National Aeronautics and Space Administration

A publication of NASA Research Park February 2011

NRP POST The

World’s Largest,Greenest Airship 

Coming to NASA Research Park

by Diane Murphy, E Green Technologies, Inc

NASA Research Park at NASA Ames Research 

Center is poised once again to make “lighter than 

air” history as the world’s largest and greenest 

operating airship, the BulletTM Class 580, comes to 

Moffett Field to base its west coast operations and 

prepare for its maiden flight. 

The massive 235-foot long, 65-foot diameter 

lighter-than-air vehicle, which can fly at speeds up to 

74 mph, is newly designed and manufactured by E 

Green Technologies, Inc. (EGT)/21st Century Airships, 

Inc. (21st Century), is a leading airship manufacturer 

Revolutionary Vasper Technology 

for Fitness and Recovery at NRP

by Peter Z. Wasowski

Vasper Technology stimulates production of endogenous human growth hormone (‘HGH’) by using 

a patent pending device with traditional exercise 

equipment. The Vasper device uses liquid-cooled 

vascular compression, core cooling technology and 

active electrical grounding technology. 

I began developing Vasper Technology in 2002, 

while living in Kamuela, Hawaii. In May 2009, the 

Vasper prototype was tested by more than 220 

people in Honolulu, with very positive results. A fully 

operational Vasper System is currently in service at 

the Queens Medical Center POB1 in Honolulu. Vasper 

conducted a second successful trial in July-August, 2009, with the San Jose 

Sharks National Hockey League team. 

Since January 2010 Vasper has been working with the 131st Rescue Squadron 

of the California Air National Guard, on the east side of Moffett Federal Airfield. 

Vasper’s merits were proven again through pre and post trial hormonal and 

physical performance testing. According to David Zava PhD, who analyzed the 

cont’d on page 6

cont’d on page 3

EGT Airship BulletTM Class 580 after inflation in Garrett Coliseum, Montgomery, Ala (2010)George Schellenger James Lerager

Virginia Inouye, USAF, with Peter Wasowski, 

developer of the Vasper System, using the 

Vasper System integrated with the NuStep 

T5XR. With Vasper, a 2.5 hour workout is compressed into 20 minutes -- plus a 20 minute 

recovery phase -- for a total of 40 minutes, 

with minimal sweating produced during the 

exercise phase.
NRP Post

2 www.nasa.gov

Auris Surgical Robotics 

Bldg. 19, Suite 1067, Rms. 1064, 1066 

Commencement: October 1, 2010

Auris Surgical Robotics is engaged in the development of robotics technology for medical applications. 

Russo Industries USA, LLC

Hangar 2

Commencement: February 2011

Russo Industries is a wind energy technology company that has developed an environmentally wind 

turbine to produce energy and a slow-speed generator called the Windcrank. 

ELORET Corporation

Bldg. 19, Rm. 1070K

Commencement: January 16, 2011

ELORET is currently supporting the development of the Chemical Sensor 

Project initially invented by NASA Ames. This project involves developing 

a sensitive chemical vapor sensor that attaches to a cell phone and can be 

used to accurately sense low levels of various different gasses including CO and Ammonia. This sensor has 

attracted the interests of Department of Homeland Security, numerous public service organizations for 

security, safety, and medical applications respectively.

MSGI Security Solutions, Inc

Bldg. 19, Rm. 1077

Commencement: July 16, 2010

MSGI is working to advance solar cell technology and develop 

Nano-chemical senors. The potential space and terrestrial 

applications include cabin air monitoring onboard the space Shuttle, surveillance of global weather, forest 

fire monitoring, radiation detection, and various other mission critical capabilities.

NRPWelcomes

Vasper Systems California, LLC

Bldg. 566, Rm. 111

Commencement: December 1, 2010

Vasper Technology, a revolutionary approach to fitness and 

recovery, is designed to stimulate production of endogenous 

human growth hormone (‘HGH’) by using a patent pending device 

in conjunction with traditional exercise equipment. The Vasper device is based on liquid-cooled vascular 

compression, core cooling technology and active electrical grounding technology.

Science and Technology Corp. (STC)

Bldg. 19, Rm. 1007

Commencement: February 1, 2011

STC provides advanced technology support services to NASA Ames, other centers, and other federal agencies.

TakshaShila University (TU)

Bldg. 19, Rm. 1008

Commencement: February 1, 2011

TakshaShila University (TU), with a legacy going back to 1976, is a dynamic, not-forprofit, independent, minority institution of higher learning, engaged in advanced 

research and development projects, and specializing in accelerated-learning, 

short-courses for STEM and professional education on topics of current interest.

Contents

Vasper Systems California, 

LLC 1

E-Green Technologies, Inc. 1

New Partners 2

NRP Lecture Series with 

Dr. KR Sridhar 3

LatIPNet with 

Dr. Meyya Meyyappan 4

TakshaShila University 5

Silicon Valley Space Business 

Round Table with 

Dr. Peter Diamandis 8

interACT Presidential 

Summit 9

Carnegie Mellon 

Silicon Valley 10

Intrinsyx 11

Gary Air 11

Women @ the Frontier 13

Purdue University’s 

West Coast Partnership 

Center 13

JUSTAP Conference 14

Kentucky Space 14

BloomBoxes at Adobe HQ 15

Dignitaries Visit NRP 16

Exploration of Phobos & 

Deimos 16
NRP Post

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 3

Dr. KR Sridhar Delivers NRP Lecture:

BloomBox: Bringing NASA Technology Down to Earth

By K. Burton

Bloom Energy CEO Dr. KR 

Sridhar delivered an outstanding 

lecture to a crowd of 200 at the 

Bldg. 3 Ballroom, NASA Ames 

Conference Center on January 

18th. This was the 13th talk in 

NRP’s Exploration Lecture Series, 

which focuses on the exploration of space, the Earth, and 

technology.

Jack Boyd, Senior Advisor to the 

Ames Center Director, introduced 

Sridhar, and Steve Zornetzer, Ames 

Associate Director, served as MC.

Bloom Energy’s mission is to 

make distributed “clean, affordable, reliable energy.... for everyone,” 

Sridhar said to the crowd. A core belief driving his vision is “the 

planet was not handed to you by your parents; it was lent to you by 

your children.” In other words, he said, “let’s take care of the planet.”

Sridhar discussed his early roots at NASA leading a team 

developing technologies to sustain life on Mars, and how this 

led to his idea for innovative new fuel cell technology. The seed 

that became Bloom Energy germinated in the late 1990s when 

Sridhar, then an academic at the University of Arizona, led a team 

of engineers to solve the problem of using Mars’ extant resources 

such as CO2 (more than 96% of Mars atmosphere) and water to 

provide resources for astronauts on a Mars mission. 

