National Aeronautics and Space Administration

A publication of NASA Research Park

NRP POST The

Summer 2012

CMU-SV cont’d on page 3

Rosen Plevneliev, President of Bulgaria

(L-R): Rosen Plevneliev, President of Bulgaria; John Boyd, 

Senior Advisor to the Center Director; and Lewis Braxton III, 

Deputy Director. 

Bulgaria Visit cont’d on page 2

The winds were gusty, but the spirit was joyous as hundreds 

gathered to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Carnegie 

Mellon University’s (CMU) Silicon Valley Campus, located in 

the NASA Research Park.

The celebration included remarks from university leadership 

and local government officials, short videos showcasing the 

campus and celebrating its existence, recognition of the 

campus founders, a time capsule ceremony, and a technology showcase.

California State Assemblyman Paul Fong and Mountain View 

Mayor Michael Kasperzak offered resolutions celebrating the 

Silicon Valley Campus (SV). CMU President Jared L. Cohon 

and CMU Provost Mark Kamlet offered remarks on looking 

back at the history of the campus and looking forward to the 

future. President Cohon proclaimed, “Truly, this is the center 

of innovation of the world. The present, and even more so 

the future, is about networking in a collaborative mode that 

benefits everybody.”

Provost Kamlet recognized the campus founders and how 

the SV campus became the start of CMU’s global networking. 

Silicon Valley Campus Celebrates Decade of Success

The President of Bulgaria, 

Rosen Plevneliev, the U.S. 

Ambassador to Bulgaria, 

James Warlick, and the 

Bulgarian Ambassador to 

the U.S., Elena Poptodorova, 

along with 15-20 U.S. and 

Bulgarian government and 

media representatives, visited NASA Research Park 

on May 17.  The objective 

of the visit was to learn 

about the NASA Research 

Park (NRP) and public/

private partnerships for 

technology R&D. Bulgaria 

is planning a similar type of research park in their capital city Sofia. The visit was coordinated by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Lewis Braxton III, ARC Deputy Director, welcomed the president on behalf of Ames 

Center Director Dr. Pete Worden who was on travel. Michael Marlaire, Director, NASA

Some of CMUSV’s original founders with CMU leadership (L-R): 

Drew Perkins, Jared Cohon, Duane Adams, Martin Griss, Raj Reddy, 

Gordon Bell, Jim Mitchell, Pradeep Khosla, Ed Frank, Mark Kamlet, Eric 

Daimler, Philip Lehman, and Jim Morris

by Nichole Dwyer

President of Bulgaria Visits NRP
2 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

CONTENTS NRPWelcomes

Rhombus Power, Inc.

Bldg. 19, Room 1070G

Commencement 5/1/12

Rhombus has developed proprietary solid state technologies for the detection 

of neutrons, gamma rays and other sub-atomic particles. With the help of these 

technologies and an international collaboration with researchers at leading 

universities in the Bay area and in South Korea, Rhombus is developing neutron 

detectors for homeland security, oil & gas exploration, aerospace applications, 

and deep space exploration.

Quintessence Labs Inc.

Bldg. 19, Room 1077

Commencement 8/1/12

Quintessence Labs Inc. is the first in the world to exploit a new generation of 

quantum cryptographic technology to enable unbreakable, secure storage and 

communication of sensitive information through the generation of an ultra 

secure cryptographic key.

Research Park, briefed the guests on 

the NRP and introduced a number 

of Silicon Valley and NRP leaders: Dr. 

Russ Hancock, CEO, Joint Venture 

Silicon Valley Network; Jason 

Popko, Marketing Supervisor, Bosch 

Healthcare; Carol Ruth, Finance & 

HR Manager, Lyncean Technologies; 

Alexis Roos, Master Principal of Sales, 

Oracle Healthcare; Dr. Martin Griss, 

Director, Carnegie Mellon University 

Silicon Valley; Ravi Deepak, Taksha 

University; Michael Gooding, Director, 

Marketing and Sales, Space Systems 

Loral; Dr. Robert Baertsch, Chief 

Technology Officer, SkyTran; Rob Nail, 

CEO, Singularity University; Bob 

Richards, CEO, Moon Express; Adarsh 

Deepak, CEO, and President, Science 

Bulgaria Visit cont’d from page 1

and Technology Corporation (STC) and 

Tiffany Montague, Google. 

Discussions continued over a stand-up 

lunch. Afterwards, the President and a 

small entourage were taken to tour the 

NASA Ames Supercomputer facility. The 

other guests toured NRP partner SkyTran’s facility. A note from the Bulgarian 

leadership was received after their visit, 

“Let me once again express our appreciation to your efforts and great support 

and engagement to the Bulgarian visit 

in San Jose. The NASA event was the 

highlight of the program with lots of 

impressive attendees. It was a big challenge for all of us but the event with you 

added a great value to the success of the 

whole mission.”

CMUSV 10th Anniversary . . . . . . .1

President of Bulgaria Visits NRP . . 1

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

NASA Earth Exchange . . . . . . . . 4

Airship Venture’s Zeppelin

 Airship Pilot School . . . . . . . . 5

NASA Lunar Science Forum . . . . . 6

NASA Roses Seagrass/Coral

 Reef Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Hangar One UAV Project . . . . . . . . 9

Kentucky Space Developments . . . 4

PepBlast Animated eCards . . . . . 11

KleenSpeed Wins Refuel 2012 . . 12

KleenSpeed Battery . . . . . . . . . . . 12

NRP Hosts UN leaders . . . . . . . . 13

Bloom Energy Brings on 

 Big Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Singularity University’s Summer 

 Graduate Studies Program . . 15

Google’s Cyborg Glasses . . . . . . 15

Moon Express New Hires . . . . . 16
wwww.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 3

NRP Post

CMU-SV cont’d from page 1

Gigapan photo of CMU-SV 10th anniversary attendees. The interactive photo can be viewed at http://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/10years/

NASA Ames Associate Director for Mission Support, Deborah Feng, 

congratulates CMU for ten years at NRP.

