the California National Guard, which 

he commands.

At the end of MG Johnson’s talk, several government 

representatives stopped by to show their interest in and 

support for the workshop. Guests included California 

Assemblymember Paul Fong; Charles Duff, Deputy Director 

of NASA Ames Research Center; Sandra Soto, representing 

Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren’s office; Steve Rice, Vice Mayor of 

Los Gatos, CA and Jac Siegel, Mayor of Mountain View, CA.

Two additional keynote talks were well received. Joseph 

Pred, Emergency Services Operations Chief for Burning 

Man, detailed the logistical and technical challenges and 

solutions involved with setting up temporary communications 

infrastructure for a short lived city of 50,000 in the middle of 

the desert. Of particular note is that federal, state and local 

agencies have begun studying the Burning Man festival 

environment for 

lessons learned that 

can apply to disaster 

and other temporary 

organizational infrastructure at scale.

Michael Cummings, 

Federal Emergency 

Management Agency 

(FEMA) Region IX 

Private Sector 

Liaison, led another 

panel discussion,

“Public/Private Partnerships – What’s in it 

for Me”, highlighting 

best practice case 

studies in emerging 

technologies. This 

keynote was particularly remarkable 

due to the panelists involved: Doug Wisman, CalEMA; Jim 

Turner, City & County of San Francisco Private Sector Liaison; 

Catherine Nelson, Cisco; Peter Ohtaki, California Resiliency 

Agency and Martin Griss, Director, CMUSV. The panel represented federal, state, county, corporate, non-government 

organization, and academic sectors. Their contributions 

provided much insight to public and private partnerships and 

how one can benefit from the other in disaster management.

This was not your average speaker and audience workshop, 

but was also hands-on – including vehicle lot demos with 

opportunities to tour the mobile command centers that 

participated in the rally and disaster communications 

exercises. Of particular 

interest to many 

attendees was the Cisco 

Network Emergency 

Response Vehicle (NERV), 

which is often deployed 

in collaboration with 

CalEMA. Cisco NERV is 

a self-powered mobile 

communications center 

that can be fully

operational in 15 

minutes, while disaster 

response readiness can 

take up to 72 hours.

Another participant 

at the MCC rally is a 

permanent resident Next Generation Emergency Operations 

Center

Mobile comand centers and emergency response vehicles at CMUSV DMI Workshop & 

MCC Vehicle Rally 

Photo by Orange Photography

Photo by Orange Photography

6 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

Hundreds Participate in Second Annual Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley 

Disaster Management Initiative Workshop & Mobile Command Center Vehicle Rally May 22-23
Disaster workshop cont’d from page 6

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 7

CMUSV DMI staff and local experts/officials at the DMI Workshop

at CMUSV, the Next Generation Emergency Operations Center 

(EOC), demonstrated by Art Botterell, consultant with DMI. 

With 18 foot trailers provided by NASA Ames Disaster 

Assistance and Rescue Team (DART), this evolving EOC is 

being equipped with low energy, solar powered IT and 

communications technology, and connected via WiFi and 

other radio technology to other disaster management 

research systems at CMUSV.

Steve Ray, associate director of the DMI, conducted a Plugfest 

coordinating the communication between over 30 mobile 

command center vehicles. The exercise was designed to 

test the interoperability of the vehicles and their ability to 

communicate with each other, pass data along to other 

vehicles and coordinate efforts between different types of 

communications systems.

Even novice attendees absorbed some awareness with 

a session on personal emergency preparedness. The 

detailed course is typically given at the community level 

to enable families to plan in advance for disasters, but 

workshop attendees were offered a condensed version. 

Topics included home and workplace preparedness, lifethreatening conditions, disaster impact, fire safety and 

hazardous materials. Of particular note are useful websites on 

emergency preparedness: www.fema.gov/areyouready and 

http://72hours.org/.

Several CMUSV faculty led sessions on their research in a 

variety of topics, including sensors, machine learning, and 

antenna optimization. These sessions showed how their 

research is currently being applied to disaster response 

situations. One session held by Assistant Professor Ian Lane led 

participants in a hands-on workshop on parsing audio-to-text 

using sample twitter messages.

“This workshop was all about breaking down the silos. 

Practitioners, policy makers and researchers talking to each 

other, seeing each other’s presentations and demos – coming 

together to share and learn from each other – that was what 

the Workshop was about for me,” said Steven Rosenberg, 

associate director of CMUSV.

Martin Griss, director of CMUSV, said, “I thought the event 

exceeded our expectations. We had a great turnout, there was 

great energy and excitement, and many people commented 

that bringing practitioners, companies, academics, 

vehicles and technology together for an intensive set of 

discussions, workshops, exercises and interoperability was 

a unique experience.”

