National Aeronautics and Space Administration

A Publication of NASA Research Park

Fall

2016

NRP POST

THE

The Tools of Change Are Here: What Will You do 

with Them?

Digital connectivity is a defining characteristic of the 21st century. And though it’s 

an often criticized aspect of modern society, it’s also making us more aware of 

our fellow human beings. News has never spread so rapidly across the globe or 

so widely illuminated global problems that desperately need more attention.

“It’s painful when we see an incident halfway across the world that’s grotesque,” said 

Ray Kurzweil this week at the Global Solutions Program (GSP) opening ceremony. 

“But it’s fundamentally a good thing because it harnesses our empathy to solve these 

problems...This is one world.”

Now in its 8th year, GSP is hosting 79 participants from 40 different countries, 16 

global impact competitions, and has 49% women in attendance.

Their wild 10-week journey to form companies that use technology to address a 

global grand challenge began this week. The group includes an entrepreneur working 

with a bioprinted liver on a chip for drug discovery and a startup founder whose 

company turns waste from water purification into fertilizer.

At the opening ceremony, the overarching call to action for the new GSP class was 

very clear. We’re living in the most connected and democratic time in history. We 

have more abundant access to information and technology than ever before. Now 

is the time to do something meaningful with it—we’re all in this world together.

Deep Space Industries 

Announces Plans for First 

Commercial Interplanetary 

Mining Mission

By Meagan Crawford; VP Strategic Communication 

Deep Space Industries

4th August 2016

Deep Space Industries announced this 

month its plans to fly the world’s first 

commercial interplanetary mining 

mission. Prospector-1TM will fly to and 

rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid, 

and investigate the object to determine 

its value as a source of space resources. 

This mission is an important step in the 

company’s plans to harvest and supply 

in-space resources to support the growing 

space economy.

“Deep Space Industries has worked diligently to get to this point, and now we 

can say with confidence that we have the 

right technology, the right team, and the 

right plan to execute this historic mission,” 

said Rick Tumlinson, chairman of the board 

and co-founder of Deep Space Industries. 

“Building on our Prospector-X mission, 

Prospector-1 will be the next step on our 

way to harvesting asteroid resources.”

Recently, Deep Space Industries and its 

Continued on page 8

Continued on page 6

Keynote speaker Dr. Dava Newman, deputy administrator of NASA

By Alison E. Berman 24th June 2016 | NASA Research Park
NRP Post

2 www.nasa.gov

IN THIS ISSUE

1 | Tools of Change

GSP Class talking technology. 

Where we are now and where it will 

take us in the future.

1 | First Commercial Interplanetary Mission

Deep Space Industries planning first 

commercial interplanetary mission 

2 | SkyTran Bridge Loan

30 Mil series B financing

3 | Global Entrepreneurship

Lecture panel for 2016 a success

4 | Optical Fiber in Microgravity

Made In Space at the forefront of 

technologies in microgravity

5 | CMU-SV Wireless to 

the Rescue

When the wires go down CMU 

and its drones are there to fix the 

problem

7 | Wireless Emergency 

Alert Technology

CMU Working with FCC for Emergency Wireless Alerts

10 | Modern Requirements Management

CMU Teaching future leaders for 

Fortune 100 companies

11 | CMU-SV’s Welcomes 

Vivek Wadhwa

Vivek Wadhwa Joins Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley

12 | Geo Cosmo Honored

GeoCosmo honored at NASA Research Park

12 | Jason Dunn

Jason presented the future of making things in space

12 | Photo Recognition

NRP Photos and Recognition

S

kyTran, developer of elevated and levitating high-speed rapid-transit systems for 

people and cargo, closed a Series B financing agreement. In a statement skyTran, 

based in NASA Research Park at Moffett Field, California, said the accord entailed 

“execution of a bridge loan tied to a $30 million Series B commitment.” The deal, negotiated and managed by Verita Merchant Bank of Hong Kong, enables skyTran to continue 

sales efforts and introduce the system worldwide. The company has demo systems in place 

at the NASA park and in Israel. SkyTran also has backing from Innovation Endeavors, the 

private venture-capital arm of Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.

