The

Summer 2013

CA Governor Jerry Brown with (L-R) Dr. Dan Rasky, Space Portal Director and 

co-host; Dr. Waleed Abdalati, former NASA Chief Scientist; Dr. James Hansen, 

former NASA GISS Director; Professor Anthony Barnosky, UC Berkeley, Integrative Biology; Bannie Bannerjee, Director, Stanford ChangeLabs

NASA’s IRIS Launched with Antennas 

from CMU-SV Startup X5 Systems

by Sarah Stanek, Web Communications Manager, CMU-SV

NASA’s latest small 

explorer mission, 

launched June 27, 

took off from Vandenberg Air Force 

Base in California 

with communication 

equipment from X5 

Systems, a spinoff 

startup of Carnegie 

Mellon University Silicon Valley (CMU-SV) 

co-founded by CMUSV Associate Research 

Professor Jason Lohn.

The IRIS mission 

(for Interface Region 

Imaging Spectrograph) will observe activity in the sun’s lower atmosphere, using an ultraviolet telescope to examine the movement of 

solar material and energy between the surface and the corona. 

The information carried by the advanced antennas will advance 

understanding of this complex region.

Lohn, the director of the Carnegie Mellon Innovations Lab (CMIL), 

has worked on several projects with NASA, including leading a team 

that successfully deployed X-band antennas in space aboard the 

Space Technology 5 mission in 2006. CMU-SV is located on the NASA 

Research Park and has ongoing collaborative research partnerships 

with NASA.

WEST Summit cont’d on page 5 CMUS-SV X5 Systems cont’d on page 4

Made in Space cont’d on page 5

U.S. Representative Mike Honda and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden 

visited the Made in Space exhibit. At the NASA Research Park, Made In Space 

is developing a 3-D printer that can operate in weightnessless. The company 

got its start as a project at Singularity University. 

X5 Systems antenna deployed on the IRIS spacecraft

Made in Space Bringing 3D Printing to Space

by Grant Lowery

In May, the space manufacturing company Made in Space, Inc. 

announced their plans to launch the first 3D printer into space. 

In coordination with NASA, Made in Space will send the printer to

the International Space Station (ISS) in 2014 via a SpaceX rocket as 

part of the 3D Printing in Zero-G Experiment. 

The customized 3D printer, built specifically to handle the particular 

environmental challenges of space, will be the first device to manufacture parts away from planet Earth. 3D printers use extrusion-based 

additive manufacturing to build objects layer by layer out of polymers, 

composites, metals and other materials. The 3D Printing in Zero-G 

Experiment will validate the capability of additive manufacturing in 

zero-gravity.

“As NASA ventures further into space, whether redirecting an asteroid 

or sending humans to Mars, we’ll need transformative technology 

California Governor Jerry Brown, May 23 at NASA Research Park, 

roused the 2013 WEST (Water, Energy, Smart Technology) Summit, 

joining 500 scientists in a groundbreaking Call to Action warning 

that Earth is rapidly approaching a tipping point at which human 

impacts are causing alarming levels of harm to our planet. 

Hosted by NASA Ames’ Space Portal and Sustainable Silicon Valley 

(SSV), the Summit’s Showcase of Solutions for Planetary Sustainability 

featured Brown, Ames Director Pete Worden and Associate Director 

Steve Zornetzer, acclaimed scientists and academics, industry and 

nonprofit experts, and talented solution contestants. The jam-packed 

Planetary Sustainability—2013 WEST Summit

by Diane Farrar

NRP POST

A publication of NASA Research Park

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
2 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

2013 WEST Summit . . . . . . . 1

NASA’s IRIS Launched with 

Antennas from CMU-SV Startup 

X5 Systems . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Made in Space Bringing 3D 

Printing to Space . . . . . . . . . 1

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

Managing Irrigation from Space 3

World’s First Mission to Moon’s 

South Pole . . . . . . . . . . 4

CMU-SV Director Martin Griss 

to Step Down, Continue as 

Research Scientist . . . . . . . 6

Space Artists Converge on the 

NASA Research Park . . . . . . 7

CREST/SCU Program 

Recognized by the National 

Academy of Engineering . . . . 8 

Santa Clara University and 

Space Portal Aerospace 

Innovation Events . . . . . . . . 8

NASA’s Newest Virtual Institute 

Celebrates First Anniversary . . 9

First Field Simulation of Human 

Exploration of Near-Earth 

Asteroids, Phobos, & Deimos 10

Mars Institute: Educating Future 

Mars Explorers . . . . . . . . 10

Bloom Energy in Japan . . . . 11

NewSpace 2013 and AIAA Joint 

Propulsion Conference . . . . . 14

Verdigris Technologies Named 

Founder.org Winner . . . . . . 14

Real-Life ‘Star Trek’ Tricorder 

Project Raises $1 Million . . . . 15

Quantum Supercomputer . . . 17

NASA ROSES Seagrass/Coral 

Reef Project . . . . . . . . . . 18

Singularity University’s Graduate 

Studies Program . . . . . . . 19

RMV Technology Group 

Invited to Chair G-19 & G-21 

Sub-Committee Packaging 

Engineering Working Groups 20

CONTENTS NRPWelcomes

Flight Research Associates

Building Rooms 1072 and 2022

Commencement: 7/16/13

Flight Research Associates, Inc. (FRA) will become a key partner 

at Ames in advancing aviation and aerospace research, development, test, training and evaluation. FRA is currently providing 

services to Ames' Code AF (Aviation Systems) including providing 

pilot and air traffic controller expertise and data analysis for the NextGen air traffic management. 

FRA will expand its services to Ames to include developing manned and unmanned flight test 

design, development and vehicle integration and STEM outreach. FRA was established in 2005 and 

is headquartered in Jacksonville, Oregon.

Logyx, LLC

Building 19 Rooms 2072 and 2092

Commencement: 7/16/13

Logyx has been supporting NASA ARC as a prime contractor since 2005, providing subject matter 

expertise in IT/Cyber Security, Multi-Mission Operations, Small Spacecraft, the NLSI and the ISS 

Program Office. 

In 2011, Logyx was selected as the “NASA ARC 2011 Small Business Prime Contractor of the 

Year.” Logyx is an industry-recognized leader in cyber security and was one of the original eight 

companies in the U.S. to receive the prestigious Federal Risk and Authorization Management 

Program’s (FedRAMP) Third Party Assessment Organization (3PAO) accreditation providing 

security preparation services and compliance assessments for both commercial and government 

Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) for NASA and other government organizations. In addition to 3PAO 

accreditation, Logyx provides subject matter expertise related to compliance with the Federal 

Information Security Management Act (FISMA). The additional office location in the NRP will 

help to accommodate the company’s growth in its IT and Cyber Security business focusing on 

IT governance, compliance, and security. The Logyx headquarter office is located at 425 North 

Whisman Road, Suite 400, Mountain View, CA 94043. 

NRP Integrated Product Team Receives NASA Group Achievement 

Honor Award

The NASA Research Park Integrated Product Team (IPT) received the NASA Group Achievement Honor Award 

for outstanding contributions to the NASA mission. (L-R): Roy Williams, Andrew Martin, Ann Clarke, Rocci 

Caringello, Geoffrey Lee, Cynthia Carbon-Norman, Karen D. Thompson, Courtney Lopez, Lorial Pham, Mejghan 

K. Haider, Mark Beskind, and Bob Lopez. Not pictured: David Shiver, Larry Singer, and Kathleen Burton.
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 3

NRP Post

Managing Irrigation from Space

by Dr. Rama Nemani

Scientists in the NASA Research Park are 

applying satellite data to support California 

growers in managing irrigation and improving on-farm water use efficiency. Using 

NASA technologies including the Terrestrial 

Observation and Prediction System (TOPS), 

the NASA Earth Exchange (NEX), and satellite 

data from the Terra, Aqua, Landsat 7 and 

Landsat 8 satellites, the Satellite Irrigation 

Management Support (SIMS) project team is 

developing a system for mapping crop conditions and crop water requirements across 3.7 

million hectares of California farmland.

“Our goal is to find new ways to make satellite 

information both highly useful and easily 

available to growers in California and across 

the western U.S.” says Forrest Melton, a senior 

research scientist with the NASA Ames Research Center Cooperative for Earth Science 

Research and Technology (ARC-CREST) and 

California State University, Monterey 

Bay (CSUMB). 

California’s 81,500 farms and ranches produced $43.5 billion in cash receipts in 2012. 

Like other western states, California agriculture uses approximately 80% of the available 

water resources, and growers and water 

managers are concerned about both drought 

impacts and the long-term sustainability of 

California water supplies.

While solving California’s water problems 

is complex, one of the lowest cost solutions 

is improving water use efficiency where possible. The SIMS project is using the TOPS modeling framework to rapidly process satellite 

data to produce measures of crop conditions 

and crop development at least once every 

eight days. By combining this data with information provided by a network of agricultural 

weather stations operated by the California 

Department of Water Resources (CDWR), 

the SIMS framework can provide daily estimates of crop water requirements for every 

field in the state.

The project is also using the high-end compute resources provided by NEX to accelerate 

the development of an operational system for 

mapping crop water requirements. “Without NEX, we would be spending weeks and 

weeks to reprocess the data every time we 

made an improvement in the algorithms” say 

Melton. “Using NEX reduces this time to a 

matter of hours.”

 

The SIMS project is working closely with 

growers across California. To assess the acLandsat view of Salinas Valley, CA.

curacy of the satellite-based measures of 

crop water requirements, the SIMS team has 

been deploying wireless sensor networks on 

commercial farms across California. “Support 

and advice from our partner growers and 

the Western Growers Association has been 

a very important part of the project,” says 

Christopher Lund, a research scientist with 

ARC-CREST and CSUMB. “One of the many 

rewarding parts of the project for the team 

has been the opportunity to work directly 

with California growers.”

Results to date have been highly encouraging, and the project team has initiated 

demonstration projects with scientists at the 

University of California Cooperative Extension and the USDA Agricultural Research Service. Trials conducted in Salinas in 2012 and 

2013 on lettuce and broccoli have shown 

that use of the approach employed by SIMS 

can reduce total applied water by 25-33% 

relative to standard practice, without reducing yields. In addition, the initial results 

indicate that the SIMS approach can also 

have benefits for water quality, with reductions in nitrate loss below the root zone of 

up to 50%. The SIMS project team initiated 

trials on commercial farms with partner 

growers in Salinas this summer, and plans 

to expand the demonstration trials in 2014. 

“Data collection under the highly controlled 

conditions of these trials provides a valuable 

opportunity to verify key aspects of the SIMS 

processing chain, and thus far demonstrates 

the validity of the satellite-based approach” 

says Lee Johnson, a research scientist with 

ARC-CREST and CSUMB.

The project is working with the California 

Department of Water Resources to evaluate options to sustain the new information 

products as a freely available public resource. 