Toward the end of the event ideas were already buzzing for next 

year’s workshop, which promises to be even bigger and better.

NASA Ames celebrated Asian 

Pacific Islander Heritage Month 

on May 27 at Michael’s Restaurant 

in Mt. View. Over 100 employees 

enjoyed a flavorful lunch while 

watching a vibrant cultural 

fashion show that highlighted 

traditional costumes from Asia 

and the Pacific Islands modeled 

by Ames and NRP employees. 

Shown in the group photo are 

several NRP staff members: 

Mejghan Haider, NRP Deputy 

Chief, (Afghanistan); Sally Tateno 

(Japan); Cyndi Carbon-Norman 

(MC) and CMU partner Theresa 

Dao (Vietnam).

NASA Ames Celebrates Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Photo by Orange Photography

NRP Post
8 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

FutureMed Executive Program 

A First at Singularity University 

by Robin Farmanfarmaian

FutureMed is a first of its kind medical program at Singularity 

University for physicians, healthcare executives, innovators and 

investors. Seventy attendees and over 60 faculty speakers came 

to the inaugural FutureMed during the week of May 10th-15th 

to explore the impact of rapidly developing technologies on 

the future of health and biomedicine. 

Few fields have the potential to evolve more dramatically 

through disruptive, exponential technologies than healthcare. 

Low cost genomic sequencing and proteomics, ever faster 

and higher resolution imaging, artificial intelligence, 

telemedicine, stem cells, robotic surgery, smaller and more 

capable implantable and wearable devices, ubiquitous mobile 

applications, nanotechnology and synthetic biology -- these 

and other game-changing technologies and innovations have 

tremendous implications for the medicine, healthcare and 

the biomedical industry in the decade ahead, including the 

potential enablement of better, more accessible care at lower 

costs.

The five-day intensive FutureMed program included lectures, 

workshops and site visits to Autodesk, Intuitive Surgical and 

Kaiser Garfield Innovation Center. Two of the more popular 

demos featured included Vasper at NASA that many of the 

participants tried and the DMAST Anti-Shock Garment that 

uses NASA technology.

All lectures, demos and site visits were led by notable faculty 

from the fields of medicine, biotechnology and innovation. 

“We’re fortunate to have at FutureMed truly world-class 

innovators and thought leading faculty, across multiple 

disciplines,” said Executive Director Dr. Daniel Kraft, a Stanford 

and Harvard trained physician-scientist who also chairs the 

Medicine track for Singularity University.

Core tracks included those which explore the exponential 

trends in Information/Data-driven and Internet enabled 

Participants and faculty pose in the special FutureMed scrubs outside 

Building 583C at NRP

(From left to right) Andrew Hessel, Astronaut Dan Barry MD, FutureMed 

Executive Director Daniel Kraft MD and Singularity University President 

Neil Jacobstein during the synthesis session May 15th

Photo courtesy of FutureMed

Photo courtesy of FutureMed

health care, Genomics and Personalized Medicine, 

Regenerative Medicine, Robotics & Future Interventional 

approaches, NeuroMedicine, Device & Drug development, and 

Entrepreneurship. 

Over 60 FutureMed faculty came from across the globe, here 

is a small sampling. The full list can be found on the FutureMed 

website: http://futuremed2011.com/faculty/

-Peter Diamandis MD, Chairman of the X-PRIZE and Co-Founder 

of Singularity University

-Dan Barry MD PhD, 3 time Space Shuttle NASA Astronaut and 

Roboticist

-Yvonne Cagle MD, NASA Astronaut

-Dr. John Hogan, Bioengineering Branch at NASA Ames 

Research Center

-Tim O’Reilly, Founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media

-Dean Ornish MD, Founder and President, Preventative 

Medicine Research Institute

-Thomas Goetz MPH, Executive Editor WIRED, Author of ‘The 

Decision Tree’

-Catherine Mohr MD, Director of Medical Research, Intuitive 

Surgical

-David Ewing Duncan, Author of ‘Experimental Man,’ and the 

‘Personalized Medicine Manifesto’

-Randy Scott PhD, Founder and Chairman of Genomic Health

-Roni Zeiger MD, Chief Health Strategist, Google

-Christopher Longhurst MD, Chief Information Officer for 

Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford Medical School

-Michael Gillam MD, Director of the Microsoft Medical Media at 

Microsoft Health

-Allan May, CEO of Life Sciences Angels

-Michael West PhD, Founder of Geron and BioTime 

Pharmaceuticals
www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 9

NRP Post

NRP’s Packing for Mars Lecture Fills the House

by Kathleen Burton

A standing room only crowd jammed the Bldg. 3 Ballroom on 

May 3 to hear Dr. Pascal Lee and author Mary Roach team up for 

a conversation about what it takes to go to Mars.