“The Silicon Valley Campus really represented the start and the 

learning curve for us on how to best network what we are doing 

and how to best take advantage of who we can interact with,” 

Kamlet said. 

Recognizing the rapidly advancing technology industry, the 

SV campus also put together a time capsule, in which over 

20 items from the campus and surrounding community were 

added. The capsule will be opened in 15 years during the 25th 

anniversary of the campus.

SV Campus Director Martin Griss gave the final remarks, 

thanking those who helped push the campus to success, 

especially the College of Engineering. 

“The College provided a home for us to grow and a vehicle and 

assistance to develop and strengthen many ties,” he said.

After the program, photos of SV alumni were taken, as well 

as a Gigapan photo of the attendees. Gigapans are gigapixel 

panoramas, digital images with billions of pixels. GigaPan 

was formed in 2008 as a commercial spin-off of a successful 

research collaboration between a team of researchers at NASA 

and Carnegie Mellon University.

A technology showcase followed with over a dozen demonstrations and posters offering glimpses into the research being 

performed at the campus.

Finally, a delicious reception capped the evening, after which 

the winds had died down, but the sky still shone blue.

US Market Access Center (US MAC) is a non-profit business accelerator 

located in the heart of Silicon Valley. The US MAC is supported by the 

San Jose State University Research Foundation and focuses on helping 

emerging technology companies from other countries who seek 

to do business in the US. Since 1995 US MAC has worked with over 

800 such companies from over fifty countries. Michael Marlaire, 

NRP Director, briefed the US MAC guests from University of Salford, 

England; Aalto University, Finland; Urban and Regional Innovation

Research (URENIO), Greece; and University of Lodz, Poland.

NRP hosts US Market Access International Business Leaders
4 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

Take one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, add thousands 

of terabytes of Earth science data, mix in state-of-the art 

software tools, and blend with an array of international experts. 

The result: NASA Earth Exchange (NEX), the only complete 

collaborative workspace for engaging and enabling the 

extended Earth science community. 

The newest partner to join NASA Research Park, NEX offers a 

unique capability to share knowledge, research, and tools 

to address global environmental challenges. The three key 

components of the NEX workspace architecture—a web 

portal for sharing project information and findings, a sandbox 

with tools for building software codes and testing ideas, and 

high-performance computers for running data analysis and 

modeling and simulation on a large scale—are accessible 

to a variety of Earth scientists from universities, government, 

industry and non-profits around the world.

“The idea is to give scientists a gateway to all the technologies 

they need to join forces, make new discoveries, and share 

knowledge gained to fast-track our understanding of the planet 

we live on,” said Dr. Ramakrishna Nemani, NEX principal scientist 

from the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division 

at NASA Ames. “NEX is a natural fit with NASA Research Park 

partners who are working to develop innovative technologies 

and accelerate scientific breakthroughs.”

NASA Earth Exchange Joins NRP Partnership

by Jill Dunbar 

First application of NEX: global vegetation density estimates at 30-meter resolution (nearly 340 billion pixels) from Landsat satellite data.

According to Jennifer Dungan of NASA Ames’ Earth Science 

Division, who co-manages the NEX project, a key advantage 

of being located on the NRP campus is the ease of including 

non-NASA researchers in NEX-sponsored events. During the 

highly successful 2012 “Summer Short Course for Earth System 

Modeling and Supercomputing” held this past July, early-career 

scientists from the U.S. and around the globe were introduced 

to NEX and attended lectures on a wide variety of topics, 

including Earth observing systems, Earth science modeling and 

data analysis codes, handling big data, and publishing results. 

One of the most promising real-world results enabled by the 

NEX environment involves the Amazon rainforest, which has 

gone through two extreme droughts since 2005. When NASA 

scientists studied the first drought, it took 18 months to process 

and analyze all the data. In sharp contrast, using NEX workflow 

capabilities and the Pleiades supercomputer (see sidebar on 

page 5), scientists completed an analysis of the 2010 drought in 

just one month. This quick analysis led to further investigations 

that revealed widespread reductions in the health of forest 

vegetation in the Amazon basin.

Not all NEX members need to use Pleiades to advance 

their research. Many stick to the web portal’s trove of crossdisciplinary information to find out what other researchers 

are studying, and build their science social network through 

NEX cont’d on page 14
Meet Up in the NEX World

The NASA Earth Exchange 

(NEX) office is located in 

building 19 at NASA Research 

Park in rooms 2030, 2031, 

2033, and 2034. To find out 

more about NEX research 

areas, projects, resources, and 

joining the NEX community, 

see: http://nex.nasa.gov.

NEX members who would 

benefit from using supercomputing resources for largescale projects addressing NASA 

climate and environmental 

change research can apply for 

access to the Pleiades supercomputer—currently ranked 

as the fourth most powerful 

system in the U.S. Potential 

users undergo a formal 

application and review process, 

and must meet federal security 

requirements in order to use 

Pleiades and mass storage 

resources at the NAS facility. 

Approved users also have 

access to NAS’s hyperwall-2, 

a supercomputer-scale environment to visualize, explore, 

and analyze large, high-dimensional datasets produced 

by NASA supercomputers and 

instruments. For more information on the Pleiades supercomputer, see: http://goo.gl/LsOln

Airship Ventures Provides Zeppelin Airship Pilot School 

for the U.S. Air Force

U.S. Air Force test pilots learned how to fly a Zeppelin airship in Long Beach, CA.