Through interactions with companies based 

in the NASA Research Park, the project team 

has also received inquiries about licensing the new technology from a number of 

commercial firms, including both start-ups 

and established agricultural equipment and 

information suppliers.
4 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

“NASA’s IRIS mission has demanding antenna requirements that were 

hard to meet with conventional antenna designs,” Lohn explained. 

The advanced evolved antenna optimization technology from X5 

Systems was able to meet these needs.

X5 Systems develops communication antennas that include artificial intelligence optimization algorithms, and also licenses antenna synthesis 

software to optimize design, allowing faster, more efficient development for complex projects like the IRIS mission. In 2012, they received 

a $1 million grant from the Office of Naval Research under the Rapid 

Innovation Fund program. 

“We were pleased that our technology was selected and ultimately 

deployed as three antennas on the IRIS spacecraft,” Lohn said. In addition to his research, Lohn also advises students from CMU’s bicoastal 

Ph.D. program in Electrical and Computer Engineering as an Associate 

Research Professor.

CMUS-SV X5 Systems cont’d from pg. 1

CMU-SV Professor Jason Lohn holds the antenna deployed on the IRIS 

spacecraft designed by his startup, X5 Systems

World’s First Mission to the Moon’s South Pole Announced by Moon Express, Inc. 

and the International Lunar Observatory Association

by Daven Maharaj 

July 18, 2013

The world’s first mission to the South Pole of the Moon was announced 

today by the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) and 

Moon Express, Inc. The private enterprise mission will be both scientific 

and commercial, and will deliver the International Lunar Observatory 

(ILO) to the Moon’s South Pole aboard a Moon Express robotic lander, establishing permanent astrophysical observations and lunar commercial 

communications systems for professional and amateur researchers. 

Moon Express will also utilize the mission to explore the Moon’s South 

Pole for mineral resources and water. Lunar probes have provided compelling evidence of mineral and volatile deposits in the Moon’s southern 

polar region where energy and resources may be abundant. 

The ILO, with its two-meter dish antenna, will be the world’s first instrument to conduct international astrophysical observations and communications from the lunar surface, providing scientific research, commercial 

broadcasting, and enabling Galaxy 

21st Century education and “citizen 

science” on the Moon. The announcement was made during a NASA Lunar 

Science Institute conference at NASA 

Ames Research Center in Mountain 

View, California.

“The ILO will demonstrate the value of 

the Moon for scientific study of the 

Galaxy, Moon, Earth, Sun and Stars,” 

said Steve Durst, founder and director 

of the ILOA and Space Age Publishing 

Company. “We are a global consortium of scientists, educators, entrepreneurs and visionaries who seek to 

establish a scientific presence 

on the Moon followed by human exploration and eventual settlement.” 

Space Age Publishing Company, ILOA’s commercial affiliate, intends to 

broadcast its Space Calendar weekly and Lunar Enterprise Daily via the 

ILO. ILOA expects that the South Pole mission could take place as early 

as 2016 and contribute to humanity’s growth as a multi-world species.

Moon Express is the mission partner in the venture, providing the 

lunar lander, mission architecture, and operations. The company was 

unveiled in August 2010 as a commercial lunar resource company and 

is partnered with NASA for its lunar lander development. Moon Express 

will send a series of robotic missions to the Moon in support of science, 

commerce and exploration starting in 2015. 

“We are very excited to announce that our second Moon mission will be to 

the lunar South Pole to deliver the International Lunar Observatory and 

to prospect for resources,” said Moon Express CEO Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards. The mission will provide a historic landing in an unexplored region 

of the Moon that may harbor some of the greatest resource deposits in 

the solar system.

Earlier this year on May 25th, ILOA and Moon Express unveiled the 

ILO precursor instrument that will fly to the Moon in 2015 aboard the 

inaugural Moon Express mission. Details of the “ILO-X” flight instrument 

hardware are available here at https://app.box.com/ilox-faq. The ILO-X 

instrument was on public display and actively demonstrated during the 

Singularity University/Fox Studios “Backstage Pass to the Future” event 

on June 1st, 2013 in Los Angeles. 

The ILO and its precursor will have an internet-based access and control 

system and will be the first private space telescope to operate from the 

lunar surface, available to researchers, educators and the general public 

through the internet, allowing the world to access Galaxy astronomical images from the surface of the Moon and creating a new model of 

“citizen science” public participation and international collaboration. 

The ILO-X precursor telescope designed and built for ILOA by Moon 

Express will be the first private 

telescope on the Moon.
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 5

NRP Post

event had four panels, almost forty sustainability exhibits, a judging session, and ten winning solutions with awards presented by CA 

State Senator Jerry Hill and Karol J. Bobko, Colonel, USAF, Ret. NASA 

Astronaut (former).

“Our mission at Ames is to invent technology and systems that can be 

applied to solve the greatest challenges of planet Earth,” said Worden. 

“We are proud at NASA to collaborate with SSV through a Space Act 

Agreement to bring together our systems engineering technology 

and large scale solutions capability with the ingenuity of Silicon 

Valley to address global challenges. Through the Planetary Solutions 

Collaboratory, we will bridge, we hope, the gap between science, 

technology, politics, business, finance, and implementation—finding 

and developing solutions that are scalable and game changing. “

Ames Associate Director Steve Zornetzer, SSV Chair Frank Teng, 

and SSV Executive Director Marianna Grossman welcomed the 

crowd of almost 400 to Bldg. 152. “NASA’s partnership with SSV is 

about finding game changing technology to help us adapt to or 

mitigate climate change. Our species has, through technology advances, significantly impacted our climate over the past millennium. 

Human creativity and technology, through unintended consequences, have brought us to where we are today,” said Zornetzer. “Can this 

same human creativity and new technology help us mitigate and 

perhaps even reverse global warming? This is our challenge as a 

species, and our responsibility.” 

“This Summit is about science, solutions and implementation. We are

 making a call to higher leadership. We have just reached 400 ppm 

CO2 in the atmosphere. This is terrifying, a symbolic threshold. Sustainable Silicon Valley and NASA are both networks of people who 

to reduce cargo weight and volume,” NASA Administrator Charles 

Bolden said during a recent tour of the agency’s Ames Research 

Center at Moffett Field, Calif. “In the future, perhaps astronauts will be 

able to print the tools or components they need while in space.”

In June, Made in Space’s printer passed critical microgravity flight 

tests at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The tests were 

conducted during four microgravity flights lasting two hours each, 

simulating conditions found on the ISS.

“The 3D printer we’re developing for the ISS is all about enabling 

astronauts today to be less dependent on Earth,” said Noah Paul-Gin, 

Microgravity Experiment Lead. “The version that will arrive on the ISS 

next year has the capability of building an estimated 30% of the spare 

parts on the station, as well as various objects such as specialty tools 

and experiment upgrades.”

The flights were made as part of NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program. 

In 2011, Made in Space was chosen to perform both parabolic and 

suborbital test flights. The company was then awarded a NASA Phase 

1 SBIR Contract to deliver their 3D printer to the ISS.

Following the success of the microgravity trials, Made in Space 

delivered their hardware to Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in 

Huntsville, Ala. on June 17th. The engineering test unit printer, whose 

design was accomplished in a six month Critical Design Phase (CDP), 

was subjected to rigorous environmental and functional testing. The 

results confirmed that the hardware design would survive launch and 

function in microgravity.  

Simulated launch conditions were produced at NASA MSFC to ensure 

vibrational compliance. The battery of tests also included electromagnetic interference (EMI), acoustic and MSG integration verification. 

In each case the printer passed all significant tests. Additionally, the 

fit check indicated no issues with how printer hardware would integrate with the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG).

Made in Space is now working on the Critical Design Review for their 

printer design. The passing of multiple crucial milestones has kept 

Made in Space on target for their 2014 goal of delivering the 3D Printing Experiment to the ISS.

“The 3D Printing Experiment with NASA is a step towards the future. 

The ability to 3D print parts and tools on-demand greatly increases 

the reliability and safety of space missions while also dropping the 

cost by orders of magnitude,” said Aaron Kemmer, CEO of Made in 

Space. “The public has been hearing about what this 3D printing 

technology can do, but most people haven’t seen a genuine impact 

on their lives yet. Space is one of the key places where humanity will 

see the first impact of this incredible technology.”

Made In Space cont’d from page 1

WEST Summit cont’d from page 1

WEST Summit cont’d on page 12 

Noah Paul-Gin (left), Microgravity Experiment Engineering Lead, tests three 

Made in Space 3D printers in microgravity with team members Jason Dunn 

(center) and Mike Chen.

(L-R) Ames Assoc. Director Steve Zornetzer, Ames Director Pete Worden, SSV 

Exec. Director Marianna Grossman, CA Gov. Jerry Brown, and SSV Chair Frank 

Teng listening to science experts on scope of challenges

Photo by Gerd Peter May
NRP Post

CMU-SV Director Martin Griss to Step Down, Continue as Research Scientist

Jessie Hao, Marketing Coordinator, CMU-SV

Martin Griss, director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Silicon Valley campus since 2009, will 

step down as director at the end of the 2012-

13 academic year. Griss will continue with the 

campus as a principal research scientist.

“I’m excited to help the campus grow in a 

different capacity as I focus on research while 

spending more time with my family and on 

my artwork,” said Griss.

Griss has been with the Silicon Valley campus 

since its inception in 2002, first as a mentor, 

a role that grew and led to the nickname 

‘MOM’ —‘mentor of mentors.’ In 2003, Griss 

became director of the Software Engineering program and eventually led the nascent 

Software Management program as well. 

Soon afterward, Griss became the associate 

dean of education and associate dean of 

research after bootstrapping the CyLab Mobility Research Center in 2008. He was named 

director of the Silicon Valley campus and 

associate dean for the College of Engineering 

(CIT) in 2009. 

Griss’ time at CMU-SV in these various roles 

has been characterized by immense growth. 

Carnegie Mellon’s branch campus initially 

served solely part-time students and has since 

transformed into a thriving intellectual community that has produced over 700 alumni 

and is welcoming the largest incoming class of 

full-time students to date in fall 2013. “In 2006, 

there was a very real sense of, ‘are we going to 

make it?’” explained Griss. “We’ve really accomplished the promise that we saw back then.”

“While serving as director of the Silicon Valley 

campus, Martin helped effect a number of 

important changes to the campus,“ said CIT 

dean James Garrett. “We began offering MS 

and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer 

Engineering, as well as a bicoastal MS in partnership with the Information Networking Institute; a Disaster Management Initiative was 

launched; and the CyLab Mobility Research 

Center was created.”

The former dean of CIT and currently chancellor of the University of California, San Diego, 

Pradeep Khosla, who worked closely with 

Griss on many of these initiatives, praised him 

as “a man of great vision and commitment.” 

Khosla continued, stating, “Under Martin’s 

leadership, Carnegie Mellon’s Silicon Valley 

campus has grown and become more vibrant. 

It was a pleasure working with him because 

he is extremely collaborative and creative, 

and focused on solving problems that advanced CMU and the College of Engineering’s 

mission and vision.”