Subtitled “The Challenges and Oddities of a Human Mission to 

Mars”, the informal conversation, complete with Tiffany lamp 

and comfortable armchairs, ranged from the haunting beauty 

of Mars and the 

health and psychological risks of long 

duration exploration, to the day-today, not-so-great 

details like going 

weeks without a 

proper shower in 

a confined space 

capsule. 

Roach, author of 

the recent best 

seller “Packing for 

Mars: The Curious 

Science of Life 

in the Void”, and 

called “America’s 

funniest science 

writer” by the 

Washington Post, did not dwell on the awe-inspiring grandeur 

of space exploration, but focused instead on the human 

side of space travel.

She outlined some of the past unorthodox ideas for survival 

in space—such as sending obese astronauts to Mars so they 

could live off their stored body fat and save substantial food 

payload weight. She noted that space travel makes teeth rot 

and astronauts taller (spines stretch in space). Astronauts are as 

much as 2.5 inches taller after a week in space, she noted. The 

typical gain is 3% of an astronaut’s height due to expansion of 

the discs between the vertebra, which also absorb more water 

in micro-G.

As a highlight, Roach read an excerpt from “Packing for Mars” 

about lunch at the Ames Cafeteria, about the experience of 

drinking treated (and safe) urine which had been stored in 

the Ames cafeteria refrigerator, with her lunch date, Sherwin 

Gormly. Gormly, a NASA waste water engineer, designed 

the mechanical rig that recycles urine on the Space Station. 

“I thought the cafeteria check-out person was going to call 

Security (when we came through with the bottle),” she said. 

Lee, from the other armchair, focused on the “beauty and 

harshness” of Mars as he showed stunning slides of the red 

planet’s canyons and of a recent summer field season at his 

Mars-on-Earth analog, Haughton Crater in the Canadian Arctic. 

At Haughton, teams of scientists test space suits, rovers, robots 

and the psychology of isolation.

“Mars is mostly all rocks and dunes,” Lee noted. One of the 

biggest dangers about going to Mars he said is the relentless 

stinging sand, which blows constantly and gums up machinery 

and robots. A basic mission would require astronauts to spend 

at least 540 days on Mars, before returning to Earth, he said, 

with daunting psychological and health challenges such as 

isolation, radiation and severe and rapid bone loss. 

In spite of today’s risk-averse culture, 21st Century humans 

want to go to Mars for three reasons, Lee, Roach and MC Dr. 

Chris McKay, agreed: for the journey, for science, and to find 

extant life.

There was lots of lively interaction with the enthusiastic audience. The discussion included what it takes to get an entire 

nation motivated about going to Mars, even with today’s steep 

$500 billion price tag (which is notably, the cost of the Iraq war 

to-date). “It’s like when the U.S. went full boar into exploring 

the Moon in the 1960’s,” McKay said. “It was a race with Russia 

back then, a challenge. We need a similar challenge now 

because the political climate is obviously very different.”

The three also floated the controversial idea of a one way Mars 

mission, where astronauts would not return to Earth, but would 

live out their lives there. Lee and McKay outlined the idea of 

an incremental path to Mars, space hop-scotching first to the 

Moon or to Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars, to stockpile resources before continuing on to Mars. The path to Mars 

will be in small, incremental steps, they agreed. “A Mars orbiter 

will surely proceed a Mars lander,” Lee noted. 

Previous books by Roach include “Stiff: The Curious Lives of 

Human Cadavers” and “Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife”. 

McKay is a planetary scientist with the Space Science division 

at Ames and is one of the world’s leading researchers, studying 

Jupiter’s moon, Titan, and conducting numerical modeling of 

planetary atmospheres.

Lee is a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute, is Chairman of 

the Mars Institute at the NRP, and Director of the HaughtonMars Project (HMP). HMP is an international interdisciplinary 

field research project centered on the scientific study of the 

Haughton impact structure and surrounding terrain, at Devon 

Island in the High Arctic. The rocky polar desert setting and geologic features of the site offer unique insights into the possible 

evolution of Mars and the limits of life in extreme environments. 