S

kyTran® Inc., Headquartered at the NASA Research 

Park (NRP) in the heart of Silicon Valley, announced the 

execution of a Bridge Loan tied to a $30M USD Series 

B commitment. The Agreement, negotiated and managed 

by Verita Merchant Bank, a Boutique Hong Kong-based 

private investment and merchant bank, will allow skyTran 

to continue its global sales initiative and product roll-out.

skyTran is the developer of the patented, high-speed, elevated, levitating, energy-efficient 

skyTran Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) and Cargo Rapid Transit (CRT) system. skyTran consists 

of a network of computer-controlled, 2 and 4-person “jet-like” vehicles and cargo pods 

employing state-of-the-art, passive skyTran MagLev (STMLTM) technology. skyTran systems 

will transport passengers and cargo alike in a fast, safe, green, and economical manner. 

skyTran intends to revolutionize public transportation and the moving of light cargo within 

urban and suburban communities.

Verita Merchant Bank (VMB) is a boutique investment advisor and merchant bank. It represents global investors and structures international transactions worldwide. VMB assists 

investors, entrepreneurs, and management in building lasting companies that will have 

significant financial and human impact—companies that will create jobs, reduce carbon 

impact, and generally help provide for a greener planet.

Jed Schutz, CEO of VMB, stated, “Along with our investors, we recognize the combination 

of a big vision, outstanding management, and cutting edge technology applied to growing 

urban gridlock. We have every confidence that skyTran, its patented and patent-pending 

technology, and its unique position in the market is assured.”

Regarding the funding, Jerry Sanders remarked, “This funding, following as it does, on the 

heels of Innovation Endeavors’* investment, is yet another big step in establishing skyTran 

as the ‘go to’ solution to substantially reduce traffic congestion and carbon pollution.”

skyTran has Technology Demonstration Systems (TDS) at the NRP and in Israel. The TDS 

demonstrates all skyTran system components required to roll out commercial systems. It 

also enables continuous testing, monitoring, and improvement of skyTran’s technology in 

a controlled environment.

*Innovation Endeavors is the private venture capital arm of Eric Schmidt, Google’s Chairman.

2 www.nasa.gov

SkyTran Closes Bridge Loan Tied to $30 Million 

Series B Financing By: Robert Daniel

SILICON VALLEY, CA 26th April 2016

NRP Post
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 3

NRP Post

“to Boldly Go.....” - NRP Welcomes Public and Students to NRP 

June Global Entrepreneurship Panel By: Kathleen Burton

 1st October 2016

T

he public, NASA Ames employees, 

students and summer interns attended 

the NASA Research Park (NRP) Exploration Lecture: Global Entrepreneurship 

Panel 2016 on June 20 at 7 p.m. in Building 152.The panel was a satellite event 

to Stanford University’s GES (Global 

Entrepreneurship Symposium) held on 

June 23rd at Stanford, with luminaries such as President Barack Obama 

attending.

The GES panel featured Dr. Dan 

Rasky, Chief, Space Portal Office 

at NASA Ames; Grant Bonin, 

Chief Engineer, Deep Space 

Industries (DSI), NRP; and Dr. 

Anshu Roy, President and CEO 

of Rhombus Power, NRP.

The speakers discussed 

how their teams achieved 

maximum success in the 

global arena based on the 

NRP’s public-private partnership model. 

“Being at the NRP is an 

amazing experience 

providing a much 

needed innovation environment for young 

companies like ours,” 

said Roy. Being an 

NRP tenant has provided a solid foundation for his shift from 

academia to the entrepreneurial world, he 

noted. “For awhile in 2012, after founding 

Rhombus in 2011, I was building a neutron 

detector on my kitchen table, my fifth idea”

(after his Post-Doc work). “Being at the NRP 

has provided an incredible business model, 

as I am surrounded by like minded partners 

and NASA contacts,” he said.

The proof is plain to see. In June, Roy and 

a team of four entered Fukishima Nuclear 

Reactor in Japan to locate and replace a 

malfunctioning detector. “It was a highly 

contaminated environment,” he said. “This 

would have been impossible before our 

design for an accurate cloud-based monitoring system that detects nuclear reactor 

leaks and other problems.”

Rhombus’ vision, he 

said, “is to develop the next set of 

solutions for a safe nuclear world.” 