The growth of the research program during 

Griss’ time as director has resulted in notable 

collaborative projects with NASA, a key partner of the campus since 2001. “About a third 

of our research scientists are NASA-affiliated,” 

said Griss.

“Martin has made CMU-SV relevant to the daily 

lives of many Silicon Valley leaders and organizations,” noted Michael Marlaire, director of 

NASA Research Park. “His willingness to engage others and share his expertise on a host 

of initiatives has made CMU-SV a key component of the world-class Silicon Valley innovation ecosystem. NASA Ames Research Center 

and the NASA Research Park in particular owe 

Martin a great debt of sincere appreciation for 

his efforts.”

Griss serves as director of the Disaster Management Initiative (DMI), created from the 

development of the Mobility Research center. 

The DMI ran its third workshop in fall 2012, 

which resulted in several published papers, 

the release of an influential report on the San 

Bruno fire, several proposals and new relationships with FEMA and emergency management organizations in Mountain View, Palo 

Alto and Menlo Park.

As the campus has matured, the CMU-SV community has become defined by its emphasis 

on innovation, entrepreneurship and real 

world learning. “The students who come here 

want that hands-on approach to learning,” 

Griss commented. “They also want to be in 

Silicon Valley and fully take advantage of the 

opportunities to innovate in the center of 

tech innovation. They possess that entrepreneurial spirit that we really value; they want 

to invent and create and I think that makes 

our campus a little different from other universities.” Griss has continued to teach and advise 

several masters and Ph.D. students throughout his tenure as director.

“As an advisor, Martin has always been incredibly supportive and encouraging,” said Faisal 

Luqman, a Ph.D. candidate who will defend in 

December 2013. “I always feel that I come out 

of every interaction with Martin with something valuable, having gained new insights, 

and learned to analyze things from different 

perspectives. I’m very grateful to Martin for 

believing in me and enabling me grow as a 

researcher and as an individual.”

The Ph.D. program will graduate its first students this summer and continues to produce 

innovative research that is recognized in 

notable conferences and journals. From the 

masters programs, already over a dozen startups have spun out of the campus’ students 

and faculty, and the MS Software Management program in particular nurtures the ideas 

of budding entrepreneurs while connecting 

them to the Silicon Valley venture community.

“I’ve been very privileged to have been a 

part of the campus’ development of a robust 

research program and full-time student population,” said Griss. “I think we’re poised to do 

even more in our next five year phase. 

The synergy that takes place in this melting 

pot for doing collaborative things is something you can’t get everywhere. We’re small, 

creative and collaborative and we can do 

great things for CMU and our surrounding 

community through that.”

“With Martin’s guidance, the campus has 

grown and strengthened relationships with 

local industry, faculty, staff, alumni, donors 

and the Pittsburgh campus,” praised Garrett. 

“I sincerely thank Martin for his leadership 

of the Carnegie Mellon University Silicon 

Valley Campus and welcome him back to the 

CMU-SV faculty.” Dean Garrett will appoint a 

new director of CMU-SV, to be announced 

this summer.

CMU-SV held a reception for Griss on August 

10 at the Fourth Annual Technology Showcase 

and Alumni Reception. 

Dr. Martin Griss

6 www.nasa.gov
NRP Post

www.nasa.gov/researchpark 7

Space Artists Converge on the NASA Research Park

by Taksha Staff 

Taksha University, in collaboration with 

Singularity University, Carnegie Mellon 

University, SETI Institute, and the Zero Gravity 

Arts Consortium, organized the fourth International Space Arts Workshop (ISAW4) on May 

20–22, 2013 at NASA Research Park. Co-chairs 

Profs. Lowry Burgess and Frank Pietronigro, 

and Adarsh Deepak, Ph.D., invited an impressive group of internationally renowned space 

artists to discuss the Space Art community’s 

direction, message, and momentum in the 

emerging commercial space community and 

planning for Space Arts Workshop in 2014. 

There were over 45 participants on site, and 

more joining in online via Google Hangouts.

On Sunday, May 19th, there was a preworkshop Yoga Therapy session led by 

Dilip Sarkar, M.D., FACS, (Chair, TU School of 

Integrative Medicine (SIM), co-chair, with Dr. 

Joan Vernikos TU workshop on “Space Health, 

Aging, and Yoga Therapy: Metabolic Changes” 

(http://www.yogaforspacehealth.com/)). 

The next Monday, May 20th, energized participants kicked-off the workshop with presentations on diverse topics ranging from co-chair 

Lowry Burgess on his “Lunar Art” project, 

to Bettyann Kevles (Yale University) on “Art 

in Space and Art about Space” to Virgiliu 

Pop (Romania) on “Rockets, Astronauts, and 

Shrines.” After the morning talks, the participants broke into working session PODs. 

The eight PODs were directed to establish 

roadmaps with defined goals for their projects, such as, “Space Arts Archives”, “Space Art 

Financing and Economics”, “Space Messaging: 

Art to Inspire Space Exploration”, and “International Space Development Conference 2014 

(ISDC2014) Arts in Space Track Programming”. 

When the workshop ended for the day, the 

artists moved to the SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA, to view the Space Art Exhibit 

curated by Jean-Luc Soret (Paris). The exhibit 

was well-received with a healthy turnout from 

the public. 

On May 21st, the workshop continued with 

presentations from Jok Church (creator of TV 

edutainment show Beakman’s World), and 

Tetsuro Fukahara (from Tokyo Space Dance). 

The POD discussions were mixed with more 

presentations, such as from Dr. Yvonne 

Clearwater, who described NASA’s Art Space 

program. Artist Nelly Ben Hayoun (Director, 

International Space Orchestra (ISO)), after her 

impressive ISO performance with musician 

Beck at San Francisco’s Davies Hall on May 

20th, gave examples of performance arts. 

Co-chair Frank Pietronigro, who had flown 

one of the first art projects in the reduced 

gravity parabolic flight, announced his next 

project, Space Wishes, on his planned XCOR 

suborbital flight in 2014. Most of the ISAW4 

attendees gathered for an enjoyable symposium dinner in Mountain View to reflect on 

the progress of the workshop and give cheer 

to continuation of its success.

The final day opened with selected POD 

speakers presenting their POD’s resolutions 

and working plans to continue their dialogues 

post workshop. Afterward, participants tunedin to thought provoking keynote speeches 

from NASA Ames Research Center Director 

Simon (Pete) Worden, PhD, and Singularity 

CEO, Rob Nail. When the workshop concluded, 

refreshed and inspired, the PODs dispersed 

from of the Research Park with new connections and directions for taking Art to Space.

Co-Chair Adarsh Deepak, PhD, speaking on 

transforming his solar aureole experiment into 

an art piece

2013 ISAW4 Space Art Exhibit at the SETI 

Institute curated by Jean-Luc Soret

A group of Swedish innovation specialists 

visited NASA Research Park on June 7, 

followed by a visit to Ames Research Center 

on June 10–11. NRP Director Michael 

Marlaire provided an overview of the NRP. 

Marc Cohen, President of Astrotecture, an 

NRP partner, and Fredrik Bruhn, CEO of AAC 

Microtec, a Swedish based company located 

in the NRP, provided briefings. NASA Ames 

Research Center Director, Dr. Pete Worden, 

is pictured in the center.
NRP Post

8 www.nasa.gov

Santa Clara University and the Space Portal Team Up for Aerospace Innovation Events

by Christopher Kitts

During the Spring 2013 academic quarter at Santa Clara University 

(SCU), the SCU School of Engineering conducted a series of extracurricular innovation/entrepreneurship activities with the NASA Ames 

Space Portal as their partner. Activities included a seminar by Ames 

Portal personnel Dan Rasky and Bruce Pittman on new initiative in the 

commercial space industry, an informal lunchtime chat with a topic of 

the future of the US space program, a tour of NASA Ames, a mentoring 

reception with more than 50 students and industry engineers, and a 

video competition that included a $2,000 grand prize. More than 25 

students entered the video competition, which challenged students to 

create a 1-minute YouTube production that stated the value proposition of space, that highlighted exciting developments in the rapidly 

evolving commercial space market, and which expressed a vision for 

NASA’s future role in space.

SCU conducts a series of these extra-curricular innovation/entrepreneurship activities every quarter with different industry partners 

throughout Silicon Valley. This is done as part of the School’s involvement in the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network (KEEN) 

program; KEEN is a group of about 20 universities across the country 

supported by the Kern Family Foundation and with a common interest 

in improving the entrepreneurial mindset of undergraduate engineering students. Previous industry partners have included companies 

such as BMW and Nvidia. According to SCU program director Dr. Christopher Kitts, “These extracurricular activities provide an exciting way 

to engage students outside of the classroom, to provide them with 

opportunities to interact with industry engineers, and then challenge 

them to complement their engineering knowledge with an entrepreneurial way of thinking.”

CREST/SCU Program Recognized by the National Academy of Engineering

In a new National Academy of Engineering publication entitled “Infusing Real World Experiences into Engineering Education,” NRP partner 

Santa Clara University is recognized as one of the nation’s exemplar 

programs in incorporating real world engineering experiences into 

their curriculum. Much of this program is run by the School’s Robotic 

Systems Laboratory, which is the lead organization in CREST (Center for 

Robotic Exploration and Space Technologies), a multi-institution collaborative housed in Building 554 in the NASA Research Park.

“One of the premier aspects of this real world engineering program is 

our decade-long collaboration with NASA Ames Research Center in 

providing mission control services for a series of small satellite missions,” 

said Mike Rasay, an SCU staff member and doctoral student, and the 

Ground Segment Lead for many of the Ames missions. “SCU students, 

staff and faculty develop all mission control center and communication 

station facilities and command and telemetry processing software. 

This provides a rich set of opportunities for students to participate in 

real NASA space missions, to interact with industry professionals and 

to engineer mission-quality systems.” 

SCU has been a mission partner with NASA Ames on numerous successful missions, to include GeneSat-1, PharmaSat, NanoSail-D2, and 

O/OREOS. The SCU team is currently working with Ames scientists 

and engineers on several new missions: SporeSat, EcAMSat and EDSN. 

Several other academic institutions have contributed to this program, 

to include Ohlone College, Saint Louis University, Worcester Polytechnic 

University and Baylor University. These schools have participated with 

students developing telemetry processing software and by hosting 

remote communication stations at their campuses across the country.

The SCU Robotic Systems Laboratory conducts a number of other real 

world engineering activities that contributed to the NAE recognition. 

Several of these activities involve marine robotic systems that are also 

developed in the CREST/SCU facility in the NASA Research Park. Examples of these include an automated bathymetric mapping boat that 

is used in Lake Tahoe and several other inland bodies of water in support of U.S. Geological Survey and Monterey Bay Aquarium Research 

Institute activities, tethered underwater robots that have been used 

to support science missions with NOAA and the US Navy, and a small 

fleet of kayaks that have been used to demonstrate advanced control 

techniques for the National Science Foundation.