For information on HMP: http://www.marsonearth.org

For information on Mary Roach: http://www.maryroach.net

For information on the NRP Exploration Lecture Series: 

http://researchpark.arc.nasa.gov

Author Mary Roach and Dr. Pascal Lee

Photo courtesy of Dr. Pascal Lee
Photo courtesy of Benetech

Photo courtesy of Benetech

Photo courtesy of Benetech

10 www.nasa.gov

First Tenant of NASA Research Park 

Now Thriving Social Enterprise

Benetech Celebrates More Than 20 Years of 

Developing Technology For Humanity

by Ann Harrison 

In 1999 a small, nonprofit organization named Arkenstone 

became the very first tenant of the newly launched NASA 

Research Park. Arkenstone’s founder, Jim Fruchterman, had 

developed a reading machine for the blind using a new kind 

of optical character recognition technology. Not only was 

Arkenstone’s technology innovative, its business model was 

also unique. Jim formed Arkenstone as a social enterprise 

which adapted existing technology and developed low-cost 

solutions to solve pressing social problems. His goal was to 

bring the benefits of technology to all members of society, 

including people who are marginalized or especially in need.

More than ten years later, 

Jim’s pioneering social 

enterprise is still thriving. 

Two years after Arkenstone 

moved to NRP, a for-profit 

company named Freedom 

Scientific made an offer to 

buy the Arkenstone business. Fruchterman sold the 

business and used the proceeds to launch Benetech, 

the successor social 

enterprise that carried 

forward Arkenstone’s goal 

to create technology that 

serves humanity. In 2006, 

Jim was named a MacArthur Fellow for his role as a pioneering 

social entrepreneur. 

Today Benetech is a thriving $12 million nonprofit with 55 

employees based in Palo Alto. It generates revenue from the 

sales of its products, government grants and funding from 

individual philanthropists and foundations. The Benetech team 

and their projects have had a wide impact on underserved 

communities around the world. Benetech’s Bookshare project 

is now the world’s largest online library of accessible ebooks for 

people with a disability that keeps them from reading standard 

print. Bookshare now has more than 140,000 members with 

print disabilities who depend on the library for textbooks and 

recreational reading. The collection of texts has expanded to 

include over 100,000 books, many of which are provided for 

free to Bookshare by top publishers. 

In 2007, Bookshare received a five-year award from the U.S. 

Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs 

(OSEP), to provide free access to books for all U.S. students 

with a qualifying print disability. Last spring, Benetech won 

a $5 million competition to create the DIAGRAM R&D center 

that will find new ways to provide accessible images for 

people with 

print disabilities. 

Benetech also 

supports a 

Human Rights 

Program which 

includes the 

Human Rights 

Data Analysis 

Group that 

designs and 

builds information management solutions and conducts statistical analysis 

on behalf of human rights projects. Together with partners, 

the scientists of HRDAG make scientifically-defensible arguments about the patterns of violence based in rigorous 

evidence. Benetech also developed the free and open source 

Martus software which allows users to create a searchable and 

encrypted database and back this data up remotely to their 

choice of publicly available servers. The Martus software is used 

by organizations around the world to protect sensitive information and shield the identity of victims or witnesses who provide 

testimony on human rights abuses. 

The Benetech development team has also created Miradi, a 

conservation project management software tool. The open 

source Miradi software program is a joint venture between 

Benetech and the Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP) a 

consortium of conservation NGOs. Miradi helps conservation 

planners to design, manage, monitor, and learn from their 

projects to more effectively meet their conservation goals. 

Miradi now has more than 3,500 users in over 140 countries. 

From its beginnings at NRP, Benetech has expanded to become 

an engine of sustainable social change. The company is now 

helping to guide other social enterprises to scale new ideas that 

deliver far greater social impact at the same or lower cost than 

status quo solutions. NRP was the place where Benetech began. 

Jim Fruchterman

Conservation planners can manage their projects using Benetech’s Miradi 

software program.

Bookshare program provides ebooks for students 

with print disabilities

NRP Post
www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 11

 • Real-time playback with original video source quality and 

 the ability to scale video bandwidth based on destination 

 network limitations.

 • Real-time PVR and synchronized playback of all live and 

 recorded streams with bookmarks and annotation

 • XMPP-based real-time presence and policy-based secure 

 software architecture for managing sources and secure 

 distribution of video streams

 • Ability to integrate and capture standards-based MPEG, 

 H.264 based Cameras and video encoders

 • Real-time remote desktop/workstation control over IP 

 networks

The Digital Media Servers (DMSs) used in the Intrinsyx AVC 

solutions allow multiple video streams to be stored during 

a live session. The DMSs also allow secure playback/review 

of these recorded streams for briefing/debriefing from any 

location over IP networks. The accompanying windows-based 

software client offers playback of multiple live or recorded 

streams that can be viewed on single or multiple displays, 

with the ability to bookmark and annotate during live or postaction review sessions. 

Intrinsyx AVC solutions include web-based tools and 

management server software to configure and manage an 

entire AVC system remotely over IP. 

Where are the Intrinsyx AVC products used today?

The AVC systems available through Intrinsyx have had 

success in the defense, medical, and oil & gas exploration 

market segments. The systems have been deployed in flight 

simulators, virtual warfare centers, mission command and 

control centers, cardio-surgical theaters and telemedicine 

stations and offshore oil & gas exploration stations. 