Future test pilots from the U.S. Air Force 

and other countries tested their lighterthan-air flying skills in a Zeppelin airship 

during an airship flight evaluation for 

the Air Force Test Pilot’s School (AFTPS) 

in Long Beach, Calif. on Tuesday, May 29.

The AFTPS encourages students to fly as 

many different aircraft as possible—jets, 

small planes, helicopters, and in this 

case, a fly-by-wire, Vertical Take Off and 

Landing (VTOL) airship, the Zeppelin NT07 Eureka.

“This was an amazing opportunity for our 

students,” noted Mary E. (Lyn) McNeely, 

instructor flight test engineer at the 

U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School. “The airship provides a unique type of aviation, 

something you can’t learn in a classroom 

and our students looked forward to this 

all year.”

During the one-day Zeppelin training 

school, select U.S. Air Force pilots learn 

the theory and technique behind flying 

a 246-foot-long Zeppelin in ground 

school, and then put it into practice 

during a flight over the Pacific Ocean. 

Each student flies the airship at a variety 

of speeds and practices hovering using 

the airship’s vectored thrust engines.

“Through relationships with military 

and defense organizations like the U.S. 

Air Force, Airship Ventures continues 

to advance its special missions capabilities,” said Francis Govers, Airship 

Ventures’ special missions manager. 

“Our Zeppelin is a unique resource, 

which has been finding increased utility not only as a training platform, but 

also in the evaluation of new sensors 

and systems that may go on other 

manned or unmanned aircraft.”

Airship Ventures also offers a similar 

school to members of the public who 

are current private or commercial 

pilots. The pilot experience for civilians 

is a two-day course which includes 

learning about an airship flight from 

Zeppelin pilots, stick time in the 

cockpit, and a behind-the-scenes 

look at Airship Ventures and airship 

operations. For more information on 

Airship Ventures Pilot Experience visit 

http://goo.gl/Bem9C or call 650-969-

8100 x 111.

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 5

NRP Post
6 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

By Teague Soderman and Greg Schmidt

The NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) 

hosted its 5th annual NASA Lunar 

Science Forum on July 17–19, 2012 in 

the NASA Research Park (NRP) at Ames 

Research Center (ARC)—a world-class, 

shared-use R&D and education campus 

for industry, academia, non-profits, and 

government. This year, the NLSI made 

significant improvements to Building 

152 to help transform the space into a 

cutting-edge conference center that 

will be available for years to come for 

multiple uses. Beyond just the Forum, 

the new audio-visual systems and 

building improvements provide a lasting 

benefit to the ARC community. 

This year’s forum featured sessions from 

the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), 

Acceleration Reconnection Turbulence 

and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s 

Interaction with the Sun (ARTEMIS) 

and the Gravity Recovery and Interior 

Laboratory (GRAIL) satellites. As in past 

years, science sessions were structured 

to report on both recent results and 

future opportunities for lunar science, 

exploration, education and outreach.

Each year the conference reviews the 

state of knowledge, and opportunities 

for science: Of the Moon: investigating 

the composition, structure and history of 

the Moon as each relates to the evolution 

of the Earth, Moon and Solar System; On 

the Moon: investigating the effects of 

lunar material and the environment on 

terrestrial life and robotic equipment; 

and From the Moon: exploring science 

that is uniquely enabled by being on or 

Steven Zornetzer, NASA Ames Associate Center Director for Research, welcomes guests to 

the NASA Lunar Science Forum. 

Jim Green from SMD discusses the importance of lunar science. 

NASA Lunar Science Forum held at NRP

near the Moon, including celestial and 

Earth observations.

The Forum consists of invited and contributed oral and poster presentations, 

together with breakout sessions to plan 

for the future of lunar science. Continued exploration and scientific research 

produces emerging markets and new 

opportunities to expand human commerce to the Moon, and efforts spawned 

from the Google Lunar X-Prize offer 

significant new opportunities for the 

lunar science community. Bruce Pittman addressed these exciting prospects 

by chairing a breakout session on lunar 

commerce held in Building 555, the 

NASA Ames Space Portal. 

Education and public outreach sessions 

were also included to better understand 

how lunar exploration can be used 

to stimulate public interest in space 

exploration and improve science literacy. 

Two dedicated side meetings by and 

for graduate students and young lunar 

professionals explored opportunities for 

the next generation of explorers, and 

the annual Shoemaker Medal, named 

after pioneering lunar scientist Gene 

Shoemaker, was presented to Dr. S. Ross 
wwww.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 7

NRP Post

Mike Wargo from HEOMD discusses how science enables exploration. 

Dr. Stuart Ross Taylor gives the Keynote Lecture after receiving the annual Shoemaker Award. 

Taylor in recognition of his significant 

scientific accomplishments. 

More than 300 scientists attended the 

Forum to hear analysis from the five U.S. 

spacecraft currently studying the Moon, 

and for the first time much of the Forum 

was webcast, a fitting new feature given 

the virtual nature of NLSI. In addition to 

discussing science results, the Forum 

attendees also focused their attention 

on the future. NASA officials praised the 

performance of the current NLSI and announced an expansion of the charter to 

allow additional emphasis on research 

that will support both science and exploration of not only the Moon, but other 

human targets as well. In NASA organizational terms, this means a closer alliance between the NASA Science Mission 

Directorate (SMD) and the NASA Human 

Exploration and Operations Directorate 

(HEOMD).

The joint virtual presentation at the 

Forum by NASA Associate Administrators 

John Grunsfeld (SMD) and William 

Gerstenmaier (HEOMD) outlined their 

rationale for the expansion of the 

Institute, providing insight into the new 

era of enhanced collaboration between 

science and exploration.

NASA representatives stressed that 

there is a strong future for lunar science 

research, saying we need researchers who 

are passionate about understanding our 

nearest neighbor, the Moon, and who 

want to improve our understanding of 

the origin and evolution of planet Earth.