Rhombus’ advisory board includes Nobel 

Laureates Arno Penzias (Physics) and Alan 

Heeger, UC Santa Barbara (Chemistry).

Greg Bonin recently joined DSI, founded 

in 2012, an asteroid mining startup. DSI’s 

vision is the industrialization of the space 

frontier, using space materials as technology 

drivers. The company’s near term vision is to 

go beyond Low Earth Orbit (LOE). “The cost 

of launch is the bottleneck “ Bonin said. “To 

get there we have to cross the ‘Death Valley’ 

of launch vehicles with their volume limitations.” Another impediment: “Exploration 

of space won’t work if you must bring 

your own resources, so 

our plan is to use existing 

space materials instead.”

But he admits: “we must 

and are starting small” to 

make the grand vision work. 

The first step is to build a 

water-powered spacecraft 

to search for usable resources in space. DSI’s small 50KG 

spacecraft will use a water 

based propulsion system that 

uses water vapor to generate 

thrust. If successful, DSI hopes 

to market this to NASA and other 

space agencies. DSI’s larger goal 

is to launch to a deep space asteroid 

for a recon and mining mission by 

decade’s end (Prospector-1). Lower 

hanging fruit is their plan for the 

Prospector-X mission in 2017, to be 

launched into LOE as a tech test bed for 

exploration spacecraft, with the “pot of 

gold” goal the possibility of harvesting 

asteroid minerals and metals. 

Bonin noted that DSI’s current NASA SBIR 

Contract Number is NNX16CK02C - “Task 

Specific Asteroid Simulants for Ground 

Testing.”

“We are creating and supplying a variety of 

asteroid simulants - that is, substances that 

exhibit and mimic the physical characteristics 

of different asteroid composite material.”

Besides being headquartered at the NRP, 

DSI recently opened an office in Luxembourg. 

Continued on page 9
NRP Post

4 www.nasa.gov

Made in Space Plans to Create a Superior Optical 

Fiber in Microgravity By: Emily Calandrelli (@TheSpaceGal)

 13th July 2016

Made In Space, the company that 

owns and operates a 3D printer 

on the International Space Station, has announced their next big project: 

growing optical fiber in microgravity.

The company is scheduled to 

send a new manufacturing product to the ISS in the first quarter of 

2017. If initial tests are successful, 

the company could begin producing higher-quality optical fiber 

for applications here on Earth, 

like fiber-based internet, medical devices and sensors for the 

aerospace and defense industry.

The idea is that microgravity 

could possibly be an ideal environment to grow fiber. Today, 

optical fiber is used in many 

ways, but perhaps the application we’ve heard about the most 

is for telecommunications purposes (like in Verizon FiOS or Google Fiber).

With fiber-based internet, information is 

transmitted through fine, hair-like glass 

fibers with pulses of light. While this is 

much faster than transmitting data with 

electrical impulses through copper wire 

(the traditional method used by companies 

like Comcast), its efficiency is limited by the 

quality of the glass.

Terrestrially produced fiber, grown under 

the effects of gravity, suffers from certain 

glass impurities and microcrystal formations. These impurities contribute to scattering and absorption loss and reduce the 

overall quality of the fiber. This can result in 

signal degradation and becomes especially 

problematic when transmitting data across 

long distances.

Made In Space’s microgravity-optimized, 

miniature fiber drawing 

system / Image courtesy of Made In Space

Made In Space will attempt to create a better glass with their new 

product, “a microgravity-optimized, miniature 

fiber drawing system.” 

While a quantitative 

comparison is premature, the company believes that microgravity-grown optical fiber 

would improve both 

the response time and 

throughput advantage compared to traditional optical fiber currently in use for 

telecommunications.

“Made In Space’s in-space manufacturing activities expand the commercial envelope to making 

valuable goods there too. We 

believe in-space manufacturing 

of goods valuable to people on 

Earth will soon drive significant 

commercial activity in space, 

perhaps one day creating a 

space-based economic boom.”

— Andrew Rush, CEO of Made 

In Space

Made In Space has partnered 

with Thorlabs, an optical fiber 

and laser company. Together, 

they’ll produce test quantities 

of microgravity-grown fiber on 

the ISS, and run further tests on 

the product once it’s returned 

to Earth.