Call: (408) 888-3855 or email: yogesh@intrinsyx.com to set 

up a time to visit the Intrinsyx AVC Showcase.

Intrinsyx Technologies Provides New 

Advanced Visual Collaboration (AVC) Solutions

by Yogesh Khare and Mike Schultz

Intrinsyx Technologies Corporation, a NASA Research Park 

resident that has provided systems engineering, software 

development and IT solutions to NASA for over 11 years, now 

also provides the latest generation of ultra-HD, real-time 

video and graphics sharing systems that transmit data over IP 

Networks.

Intrinsyx invites you to visit their Advanced Visual Collaboration 

Showcase at NASA Research Park, Building 19, Suite 2028, 

in Moffett Field, CA. See their Enhanced Mission Record and 

Review System (EMRRS) that enables globally distributed teams 

to collaborate and share mission critical events in real-time over 

standard data networks. 

The Intrinsyx AVC system is a complete hardware and software 

solution that offers real-time streaming, recording, relaying, 

and distribution of ultra HD video and graphics over IP 

networks. The system’s video and graphics encoders/decoders 

deliver exact pixel-for-pixel quality at full monitor rates to 

remote locations with very low latency (1-2 frames) over 

standard data networks. 

What is unique about the Intrinsyx Advanced Visual 

Collaboration solution?

 • Up to 4-megapixel ultra HD video (up to 2560 x 1600 or 

 3840 x 1200 resolution) support per encoder channel

 • Low latency (1-2 frames encode/decode) at full monitor

 refresh frame rates over IP networks 

 • Hardware and Software decoders for secure remote access 

 from multiple locations.

 • DMS (digital media servers) capable of recording up to 50 

 discrete full-res HD streams per device, with time stamp 

 and exact frame sync

Video wall and remote-user laptop client demonstrated in the Intrinsyx AVC Showcase.

Photos courtesy of Intrinsyx

NRP Post
12 www.nasa.gov

Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation 

Award Winners 2011

Teens Invent One-of-a-Kind Products, Address Tech 

Challenges

by Conrad Foundation

Moffett Field, CA 

May 2, 2011

Demonstrating they 

had the most unique 

approaches to solving 

real world challenges in 

aerospace, clean energy 

and cyber security, the 

winners of the Conrad 

Foundation’s 2011 

Innovation Summit 

were announced May 2 

at the conclusion of the 

four-day event at NASA 

Research Park.

The annual innovation 

program encourages 

high school students from across the country to solve challenges of the 21st century by creating breakthrough technologies using science, technology, engineering, and math knowledge and skills.

The grand prize winners taking home the coveted title of 

2011 Pete Conrad Scholars, sponsored by Lockheed Martin 

Corporation, were:

- Ouroboros, Upper Clair High School, (aerospace exploration)–

for their Perpetual Harvest Space Nutrition System that takes 

organic waste created during long duration space flight and 

creates compost that is used to grow fresh foods, also serving 

as an air filter for human habitation.

-West Philly EVX Team, West Philadelphia High School Auto 

Academy, West Philadelphia, PA (clean energy) – their Electric 

Very Light Car (EVLC) is being prepared for commercial 

market and hopes to set the standard for electric vehicle 

efficiency.

-Unisecurity, North Carolina School of Science & Mathematics, 

Durham, NC (cyber security) – for their Med PAL smartphone 

application that works with a Bluetooth enabled heart rate 

monitor worn by the user. MedPAL will automatically contact 

a call center and/or personal emergency contacts based on 

GPS coordinates should irregularities occur.

Each winning team received a $5,000 Next Step Grant to continue development of their product. The teams also receive 

assistance promoting their product in the media, and at 

partner events and activities.

In addition to the funding and product support, each team 

member receives a one-year student membership in American 

Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a one-year affiliate 

membership to Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. The 

team coach receives a 

$500 stipend via the AIAA 

Coaches Award.

“By providing an outlet 

for students to use their 

knowledge in relevant 

and practical ways and 

by connecting them with 

mentors who can help 

make their vision a reality, 

we open avenues for discovery and build interest 

in the careers available 

in STEM industries,” said 

Nancy Conrad, Conrad 

Foundation chairman 

and CEO.

“You represent the future 

and you are an inspiration to us all at NASA.” said NASA Ames 

Director Pete Worden at the closing ceremony.

The People’s Choice Award was bestowed on the team with the 

most votes cast during the online, public voting period. This 

year’s winner, Scientifica White Hats, from Northern High School 

in Durham, NC, received the $500 prize for their Phone Guard 

all-in-one master security system for smartphones.