His team devised a payload for the 2001 Mars lander that would 

make oxygen to breathe and methane for rocket fuel for the 

return-to-Earth journey.

Refining this device for a later 2003 Mars lander mission, he 

realized the system could operate “in the other direction,” using 

with 18 patents issued and pending for advanced design 

and performance. The BulletTM Class 580 is scheduled to 

arrive at NASA Research Park’s Hangar 2 in early 2011, after 

successfully completing its third and final inflation, and 

other engineering tests.

 John Youngbeck, EGT’s VP of Manufacturing, explained 

“although traditional blimps have been around for centuries, 

they have undergone surprisingly little evolution throughout 

their more than 150 year history. This, we believe, is what 

makes our EGT proprietary designs so desirable to government and commercial customers. Our airships, including the 

BulletTM Class 580, are radically different in design, moving 

beyond the performance limitations of traditional blimps by 

combining advanced technology with simple construction 

-- and the ability to fuel with algae-based bio-fuel, protecting 

our environment. We have a great team and really look 

forward to creating more jobs in Silicon Valley as we help to 

expand and grow this emerging airship market.”

With the BulletTM Class 580, EGT’s CEO, Mike Lawson, says, 

“EGT is primed to usher in a new age of lighter-than-air 

flight and we intend to break records and perceptions in 

the process. EGT airships offer a unique multi-sac reverse 

ballonet helium design, vertical takeoff and landing, 

high-speed maneuverability and forward thrust in air 

Airship cont’d from page 1

Airship cont’d on page 5

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 3

O2 and inexpensive methane to produce water and CO2, ending 

up with electricity. Both Mars lander missions were subsequently 

cancelled, and “I realized at that point that the UPS truck was not 

going to show up at my doorstep,” he said.

Sridhar moved on to start Ion America in 2001 in NRP’s Bldg. 543, 

then a “humble ex-Navy hobby shop, a stand-alone building with 

a lock, which was all we needed back then. It all started here.” 

In ‘stealth mode’ for years, the company used their Mars lander and 

proprietary technology to invent a revolutionary regenerative fuel 

cell to produce heat and electricity. In 2006, the company name 

changed to Bloom Energy. Derived from a common sand-like 

powder and leveraging advances in materials science, Bloom’s technology produces power practically anywhere from a wide range of 

renewable or traditional fuels, with significantly reduced electricity 

costs and dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions. Inputs can 

range from fossil and renewable fuels to hydrogen; while output 

can be AC or DC power, electricity, or hydrogen.

The BloomBox model is scalable. A fuel cell Bloom stack is 

bread-loaf sized. A Bloom module, the size of a large refrigerator, 

can power a Starbucks. A BloomBox, made up of four systems, 

can light up an entire neighborhood of 100 homes. 

Sridhar unveiled his product in an interview with CBS “60 Minutes” 

in 2010, eight years after founding the company. In Feb. 2010, 

Bloom held its first press conference, to much buzz. Bloom Boxes 

are now in front of the online giant eBay, making electricity from 

inexpensive methane. They also power industry heavyweights 

Google, WalMart and FedEx.

Sridar serves as a strategic limited partner at Kleiner Perkins 

Caufield & Byers and as a special advisor to New Enterprise 

Associates. Sridhar received his BS in Mechanical Engineering with 

Honors from the University of Madras (now called NIT, Trichy), 

India, as well as his master’s degree in Nuclear Engineering and 

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, 

Urbana-Champaign.

A videotape of the KR Sridhar lecture will be available on the NRP 

website at researchpark.arc.nasa.gov

Dr. KR Sridhar spoke to a full house 

at the NRP Exploration Lecture in 

Bldg. 3 on January 18, discussing 

Bloom Energy’s NASA roots.
NRP Post

4 www.nasa.gov

New NRP Partner LatIPnet, 

with NASA’s Dr. Meyya Meyyapan, 

Inspires Students and Promotes 

Nanotechnology Partnerships 

in Mexico

by Emilio Martinez de Velasco Aguirre

LatIPnet is a non-profit organization 

that promotes global synergies to 

turn knowledge and scientific and 

technological resources into economic 

development opportunities for Latin 

countries. Based at NASA Research 

Park since July 2010, LatIPnet fosters 

collaborative partnerships between 

research institutions, companies and 

government agencies in Silicon Valley 

and their counterparts in Latin America 

and southern Europe, to promote 

innovation-based economic activities.

LatIPnet has actively leveraged the 

resources available at NASA Research 

Park, even before becoming a NASA 

Partner. In February 2010 it organized 

a series of videoconferences in 

the State of Guanajuato, Mexico, 

where an audience of more than 

300 students, entrepreneurs and 

academics interacted in real time with 

Dr. Meyya Meyyappan, Director of the 

Center for Nanotechnology at NASA 

Ames Research Center. These virtual 

encounters achieved two important 

goals aligned with NRP’s mission of 

stimulating innovation and education in 

science and research disciplines critical 

to space exploration. 

First, Dr. Meyya Meyyappan inspired 

hundreds of Mexican students to 

continue an education in any science, technology, engineering and 

mathmatics (STEM) discipline. Students 

flocked from all around the State of 

Guanajuato to hear Dr. Meyyappan 

talk about his work and experience 

in nanotechnology, many traveling 

from remote towns. Dr. Meyyappan 

remarked, “nanotechnology will be 

the technology of the 21st Century. 

This revolution is going on pretty 

much across the world. One of our 

obligations is to take it seriously and 

put effort into educating our younger 

generation of scientists and engineers 

for the future.”

These videoconferences with 

Dr. Meyyappan also promoted 

collaborations between NASA and 

several research centers in the State 

of Guanajuato. Dr. Meyyappan 

talked about the multiple potential 

applications of his work with carbon 

nanotubes and how nanotechnology is 

opening new opportunities for innovation in various fields and industries. 

“Nanotechnology is not a single technology,” Dr. Meyyappan remarked, “you 

have to think of it as a broad, enabling 

technology that will impact the entire 

economic spectrum.” His presentation 

showed current applications and future 

prospects for nanotechnology, such as 

its role in the development of ubiquitous 

computing, personalized medicine, 

new advanced materials, intelligent 

appliances and solid state lighting which 

benefits the health, energy, environment, transportation, manufacturing 

and national security sectors.

These presentations were crucial in 

helping researchers in the State of 

Guanajuato identify areas of potential 

collaboration with NASA in the field of 

nanotechnology. Currently, LatIPnet is 

working with Guanajuato’s Research 

Center in Optics (CIO) and Research 

Center in Mathematics (CIMAT) to 

manifest collaborative projects in 

nanomaterials with applications to 

lithium batteries, solar energy and 

other clean tech industries. 