Santa Clara University students Tom Hoye, Jasmine Cashbaugh and Jimmy 

Erskine work on a new satellite tracking system for supporting mission 

control activities with NASA Ames spacecraft such as the currently orbiting 

O/OREOS satellite. 

Santa Clara University students Anne Mahacek, Tom Hoye and Jimmy 

Erskine adjust a tracking beacon on the Triton underwater robot, which 

is being prepared for a mission in Lake Tahoe with scientists from the U.S. 

Geological Survey.

Photo by Mike Rasay

Photo by Mike Rasay

by Christopher Kitts
NRP Post

www.nasa.gov/researchpark 9

NASA’s Newest Virtual Institute Celebrates First Anniversary

by Deborah Bazar

The NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI) is celebrating its oneyear anniversary in 2013. NASA’s youngest virtual institute has had an 

exciting and busy first year, which includes funding over 76 aeronautics 

and aviation projects—both within and outside of NASA—each meant 

to develop innovative and cutting-edge concepts and ideas. Located in 

NRP’s historic Building 17, NARI was officially established in March 2012 

to pursue NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s (ARMD) 

objective to make deliberate investments in early-stage and potentially 

revolutionary aviation concepts and technologies. The Institute represents a new approach to introduce fresh lines of research into existing 

ARMD Programs and Projects. Additionally, the Institute manages prize 

competitions on behalf of ARMD that promote creative solutions and 

harness innovation from citizen inventors, academics, and entrepreneurial firms.

Seedling and LEARN Funds

NARI manages the Seedling Fund, providing NASA civil servants the 

opportunity to perform research, analysis, and proof-of-concept 

development of novel ideas that have the potential to meet national 

aeronautics needs. 

The Fund provides resources for early-stage efforts, with the goal of 

infusing promising ideas into the ARMD research portfolio or into 

NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program for further

development. Only NASA civil servants are eligible to lead the Seedling research teams. The Leading Edge Aeronautics Research for NASA 

(LEARN) Fund is complementary to the Seedling Fund and has similar 

goals, but it invests in innovative ideas from outside the agency.

LEARN is open to all domestic researchers. 

In May 2013, NARI introduced the Seedling and LEARN Team-Based 

Fund solicitations, representing the next step for the new Institute. 

The Team-Based Funds were created to encourage multi-disciplinary 

teams from across different organizations and institutions to work 

collaboratively on larger-scale revolutionary aeronautics concepts. 

The approach is akin to NARI’s sister institutes, the NASA Astrobiology 

Institute and the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, 

where research teams use virtual technology to work together, collaborate, share ideas, and discuss results of their research from almost 

anywhere, at any time. 

These virtual meeting capabilities are put to work by NARI during its 

annual technical seminars. In July 2013, NARI hosted the second ARMD 

Seedling Technical Seminar, which showcased the results of the 2012 

Seedling Fund recipients. The three-day seminar featured seventeen 

presentations and technical discussions with NASA program management, as well as active participation from the virtual audience with 

questions and comments submitted through chat and teleconference.

Recordings of the presentations, as well as general information about 

the Seedling and LEARN Funds, can be found at the NARI website: 

http://nari.arc.nasa.gov/

Centennial Challenges

NARI is working with NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate’s 

(STMD) Centennial Challenges prize program to manage the Unmanned 

Aircraft Systems Airspace Operations Challenge (UAS AOC). NASA’s Centennial Challenges seek unconventional solutions to problems of 

interest to NASA and the nation. Competitors have included private 

companies, student groups, and independent inventors working outside the traditional aerospace industry. Unlike contracts or grants, 

prizes are awarded only after solutions are successfully demonstrated. 

The UAS AOC, announced earlier this spring, is a collaboration between 

NASA, the Air Force Research Lab, the FAA, and Development Projects 

Inc. (a non-profit in Dayton, Ohio selected from among many proposals 

to partner with NASA under a Space Act Agreement). The challenge is 

focused on developing and demonstrating key aviation technologies, 

particularly the ability to sense and avoid other air traffic. This will make 

it possible for robotic aircraft to operate safely in the same airspace 

as piloted aircraft. NASA STMD is providing a $500,000 prize purse for 

the first phase of the competition. The challenge is currently planned 

for May 2014. More information can be found at the UAS AOC website: 

http://uasaoc.org

Summer Students

One of the best ways to capture and incorporate fresh perspectives 

and new ideas is to work with the many talented student interns who 

spend their summers at NASA. Partially funded by NARI, the Aeronautics 

Academy pairs exceptional undergraduates and graduate students with 

NASA mentors in their area of study. One team of students is working 

with NARI staff to develop a Student Seminar Series, featuring one-hour 

weekly talks from aeronautics researchers within and outside of NASA. 

The seminar is free and open to all. More information is found on the 

Student Seminar page on the NARI website:

http://nari.arc.nasa.gov/summerseminar

With the successful conclusion of its first year, NARI looks forward to 

growing and expanding its projects, portfolio, and contributions to 

the aeronautics community in the many years to come.

Artist’s conception of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Airspace Operations 

Challenge (UAS AOC).

(L-R): Michael Dudley, NARI Director; Deborah Bazar, Special Projects Lead; 

Koushik Datta, Seedling Fund Manager
10 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

 

First Field Simulation of the Human Exploration of Near-Earth Asteroids, Phobos, and Deimos

by Pascal Lee, Chairman of the Mars Institute, a senior planetary scientist at the SETI Institute, 

and Director of the NASA Haughton-Mars Project at NASA Ames Research Center.

As NASA envisions deep space human missions to Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and to the two moons of Mars, Phobos, and Deimos, a 

team of researchers from the Mars Institute, the SETI Institute, NASA 

Ames Research Center, and the space robotics company Honeybee 

Robotics, recently carried a first series of field tests aimed at investigating how humans will explore, and work on, these small bodies.

From 13 to 15 April 2013, field experiments were conducted at the 

U.S. Army’s National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California, to 

evaluate geotechnical methods and systems that will enable humans 

to be productive explorers in the low gravity environment of small 

rocky worlds. Human missions to NEAs and to the moons of Mars present us with the exciting challenge of exploring planetary bodies with 

extremely low gravity. Even on the largest NEAs (433 Eros and 1036 

Ganymed) and on Phobos (the largest of Mars’ moons), surface gravity 

is over 1,000 times weaker than on Earth. The goal of our field test was 

therefore to learn how to characterize the physical properties of small 

body surfaces, and to test ideas that might enable humans to more 

productively explore their low-gravity environments.

Our Mojave field test included three investigations: 1) a study of 

whether conventional field tools commonly used to characterize the 

mechanical properties of soils on Earth are suitable for small bodies; 

2) an evaluation of how different anchoring systems might allow 

Pascal Lee (SETI Institute and Mars Institute) (left) measures the bearing 

capacity of gravelly soil at Asteroid Hill, National Training Center, Fort Irwin, 

California, using a static cone penetrometer, while Kris Zacny (Honeybee 

Robotics) drives an anchor into the same material to evaluate the system’s 

design and performance. These field tests will help design surface exploration systems optimized for the exploration of Near-Earth Asteroids, Phobos, 

and Deimos. 14 April 2013. 

Mars Institute: Educating Future Mars Explorers

by Pascal Lee, Chairman of the Mars Institute, a senior planetary scientist at the SETI Institute, 

and Director of the NASA Haughton-Mars Project at NASA Ames Research Center

Inspiration

Do you remember how you first got interested in space? Was it a 

childhood visit to a planetarium, a sci-fi movie or TV series, a space 

toy, or maybe a book about planets? For me, it was all of the above, 

and also the era I grew up in. I was born in that first decade of human 

spaceflight that succeeded in landing humans on the Moon and 

returning them safely to the Earth. Working in space just seemed like 

a no-brainer.

The Apollo program did not only spawn a wave of space scientists 

and engineers. It inspired a whole generation in all STEM (Science, 

Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields, which has gone on 

to becoming the foundation of our current tech-savvy society.

For many of us at the Mars Institute, the human exploration of Mars is 

the new Apollo, in that such a goal, if embraced, would undoubtedly 

inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers. There’s just no 

denying the power of Mars. Curiosity’s landing last summer riveted 

the public worldwide, and now Inspiration Mars, the privately-initiated 

project to send a crew of two on a free return trajectory to Mars during the launch window of January 2018, is starting to take the world 

by storm. 

The purpose of Apollo was of course not Moon rocks. Science on 

Apollo was excellent, but merely a collateral benefit. What was 

really gained was an advantage of global strategic importance for the 

nation: the demonstration of what a free society can achieve, and the 

building of foundational technological know-how. Apollo was a gamechanging investment that created a surge in STEM competency, a tide 

that continues to serve the nation to this day. 

But cutting-edge know-how does not stay sharp forever. As Apollo recedes ever further into history, a new generation needs to be inspired. 

Going to Mars would once again spur competency in all STEM fields, 

and thereby serve the national interest like no other endeavor could. 

It would be both exciting and critically useful for us. And

now is the time.

Mission: Mars

According to the most recent Trends in International 

Mathematics and Science 

Study, an international 

assessment of 4th and 8th 

graders, the United States 

continues to lag behind 

many countries in both 

math and science. For 

example, the average science score for American 

fourth graders ranks sixth 

out of 45 nations, and 8th

graders rank tenth out 

of 38. 

Pascal Lee and the Mars Institute’s Moon-1 

Humvee Rover visit science teacher Michael 

Wing and his students at Sir Francis Drake High 

School in San Anselmo, CA.

Simulation cont’d on page 20

Education cont’d on page 11

Photo by First Canyon Media
NRP Post

www.nasa.gov/researchpark 11

In 2009, the Obama Administration 

launched Educate and Innovate, an initiative aimed at strengthening the nation’s 

competitiveness in STEM fields, in particular by getting K-12 students more engaged 

and better prepared in STEM education. 

The idea is to bring kids up to the top and 

keep them up there. 

The Mars Institute (MI) has taken action to 

contribute to this effort. MI was founded in 

2002 as a non-profit research organization 

dedicated to advancing the science, exploration, and public understanding of Mars. 

For its first 10 years, MI’s education efforts 

have focused on multiplying face-to-face 

visits to K-12 schools, and on involving 

undergraduate and graduate students in 

research projects, including in fieldwork 

at remote Mars analog locations such as 

the Haughton-Mars Project site on Devon 

Island in the Arctic. Research projects 

sometimes engage high school kids as well. 

For instance, MI has been supporting a 

global study of microbial growth underneath rocks led by Michael Wing, science 

teacher at Sir Francis Drake High School in San 

Anselmo, CA.

As we step into a new decade, MI is intending 

to broaden its focus and lead new education 

initiatives that will reach out to many more 

students, in particular to educate, inspire, and 

impact many more kids in grades K to 12.