Each of the 27 finalist teams created a technical report, a business plan and a graphical representation for their product. The 

winning teams were selected by a panel of judges made up 

of top-level academia and industry representatives, with input 

from public voting at www.conradawards.org.

After the event, all teams have the opportunity to raise additional funds to facilitate the continued commercial development of their projects. Visitors to the teams’ profile pages have 

the opportunity to donate directly to the development of 

their favorite team’s project, or they can donate to the team’s 

sponsoring school, helping continue excellence in science and 

technology education. Information about each team can be 

found on the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards official 

Web site: www.conradawards.org.

In addition to Pete Worden, director, NASA Ames Research 

Center, the teams were joined by notable leaders such as; 

Adam Savage, MythBusters Co-host; Brynn Watson, Director, 

Software Engineering, Lockheed Martin Space Systems 

Company; Ed Lu, Former Astronaut, Former Head of Google 

Advanced Projects; and Jon Fougner, Principal, Product 

Marketing Monetization at Facebook. Photo courtesy of Conrad Foundation

NRP Post

S. Pete Worden, Ames Center Director (left); Nancy Conrad, Conrad Foundation 

Chairman and CEO (center); and the Ouroboros team from Upper Clair High School
NRP Post

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 13

Taksha University – The Opening Months 

by Ravi Deepak

Taksha University (TU) offers technical short-courses (6-18 

hours) that aid workforce development and capacity building 

in a variety of subject areas. Courses are taught by renowned 

educators and research experts. Since opening our NRP Silicon 

Valley office in Feb. 2011, we have hosted local courses. In 

March, Dr. Don Edberg taught a 3-day course on Spacecraft 

Design in San Jose to a class from around the country. In 

May, Dr. Ben Herman presented a smaller 2-day course on 

Atmospheric Radiation at NRP. Both courses, and more on 

atmospheric/space science, are currently offered on the east 

coast and in Albuquerque, NM. See www.taksha.org for more 

information.

Last Fall 2010, in cooperation with Science and Technology 

Corporation (STC), TU helped manage six student intern 

research projects at Ames under the Science and Technology 

International Education Program (STIEP, www.STIEP.org). It was 

STIEP’s first class at NASA Ames in its 17 years of sponsoring 

interns at other US research labs. This Fall STIEP will sponsor 

more students from Technical University, Delft-NL here. For 

more research opportunities, please contact ravi@taksha.org.

Upcoming Taksha courses:

TRS122: Introduction to Spacecraft Design and System 

Engineering – Dr. Don Edberg

 • August 17-19, 2011: Newport News, VA

 • September 14-16, 2011: COSMIAC, Albuquerque, NM

 • December 14-16, 2011: Greenbelt, MD

TRS101: Fundamentals of Atmospheric Radiation -- Dr. Ben Herman

 • October 2011: Greenbelt, MD

 • November 2011: Hampton Roads, VA

Wish You Were Here...

Postcard from the Zeppelin!

by Rachel Loya

NASA Research Park and NASA personnel 

may have noticed the absence of the 

Zeppelin “Eureka” since the start of April. 

She left on a six month tour of the USA 

on April 5 and is now officially on the 

Farmers “Covering Communities” Tour. 

Barnstorming the world’s largest airship 

across the US is no mean feat, and the on-theroad team averages around 22 people, with 

two mast trucks and numerous ground 

support vehicles! 

Of course we’ve had all those tornados and 

storms to deal with, and that got us stuck 

outside New Orleans waiting for the worst 

to pass. We’ve since been through Florida 

and up the East Coast, flying over the Big 

Apple and making a stop to honor the past 

at NAS Lakehurst. We celebrated July 4 in 

Chicago (The Windy City!) and at the end of July were at the 

EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh, inspiring kids of all ages. The full 

schedule of the tour is at www.farmersairship.com 

Aside from covering Farmers events such as golf, NASCAR 

and charitable flights, Eureka is flying passengers in most of 

the locations we are stopping. We are also managing to do 

some special mission work too, testing some new cameras 

and detectors as well as doing some pilot training. We also just 

finished our tests of a new LIDAR system that we look forward to 

offering on a regular basis once we return to Moffett in October. 

Inquiries should go to specialmissions@airshipventures.com. 

Speaking of our return, now is the time to think about booking 

your fall or holiday season 2011 flight aboard “Eureka” 

if you haven’t already. We continue to have specials for 

locals and our flights are starting to fill up. Send inquiries to 

reservations@airshipventures.com and, in the meantime, know 

we’re also thinking about a ‘welcome back’ event so watch for 

more details!

June 6, 2011 our airship became the first Zeppelin to sail the New York City skies since the 

Hindenburg more than 70 years earlier. We also made a special flight to Lakehurst Naval Air 

Station, where the Hindenburg made its final “landing.” While there we hovered over the memorial marking the site of where the ship went down.