To learn more about Dr. Meyya 

Meyyappan’s videoconferences in 

Guanajuato and about the work of 

LatIPnet, visit www.latipnet.org.

An audience of more than 300 students, academics and entrepreneurs from all corners of the the state 

of Guanajuato, Mexico, interacted with NASA Ames’ Dr. Meyya Meyyappan in a series of videoconferences on nanotechnology organized by LatIPnet.
NRP Post

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 5

NRP Partner TakshaShila University Offers 

Technical Short Courses

TakshaShila University offers technical short-courses (12 or 18 hours) that can aid workforce 

development and capacity building. Courses are taught by renowned discipline experts and will 

be held at or near NASA Research Park.

March 16-18, 2011 -- Dr. Don Edberg -- TRS122: Introduction to Spacecraft Design and 

System Engineering (www.taksha.org/course/TRS122)

This 3-day course is an overview of all factors that affect design and operation of satellites and 

spacecraft – ideal to obtain a solid background in the “big picture” of spacecraft design and how 

the puzzle pieces fit together. Engineers, scientists and managers who want to understand the 

many aspects of spacecraft design should benefit from this course. Course Fee: $720.00. Early 

Registration Fee: $648.00.

April - May, 2011 -- Dr. Jack Margolis and Dr. Vijay Natraj -- TRS105: Remote Sensing 

Instrument Design - Basics and Trade-Offs (www.taksha.org/course/TRS105)

A primer on remote sensing instrument design, this 2-day course provides a broad grasp of how 

trade-offs in instrument design affect information content of observations and how changes 

in one aspect of instrument technology affect other aspects of design. Useful to managers, 

engineers, and scientists required to be familiar with all aspects of the field, and for beginners by 

pointing out what areas of physics and chemistry are important in instrument design. Course 

Fee: $599. 00. Early Registration Fee: $540.00.

March – April, 2011 – Dr. Ben Herman – TRS101: Fundamentals of Atmospheric Radiation 

(www.taksha.org/course/TRS101)

This 2-day course provides an introduction to the basic definitions, laws, and concepts of 

atmospheric radiation. This course will prepare students for further coursework, research, or 

applications in which the basic principles are required to develop more advanced principles of 

radiation and radiative transfer. Course Fee: $599. Early Registration Fee: $540.00.

Late Spring, 2011 (Exact Date TBA) -- Dr. Roger Pielke -- TRS107: Global, Regional, and 

Mesoscale Weather Models: Basic Science and Engineering Components (www.taksha.org/

course/TRS107)

Mesoscale meteorological models are used in many studies and disciplines, such as weather 

prediction, hydrologic modeling, air chemistry, atmospheric dispersion, regional and climate 

assessments, and planetary atmospheres. This 2-day course is a unique opportunity to learn 

theoretical and practical aspects of mesoscale modeling from a world authority on the subject. 

Course Fee: $599.00. Early Registration: $540.00.

 TU provides services on a worldwide 

basis, with a wide degree of integrated 

talent and resources to meet client 

needs in government, industry, international organizations, and education 

and training. A research and education 

institution, TU is comprised of full and 

part-time scientists, engineers, humanities scholars, and educators who maintain a close working relationship with a 

diverse group of scientists, engineers, 

agricultural and medical researchers, 

health experts, and educators from 

universities, industry, research organizations, government laboratories. TU is an 

independent, tax-exempt organization 

headquartered in Hampton, VA.

To register or for further info contact: 

Ms. Catherine Houlahan, TU Course 

Administrator (757-766-5832, 

houlahan@taksha.org), 

Dr. Paul Try, Executive Director, IFAORS 

(contact@taksha.org) or 

Adarsh Deepak, Ph. D., President, 

TakshaShila University 

(a.deepak@taksha.org, 757-272-3066).

design, which is particularly of interest to the military. The 

outer shell of the BulletTM Class 580 is made from a new 

generation of Kevlar, a registered trademark of DuPont, 

currently used in the production of bullet proof vests. The 

BulletTM Class 580s ability to run on algae fuel also makes it 

the “greenest” platform in the sky.

Because the BulletTM Class 580 can do what satellites, 

helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft can do – fly on station 

at medium and high altitude, and stay aloft for long 

duration – EGT /21st Century airships are often referred 

to as multifunctional “inflatable satellites.” Missions for 

BulletTM Class 580 include communications relay, broadcast 

communications, missile defense, airspace/maritime 

surveillance, weather and environmental monitoring, 

electronic countermeasures and weapons platforms, as 

well as providing long endurance platforms for geophysical surveys, and monitoring of oil spills and forest fires, 

among other civilian and military uses. EGT airships will 

operate with a manned crew, and an unmanned version is 

being developed.

In addition to the BulletTM Class 580, EGT/21st Century 

manufacturers a family of airships, developed over a period 

16 years, utilizing the company’s proprietary technology. The 

company has successfully flown 14 prototypes, consistently 

exhibiting performance enhancing advantages over existing 

airships. EGT’s two current product lines include the Spherical 

Class Airship and the BulletTM Class Airship. For the BulletTM 

Class, in addition to current vertical market applications, 

future designs will address both the Heavy Lift Market and 

High Altitude Market above 65,000 feet. The Spherical Class 

airship’s shape offers unique attributes for the corporate 

sponsorship market, such as the EGT/21st Century “Soccer 

Airship cont’d from page 3

Airship cont’d on page 8

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 5
NRP Post

6 www.nasa.gov

test results, “The results appear very promising in that regular 

Vasper use appears to boost the levels of anabolic hormones 

such as testosterone, DHEAS, and IGF1. It may also help 

normalize the level of the stress hormone cortisol. This occurs 

normally with better sleep patterns, which Vasper appears to 

improve. The anabolic hormones such as GH (IGF1) are also 

known to improve with better sleep patterns.”

Vasper Technology, based on the principles of liquid cooled 

vascular compression, core cooling and active electrical grounding, is designed to stimulate production of the endogenous 

human growth hormone and other endogenous anabolic 

hormones by using a revolutionary patent- pending device, 

functionally integrated into traditional exercise equipment.