MI’s latest education project: a non-fiction 

children’s book on the human exploration of 

Mars. Titled Mission: Mars, the book is aimed 

at kids aged 9 and up. Visually driven, it takes 

readers through Basic Training to become 

Future Mars Explorers. Developed with 

editors at Scholastic, the world’s leading 

publisher of educational children’s books, 

the book aims to be both an indispensible 

teaching tool for teachers and an exciting, 

inspiring read for kids. The book contains fun, 

accessible examples of STEM, and frequently 

points to exciting research done by the Mars 

Institute, the SETI Institute, and NASA.

Mission: Mars aims to excite kids about science 

and exploration. Available in September 2013 

at www.scholastic.com/missionmars

Beyond Mission: Mars, MI plans to continue 

its educational outreach efforts through 

many other high-impact projects. There 

is still a long road ahead to get humans to 

Mars, but we’re going, taking kids and teachers with us, and not looking back. New partners interested in joining the Mars Institute 

on this journey, welcome!

Education cont’d from page 10

San Francisco-based mobile payment startup Square started swiping 

credit cards in Japan two months ago. Bloom Energy Corp. is about to 

start selling its power-generating Bloom Boxes in Japan.

Advocates of U.S.-Japan business ties are hoping to build on these 

relatively isolated but promising expansions by fostering more 

startup activity. That’s both in the form of home-grown Japanese 

entrepreneurship and by encouraging more American startups to 

jump into the market.

The Japanese startup cheerleaders include some serious Silicon Valley 

venture capital muscle.

“The Japanese economy has been flat for a very long time,” said Draper 

Fisher Jurvetson co-founder Tim Draper at the 2013 Japan Innovation Awards held Friday by the Japan Society of Northern California 

and Stanford’s U.S. Asia Technology Management Center at Stanford 

University. “Now is the time for the entrepreneurs to soar.”

Japan’s economy remains sluggish, especially compared to neighboring China’s recent explosive growth, with economists forecasting 

decades more of GDP stagnation, according to University of Pennsylvania research. But on top of Bloom Energy and Square, incubators 

have started popping up in tech-savvy Japanese cities. Prime Minister 

Shinzo Abe’s economic philosophy of “Abeonomics”—a combination 

of government spending, looser regulation and a goal to increase 

foreign investment—is also bolstering Japan optimists.

Draper himself has helped establish the Draper Nexus venture capital 

firm, with offices in Silicon Valley and Tokyo dedicated to funding 

Japanese entrepreneurs. The firm is part of DFJ’s international network of independent venture firms. For Bloom Energy CEO KR Sridhar, 

whose company was honored with an award at the event Friday, the 

big Bloom opening in Japan came just last week.

Japanese investment company SoftBank teamed with Bloom Energy, 

each chipping in $10 million to create Bloom Energy Japan Ltd. 

The new international arm of the Sunnyvale business will market its 

Bloom Boxes—fuel cells that generate power from natural gas – to 

the Japanese market.

The expansion was spurred by an energy shortage in Japan after the 

2011 earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster in Fukushima, after which the country’s nuclear power plants were forced to 

shut down.

“Just imagine if one-third of all the power in the country had to be 

taken offline,” Sridhar said at Stanford on Friday.

He explained that Japan’s centralized power system left a void that 

he now hopes to fill with Bloom’s distributed generation systems. 

In contrast to massive traditional power plants, Sridhar said small 

Bloom Boxes produce power on-site wherever they operate. Declining prices of natural gas make the company even more attractive to 

the Japanese market, he said.

The opportunity is “the confluence of not just an innovation, but the 

market forces, the market dynamics all converging toward a solution” 

for Japan’s energy shortage, he said.

Tim Draper, Bloom Energy’s Sridhar: Why Now is the Perfect Time to Start Up in Japan

by Lauren Hepler, Economic Development Reporter, Silicon Valley Business Journal
12 www.nasa.gov

care about solutions, about mastering big, audacious challenges that 

are impossible, like sending people into space and bringing them 

home safely. Creating revolutionary new technology that changes 

the way we live and work happens every day here at NASA. We need 

to apply this ingenuity and capability to the challenges of our planet,” 

Grossman said. 

Space Portal Director Dan Rasky, citing “undeniable impacts of global 

industrialization—Arctic sea ice loss, fertile plains’ drought, tornadoes 

in Oklahoma and Texas, and new milestone concentrations of CO2” 

opened and moderated the first panel who “Set the Stage and Scope 

of Challenges.” 

Dr. Waleed Abdalati, former NASA Chief Scientist, now Director of 

the Earth Science and Observation Center, University of Colorado, 

Boulder, detailed signs of a warming planet and tangible implications. 

“Polar ice melt is on the rise substantially. This is a meteorological 

event, but happening against a backdrop of warming. We are moving 

from older, thicker ice cover to a new regime of newer, thinner ice 

cover. Humans have never known a time when the Arctic has no ice. 

The changes associated with this, we don’t know, but it is like taking 

a sledgehammer to the Earth’s climate system. Ice melt can make sea 

level rise fast.” Abdalati’s admonition: go to climate.nasa.gov, and read 

graphs consistently. 

Dr. James Hansen, considered the world’s best climatologist and 

former Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, quantified the severity of Earth’s energy imbalance, saying data shows we 

cannot burn even current fossil fuel reserves without extreme risk to 

our planet. “We would be handing our children a system where sea 

level is going up and would be out of their control. Once the ocean is 

heated, it does not cool off for centuries.” 

Hansen’s plan: “To stabilize climate by the end of the century we need 

to reduce fossil fuel emissions 6%/year. Governments are ignoring 

this. As long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy, somebody will 

keep burning them. They are heavily subsidized and the human 

health effects of air and water pollution, and climate effects, are 

borne by the public. We need to collect a fee on fossil fuels at the domestic mines and ports of entry. This money needs to go to the public. 

If fossil fuels are properly priced, the market place will find the best 

substitutes. This will stimulate the economy and innovation.”

“We are in the greatest extinguishing of species since the dinosaurs 

died off 65 million years ago,” said Professor Anthony Barnosky, 

Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley. Barnosky, 

summarizing the Call to Action, cited an incredible extinction crisis, 

climate change, population growth, loss of diverse ecosystems, and 

pollution as the “big global problems we face, but can fix if we act 

today.” Air pollution alone, he said, kills six million people a year. 

“If you count the number of days lost to work and productivity from 

environmental contamination, it is more than malaria, AIDS and 

tuberculosis combined.” 

Barnosky initiated the Scientists’ Consensus on Maintaining Humanity’s Life Support System in the 21st Century—Information for 

Policymakers Document, endorsed by CA Gov. Brown at this Summit. Barnosky is hopeful. Humanity reacts, he said, when they know 

the big problem. “At the beginning of WWII, the U.S. produced 3000 

airplanes, seven years later, we produced 300,000 planes. It took the 

U.S. eight years to go from no manned space program to putting a 

person on the Moon. As for replacing infrastructure—it took 20 years 

to rebuild from devastation of WWII, and in 50 years, we built enough 

roads to go around the Earth twice.” What it takes, Barnosky says—

recognize the need; individual initiative (which Silicon Valley and the 

world have in spades); technology and infrastructure (we can do); 

and bottom up and top down cooperation.

Bannie Bannerjee, Director, Stanford’s Change Lab, teaches innovation and design methods for ill defined problems at the lab, which 

aims to initiate rapid, large-scale transformation in the complex issues 

of water, energy, climate change and social inequity. The global score 

card, said Bannerjee, illustrates our propensity for short-term versus 

long-term interests. “We are in a crisis of commitment, direction, 

means and application. Our systems are integrated. Our solutions 

are piecemeal, but our problems are not. We are driven by growth 

and finance, with social issues secondary. This force pulls our global 

systems apart. We need leveraged interventions that can scale, have 

impact, and be in time.”

Following the panel, the Honorable Gov. Brown issued an inspired 

plea to media, citizens and policy makers to make climate change a 

priority, as he officially launched the Call to Action at the WEST 2013 

Summit. Visit http://mahb.stanford.edu for the Executive Summary. 

“We are in a contest here for ideas,” he said. “Newspapers don’t talk 

about oil, they talk about fracking, housing developments or the 

super bowl. These are not linked to the message here that we are part 

of a system. The 400 ppm (CO2 concentration) did make the top of 

the fold right hand side of the NY Times one day, but where was the 

follow up?” 

Dr. John Hogan, NASA Ames Bioengineering Branch, who makes life 

support systems for small spacecraft, opened the “Life Support Systems of the Planet” panel saying “Earth is the most elegant Life Support System I have seen. Life itself is Earth’s life support.” Noting the 

UN’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment finding that 2/3 of Earth’s life 

support systems are in decline, Hogan stated that our human made 

life support systems are damaging Earth’ basic systems, that we need 

to align human made systems with Earth’s life support systems—

making them like the Earth’s—regenerative, with total recycling. 

Panelist Wes Jackson, Founder and President, The Land Institute, 

Salina, Kansas, a foremost expert in “wild” agriculture, compared 

WEST Summit cont’d from page 5

WEST Summit cont’d on page 13

Dr. James Hansen, world-renowned climatologist and former Director of 

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 13

today’s challenge to the high moral vs legal conflict prior to the U.S. 

Civil War. He focuses on the ecological stability of natural grasslands, 

as well as a high grain yield. “We are living with the illusion we can improve on the biosphere. We are losing 30 million acres a year worldwide due to degradation of agricultural lands. Planting annuals is like 

clear cutting every year. Soil is more important than oil!” he warned. 

Jackson promotes planting perennials with elongated rooting depths, 

saying the plough has destroyed more options for future generations 

than the car. The only true economies are nature’s economies, 

of forests, meadows, he said.

Dr. Forrest Melton, senior research scientist, CSU Monterey Bay, NASA 

Ames, uses remote sensing, high-end computing and data visualization (using NASA Earth Exchange architecture) to aid growers with 

optimal water use. “We turn satellite data—NASA has about 17 Earth 

observing platforms—into information products for growers, partnering with over 100 growers, including the Western Growers Assoc.” 

Accurate information, Melton said, accelerates innovative solutions 

and can lead to win/win solutions.

Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, Research Associate, CA Academy of Science, 

co-founder of Ocean Revolution.org, dedicates his research to ocean 

health and the power of human connection. Falling in love at a young 

age with nature and turtles, he went to Mexico for graduate work, 

finding massive losses in turtle population. Forming a group with 

turtle hunters, he tracked “Adelita” across the entire Pacific Ocean, 

publishing hundreds of research papers. But science doesn’t save 

turtles, policy doesn’t save turtles, he said, people save turtles. 

“Our GDP is $15 trillion. The ocean is downstream from our economy. 

We spend less than $2 billion on protection and restoring the ocean, 

from which comes life. We have an ocean crisis. We are overfishing. 

Leatherbacks, who migrate from Indonesia to California, are full of 

plastic. We have a plastic crisis - production outpaces disposal, and 

recycling doesn’t really work. Our pharmaceuticals end up in the 

ocean. The wear on our clothes goes into our waterways and ends up 

in the ocean. We need to rethink our relationship with the ocean. In 

this golden age of neuroscience we need to pair up for research. 