“The NLSI catalyzes collaborative research 

within and among its seven teams, but 

also strives to include and support the 

broader lunar science community in a 

variety of ways,” said Yvonne Pendleton, 

Director of the NLSI. Greg Schmidt, 

deputy director of the NLSI, said, “The 

world is returning to the Moon, and 

our growing number of international 

partners greatly amplify the value of the 

work of our domestic teams.”

In his summary review of the conference, 

distinguished planetary scientist David 

Kring of the Lunar and Planetary Institute 

in Houston said “We have made more 

progress in three years with the NLSI 

than was made in the previous 30 years 

of lunar studies, but a lot of questions 

remain unanswered that require a return 

to the lunar surface, using both robot 

and human explorers.”

The 2012 NASA Lunar Science Forum 

was perhaps the best yet. If you missed 

the meeting or just want to relive some 

of your favorite talks, the public Adobe 

Connect sessions are available online at: 

http://goo.gl/G8oY0

We look forward to another exciting 

meeting at the NRP next year! 

Photos by D. Hart/ARC.
8 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

In July 2012, the UAV Collaborative was awarded a twoyear NASA ROSES Grant as part of NASA’s Airborne Science 

UAS Enabled Earth Science Program, with Dr. Stanley 

R. Herwitz (Director of the UAV Collaborative) serving as 

Principle Investigator. The Project is entitled “High Resolution 

Assessment of Carbon Dynamics in Seagrass and Coral Reef 

Biomes”, and it is now commonly referred to as the Seagrass/

Coral Reef Project. 

The Seagrass/Coral Reef Project research team consists of 

the following co-Investigators: (1) Prof. Frank Muller-Karger, 

Ph.D., Institute for Marine Remote Sensing, University of 

South Florida, College of Marine Science, St. Petersburg, 

FL; (2) Prof. Chuanmin Hu, Ph.D., Optical Oceanography 

Laboratory, University of South Florida, (3) Kimberly Yates, 

Ph.D., U.S. Geological Survey, Center for Coastal and Marine 

Science Center; (4) Paul Carlson, Ph.D., Florida Fish and Wildlife 

Research Institute; and (5) Deanesh Ramsewak, Institute of 

Marine Affairs, Trinidad and Tobago. 

The research objective is to determine the optimal spatial, 

temporal, and spectral resolutions for monitoring the 

productivity dynamics of optically-complex coral reef and 

seagrass coastal biomes. Understanding the productivity 

dynamics of these vulnerable nearshore environments is 

critical for assessing their current state and predicting their 

response to the effects of global climate change (e.g., sea 

level rise; changes in seawater chemistry and temperature). 

The research activity involves repeated high-resolution 

airborne observations of diurnal and seasonal variation at the 

Sugarloaf Key site in the Florida Keys using low-flying longduration Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs); specifically, the 

Bat-4 and the SIERRA UAVs equipped with complementary 

multispectral and hyperspectral sensors. The airborne 

datasets are being augmented by in-water measurements 

and satellite data. We are predicting that our coordinated 

inter-disciplinary earth science mission will provide new 

insights into coastal benthic productivity dynamics, and new 

advancements in remote sensing technology. The results are 

being made available to coral reef and seagrass monitoring 

programs, providing a tool for acquiring data in remote 

areas of the world where traditional in-water methods are 

logistically difficult or limited in spatial coverage. 

In preparation for the recently completed May 2012 

Deployment of the Bat-4 UAV to Sugarloaf Key in the 

Florida Keys, pre-Deployment flight tests were conducted in 

California at San Bernabe Vineyard (March 15, 2012) and at 

Moffett Field (March 20, April 18 and April 24, 2012). The flight 

tests at Moffett Field were historic, with the Bat-4 becoming: 

(1) the first “Category 2” UAV to takeoff and land at Moffett 

Field, making it the largest UAV ever operating at Moffett 

Field; (2) the first Moffett Field-based UAV to fly at 1,000 ft 

MLS, making it the highest flying Moffett-based UAV; and (3) 

the UAV reaching the furthest flight distance from its Moffettbased take-off site (Fig. 1). 

After months of preparation that began in July 2011, the 

Seagrass/Coral Reef Project embarked on its 1st UAV 

Deployment to the Sugarloaf Key site in Florida in mid-May 

2012. The Sugarloaf Key site was selected because it has a 

readily accessible paved airstrip positioned close to seagrass 

and patch reef environments located in the Florida Keys 

National Marine Sanctuary (Fig. 2). Airborne data acquisition 

using a Tetracam multispectral camera system integrated 

Fig. 1. Bat-4 UAV at Moffett Field: (a) pre-flight; (b) takeoff; and (c) in-flight.

a c

b

NASA ROSES Seagrass/Coral Reef Project 
wwww.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 9

NRP Post

on the Bat-4 UAV was successfully conducted on four flight days 

(May 16, 17, 18 and 19, 2012). Data analysis is currently in progress. 

Deployment of both the SIERRA and the Bat-4 UAVs to the Florida 

Keys is now planned for October 2012 and May 2013. 

In addition to obtaining an approved Certificate of Authorization 

(COA) from the FAA, approval of the intensive in situ field 

measurement and field sampling activity was obtained from the 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Office 

of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS). The UAV Collaborative 

prepared and submitted the required permit application. On April 

21, 2012, NOAA’s ONMS issued Permit Number FKNMS-2012-043 

to the UAV Collaborative, enabling field research activity at the 

Sugarloaf Key site as part of the NASA ROSES Seagrass/Coral 

Reef Project. 