Photo courtesy of Airship Ventures
Five9 Network Systems Collaborates with 

Fusion-io to Deliver 2.1 Million Input/Output 

Operations per Second in a 20 Terabyte 

Memory in Slim 3.5 inch Appliance

by Laleh Mohseni, Five9 NS, edited by K. Burton

NRP Tenant Five9 Network Systems has announced a 

collaboration with Salt Lake City-based Fusion-io, pioneer 

of a next generation storage memory platform, for highdensity placement of Fusion io’s drive technology in 

Five9 NS’s systems. 

Five9NS designs server, software, storage and networking 

products with lifecycles that meet the exacting requirements 

of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) customers in key 

vertical industries including energy, government, healthcare, 

printing and telecommunications. 

Now, the Five9 NS “S” series computer platform, integrated 

with Fusion’s ioDrive, ioDrive Duo and ioDrive Octal 

technology, is available to Five9NS OEM channels. This 

new series meets the requirements of OEMs, Value-added 

Resellers and Independent Software Vendors dependent 

upon extreme applications performance for competitive 

differentiation, the companies say.

The Five9NS “S” series platforms will now deliver up to 20 

terabytes of data, in a slim 3.5 inch high rack mountable 

package, delivering as much as 2.1 million Input/Output 

operations per second with a choice of Fusion’s ioDrive, 

ioDrive Duo or ioDrive Octal systems.

The benefits of the speedy new system are increased data 

center efficiency, reduced operational cost by reducing 

expensive storage infrastructure and reduced power and 

cooling expenses, noted Five9 NS CEO Souheil Saliba.

“Fusion-io is pleased to work with strategic Alliance 

Members like Five9 NS to offer customers appliances 

that can be tailored to suit the needs of their individual 

organizations, while at the same time increasing the 

reliability and efficiency of their IT infrastructure,” said Jim 

Dawson, EVP Sales for Fusion-io. “We believe that the highperformance, low latency “S” series systems bring flexibility, 

scalability and reduced capital and operational expenditures 

to enterprise organizations to meet increasingly demanding 

needs, while working within their IT budgets.” 

Fusion-io is a provider of system, application and database 

acceleration, allowing companies to rethink the way they 

architect their data systems. 

NRP Post

14 www.nasa.gov

A dozen leaders of EPA Region 9 in San 

Francisco were briefed by NRP Director Michael 

Marlaire and given a tour of various NRP partners.

Former Secretary of Defense William Perry 

(second from left) toured NRP Partner Skytran 

with CEO Jerry Sanders (left) and Dr. Robert 

Baersh (right), joined by NASA Ames Acting 

Deputy Chuck Duff.

Ames Center Director S. Pete Worden (center) 

with KleenSpeed Technologies’ President Tim 

Collins (right) and CTO Dante Zeviar (left) 

at the Director’s Dinner held May 7 at NASA 

Ames Conference Center.
NRP Post

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 15

At NRP–With reQall Rover, 

Your Phone as Personal Secretary

by Kevin C. Tofel

Each day I have the same morning routine: The alarm sounds; 

I reach over to shut it off, and then I grab my smartphone. 

Before even jumping out of bed, I’ll likely spend 15 – 20 minutes with my handset, checking app after app to see what 

happened while I was sleeping and what’s going to happen 

as the day progresses. A tap here for the e-mail queue to see 

what’s important and actionable. A tap there for the calendar 

and appointments for today. Another tap, tap, tap for the 

weather, Twitter messages and maybe the traffic if I’m planning to venture into town. Sound familiar? If it does, then 

listen to the sound I heard from my handset this morning: it’s 

a new Android app called reQall Rover that’s meant to turn 

your smartphone into an intelligent information assistant.

Hello Personal Assistant

ReQall Rover, currently in private beta, is the newest software 

from the folks behind reQall, a natural language memo service spun off from MIT’s Media Lab, that helps manage personal information. And in under 90 seconds, it just told me 

some key data about my upcoming day. The weather helps 

me choose my clothes. I know what my first appointment is, 

understand what my email queue is like, and I learned that 

a Facebook friend takes photos of popcorn showers. OK, so 

maybe that last bit isn’t important, but you get the idea. This 

Voice Summary feature is available on demand with a button 

tap or can be scheduled up to three times per day in 

the software.

I’ve been using the software for nearly a week, and I can 

already see huge potential because it aggregates important 

data from the various web services I already use. That may 

be the best description of how reQall Rover works: combining natural language processing with APIs from third-party 

services, it delivers personalized information to keep me on 

track, ranging from upcoming appointments, action items, 

local trending terms on Twitter, traffic nearby, and more. 