We have a deep relationship with water. The ocean is inspiring. 

We go to the water to think, to relax, for fun. Stepping out to water—

getting your blue minds on—builds healthy minds. Fishermen love 

water, people love seafood, people protect what they love, we love 

healthy ecosystems. Let’s study the neuroscience of the L word—love.”

Dr. Kristina Vogt, Professor of Forest Resources, University of WA asks 

“Why are we not moving forward? Our solutions for climate change 

are niche markets. We need to get the general public involved in 

the forest, in the soil. We need to target the loss of forests, and our 

consumption patterns. We need to invent a soil carbon bank. We have 

lost 1⁄2 the carbon in soil in agriculture. We need to start loving waste. 

We need to target where we invest in preserving forests, to invest in 

forests that are vulnerable, not just ones with conservation value. 

We need to combine information to assess tipping points. We need 

to make it locally based, so the general public can go outside and 

understand, and have skin in the game.“ 

“We need to convert waste material into useful products, and pack 

carbon back into the soil. These are local solutions, but as a society 

we don’t like local solutions, we are “tourists” in nature. Our kids 

have nature deficit. We need to develop renewable energy fuels and 

distributed infrastructure. Convert urban waste to methanol for fuel 

cell charging stations for electric vehicles. Over 1000 years ago Amazonian Indians started adding charcoal to the soil, which increased 

the carbon content in the soil, by two. We need to adopt the Native 

American business model, thinking about the Seventh Generation. 

For them, some things cannot be sold. We need to get dirty, love the 

waste, love the forests. We don’t love the soil, we need to change this.”

Students from the Redwood Academy of Environmental Leadership 

(REAL), James Ngaluola and Gabriel Mena, brought a surprise hit before lunch—cheering the crowd with an original rap song and video 

“Save the Fishes” (or One Bottle at a Time.) From Redwood High School, 

Redwood City, Gabe and Jay collaborated with teacher/musician Tom 

McFadden to make the music video about polluted creeks, wasted 

water, littering, and carbon footprints. Gabe, who helped write the 

lyrics, said that incorporating music into science is a good idea and 

can increase peoples’ knowledge, that rapping about science is like 

another door for people to understand and remember the material. 

“Our message is about water conservation. Not many people would 

spread that through a rap song.”

Moderated by Jim Keene, Palo Alto City Manager, the afternoon 

panel “Solutions Implementation—Intelligent Integrated Infrastructure” featured Q&A with industry leaders in sustainability: Peter Graf, 

Chief Sustainability Officer & Executive VP, SAP; Rami Branitzky, CEO, 

GROK; Michelle McLean, Director, Product Marketing, Silver Springs 

Networks; and John Igoe, Director, Design and Construction, Google.

Introducing Keene, Heyword Robinson, former mayor of Menlo Park, 

SRI senior scientist and SSV board member noted that seventy percent of greenhouse gas emissions are related to cities. Keene, taking 

the podium, declared “the City is the Solution.” Cities are on their own 

(due to federal and state dysfunction), he said, they have to lead. 

Palo Alto now supplies 100% of electricity to the community in a carbon neutral form and has an ambitious Zero Waste program by 2021 

(now almost at 80%), he said, likening Palo Alto to a scrappy ‘start up 

city’ aspiring to be America’s greenest.

Asked what would make the biggest difference in an American city, 

panelists replied: “Public/private partnerships, collaboration and 

alignment of goals,” said Google’s John Igoe. Google (who has done 

so) also recommends signing up for former Pres. Clinton’s initiative—20% reduction in energy, water and waste in two years. SAP’ s 

Graf stressed the importance of getting the incentives right. At SAP 

financial optimizing and access to power encourages car sharing. 

WEST Summit cont’d from page 12

WEST Summit cont’d on page 16

First place winner re.source sanitation co-founders (L-R) Kory Russel and 

Sebastian Tilmans with former Space Shuttle Commander Karol Bobko, CA 

State Senator Jerry Hill, and SSV Exec. Director Marianna Grossman.

Photo by Rye Livingston
NRP Post

14 www.nasa.gov

NewSpace 2013 and AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference

The Space Frontier Foundation just wrapped up its NewSpace 2013 

conference that was held in Silicon Valley on July 25-27 and attracted 

over 400 participants. This event featured presentations by NASA 

Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and NASA Human Exploration and 

Operations Mission Directorate head Bill Guerstenmaier (remote presentation). Both Gerstenmaier and Garver stressed the importance of 

public/private partnerships in their remarks. Dr. Dan Rasky and Bruce 

Pittman of the NASA Space Portal in the NASA Research Park both 

chaired sessions at the conference relating to technology development and transfer. Dr. Rasky’s session focused on game-changing 

technologies that need to be developed to enable NASA to carry out 

its exploration mission while Pittman’’s session focused on technologies that were being develop outside of NASA that could be “spun-in”. 

In addition to the Space Portal there were a number of other current 

or former members of the NASA Research Park that presented at the 

conference including:

Alex MacDonald – Program Executive, Emerging Space Office

Robbie Schingler – co-founder Planet Lab

Dennis Wingo – President, Skycorp

Dr. Brad Bailey- NASA Lunar Science Institute

Dr. Ioana Cozmuta – NASA Space Portal 

Rex Ridenoure – Founder and former CEO of Ecliptic Enterprises

Dr. John Cumbers – Synthetic biologist at NASA Ames

Jason Dunn – CTO, Made In Space

Dr. Bob Richards – co-founder and CEO, Moon Express

The previous week the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) held its 49th Joint Propulsion Conference which 

attracted over 1000 people to the San Jose Convention Center. Bruce 

Pittman was also involved in this conference. On July 16th, in his role 

as chairman of the AIAA Commercial Space Group, he led a panel 

discussion on reusable commercial space vehicles. On the panel were 

senior technical representatives from SpaceX, United Launch Alliance 

(ULA), Moon Express, and Firestar Technologies. 

Verdigris Technologies Named Founder.org Winner

by Jessica Kinloch, Business Development

July 4, 2013 

The nation-wide search conducted by Michael Baum, former CEO and 

Founder of Splunk, to find 10 top start-ups from among 500 applications has culminated with the selection of Verdigris Technologies. 

Verdigris was the only company selected from Stanford University. 

They had just completed a stint at StartX, the Stanford incubator 

when they were told of the news.

During the inaugural Founder.org search, 50 semi-finalists were 

spread among eight leading technology universities across the 

country. MIT had 14 semi-finalists, followed by 10 from UC Berkeley, 

seven from Stanford, five from UT Austin, four each from Penn and 

Harvard, and three each from NYU and Carnegie Mellon. Each of the 

10 finalists will receive a grant of $100,000 from Founder.org, plus 12 

months of mentorship. 

Verdigris Technologies has developed an innovative product for 

enterprise buildings that allows them to see every electrical device 

being used in real time. This real-time data finally allows owners and 

occupants to interact with the buildings they are in, change their 

behavior, and verify those changes within seconds.

Mark Chung, Jonathan Chu, Jessica Kinloch, and Thomas Chung are 

the four founders of Verdigris Technologies, with alma maters spanning four of the universities: Stanford, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, and 

UT Austin. Their team is growing rapidly: they are recently hired Chaitan-

(L-R:) Jon Chu, Jessica Kinloch, Mark Chung, Thomas Chung, founders of 

Verdigris Technologies

Bruce Pittman (center) talks with former Indian President Dr. A.P.J. Kalam 

(right) and Kirby Ikin, Chairman (left) of the Board of the National Space 

Society, at the NSS International Space Development Conference that was 

held in San Diego on May 23-27.

ya Sharma, a seasoned building engineer, and Andrew Jo, an amazing 

developer; they are also looking for additional Machine Learning and 

developers to address growing demand for Building.AI.

Founder.org is committed to helping founders chase big ideas and 

foster economic innovation and growth. The kickoff event is going to 

be held August 6 in San Francisco at the Presidio Golf Club.

See more at: www.verdigristech.com and www.founder.org/100k/
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 15

NRP Post

Real-Life ‘Star Trek’ Tricorder Project Raises $1 Million

by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com Assistant Managing Editor

“Star Trek” fans may soon get a chance to 

have their own Dr. McCoy moment with the 

world’s first real-life medical tricorder, which 

will be available to the public soon thanks to 

a crowdfunding campaign that raised more 

than $1 million for the Space Age technology.

On “Star Trek,” Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy 

used a medical tricorder to scan patients and 

immediately diagnose their ailments. While 

the new real-life version, called the Scanadu 

Scout, is missing some of the features of its 

science fiction counterpart—namely the 

ability to make internal scans and complex 

diagnoses—it still can be a handy device for 

medical checkups on the go.

Within about 10 seconds of pressing the 

Scanadu Scout to your forehead with thumb 

and forefinger, the tool reads out your heart 

rate, temperature, oximetry (blood oxygen 

level), respiratory rate, blood pressure, stress 

and electrocardiography (ECG). 

“It’s the 21st-century version of the medical tricorder from ‘Star Trek,’” said Scanadu founder 

and CEO Walter de Brouwer. “Basically it has a 

complete emergency room in there—when 

you go to the emergency room and they 

hook you up, the same readings you get out 

of [the Scout]. It’s one more device out of 

‘Star Trek’ that will see reality.”

About a month ago, Scanadu started a 

crowdfunding campaign for the device on 

Indiegogo, hoping to raise $100,000. As of 

Monday (June 24), the company had raised 

more than $1.18 million.

Shortly before the campaign’s one-month 

deadline, Scanadu decided to extend it for 

another month. The public now has until July 

20 to order a first-generation Scanadu Scout 

for $199, before they are out in stores.

De Brouwer founded Scanadu out of NASA’s 

Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. 

The Scout device even uses some real-life 

space technology as its operating system; 

the 32-bit RTOS Micrium platform was also 

used in the SAM instrument on NASA’s Mars 

rover Curiosity.

De Brouwer said his invention was inspired by 

“Star Trek,” and hopes over time the Scout will 

become more like the futuristic tool of the 

television series.

“If you look at the tricorder in Star Trek, it has 

four ideals: It is non-contact, it is non-cooperative—you may even be unconscious— it 

is non-sampling (doesn’t take a sample of 

blood) and it is non-invasive,” de Brouwer 

told SPACE.com. “The technology, probably in 

10 years from now, will be built into our environment, so preventive medicine will almost 

disappear into the walls, into the fabric of 

our reality.”

Early adopters of the Scanadu Scout will get 

to try the device out as an exploratory tool. 

In order to market the product as a medical 

device to the consumer market, the company 

will have to seek approval from the FDA. 

Scanadu plans to use experiences and data 

collected by its first customers to improve 

and understand the product in preparation 

for that stage.

“It’s great that you can have a customer who 

pays but is also a developer and thinks with 

you, and at the same time you make a planetary effort to make this device come out of 

a movie,” de Brouwer said.