Hangar One UAV Project 

On August 11th, 2012, Xtreme Aerial Concepts working in 

collaboration with the UAV Collaborative successfully completed 

the first series of historic flights of the Vision Rotorcraft UAV on the 

east side of Hangar One at Moffett Field. The flights were historic in 

terms of being conducted in the National Airspace with FAA and 

NASA Ames Range Safety approval in close proximity to Hangar One, 

an exceptionally large man-made structure. The flights featured the 

acquisition of high-resolution still-frame digital imagery and highdefinition video. 

The Hangar One UAV Project is motivated by the UAV Collaborative’s 

educational outreach campaign, showcasing the airborne data 

acquisition capabilities of small low-flying hovercraft-type UAVs. 

The long-term objective is to measure the complete de-skinned 3D 

structure of Hangar One for the NASA Ames Historic Archive and 

for possible future use during re-skinning. The recently completed 

historic flights involving airborne imaging were conducted in 

preparation for the 3D scanning effort that will involve integrating a 

downsized Focus 3D Scanner (manufactured by FARO Technologies, 

Inc.) onto the Vision Rotorcraft UAV (manufactured by Xtreme Aerial 

Concepts). The final deliverable will be a precision 3D database 

representing Hangar One. 

Fig. 2. Imaging areas A, B and C shown within FAA-approved 

flight bounding area. 

The Vision Rotorcraft UAV at Moffett Field acquiring airborne imagery of Hangar One. 
10 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

Kentucky Space Developments

NASA Research Park partner Kentucky Space (KS), based out 

of Lexington, KY, has been hard at work on a range of projects 

in widening the pool of potential space researchers and 

applications. This includes: 

Exomedicine: 

The Exomedicine Institute 

(EI) held a special breakout session on June 28th 

at the first annual ISS researcher’s conference in 

Denver, CO to speak with 

current ISS researchers

about the Institute.

Among the topics discussed were the current commissioning 

of 10–12 Exomedicine white papers in fields such as oncology, 

diabetes, and hematology, and to have top level researchers in 

these respective areas look at the future value of microgravity 

research as it relates to those fields. Papers in regenerative medicine, protein crystallization, infectious disease, drug discovery, 

neurodegenerative disease, and cystic fibrosis are already underway by researchers from around the globe. EI hopes to have 

all the current papers by the fall with all other fields underway 

within the year.

Commercial Endeavors: 

KS is talking to the social financing website 

KickStarter to gather 

enough customers for 

bulk ordering for the 

Firefly C&DH board. Firefly is an Arduino-friendly 

system with onboard 

power, charging, data 

logging, and medium 

range communications 

capability. The board 

was developed after 

a prototype was used at KS’s first CubeSat Hacker Workshop. 

Attendees were so interested in the prototype board used during the conference that KS has further developed Firefly for 

commercial sale. Firefly is licensed and will be available for 

sale after the KickStarter campaign through the space tech 

blog evadot.com. 

CubeSat Hacker Workshops: 

One of KS’s main focuses since its inception in 2006 was 

the emerging entrepreneurial space market. KS has 

begun hosting a series of two day CubeSat Hacker Workshops 

for the non-space citizen learn about the basics of small satellite 

design and factors that a designer must consider. These workshops open space to a new audience who previously thought 

that these jobs were left to just NASA and large aerospace 

contractors. Currently there are two more workshops planned: 

one at the IdeaFestival in late September in Louisville, KY and 

another hosted by the Silicon Space Center on October 26–28th. 

Outreach with Near Space Balloons: 

On July 12th, 2012 a near space balloon was launched from 

the Girl Scouts Camp Cardinal in Olive Hill, KY. This launch 

was the culmination of several months of work between 

the Girl Scouts of Wilderness Road and Kentucky Space in 

which the girls developed their own experiment and came 

up with a hypothesis of what would happen. The experiment 

included four fluids held in test tubes that were exposed to 

the gradually cooling and low pressure air that the balloon 

experiences as it ascends through the atmosphere. The balloon was located later that day, but was not retrieved until 

the next week. Results from the flight are being analyzed at 

this time.

CubeSats: 

Kentucky Space partner Morehead State University (MSU) 

was the leader in a consortium of universities on the Cosmic 

X Ray Background Nanosatellite (CXBN) to be launched as part 

of ELaNa VI on the NRO L-36 mission out of Vandenberg AFB 

scheduled for launch on August 2nd. CXBN will be mapping the 

ruminates of background radiation from the big bang in the 

30–50 keV range. 

Kentucky Space is managing the development of KySat-2, 

which is currently occupying a back slot on both NASA’s ELaNa 

 Kentucky Space’s Firefly C&DH board

CubeSat Hacker Workshop attendees 
wwww.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 11

NRP Post

Photozig, Inc. has released a new free app, PepBlast Animated 

eCards, which is available in the Google Play App Store now. 

A version for iPhone and iPad is coming soon.

PepBlast eCards enables users to send animated greeting cards 

(fun animations with cool songs). Users can select from over 

200 eCard designs in 40+ eCards collections.

There are eCards for nearly all occasions, including Birthdays, 

Holidays, Love, Congratulations, Christmas, Friends, Family, 

Work, Graduation, and many more. PepBlast collections also 

include Space themes inspired by NASA images/videos.

Users can preview these fun video eCards with music, add a 

personalized message, and send eCards by email or Facebook. 

PepBlast Animated eCards in 

Google Play App Store

When sending an eCard, a personalized web page is created, 

containing the selected animated video with music, and 

message. These eCards can be seen on PCs, smartphones, 

tablets, and almost any web browser.