Human Growth Hormone is naturally produced by the pituitary 

gland when we either perform intense physical exercise or get 

a sufficient amount of deep sleep. Most adults do not generate 

sufficiently high levels of HGH to optimally replenish and 

rejuvenate their bodies. HGH levels decline, on average, by 14% 

every 10 years after puberty. As our bodies produce less and less HGH 

it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the optimal state of health, 

both mental and physical, and to recover from injuries. Vasper’s ability to 

increase and maintain high levels of endogenous HGH provides real and 

sustainable benefits, including elevated energy levels and metabolic rate, 

accelerated post injury recovery, increased focus and clarity of mind, more 

restful sleep and many other desirable effects on the body.

On December 1, 2010, Vasper Systems California, LLC signed an enhanced 

use lease agreement with Ames Center Director, S. Pete Worden. Vasper 

Systems California, LLC has now begun operations in Bldg. 566 near NASA 

Research Park’s Shenandoah Plaza Historic District. This NRP location is 

our new Vasper Center, and we will begin operations during the first two 

months of 2011.

To contact the Vasper team, go to http://vasper.com and complete the contact form.

Vasper Systems California LLC

NASA Research Park

MS 566-111, B/566, Suite 111, P.O. Box 1

Moffett Field, California 94035-0001

Tel: 650 903-0098

cell: 650 222-1199

Vasper Systems LLC in Honolulu Hawaii

can be reached at 831 454-6299

Peter Z. Wasowski

Bill Collins, psychologist, and former 

Air Force officer

Vasper Systems cont’d from page 1

NRP Post

James Lerager

James Lerager

James Lerager
NRP Post

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 7

Darryl Kan MD, orthopedic surgeon 

and the senior partner, Orthopedic 

Associates-Hawaii

“The science and technology of the 

Vasper System is light years ahead of 

its time. It has tremendous potential 

to revolutionize how we address 

strength training and rehabilitation”.

“Vasper allows me to achieve the 

performance results of a 2-hour 

workout in 20 minutes. It’s amazing 

to experience a lactic acid burn 

within a few minutes of use. 

Over the past year I have seen 

significant improvement in my 

health, productivity and cognitive 

ability. As a leader, I couldn’t imagine 

tackling the day without it.

Vasper is ideally suited for our 

military mission as it relieves stress, 

improves the quality of sleep and can 

be performed anywhere at anytime.”

Lt. Col. Steve Butow, Vice Commander, 

129th Rescue Wing

Yvonne Cagle, M.D., Flight Surgeon; NASA 

Ames Advisor for Strategic Partnerships; 

Col, USAF, Ret.

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 7

“Imagine your toughest workout 

leaving you feeling like you’ve finished 

little more than a warm-up, and 

hungry to then power through your 

usual maximum exercise routine?

Imagine your workout serving as 

the architect for musculoskeletal 

plasticity and bone restoration 

coupled to enhance cardiac fitness 

and exercise tolerance?

Imagine sustained low-level load 

exercise serving as the gateway to 

accelerated healing instead of the 

speed bump on the road to recovery.

In addition, the Vasper system is 

activating, harnessing and exploiting 

the body’s own natural fat buster. As 

a result of natural HGH’s lipolytic activity, it burns energy preferentially from 

fat cells, instead of sugars confined to 

bloodstream uptake or muscle. 

Instead of imagining, qualify on the 

prescreen and, after just a 20-minute ride, 

begin to experience the Vasper difference.

Due to Vasper’s apparent restorative 

influence on multiple organ system 

fronts, there is potential that such 

a biomimicry-based endogenous 

growth hormone approach may be 

of value as an integrated low-profile 

countermeasure for maintaining 

bone, muscle, and cardiac fitness during long duration space adaptation 

and performance in microgravity, as 

well as functional tolerances upon 

return to a gravity vector.”

“Recovering and regenerating from 

the demands of a professional 

competition schedule and an inseason training program is critical for 

the athlete’s health and performance. 

“Under Recovery” decreases performance and increases injury potential. 

With the Vasper compression technology we have been able to receive 

a metabolic training effect, AND 

utilize the body’s naturally occurring 

hormones to help rejuvenate muscle 

tissue, connective tissue and nerve 

cells. The effects on both off-ice San 

Jose Sharks training and recovery 

for our hockey team have been 

astounding. Our players have been 

able to achieve more restful sleeping 

patterns at night which we believe 

helps to facilitate the healing process.

We are in a day and age where 

supplements are a billion dollar 

industry. In that industry there is 

a high level of risk of the supplements being tainted with banned 

substances. Vasper’s technology is 

a tool shown to manipulate existing 

HGH levels within the body to elicit 

a regenerative effect and improve 

strength gains.

I would recommend implementing 

the Vasper compression protocol not 

only for improvements in metabolic 

training but as a recovery tool both 

during and out of season.”

Mike Potenza M.Ed, CSCS 

Strength and Conditioning Coach

for the San Jose Sharks

Views on the Vasper System
NRP Post

8 www.nasa.gov

Dr. Diamandis also presented 

spectacular video footage of two 

other organizations he co-founded: 

the Rocket Racing League, a new 

21st century sport with contestants 

racing each other in rocket propelled planes; and Zero G, a company providing parabolic flights to 

experience weightlessness inside 

an airplane. Diamandis shared one 

of his most memorable moments 

onboard the Zero G jet which 

involved providing Professor Stephen Hawking, the world renowned theoretical physicist suffering from neuro-muscular dystrophy, with the opportunity to 

experience the freedom of weightlessness. 

Concluding with his most recent endeavor, Singularity University, 

Dr. Diamandis described this latest innovation as a NASA Ames based institution aimed at nurturing and counseling the world’s top enterprises how to 

utilize exponential technologies and incentivized innovation to dramatically 

accelerate their business objectives. 

The evening concluded with co-mingling and networking, encouraging idea 

exchange and cross fertilization of aerospace and Silicon Valley cultures. Over 

snacks and drinks the guests enjoyed interaction with Dr. Diamandis, government, non-profit and industry representatives, and students. 

The Silicon Valley Space Business Roundtable (SVSBR) was founded to 

encourage the growth and development of aerospace-related businesses 

in California’s Silicon Valley. SVSBR collaborates with for-profits, universities, 

other non-profit organizations, and government agencies including NASA 

Ames Research Center. As the west coast’s only organization of its kind, SVSBR 

provides input to leadership groups to expand the area’s business base by 

providing specific recommendations to improve the space business climate. 

SVSBR has its sights on the future of high technology and provides forums by 

aerospace leaders to educate the growing industry on initiatives and goals. 

For future SVSBR events and membership information, please visit: www.svsbr.org 

Silicon Valley Space Business 

Roundtable Features 

Dr. Peter Diamandis

On October 20, 2010, the Silicon 

Valley Space Business Roundtable 

hosted an evening reception and networking event with a keynote by Dr. 

Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO 

of the X-Prize Foundation. More than 

75 guests from the aerospace industry, Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial 

and investment community, students 

of local universities and government 

representatives attended the event at 

the NASA Ames Conference Center at 

NASA Research Park.

Dr. Diamandis’ captivating presentation, “The Best Way to Predict the 

Future is to Create it Yourself,” mesmerized the audience with his recap of the 

$10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private 

spaceflight, his status overview of 

the Google Lunar X PRIZE, and his 

discussion of the potential for asteroid 

mining to drive the future expansion 

of private space exploration.

Artist Rendering of EGT Airship BulletTM Class 580 in flight: 

Sightseeing/Rear left view (2010)

E-Green Technologies/21st Century Airships

8 www.nasa.gov

Ball,” the largest lighter-than-air Soccer Ball airship in the 

world, as well as other low-altitude capabilities for security 

and communications at sporting and other events.

First flight of the BulletTM Class 580 is planned for early 

2011 from Moffett Field. It will carry a joint NASA LARC 

and Old Dominion University (ODU) payload, the Radar 

Oxygen Barometric Sensor RAOBS) Project, a remote sensing instrument for measuring barometric pressure at sea 

level. This is an important meteorological measurement 

in the prediction and forecasting of tropical storms and 

hurricanes. To learn more about E-Green Technologies, Inc. 

and the new BulletTM Class 580, visit the company website 

at www.e-greentechnologies.com.

Airship cont’d from page 5
NRP Post

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 9

interACT Presidential Summit on the Globalized University Held 

Nov. 8-9 at CMU Silicon Valley

by Richard Power, CyLab Distinguished Fellow and 

Nichole Dwyer, Manager of Web Communications, CyLab

How do you prepare students for this 21st Century world, so different from everything that came before it? How do you give them the edge? How do you prepare 

them to work together? What kind of an education will ensure that globalization 

works for the next generation? Hopefully, in the years to come, the International 

Center for Advanced Communications Technology (interACT) will provide some 

powerful answers to these profound questions.

Attendees at a two-day interACT Presidential Summit, held at NASA Research 

Park in Mountain View, CA, home of the Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley 

Campus (CMUSV) tackled these and other compelling questions.

InterACT is a joint center between seven of the leading institutions in the US, 

Europe and Asia: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA and Silicon Valley, 

CA, USA ; Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Italian Institute of 

Technology , Genova, Italy; Karlsruhe Institute of Technology , Karlsruhe, Germany; 

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo, Japan; 

University of Southern California , Los Angeles, USA; Waseda University, Tokyo, 

Japan. 

Founded in 2004, the center is affiliated with the School of Computer Science at 

each institution.

interACT’s mission is to train students, staff and faculty to operate in international 

research teams across multinational and multicultural boundaries. The center 

offers international exchange programs, seminars and academies, and facilitates 

cross-national research projects. The center conducts research on technologies, 

processes and policies that facilitate and improve cross-cultural understanding, 

cross-lingual communication, transnational cooperation and collaboration.

The President’s Panel, a far-ranging, hour-long discussion on the first evening of the 

Summit, was composed of representatives from all the participating institutions, 

including several university presidents, as well as researchers from critical fields in 

science and engineering.

At the beginning of the event, Prof. Dr. 

Alex Waibel and Karlsruhe Institute of 

Technology, the Director of interACT, 

spoke on what interACT is and what it 

is dedicated to accomplish:

“It is a somewhat unusual organization, or consortium. It’s a network of 

universities that want to collaborate 

in preparing for a globalized future. 

Universities are by their definition 

very nature typically local, and 

regional ... but the world is changing.”

In his welcoming remarks, the engaging Dr. Pete Worden, Director of NASA 

Ames, outlined the human space flight 

aspect of NASA’s mission and other 

vital, less widely understood aspects: 

“NASA spends about a quarter of 

what it does to help people here 

on Earth ... we are trying to develop 

environmentally responsible aviation, 

lowering noise, lowering pollution, 

but most importantly steering away 

from carbon-based fuels. At Ames 

we are also helping develop the next 

generation air traffic control system... It 

is also largely a NASA mission initiative 

that has characterized global warming 

and climate change, an area that is 

extremely important... and in the next 

decade or so, we are going to be able 

to get site-specific climate prediction...”

At the conclusion of the President’s 

Panel, Dr. Jared Cohon, President 

of CMU, summarized on behalf of 

interACT: “We brought together the 

seven member institutions to consider 

how interACT is doing, the benefits to 

our institutions and what we might do 

moving forward. The seven institutions 

strongly endorse InterACT, believing 

it successful, that all our institutions 

benefited, and that it has produced 

real results in research and education. 

interACT represents a global collaboration of a dimension rarely seen, is 

growing rapidly, and will provide a lot 

of leavening for others.”

interAct Presidential Summit on the Globalized University at NASA Ames Conference Center, 

NASA Research Park. 
NRP Post

10 www.nasa.gov

Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley Ribbon Cutting for New Wing in Bldg. 19

On Jan. 12, 2011, Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley celebrated opening a new 

campus wing in Bldg. 19 at NASA Research Park. The wing, Rms. 1050-60, has 

11 rooms renovated to accommodate two conference rooms, one office space, 

three work areas for 30 graduate students, two work areas for 16 researchers, two 

offices for Institute Telecom, a partner of Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, and one 

student/faculty lounge.

This was the final of a three-phase renovation plan that began in 2008 with 

the transformation of Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley’s main campus Bldg. 

23. “We’ve seen tremendous growth in our academic and research areas. I’m 

pleased we can provide new accommodations for our graduate students and 

researchers. It feels like every time we finish construction on a new phase, 

we immediately outgrow it! This is an exciting time to be at the Silicon Valley 

campus,” said Dr. Martin Griss, director of the Silicon Valley campus and 

associate dean at the College of Engineering.

NRP Holiday Party

NRP’s Holiday Party 

with Space Portal 

group held Dec. 16, 

2010 in Bldg. 555. 

Great food, great 

music, and a surprise 

visit by Elvis! 

Astrid Olson

Elvis Tribute Artist 

Robert Elvis Wilkinson 

just arrived from England. 
NRP Post

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 11

Gary Air

Trish and Dave Guerrieri of GaryAir, a long time NASA Research Park supporter 

and tenant, are flying passengers in their brand new Cessna 182 to communities 

throughout the Western United States with their recently awarded FAA Air Carrier 

Certificate. The Sunnyvale couple received clearance in September 2010 from the 

FAA for their charter service after an extensive safety review. GaryAir was previously featured in an NRP Post article describing their collaboration with NASA’s 

Flight Deck Display Research Laboratory. Now, during aircraft repositioning legs 

when passengers are not aboard, they can offer NASA the available flight time to 

provide feedback on the latest aircraft instrumentation advancements that will 

improve safety and efficiency in the National Airspace System. 