Upcoming appointments generate information on meeting 

attendees through LinkedIn and other sources. You can also 

speak to the software to ask questions as it builds up a database of web links and user-generated answers.

Essentially, reQall Rover is bringing important, personal 

information to me, instead of me having to open app after 

app just to get the data I need. In that regard, it shares 

similarities to Siri, Vlingo and Zazu, all of which are trying 

to sift through personalized data and bring us relevant 

information. Given all the data on our smartphones and in the 

cloud, shouldn’t we expect that from our handsets? Indeed, 

why haven’t we already seen our smartphones become more 

efficient assistants?

New Technology Enablers

For that answer, I turned to Don Norman, a twice-retired 

consultant on human-centered design interaction, book 

author of “The Design of Everyday Things” and the “Chief 

Mentor” to reQall. In a phone conversation, he explained 

that we finally have three key elements that will enable 

such solutions:

Today we have 

advanced microprocessors and 

memory that 

offer computing 

capabilities we 

could only dream 

of 30 or 40 years 

ago. We also have 

fast communications networks 

so that we can 

offload heavier 

processing to the 

cloud. And finally, 

we have artificial 

intelligence and 

natural language 

abilities that can 

put all of the information together. 

We haven’t seen 

prior solutions 

such as reQall 

Rover due to 

two constraints. 

These advances 

are all relatively new in terms of hardware; it simply wasn’t 

possible before. Most importantly, two types of knowledge 

are needed: technology and psychology, which is a rare combination. The technology has advanced, but we’re only now 

pairing it with the understanding of what information people 

need and how they track their day.

So how does all of this technology come together to make a 

smartphone smarter? As I alluded to before, it’s all in the APIs 

from services I’m already using. Google knows who and what 

is important to me based on Gmail and my Google Clendar. 

My phone knows where I am, so reQall Rover can sift though 

local information such as Yelp recommendations, nearby 

Dealmap or Groupon deals, Google Map traffic issues, and 

where to find the best cup of coffee, no matter where I am 

and in any weather. Indeed, the more you connect to reQall 

Rover, the more it learns about you and the better it can assist.

The reQall Rover aggregates data from 

websites you use for easier access

Image courtesy of reQall
In Memoriam

Long time NASA and NRP friend Nobel Laureate 

Dr. Baruch Blumberg succumbed to a fatal heart 

attack during a conference at NRP on April 5, 

2011 at 86 years of age.

Michael Marlaire, Director, NASA Research Park, addresses 

Danish CEOs on June 27, 2011 during their visit to NRP as 

part of Denmark’s Executive Leadership program.

NRP Post

16 www.nasa.gov

Moon Express Announces Dr. Alan Stern 

as Chief Scientist

by Daven Maharaj

Mountain View, CA

July 21, 2011

Moon Express, a Google Lunar X PRIZE contender, 

announced July 21 that internationally recognized 

planetary scientist Dr. Alan Stern will be the Chief 

Scientist and Mission Architect for the company. The 

announcement was made as lunar scientists from 

around the world gathered at NASA Research Park for 

their annual Lunar Science Forum, convened by the 

NASA Lunar Science Institute.

Dr. Stern is the former NASA Associate Administrator 

for Science and an outspoken advocate for commercial space who believes in the power of private 

enterprise to complement government efforts. While 

at NASA he presided over $4.5B of planetary science, 

astrophysics, heliophysics, and earth science missions 

while also serving as the Principle Investigator of the 

agency’s New Horizon’s mission to Pluto. “I am thrilled 

to be working with the Moon Express team as Chief 

Scientist,” he said. “Moon Express has the business 

model, talent, and the resources to blaze a commercial trail to the Moon and revolutionize the way we 

do lunar science and exploration. The lunar future is 

bright.”

Named by Time Magazine as one of the world’s 

most influential people, Dr. Stern has pushed many 

boundaries of science with innovative experiments 

and mission initiatives, including booking 8 suborbital spaceflights on Virgin Galactic and XCOR 

spaceships for space research. As Chief Scientist 

of Moon Express, Dr. Stern is helping the company 

design lunar missions that will support the company’s commercial operations, leading the company’s research into materials on the Moon that could 

have scientific and economic value for Earth and 

space exploration.

“We are honored to have a scientist of Alan Stern’s 

caliber working with us,” said Moon Express cofounder and CEO Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards. “Alan’s 

unique combination of optimism, deep experience, 

and no-nonsense style helps propel Moon Express 

forward while remaining focused on the achievable.”

Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diane Farrar

Layout and Design. . . . . . . . . . . Carol Le

Phone: (650) 604-2NRP

Email: arc-dl-researchpark@mail.nasa.gov

Website: www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov

NRP Post