The free PepBlast eCards App can be downloaded at 

http://goo.gl/niu0p

Screen captures from Photozig’s new app, PepBlast eCards

Kentucky Space partner 

Morehead State University’s 

Cosmic X-Ray Background 

Nanosatellite (CXBN) 

(Pictured above):

CBXN Mission Description:

• Goal is to increase the precision

of measurements of the Cosmic 

X-Ray Background (CXRB) 

in the 30-50 keV range

• Constrain models that explain the 

relative contribution of cosmic 

X-Ray sources to the CXRB

• Produce data that will lend insight 

into the underlying physics of the 

Diffuse X-Ray Background

• Provide flight heritage for CZTbased X-Ray-gamma-ray detectors 

and CubeSat technologies

• ConOps: Sun pointing, 1Hz rotation, 

maps entire sky in the X-Ray spectrum

Spacecraft Specifications:

• Mass: 2.6 kg

• Power: 15 W max generated

• Orbit: 268 425 nmi

• Size: 2U= 10cm x 10cm X 20cm

II & ELaNa IV missions. KySat-2 is replacement to 

KS’s first satellite KySat-1 which was lost on ELaNa 

I. KySat-2 will fulfill the Educational and Public 

Outreach mission originally set out for KySat-1. This 

means transmitting on amateur HAM radio bands, 

open source telemetry, and images taken from the 

spacecraft on the KS website. 
12 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

NRP Partner KleenSpeed Technologies won 

First Place for the fourth straight year at 

Refuel 2012 held July 1, 2012, Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca, CA. ReFuel is the leading 

open competition for electric vehicles held 

in the United States with classes for electric 

vehicle (EV) prototypes, EV production vehicles, EV conversions and several classes of 

electric motorcycles. 

Competing in the Open Prototype class, the 

Scrambls/KleenSpeed EV-X11 shattered the 

lap time of 1:38.9 it set in winning last year’s 

ReFuel event by over six seconds, completing a hot lap of the challenging Laguna Seca 

circuit in 1:32.046 to set a new record for the 

fourth year in a row. 

ReFuel 2012 had a considerably larger roster of entrants than in 2011 including the 

Yokahama Blue Earth HER-02—the EV Class 

champion at the 2011 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, a 

large contingent of TESLA Roadsters and an 

“unofficial” group of TESLA S Pre-Production 

sedans, a race-Prepped CODA sedan, numerous Nissan Leafs and several BMW Active E 

sedans. The motorcycle category was led by 

Brammo’s Empulse TTXGP bike and various 

ZERO models with a full field of privateer entries as well. CODA also held a CODA Driving 

Experience event.

KleenSpeed’s advanced research KAR prototype at the Stanford Center for Automotive 

Research (CARS) 2012 Vehicle Concept Showcase on June 12, 2012. 

KleenSpeed and its EV-X11 won first place at Refuel 2012

KleenSpeed’s Disruptive Technology Leads the Way To a Greener Future

World’s Fastest Electric Race Car Sets the Pace at America’s Premier EV Motorsports Event 

KLEENSPEED GenESSysTM 40 

SMART Battery By Dean Seven

  

KleenSpeed Technologies® announces 

the completion of prototype design 

and fabrication of its first commercial 

Energy Storage System—the GenESSysTM 40 “SMART” Battery. KleenSpeed’s 

engineering team is now in the testing 

phase of the prototype GenESSysTM 40, 

which will be installed in the development mule of the KleenSpeed KAR later 

this summer for additional real-world 

testing and refinement, prior to finalizing the production specifications. The 

GenESSysTM 40 is the product of 4 years 

of intensive R&D and extreme environKS Battery cont’d on page 13

The Scrambls/KleenSpeed EV-X11 

turned the fastest lap of all competitors by a large margin, validating the disruptive technology of the 

KleenSpeed genESSsysTM Race system 

incorporated in the world’s fastest electric track racing car. The EV-X11 was 

piloted to the new lap record by Kevin 

Mitz of Rennworks Motorsports.
wwww.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 13

NRP Post

ment real-world testing in our EV race car program, and 

represents the current leading edge in multiple ESS 

technologies. The GenESSysTM 40 is based on a modular scalable architecture and part of a complete KleenSpeed Technologies system solution to advanced ESS 

applications. KleenSpeed’s passion to develop a truly 

innovative “BETTERY” has delivered significant engineering breakthroughs enabled by proprietary KleenSpeed® technologies.  KleenSpeed’s  GenESSys System 

can be incorporated in energy storage systems of many 

different sizes and capacities meeting various capacity, 

voltage and current specifications.  The GenESSys BMS 

technology can be tailored to provide application-specific performance, connectivity and telemetrics options 

as required.

  

The global market for advanced ESS solutions for a 

wide variety of applications is anticipated to experience 

dynamic growth in the next decade as Smart Grids 

and Smart Energy technologies are implemented 

worldwide, in addition to the projected growth of the 

EV marketplace.   

GenESSysTM 40 : 40 KWh “SMART” Battery

• State-of-the Art Metrics

Volumetric Energy Density : 180 Wh/Liter 

Gravimetric Energy Density : 120 Wh/kg

• Total System Integration

Integrated and Optimized Hardware Components 

Data Acquisition and Logging 

Multi-Spectrum Connectivity

 Telemetry, Intnet, GPS, Mobile, CAN,

 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, V2x KS 

Proprietary BMS System & Software

• Leading Edge Innovations 

ENABLE-ONTM Safe/Live State Activation 

AUTHENTICONTM Real-time Authentication 

LIFE ASSURANCETM Chemical Life Optimization 

SUBCONCIOUS ANIMATIONTM 

 Always-On BMS Monitoring

KS Battery cont’d from page 12

NRP Hosts United Nations Leaders

NASA Research Park hosted a United Nations (UN) Delegation

visit on May 24. The VIP guests included: Dr. Soon-Hong Choi, 

Assistant Secretary General (ASG), Chief Information and 

Communication Technology Officer; Mr. Salem Avan, Chief, 

Knowledge Management Service; Ms. Viktorija Kocman, 

Special Assistant to the ASG; Mr. Suha Ulgen, Senior Advisor on 

Special Data Infrastructure, Knowledge Management Service, 

Co-chair, UN Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG) & Head, Centre of Excellence for UN Spatial Data Infrastructure (CoE4UNSDI).