The Cessna carries two to three passengers, depending on passenger and 

baggage weight and the distance travelled. Recently GaryAir flew a stranded 

airline passenger from San Francisco International Airport to Las Vegas for a 

trade show. The passenger would have otherwise had to wait for a standby 

flight the next morning, making him unable to set up his trade show display in 

time. Instead he called GaryAir at 6:10 pm, who dispatched the Cessna 182 by 

8 pm, and arrived in Las Vegas shortly after 11 pm. The return trip was available 

for NASA flight deck display research and evaluation.

For more than five years, the South Bay couple has acted as an air taxi broker, 

and has collaborated on NASA’s Cockpit Display of Traffic Information projects. 

They have booked flights to Lake Tahoe and hundreds of other West Coast destinations for other air taxi operators, finding the best match of services for its 

clients. They will continue to provide this service. “If our plane is not the right 

plane for the mission, we will act as a broker to find people another operator 

who suits them best,” Guerrieri said. Trish is an FAA Certificated Dispatcher, and 

Dave -- who once flew F-14 fighters for the Navy and has taught many new 

pilots to fly -- has been a pilot since 1981, when he learned to fly at the Moffett 

GaryAir’s New Cessna 182 on display at the Lake Tahoe Lake in the Sky Airshow. The aircraft 

and its Garmin G1000 Glass Cockpit will assist NASA’s Flight Deck Display Research.

cont’d on page 12

Success is Intrinsyx

by Mike Schulz

Intrinsyx is a small business that works 

with Lockheed Martin at both

NASA Ames and NASA Dryden to 

support the ODIN program teams.

Intrinsyx was ranked #15 out of the top 100 

Emerging Small Businesses in America by 

Business Diversity.com in 2010.

Intrinsyx won a Lockheed Martin 

RFP competition for the Advanced 

Technology Center in Palo Alto, 

working on the NASA Solar Dynamics 

Observatory (SDO) mission.

Intrinsyx was the winner of the RFP to 

re-compete for the ODIN contract. 

Intrinsyx is providing IT Support at 

Dryden Flight Research Center and at 

Ames Research Center on the ODIN 

teams.

Intrinsyx is delivering Phase 2 of the 

NASA Security Operations Center (SOC). 

This role is a continuation for Intrinsyx to 

help develop the NASA SOC.

Intrinsyx continues to support the small 

businesses of the NASA Research Park. 

Intrinsyx currently provides IT support 

to Magenn, Pragati, ESDRMV, and 

LatIPnet. We are looking to help other 

small businesses with inexpensive, fast, 

and reliable IT Services.

Intrinsyx is on teams for two of the 

NASA I3P contracts. These multi-billion 

dollar contracts are for the development and integration of enterprisewide systems to manage the agency.

Intrinsyx is helping the NASA Ames 

Supercomputing Facility with the 

customization and integration of the 

BMC Remedy package.

Intrinsyx has teamed with EADS Astrium 

to provide scientific hardware to the 

International Space Station.

Intrinsyx has teamed with IPVS to 

provide high resolution IP video 

systems for training, simulation, video 

conferencing, and other applications.
NRP Post

12 www.nasa.gov

Navy Flying Club while a Fremont 

High School student.

The couple has a special place in 

their heart for South Lake Tahoe 

where they own a second home, 

but they can fly to any public-use 

airport in the Western United States. 

In the Tahoe region this could be 

Truckee, Minden or Reno, so their 

passengers have alternatives if 

the weather in South Lake is not 

cooperating. “There are thousands 

of underutilized airports that many 

people don’t realize are available and 

very close to them, that can keep 

you out of traffic and have you on 

your way in no time”, says Trish. For 

example, the Las Vegas passenger 

took a 10-minute cab ride from SFO 

to San Carlos Airport, where he could 

meet GaryAir and be in the plane 

and flying in minutes. Parking is 

convenient and there are no crowds. 

The same situation exists at Palo 

Alto Airport, Reid-Hillview Airport in 

San Jose,and also Hayward, Oakland 

North Field, Novato, San Martin, and 

Hollister, just to name a few.

One thing they have over commercial 

airlines is no need to book two weeks 

in advance for the best rate. For 

example, their rates start at $250 per 

person to South Lake Tahoe, if three 

people travel together. A group 

flying back and forth the same day 

will get the best rate.

From the website (www.GaryAir.us) 

people can get quotes and more 

information about fares.

The plane is based at Reid-Hillview 

Airport in San Jose. Having the plane 

near the population base is more 

economical than keeping it at the 

most popular destination. 

Dave Guerrieri, who is also the company’s first pilot, expects to fly mostly 

during daylight hours. Mornings provide the safest and most comfortable 

flying conditions when flying to the mountains. The single engine airplane can 

also fly at night, but it is not recommended in mountainous terrain. “For those 

situations, that’s when it’s best for us to fly them in a twin engine aircraft,” says 

Mr. Guerrieri. “We are working to add a Beechcraft Baron to our certificate very 

soon. It will also be more capable during rainy weather.”

The FAA clearance was granted more than 2 years following their first application. During this time inquiries have been coming in from second homeowners 

and skiers in mountain areas in Tahoe and Mammoth. 

It’s not just people recreating in resort areas who the Guerrieris anticipate using 

their service. Their plane, they say, is ideal for shuttling the businessperson 

between multiple cities in a day. It also allows people living in more remote 

areas to get to larger cities for meetings and back again. GaryAir serves many 

small and large businesses who can greatly improve their efficiency by attending several business meetings in dispersed locations and be home with their 

families for dinner. 

They anticipate creating a ride-sharing program for people who want to go to 

the same place but don’t want to charter the entire plane for themselves. Dave 

had worked as a software engineer for GTE and Boeing before returning to his 

piloting career. “Ride share systems created for automobiles could also be used 

for aircraft, allowing all modes of transportation to work seamlessly,” he explains.

With everything so easy and accessible on the Internet, we can easily serve the 

entire West Coast from one office in NASA Research Park,” Guerrieri notes.

They aren’t worried about the ongoing recession impacting their business, 

saying they’ve seen the charter industry beginning to rebound. The couple 

brought their plane to the Sky Air Show at Lake Tahoe Airport in August, and 

several other airport events around Northern California. They have supported 

several community charity events over the years in Silicon Valley and Lake 

Tahoe, giving away free flights for live and silent auctions, so they already have 

good name recognition. “One of the best things about being a small business 

is the ability to personally connect to the community, and the feeling that we 

can contribute to local quality of life like no big business can,” says Mr. Guerrieri.