Turkish business and government delegation of 15 from the industrialized city of Konya visited the NRP on June 20, 2013. NRP Director Michael 

Marlaire provided an overview of the Park and the delegation visited 

Vasper System pictured here with Peter Wasowski.

A group of Finnish technology and business development specialists

from the start-up portal Otaniemi.FI, and VTT Technical Research Center in the City of Espoo visited NASA Ames Research Center and NASA 

Research Park on June 13. Michael Marlaire, Director of NRP provided 

an NRP overview.

The Scanadu SCOUT

Scanadu CEO Walter DeBrouwer (left) shows 

SPACE.com’s Clara Moskowitz (right) how to use 

the Scout medical tricorder. Watch the video at 

http://bit.ly/12cAqvX
16 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

People tend to NOT react to future threats, Graf said. SAP sees sustainability as transformational, he said, and creates software for transformational efficiencies. 

McLean described Silver Springs intelligent sensors for energy networks, profiling an Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OGE) success. Deploying smart metering, OGE achieved a 30% drop in energy demand 

during peak performance (peaking plants are gas fired, dirty and 

expensive) by sending a price message to programmable thermostats 

“tomorrow at this time your energy costs will be $0.46/hr (normal rate 

$0.04/hr).” Branitzky, GROK CEO, said “we believe in fast data rather 

than stored (big) data. We recommend infusing smart into machine-tomachine communication. If intelligence is injected into the machine, it 

could predict what will happen next and optimize consumption.”

The “Revolutionary Leadership and Breakthrough Results” panel, introduced by Marianna Grossman, the driving force behind this summit, 

was asked “what is the role of visionary leadership in driving change, 

and what is working in the international, national, corporate, venture 

capital and banking worlds?”

Robert Bishop, President and Founder, International Centre for Earth 

Simulation described his not-for-profit, neutral, based in Geneva, Switzerland, non-political, open science, open source code, open access 

publishing simulation-based discovery platform. “We are a catalyst to 

bring together natural and economic science, for a decision support 

platform. NASA is seen worldwide as a major source of knowledge and 

good will, but of all the data NASA brings to the table, only 20% of it is 

used.” Bishop used Cascadia as an example- with 18 active volcanoes 

linked to subduction zones, a nuclear sub base in Puget Sound and a 

nuclear weapons site across the river. 

Dr. Steven Zornetzer, Ames Assoc. Director – “We invigorated our 

workforce and galvanized awareness of sustainability when we built 

Sustainability Base (the greenest building in the federal government). 

At the agency and government level we are still trying to figure out our 

role. NASA should and will remain the provider of unassailable data. 

The rest of the government is moving slowly, but the GSA (the principle 

purchaser of commodities for the government, whose buying power 

far exceeds that of WalMart) has decided to buy green across the entire 

government. This will have a significant impact across society.”

Kathrin Winkler VIP Corporate Sustainability, EMC Corporation – 

“Our customers are driving us to sustainability. In product acquisition 

– and IT serves every sector—our customers are asking what we are doing. As an industry, IT has formed Electronic Industry Citizens Coalition 

to set common standards and created “Green Grid” to resource efficiencies in IT. And our employees are driving us toward sustainability. The 

incoming workforce wants to work for a company consistent with their 

values, have a sense of purpose and know their role.”

Mohanjit Jolly, Managing Director, DFJ – “Entrepreneurs are thinking 

big to change the world, every day.” Jolly, who spent a decade in Silicon 

Valley and five years in India, said Silicon Valley is the innovation hub, 

and India is about the proliferation and impact of what is working. 

DFJ, who funded Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX, Solar City), also funded two 

Stanford students who created a solar lantern, moved to India and 

China, and have now touched 20 million lives. And the emerging markets are capturing the latest and greatest technology, he said, describing a Mumbai hotel with smart sensors deployed everywhere. 

Vince Siciliano, President & CEO, New Resource Bank, San Francisco, 

CA– New Resource Bank is a mission-focused bank with the mission 

WEST Summit cont’d from page 13

“With the many bright minds 

and capable hands engaged by 

this event—from the fields of 

science, engineering, business, 

government and public Policy—

prospects are good that new 

solutions for planetary sustainability, eventually scalable to 

global application, can be identified. This event’s “Show-Case 

of Solutions” featured some 

interesting first examples,” said 

Space Portal Director Dr. Dan 

Rasky, co-host for this event. 

“We are very pleased with the 

level of interest, as well as the 

broad engagement we’ve seen 

to date for this activity, including our Planetary Sustainability 

Collaboratory concept. We are 

hoping to add new members 

and demonstration projects to 

the Collaboratory as we proceed. The challenges of global 

climate change are indeed formidable, but so are the many 

individuals who attended this 

event, and others who have expressed interest in joining with 

us to address this important 

and critical challenge.”

to build a more sustainable community. “We are seeing an explosion of 

young companies who are adopting a new style of running a business 

where financial and social objectives are paired. We are often asked, ‘is 

there a trade off between doing good and profit?’ The Global Alliance for 

Banking on Values (25 international banks) found sustainably-managed 

banks to have been more resilient in the last 10 years, with better returns 

on equities and profits. And we are beginning to see discussions of a 

more conscious capitalism.” 

Following the awards, State Senator Jerry Hill and former Space Shuttle 

Commander Karol Bobko closed the summit. Senator Hill, Chairman, 

Environmental Quality Committee – “ This incredible summit today (I 

heard almost the whole summit on the news driving from Sacramento) 

. . . underscores the need for action and leadership in climate change 

. . . and the many faces of leadership that are needed . . . from NASA 

technology (as showcased in Sustainability Base) . . . to entrepreneurs. 

We all have the ability, and truly the responsibility, to step up. We must 

be vigilant and hold decision makers to a high standard to ensure a 

sustainable future. Some are burdened with lack of knowledge of what 

to do. The key is education. We must educate the decision makers and 

ourselves. We demand of you to hold us accountable. Inspire us to be 

better stewards of our environment. If the game is going to change, it 

will have to change here.” 

Bobko shared inspired observations from his colleagues 

– astronauts and cosmonauts 

– from their many days in orbit. 

When viewed from space, they 

say, the Earth is amazing and 

beautiful, looks fragile, and is 

a small place compared to the 

vastness of space. Astronaut 

Loren Acton, STS–51 “ Looking 

onward to the blackness of 

space, sprinkled with the glory 

of a universe of lights, I saw 

majesty, but no welcoming. 

Below was a welcoming planet. There, contained in a thin 

moving, incredibly fragile shell 

of a biosphere, is everything 

that is dear. That’s where life is, 

that’s where all the good stuff 

is.” Astronaut Ulf Merbold, STS9, 42, Soyuz TM-19, 20 “For the 

first time I saw the horizon as 

a curved line, with a thin seam 

of dark blue light ... not the 

ocean of air as I had been told. 

I was terrified by its fragile 

appearance.” Sigmund Jahn, 

Soyuz 31, “Only when I saw our 

planet from space did I realize 

humankind’s most urgent task 

is to cherish and preserves it 

for future civilizations. “ 

For more info visit:

www.sustainablesv.org/

www.nasa.gov/externalflash/sustainability-base/

bit.ly/16qKTCz
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 17

NRP Post

Quantum or Not, New Supercomputer is Certainly Something Else

by Geoff Brumfiel, National Public Radio

It’s exactly the sort of futuristic thinking you’d expect from Google

and NASA: Late last week, the organizations announced a partnership 

to build a Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab at NASA’s Ames 

Research Center.

But questions surround the new type of computer at the lab’s core. 

D-Wave Systems, the company that makes the machine, says it is a 

quantum computer—a machine that runs on the strange laws of 

quantum mechanics. But although the computer can solve a certain 

type of problem much faster than conventional computers, critics say 

that the company’s claims are not supported by scientific evidence.

“It’s not exactly science, what they’re doing,” says Christopher Monroe, 

a physicist with the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland. “It’s high-level engineering, and I think it’s high-level salesmanship, too.”

The quantum computer is a giant black box, or more precisely, a black 

cube approximately 10 feet on a side. Inside is a refrigeration system 

that chills the guts to near absolute zero, and shields the workings to 

protect them from external radiation. 

In this rarefied environment, the laws of quantum mechanics can 

come into effect. These quantum rules are pretty strange. Particles can 

be in two opposite states at once, and they can be intrinsically tied 

together through a process known as “entanglement.” For example, 

two quantum coins could be in a state of heads and tails simultaneously, as though they were flipping through the air. If the two coins 

were entangled, reading “heads” on one after the flip would instantly 

tell you that the other was heads—even if it were on the other side 

of the galaxy.

The D-Wave Two computer has 512 quantum “bits,” or units of information, in its supercooled central processor that can be entangled together, according to the company. The entanglement allows the computer to do things that a conventional computer can’t. In particular, it’s 

good at choosing between many different solutions to a problem, 

according to Geordie Rose, D-Wave’s chief technology officer.

Here’s (roughly) how it works: Just like quantum coins, the quantum 

bits exist in two states at once, and because they are entangled, that 

means the entire chip is simultaneously in many different configurations of “heads and tails.” The quantum computer, in a sense, simultaneously tries every answer imaginable before settling on an efficient 

one. Running the computer just a few times will give a subset of 

highly efficient solutions. By contrast, a conventional computer 

would have to individually test millions or billions of solutions to 

find the right answer.

Rose says that the new machine won’t always be better than a regular 

computer, but for machine learning and searching—activities both 

Google and NASA are interested in—the D-wave’s computer could 

be far more effective.

“The best answer, or the highest or the lowest or the smallest or the 

meatiest . . . no matter what,” Rose says. “If it’s got an ‘-iest’ at the end 

and you can write down a mathematical equation for what you mean 

about that, then you can attack it with one of our machines.”

But proving exactly what D-Wave’s computer does is tricky. Quantum 

states are highly sensitive to outside intrusion. The very act of trying

to measure entanglement can easily destroy it.

There is solid evidence that the D-Wave machine is unusual. New 

research by computer scientist Catherine McGeoch at Amherst College suggests it can solve one particular kind of problem thousands 

of times faster than a regular computer. But McGeoch adds that the 

D-Wave Two was not measurably faster at solving two other types of 

problems tested.

And work from the lab of John Martinis, a researcher at the University 

of California, Santa Barbara, also seems to hint at quantum processes 

at work inside D-Wave’s previous generation of quantum chip, the 

D-Wave One.

But Monroe remains skeptical. He believes that the D-Wave team has 

never demonstrated that entanglement is happening on the chips in 

its machine. He believes that D-Wave’s supposedly quantum bits are 

actually working instead as tiny electromagnets. Those magnets, 

Monroe believes, could be interacting in ways to solve a certain problem very quickly without quantum mechanics. “There’s no evidence 

that what they’re doing has anything to do with quantum mechanics,” 

he says. If he’s right, then D-Wave’s machine may be far more narrow 

in its abilities than the company believes.