The UN is interested in potentially establishing an Information and Communications Technology innovation lab in Silicon Valley, and visited to explore the NRP as a site. The dignitaries were welcomed by NASA Ames Center Director Dr. Pete 

Worden. NRP Director Michael Marlaire gave an extensive briefing on the NRP, followed by presentations from Dr. Martin Griss, 

Director Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley, and Singularity 

University’s Vice President Community Development and Graduate Studies Program Director David Roberts. The UN Assistant 

Secretary General Dr. Soon-Hong Choi asked if they could build 

in the NRP and was informed that his initiative would need to 

start at the State Department and NASA Headquarters. 

Three NASA Ames leaders then briefed the guests on NASA 

programs related to the UN mission: Dr. Trey Smith on international disaster response; Dr. Rama Nemani on the NASA Earth 

Exchange (NEX) and Patrick Hogan on Worldwind. The guests 

were very impressed with the many opportunities to collaborate with both NRP partners and NASA Ames. 

Bruce Pittman of the 

NASA Space Portal in 

the NRP was honored 

with the Service to the 

Frontier Award on July 

28th, 2012. The award is 

given to someone who 

has dedicated exceptional 

volunteer service to the 

Space Frontier Foundation 

(SFF). As a liaison between 

NASA and the SFF, Pittman 

is a linchpin for SFF’s 

partnership with NASA 

and is an indispensable 

source of advice. SFF also 

commends his support 

of commercial space and 

efforts to further it. 

Bruce Pittman, Flight Projects 

Director, NASA Ames Space Portal 

NRP Partner Receives Service to Frontier Award
14 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

By Stephanie Ginter

May 2, 2012

The California-based fuel cell manufacturer Bloom Energy is 

on the fast track to becoming one of the top American fuel 

cell companies, supplying alternative energy system units 

to major corporations such as Google, Apple, eBay, Walmart, 

Caltech, AT&T, and its newest customers: The Coca-Cola 

Company and NASA.

The firm’s advanced on-site power generation systems, 

Bloom Energy Servers, rank among the world’s most energy- and cost-efficient alternative energy systems. Bloom Energy’s solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology was originally 

developed for NASA’s Mars program.

NASA

The company’s highly efficient Bloom Energy Box provides 

electrical generation for NASA’s Sustainability Base, its latest 

and greenest facility, located at the Ames Research Center 

in Moffett Field, California.

NASA’s latest mission on Earth is one of the greenest Federal buildings ever created. Sustainability Base’s physical 

structure and landscape are designed “native to place,” 

capitalizing on local natural resources. The facility’s positioning in relation to the sun’s arc across Moffett Field 

and the prevailing Bay Area winds allows it to operate 

without any artificial lighting for around 40 days out of 

the year.

Bloom Energy Brings on Big Customers

NASA and Coca-Cola Are the Latest to Partner with Bloom Energy

The building’s external and internal materials were locally 

sourced and many consist of recycled components.

Coca-Cola 

In light of its interest and efforts to reduce its impact on the 

environment in recent years, Coca-Cola plans to install a new 

alternative energy system consisting of five natural gas hydrogen fuel cells at its production facility in American Canyon, 

CA.

Bloom Energy will be supplying the facility’s solid oxide fuel 

cells. These units use natural gas-generated electricity to 

produce hydrogen, which produces even more electricity. 

Coca-Cola is confident that the amount of energy produced 

by Bloom Energy’s fuel cells and subsequent hydrogen will 

yield enough electricity to manage most of the facility’s energy needs.

Buzz About Bloom

The unveiling of Bloom Energy’s “Bloom Box” fuel cell system 

two years ago immediately sparked widespread buzz. While 

the private company has expanded its focus to data center 

security, at the core of Bloom Energy is the fact that the electricity produced by one of its units is 50 percent cleaner than 

that produced by the electrical grid. Major corporations have 

justified the hype surrounding Bloom, recognizing the firm’s 

potential to revolutionize the alternative energy sector.

shared abstracts and papers. Others take advantage of 

the rich collection of satellite data, tools, and algorithms 

to explore and analyze large datasets, run Earth system 

modeling codes, and quickly share results in the sandbox. 

This virtual compute environment will be expanded in 

2013 to include hardware for pre-processing and storing 

Earth science data. Also on the horizon are enhancements 

to the web portal, expanded Pleiades resources, and more 

short courses. 

With these new offerings, NEX’s state-of-the-art 

environment for scientific collaboration will help NASA 

and its partners in the Earth science community more 

accurately pinpoint sources of change in the Earth system, 

accelerate our ability to identify and predict emerging 

patterns, and show us ways to respond and adapt to 

these changes that could improve life on our planet for 

generations to come. 

NEX cont’d from page 4

Polish Top 500 Innovators Class of 2012

NRP Briefing by Michael Marlaire, Director of NRP to Polish Top 500 

Innovators: Class of 2012. 
wwww.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark 15

NRP Post

Singularity University’s co-founders Peter Diamandis (left) and Ray Kurzweil (right) welcomed students during the 2012 Graduate 

Studies Program Opening Ceremony held at NASA Ames on June 18th.

Singularity University believes small teams of motivated 

individuals can now take on challenges that only governments 

and large organizations could in the past. Massive acceleration 

in improvements of tools like robotics, biotechnology, and 

computing have given us all access to the resources needed to 

address the world’s biggest problems. The university can point 

to dozens of small companies that have now touched the lives 

of billions around the world, and Singularity University has spent 

the summer training the next generation of leaders that aim to 

create real impact. Our annual 10-week graduate studies summer 

program brings together 80 students from countries all over 

the world to learn about the rapid acceleration in technology, 

and use them to address global grand challenges in problem 

spaces like clean water, renewable energy, global health, 

and education.