More information about GaryAir can be found at: 

Website: www.GaryAir.us 

Email: info@GaryAir.us

Phone: (408) 805.4359

For more information about NASA’s Flight Deck Display Research Laboratory: 

humansystems.arc.nasa.gov/groups/FDDRL/ 

This article was adapted from an article originally posted in October at www.laketahoenews.net 

Gary Air cont’d from page 9
NRP Post

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 13

Purdue cont’d on page 14

Women @ the Frontier of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Bringing together a diverse group of innovators and entrepreneurs, from different backgrounds and industries, is key to Singularity University’s vision for 

changing the world. To that end, SU recently hosted “Women @ the Frontier” 

(W@F), the first in a series of forums featuring top women entrepreneurs, 

humanitarian, innovators, scientists and techies creating positive change 

around the globe.

Led by SU Founding Architect Susan Fonseca-Klein and moderated by SU 

Trustee Sonia Arrison Senkut, Women @ the Frontier featured an amazing 

group of women from biotech, humanitarian outreach, innovation, space, 

and venture capital discussing their journey in leveraging exponential 

trends, leadership and the power of entrepreneurship to design solutions 

that could positively impact one billion people.

In addition to the panel of leading women, the event showcased top organizations significantly transforming the lives of women and girls, including: 

Anita Borg, Pachamama Alliance, Women2.0, Girls in Tech, NAWBO, Spark, 

Samasource, ThinkIndia, Green Energy Tech, NCWIT, Soul of Money, and 

many others.

Why a women’s forum? W@F creator Fonseca-Klein explained, “The solutions 

needed to address today’s grand challenges require true diversity of ideas, 

experiences, culture and disciplines. In order to achieve this goal, we must 

raise the voice of women from a whisper to a conversation, highlighting successful female pioneers and including the wisdom of mothers, daughters, 

sisters, and wives.”

Many thanks again to Liddy Karter of Karter Capital Advisors, Laurie Yoler of 

GrowthPoint Technology Partners, Rebecca Moore of Google Earth Outreach 

program, Cynthia Kenyon of UCSF’s Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging, 

BlogHer’s Lisa Stone, and astronaut Yvonne Cagle of NASA Ames for their 

words of inspiration and leadership.

Photo Caption: Women @ the Frontier (L-R) Susan Fonseca-Klein, Liddy Karter, Sonia Arrison 

Senkut, Rebecca Moore, Laurie Yoler, Cynthia Kenyon, Yvonne Cagle

Purdue President France A. Córdova at Purdue’s 

West Coast Partnership Center kickoff Oct. 29 

at the Computer History Museum, Mountain 

View, CA. From 1993 -1996, Dr. Cordova was 

the youngest person, and first woman, to serve 

as NASA Chief Scientist, acting as the primary 

scientific advisor to the NASA administrator.

John C. Boyle, head of Purdue’s new West Coast 

Partnership Center, speaks at the kickoff. Boyle, 

with a BS in EE from Purdue, and an MBA from 

Stanford University, has worked for corporations including Hewlett-Packard and General 

Motors, startups and smaller companies such as 

VeriFone and 3Com, and has been a partner in 

two Silicon Valley venture capital firms, Worldview 

Technology Partners and Matrix Partners.

Purdue Launches West Coast 

Partnership Center at NRP

by John Christopher Boyle

More than 200 people packed the Computer 

History Museum auditorium in Mountain View, CA, 

on Oct. 29 to help Purdue kick off its West Coast 

Partnership Center. 

 

The center will serve to link Purdue’s expertise 

in engineering and technology with the 

West Coast’s high tech companies and 

entrepreneurs.

“Along with the many alumni attending were 

West Coast technology executives, media 

representatives, local officials and parents of 

current Purdue students,” said John C. Boyle, who 

heads up the new office. “The majority were from 

the Silicon Valley area, but some came from as 

far away as Los Angeles and Oregon. I met alums 

who graduated as recently as last year and as 

long ago as 1958.”’

President France A. Córdova led a delegation of 

distinguished faculty and administrators who 

traveled to Silicon Valley to take part in the event. 
NRP Post

14 www.nasa.gov

 An afternoon symposium included leading 

Purdue innovators discussing their work:

* Philip Low, the Ralph C. Corley Distinguished 

Professor of Chemistry, who has five targeted 

cancer drugs currently undergoing human trials 

and a company in place to commercialize them.

 

* Michael Ladisch, Distinguished Professor 

of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 

who directs multidisciplinary research efforts 

in bioenergy, bioprocessing, bioproducts, 

biorecovery and bionanotechnology.

 

* Alyssa Panitch, associate professor of 

biomedical engineering, who is developing 

innovative matrix materials to repair damaged bones, spinal cords, arteries and other 

tissues. 

 

* Gerry McCartney, vice president for information 

technology, chief information officer, and the 

Olga Oesterle England Professor of Information 

Technology, who is overseeing innovative use of 

IT in higher education, including creation of the 

nation’s largest campus cyberinfrastructure for 

science and engineering.

Purdue already has strong ties to Silicon Valley 

and California, home to more than 18,000 

alumni, the largest group after Indiana and 

Illinois. Purdue’s West Coast Partnership Center, 

located in NASA Research Park Bldg. 19, is 

designed to send Purdue technical expertise to 

the West Coast, bring research and development dollars back to Indiana, and provide 

Purdue’s faculty with new ideas for exploration.

JUSTAP Conference

by Jim Crisafulli, Director 

Hawaii Office of Aerospace Development

The State of Hawaii, host of the JUSTAP 

Conference, recently launched the Pacific 

International Space Alliance (PISA) - a publicprivate partnership to facilitate multinational 

collaboration on both robotic and human 

missions to space. Designed to reduce the 

costs and enhance the benefits of future 

space exploration, this dynamic coalition is 

now collaborating with NASA and the Pacific 

International Space Center for Exploration 

Systems (PISCES - also headquartered in 

Hawaii) to enable a sustainable human 

presence beyond low-Earth orbit through a 

proposed development of an international 

research park on the Moon that will provide 

multiple scientific, educational and commercial benefits to nations worldwide. Plans 

for the proposed international lunar research 

park could include prototyping through 

analog facilities on the Moon/Mars-like terrain 

of Hawaii’s “Big Island”, leading to a precursor 

“robotic village” on the lunar surface that will 

pave the way for future human habitation.

Kentucky Space Announces 

Japanese ISS Launch

 The HTV2 unmanned Japanese 

Spacecraft to the International Space 

Station (ISS) was successfully launched 

January 22, 2011, transporting three 

Kentucky Space associated CubeLabTM 

payloads. The launch took place at the 

Tanegashima Space Center in Japan.