D-Wave’s Geordie Rose acknowledges the criticism, but says he 

believes that D-Wave’s machine ultimately will also prove faster than 

conventional computers at solving the problems facing companies 

like Google, NASA and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin (which has 

also purchased a machine).

“What we do is build computers,” Rose says, “and if we can build the 

fastest computers the world has ever known, you can call them whatever you like, and I’ll be happy.”

Google and NASA are betting that quantum forces are at work inside 

D-Wave’s 512-bit chip.
18 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

NASA ROSES Seagrass/Coral Reef Project: UAV Accomplishments

The NASA ROSES Seagrass/Coral Reef Project involved testing the use 

of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) technology to research changes 

in seagrass and coral reef biomes. The Project continues to be led by 

Principal Investigator Dr. Stanley Herwitz, working with his team of coinvestigators specializing in coastal biology, marine remote sensing and 

optical oceanography. Dr. Herwitz is the Director of the UAV Collaborative, a NASA Research Park partner. Extensive airborne and water-based 

datasets were collected from representative seagrass and coral reef 

sites in Florida in 2012 and 2013. The Project showcased 26 UAV flights 

involving three different low-flying UAVs equipped with different 

payloads operating with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval 

under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) in the National Airspace System.

The airborne data collection featured four UAV deployments to Florida. 

The first deployment in May 2012 featured MLB Company’s fixed-wing 

Bat-4 UAV equipped with a Tetracam multispectral imaging system. The 

second deployment in October 2012 featured NASA’s fixed-wing SIERRA 

UAV operating from the Key West Naval Air Station under an agreement 

with the U.S. Navy. The SIERRA acquired more than 320 gigabytes of 

data using a Galileo hyperspectral sensor. The third deployment in November 2012 featured the Bat-4 equipped with the Tetracam operating 

in the area of Cedar Key north of Tampa. These three deployments led to 

the completion of 14 UAV flights.

Following a series of pre-deployment test flights over south San 

Francisco Bay’s Guadalupe Slough in April 2013, the fourth deployment 

to Florida in May 2013 featured Xtreme Aerial Concepts’ Vision-II “jetengine” rotorcraft UAV. Equipped with a downward-looking NovaSol 

hyperspectral imaging system, the Vision-II served as a slow low-flying 

stable platform, operating at less than 2,000 feet above sea level. 

Flight operations for the seagrass site were conducted along the shoreline of Sugarloaf Key, while flight operations for the coral reef site were 

made possible using a 40-foot floating barge positioned offshore in the 

protected Cheeca Rocks marine sanctuary. Twelve historic morning and 

afternoon takeoff and landing sequences of the Vision-II were conducted at these two sites, each lasting 30-40 minutes. The Vision-II acquired 

more than 500 gigabytes of data using the NovaSol hyperspectral imaging system.

Vision-II during flight preparation with yellow cable serving to initialize 

NovaSol hyperspectral imaging system;

Aerial view of Cheeca Rocks reef, the barge serving as the UAV launch pad, 

and the Project’s associated research vessels.

Vision-II launched from shoreline and in flight over nearshore seagrass site 

in the Florida Keys.

Vision-II during flight preparation on barge over Cheeca Rocks coral reef 

site in the Florida Keys

NASA ROSES cont’d on page 19
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 19

NRP Post

The NASA ROSES Seagrass/Coral Reef 

Project achieved a collection of highresolution airborne spectral data using 

UAV-based hyperspectral and multispectral 

sensors in synchrony with intensive field 

measurements used to characterize current 

biological conditions. The water-based 

data acquisition effort involved the use of 

leading-edge instrumentation. Of particular 

interest to the Project were processes that 

increase our understanding of the spatial 

distribution and vigor of seagrass, such as 

light-water interactions, the biogeochemical properties of the water column, benthic 

O2 and CO2 gas exchange, and biological 

productivity. Analysis of these extensive 

datasets is currently in progress.

Singularity University’s Graduate Studies Program

Singularity University is abuzz with the energy of 80 global participants in this year’s Graduate Studies Program (GSP). The GSP is 

designed for leaders who want to build innovative solutions to Global 

Grand Challenges (GGCs). The GSP is held each year between June 

and August and allows students from around to do a deep dive into 

SU’s atmosphere of innovation and exploration. This year, the participants represent 36 countries with only 6 of the 80 participants from 

the US.

The single largest component of participants’ time is spent on the 

team projects, where students actively respond to the 109+ challenge: 

how to positively impact a billion people within a decade. 

The GGC areas addressed by the program (Food, Energy, Water, 

Health, Environment, Education, Poverty, and Security) represent 

problems affecting tens of millions to a billion or more people. 

The GGC categories are just a starting point—some problems may 

be easily identified as being a single GGC, while most will sit at the 

intersections of several challenges.

Participants in Singularity’ Universities Graduate Studies Program

The GSP creates an unparalleled opportunity for participants to work 

together in international and interdisciplinary teams to address largescale humanitarian challenges. Participants in this unique educational 

environment learn from each other, and from renowned experts in 

multiple disparate fields, in order to understand and apply these 

transformative, exponential technologies.

SU amplifies the focus on GGCs with nearly 400 hours of academic 

activities: classes, hands-on workshops, site visits, and collaborative 

teamwork activities. In addition to these scheduled events, students 

lead their own self-organized sessions, trips, and workshops.

At the mid-point of the GSP, participants form teams tasked with 

designing preliminary solutions addressing a challenge, and then 

work in teams to prototype, research, and develop solutions which 

can make a difference to the lives of a billion people. 

Meeting the challenges is no simple feat, and not every solution will 

succeed, but many SU teams have taken their work out into the real 

world, creating lasting projects, companies, and organizations working towards their goal. Stay tuned for updates on this year’s class as 

they complete their projects and then move on to starting companies 

and/or returning to their countries to continue their efforts to change 

the world.

NASA ROSES cont’d from page 18

NRP Partner SkyTran was featured in 

an article highlighting personal rapid 

transit systems as the transportation 

of the future in the July 2013 issue of 

Government Technology magazine.

Singularity University was featured on in Bloomberg TV’s show, BRINK, on 

June 4, 2013. Watch the video at http://bloom.bg/15BMOml

Dr. Ann Clarke’s last NRP IPT meeting prior to her retirement. (L-R): David Shiver (BAE), Mark Beskind, Rocci 

Caringello, Andrew Martin (Earth Resources Tech, Inc), 

Dr. Ann Clarke, Larry Singer (AECOM)

by Ralph Rogers
NRP Post

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

Phone: (650) 604-2NRP

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

Website: www.nasa.gov/researchpark

robotic spacecraft and astronauts to remain safely bound to a low 

gravity body, and yet allow them to explore laterally; 3) a study of how 

astronauts might conduct geological sampling on a small body while 

using anchors and tethers. Analyzing in detail and understanding how 

conventional civil engineering methods and systems perform in natural 

settings on Earth before adapting them to the exploration of small bodies is an important first step.

The Mojave field test was carried out on a small rocky hill at the NTC 

with many exposed blocks of weathered granite called tors. The site, 

now named “Asteroid Hill”, is reminiscent of the blocky surface of NearEarth Asteroid (25143) Itokawa, which was explored in 2005 by Japan’s 

Hayabusa robotic spacecraft. While neither the composition of the rocks 

nor the gravity at Asteroid Hill are similar to what they are on NEAs, the 

relevance of the site resides in the similarity in terrain texture (gravel and 

block abundance and sizes), topography, and scale between Asteroid 

Hill and Itokawa.

Asteroid Hill is indeed an interesting analog site for planning future 

NASA robotic and human asteroid exploration, as it not only resembles 

the surface of the only sub-kilometer NEA explored by spacecraft to 

date, Itokawa, but it is well supported logistically by the NTC.

Our Mojave field test actually builds on an existing partnership 

between NASA and the NTC. The latter is home to NASA’s Goldstone 

Deep Space Network (DSN) tracking station. The NTC’s participation in 

this field test with NASA is just a new example of Joint Interagency Intergovernmental and Multinational (JIIM) partnership. It allows the NTC 

to showcase its assets, community, and vast training resources, while 

enabling NASA and its partners to cost-effectively and securely meet 

their research objectives.

Our Mojave field test will be featured in an upcoming television 

documentary filmed by First Canyon Media, Inc. titled Mission Asteroid. 

Produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Mission 

Asteroid is expected to air in North America in Spring 2014.

Pascal Lee (SETI Institute and Mars Institute) (right) and Sgt Andre Pearson 

(U.S. Army, NTC) conduct “small body” geological sampling in simulated 

spacesuits while anchored and tethered on a steep boulder slope at Asteroid 

Hill, National Training Center, Fort Irwin, California. 15 April 2013. 

RMV Technology Group Invited to Chair G-19 

& G-21 Sub-Committee Packaging Engineering 

Working Groups

by Renee Mitchell, President, RMV Technology Group LLC. 

RMV Technology Group LLC, located in Building 19, has been invited 

to chair both SAE G-19 & G-21 Sub-Committee Packaging Engineering 

Working Groups for the development of protocols in mitigating Suspect Counterfeiting of ESD sensitive devices and material. In addition, 

Bob Vermillion, CEO & Founder, was asked by NASA to be vice-chair 

of the ESD Association 20.21 Aerospace Committee, chaired by NASA 

LaRC/ Mission Assurance, whose mission is to revise and better define 

related protocols necessary for aerospace/defense in ESD protection of 

mission critical systems. 

In follow-up to a study on ESD packaging materials for the Defense 

Ammunition Center (DAC) in which four out of five packaging schemes 

failed, RMV was recently engaged by a defense contractor to test three 

static control materials—all but one supplier failed the standardized 

ESD testing. The lack of periodic verification of protective shipping 

materials for mission critical parts continues to be a growing problem 

for Industry. By special invitation for small business to speak on technology innovation, RMV’s topic “Supplier Non-Compliance and Suspect 

Counterfeit Materials” was presented during NASA Ames Industry day, 

12 August 2012. In an upcoming event, Bob Vermillion, in collaboration 

with Boeing, will present “A Study of ESD Packaging for Supplier NonConformance and the Importance of Proper Qualification Testing as an 

Effective Countermeasure for Supply Chain Non-Conformance” at the 

Annual DMSMS Conference, 2-5 December 2013.

A third party technology engineering and test laboratory, RMV tests 

and evaluates engineered and advanced materials for ESD integrity and 

Triboelectrification Mitigation for Space Bound Materials. Vermillion 

can be reached at 650.964.4792 or email bob@esdrmv.com

May 9, 2013, The Greater Stavanger Economic Development delegation representing the largest business park in Norway visited NRP to 

learn about the facilitation of infrastructure, internal processes, and 

business collaborations. Michael Marlaire, Dir, NRP provided an indepth briefing covering these points and a park tour was conducted 

by Mejghan Haider, Dep Dir, NRP.

Photo by NASA

Simulation cont’d from page 10