Google’s Cyborg Glasses Revealed

by J.J. Colao, Forbes Staff

February 22, 2012

Yesterday evening Nick Bilton of the New York Times reported 

details on the long rumored “Google Goggles”, sunglasses 

that offer augmented reality in the form of an Internet overlay, 

colloquially as Terminator Vision. The glasses will apparently 

resemble Oakley Thumps and employ an interface that 

responds to head movements for scrolling and clicking.

Bilton says, “The glasses will have a low-resolution built-in camera that will be able to monitor the world in real time and overlay 

information about locations, surrounding buildings and friends 

who might be nearby, according to the Google employees.”

If checking into Foursquare and reading reviews of local 

restaurants without the ridiculous hassle of pulling out your 

phone sounds like reality-enhanced heaven, you’re in luck: the 

glasses may be available to consumers by the end of the year 

for a reported $250 to $600. Seth Weintraub at 9 to 5 Google 

broke the story in December.

As a reminder, Google’s rumored sunglasses represent only 

the company’s latest science fiction-like effort. In addition to 

developing driver-less cars, Google’s co-founders, Larry Page 

and Sergey Brin, are involved in Singularity University, an executive education program held at NASA’s Research Park in 

Mountain View, California. Established by inventor and futurist Ray 

Kurzweil, the school offers a curriculum inspired by the Singularity—a hypothetical point in the future where machine intelligence surpasses that of humans, unleashing a whole array of 

unpredictable consequences ranging from immortal superhuman cyborgs to Matrix-like human enslavement.

According to the New York Times, Page donated $250,000 to 

Singularity University while Brin mingled with 2010 attendees 

as “Brinbot “, a rolling computer that displayed a video feed from 

Brin who controlled its movement from miles away.

Singularity University’s Summer Graduate Studies Program

This summer, 80 students representing 36 countries began 

the summer at NASA Research Park, knowing that by the 

end of their 10-week program they would be tasked with 

creating a project aimed at positively impacting the lives of 

one billion people within the decade. Singularity University 

calls this the 109th+ Team Projects, and our students must 

create a solution to a big problem in the areas of our planet’s 

biggest challenges. The students spent the first few weeks 

hearing from world experts in domains like medicine, energy, 

networks & computing, and have now been selected into 

small teams. To learn more about our team projects, and all 

of the amazing lectures at Singularity University, please visit us 

at www.singularityu.org.
NRP Post

Editor, Layout and Design . . . . . . . . . . Carol Le

Phone: (650) 604-2NRP

Email: arc-dl-nrp-post@mail.nasa.gov

Website: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/researchpark

NRP Exhibited at the 2012 Ames Summer BBQ/

Diversity Day

The NRP booth at the 2012 Ames Summer BBQ/Diversity 

and Inclusion Day Event on August 8th, 2012. (L-R): Cynthia 

Carbon-Norman, Account Manager; Courtney Hook, Project 

Liason; Dani Thompson, Account Manager; Mejghan Haider, 

Chief, Business Development. 

Photo by Bruno Kajiyama

Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley campus hosted Pennsylvania Governor 

Tom Corbett August 14-15, 2012 as part of a trade mission to Silicon 

Valley to promote Pennsylvania as a choice location for high tech growth 

and investment. Governor Corbett met with influential Valley tech and 

VC firms such as Google, Facebook, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & 

Byers, along with (L-R) CMU Provost Mark Kamlet; CMUSV Director 

Martin Griss; NASA Ames Research Center Deputy Director Lewis S.G. 

Braxton III; and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett.

Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley Hosts 

PA Governor at NASA Ames

Moon Express, Inc., a provider of commercial and scientific 

missions to the Moon, has unveiled its senior technical team of 

veteran space industry engineers hired to lead the company’s 

flight programs. The Moon Express technical leadership team is 

described as a who’s who of space industry veterans with over 

50 NASA space missions to their credit, bringing to the company 

a deep understanding of NASA know-how and a passion to 

develop a new era of commercial space exploration beyond low 

Earth orbit. The announcement was made to commercial space 

industry leaders during a Commercial Spaceflight Federation 

meeting in Washington, DC.

The most recent additions to the Moon Express senior technical 

team are:

• Steve Bailey, Spacecraft Systems Engineering Lead

• Adrian Adamson – Avionics Engineering Lead

•Jim Kaidy – Guidance, Navigation & Control (GN&C) Lead

• Dr. Alan Stern – Chief Scientist and Mission Architect

Moon Express Hires Veteran Team From Space Industry to Pursue Commercial Lunar Missions

By Daven Maharaj

August 30, 2012

• Dr. James (Jimi) Crawford – Chief Technoogy Officer and 

 Software Architect

•Jim Cantrell – Vice President, Flight Programs

• Tom Gardner – Mission Systems Engineering Lead

Additionally, company co-Founder, Vice-Chairman and Chief 

Strategic Officer Dr. Barney Pell led the NASA Ames Artificial 

Intelligence group, supporting the highly successful Mars 

Exploration Rovers and Deep Space 1 missions; while company 

co-Founder and CEO Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards presided over 

enabling technologies to the NASA Phoenix Mars Lander and 

the US Air Force XSS-11 missions.

“We are thrilled and honored to have such amazing, talented 

people join Moon Express,” said company co-founder and CEO 

Bob Richards. “The pedigree of our technical team in planetary 

exploration is unsurpassed; including missions to the Moon, 

Mars, asteroids and almost every planet in our solar system. 

We truly have the lunar Jedi’s.”