These scientific payloads are part of the 

NanoRacks LLC/Kentucky Space joint 

initiative involving microgravity R&D on 

the ISS. The NanoRacks (NR) Platform, 

co-developed and built by NR and 

KS, provides a standardized platform 

and open architecture for experiment 

payloads on ISS. A NASA Space Act 

Purdue cont’d from page 13

Agreement with KS partner NR provides 

for regular missions to the ISS.

 The three missions include:

An experiment from Ohio State 

University (OSU) investigating the effects 

of microgravity on noncrystal growth. 

A payload developed by Valley 

Christian High (CVH) School in San 

Jose, California investigating growth 

dynamics of particular plants that 

might be used for human consumption on extended space missions. 

A special microscope facility 

developed by NanoRacks LLC for 

ongoing on board the ISS for future 

ISS experiments.

The Kentucky Space ISS Mission 

Operations Center (at the University of 

Kentucky) expects to begin “initiating the 

experiments in mid- February.” The CVH 

and OSU experiments will return to Earth 

later on a subsequent return mission.

 Kentucky Space LLC is a nonprofit 

enterprise involving select Kentucky 

universities, including Morehead 

State University and the University of 

Kentucky, focused on small entrepreneurial and educational space solutions.

Contact: Kris Kimel, 

kkimel@kentuckyspace.com or 

859-229-6161

14 www.nasa.gov

Dr. Dan Rasky, Director of 

NRP’s Space Portal, presented 

at the recent Japanese United 

States Science Technology and 

Space Applications Program 

(JUSTAP) annual conference on 

November 14-18th, 2010 on the 

big Island of Hawaii. 
NRP Post

www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov 15

“Bloom Boxes” Help Power 

Adobe Headquarters in 

San Jose

By Dana Hull

dhull@mercurynews.com

NASA Research Park startup Bloom 

Energy has maintained a low profile 

since it first raised the curtain on its fuel 

cell technology at a highly orchestrated 

news conference on September 27, 2010. 

But Adobe Systems was set to announce 

late Monday that it has chosen Bloom 

Energy’s technology to help power its 

corporate headquarters in downtown 

San Jose, making it Bloom’s largest 

single-site installation to date.

Adobe installed 20 vertically shaped 

wind turbines, made by Windspire 

Energy of Reno, at its headquarters in 

January. But with 2,500 employees and 

about a million square feet of office 

space, Adobe is eager to do even more 

to reduce its energy footprint.

Adobe’s high-rise offices at Park 

Avenue and Almaden Boulevard lack 

the roof space usually required to make 

solar power an attractive investment, 

so Adobe looked at fuel cells.

Fuel cells use hydrogen, natural gas, 

methane or other fuels to generate 

electricity through an electrochemical process that produces a fraction 

of the emissions of a typical power 

plant. For decades, researchers have 

tried to perfect solid oxide fuel cells, 

which operate at temperatures above 

800 degrees Celsius and can use fuels 

other than hydrogen. Bloom Energy 

says it has solved the major solid 

oxide engineering challenges and 

that its devices can recycle the waste 

heat to produce more electricity.

“We looked at several fuel cell 

providers,” said Randy Knox III, 

Adobe’s director of facilities and 

environmental programs. “The bright 

spot for Bloom is they reuse the heat 

to make the process more efficient.”

Twelve of the Bloom devices --

commonly known as “Bloom Boxes” 

-- were installed in late August and are 

now generating electricity 

from Adobe’s roof. Each 

Bloom Box provides 100 

kilowatts, enough power for 

about 100 U.S. homes. The 12 

together generate about 

1.2 megawatts, enough 

for about 30 percent of the 

Adobe Towers’ electricity 

needs.

The fuel cell technology is 

not cheap: The commercialscale boxes cost $700,000 

to $800,000 each and come with a 

10-year warranty on performance 

that includes any maintenance and 

replacement parts.

Adobe declined to discuss how 

much they paid Bloom, but Knox said 

Adobe expects the boxes to generate 

enough electricity for it to recoup its 

investment in four to six years.

Unlike solar power and wind, which 

are intermittent and dependent 

on the weather, fuel cells have the 

advantage of being able to run 24 

hours a day, 365 days a year.

Bloom Energy first vaulted onto the 

cleantech stage in February, at a jampacked news conference that featured Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger 

and former U.S. Secretary of State 

Colin Powell. The startup announced 

that Google, eBay, FedEx and WalMart were among its first customers, 

and that 20 Bloom Boxes were up 

and running.

Now with the 12 at Adobe, more 

than 50 Bloom Boxes have been 

installed, the company says, and it 

expects to have 100 in place by the 

end of the year.

“We’re trying to quietly go 

about building our business and 

growing our installed base,” said 

Stu Aaron, Bloom Energy’s vice 

president of marketing.

The company is also hiring and has 

more than 500 employees, up from 

about 300 in February.

http://shoreassociates.com

http://gigaom.com

The Adobe building in downtown San Jose

The new Bloom Boxes
Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Diane Farrar

Layout and Design . . . . . . . . Miki Huynh

Phone: (650) 604-2NRP

Email: researchpark@mail.nasa.gov

Website: www.researchpark.arc.nasa.gov

Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta tours the SkyTran 

maglev installation at Ames with Christopher Perkins, chairman of Unimodal 

Systems, on November 12, 2010.

Dr. Robert Baertsch discusses the SkyTran simulator 

with former Secretary of State George Shultz. Also 

pictured: George Loisos (Loisos + Ubbelohde) and 

Tiffany Montague (Google) on November 18, 2010.

Dignitaries Visit NASA Research Park

Second Conference on the 

Exploration of Phobos & Deimos

The Second International Conference 

on the Exploration of Phobos and 

Deimos will be held March 14-16 

2011 at NASA Ames Research Center, 

Moffett Field, CA. The conference is 

cosponsored by NRP Partner The Mars 

Institute, the SETI Institute, and the 

Lunar and Planetary Institute. 

For more info see:

http://www.seti.org/PhD2011

Nobel Prize recipient Dr. Baruch Blumberg 

and Dr. Martine Rothblatt, Founder and 

CEO of United Therapeutics, met with Ames 

Center Director Dr. Pete Worden Jan. 11, 

2011, after arriving Ames for an extensive 

briefing on NASA Research Park by NRP 

Director Michael Marlaire. Dr. Rothblatt, the 

Founder of Worldspace and Sirius Satellite 

Radio, is involved with the space program in 

numerous ways.

NP-2010-12-01-ARC