Continued on page 8

Infographic courtesy of Made In Space
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 5

NRP Post

locations requires a large antenna mast, 

and a lot of power. This can take many 

hours or even days to establish—and in 

an emergency, time is of the essence.

The solution? Drones.

The team at CMU-SV set up what they 

call a ‘rapidly deployable flying network.’ By attaching a Wi-Fi router to a 

drone, then flying the drone up above 

surrounding trees and buildings, the 

transmitter is able to connect to another 

site several kilometers away and relay 

the connection back to people on the 

ground, without the need for costly, 

complicated infrastructure.

“We were able to watch a YouTube 

video on our phones on the ground, 

connected to the drone in the air,” Teng 

says. “It paves the way for further work 

in emergency communications. You can 

carry these drones out and create a 

network within minutes, providing Wi-Fi 

to an entire area.”

This method is built on research Teng 

developed with ECE/CMU-SV Professor 

Bob Iannucci. They, along with the rest of 

the Wireless Innovators, are looking for 

more people who want to get involved.

“We would like to share our Field Day 

experience with the rest of the CMU 

community,” says Song. “Not only 

do we have the amateur radio 

club, but we’re starting a drone 

club as well, so we can teach students how to build and fly drones 

for themselves.”

The drone club will bring together students who are enthusiastic 

about drones, encouraging each 

other to apply the engineering 

skills they learn in class to build 

and fly interesting projects.

While these clubs create a fun 

atmosphere around the subject 

of amateur radio, every new 

development in emergency 

communications technology could 

save countless lives when disaster 

strikes. If this year’s Field Day event 

is any indication, the next generation of 

emergency response technology will be 

thanks to a small group of enthusiastic 

amateurs.

For more information on the CMU-SV Wireless Innovators, please visit: https://www.cmu.edu/silicon-valley/wireless-innovators/index.html

When Disaster Breaks the Internet, the CMU-SV Wireless Innovators 

Will Fix It—with Drones 

When a natural disaster strikes, not only 

does it put people’s lives in danger—it 

can leave them completely in the dark. 

Earthquakes knock out power, tornadoes 

pull down phone lines, and hurricanes 

make cellphone and internet connections 

impossible. When all else fails, the only 

way to get in touch with emergency personnel—and loved ones—is the radio.

For both authorities and civilians, Ham 

radio can be a lifesaving tool. Unfortunately, though the number of licensed 

amateur radio operators has risen 

steadily, with more than 715,000 in the 

FCC database by the end of 2013, these 

“hams” only make up around 2% of the 

country’s population. But every year, on 

the fourth weekend of June, amateur radio enthusiasts from across the U.S. and 

Canada fire up their radios to connect 

with each other and with people from 

around the world in an event known as 

Field Day, hosted by the Amateur Radio 

Relay League (ARRL).

“Amateur radio operators try to contact 

as many Ham radio stations as possible,” says Yalei Song, an electrical and 

computer engineering (ECE) 

alumna and president of CMUSV’s amateur radio club, the 

Wireless Innovators. “Sometimes, you have people in 

California speaking to people in 

Hawaii, or even Australia. We 

were even able to reach others 

in France. Some people get 

very competitive, seeing how 

many they can reach.”

Carnegie Mellon University’s 

Silicon Valley campus has been 

participating in Field Day since 

2014. But this year, the Wireless 

Innovators decided to have a 

little fun with more than just 

their radios.

“The average person today doesn’t 

really use voice communications that 

much,” explains ECE doctoral student 

Ervin Teng, the club’s technical operations manager. “What they care about is 

internet communication: text messages, 

photos. All of these things are incredibly 

valuable in emergency communications.”

Normally, setting up radio and internet 

communications in remote or extreme 

16th August 2016

www.nasa.gov/researchpark 5

NRP Post
NRP Post

6 www.nasa.gov

Tools of Change continued from page 1

It’s a sentiment inspired in no 

small part by space exploration, 

an endeavor in which courageous 

pioneers using cutting-edge technologies look down on the whole 

Earth.

Keynote speaker Dr. Dava 

Newman, deputy administrator of 

NASA and former aeronautics and 

astronautics professor at MIT, spoke 

about progress in space exploration 

and NASA’s goals for the future. 

Newman showed off detailed (and 

now iconic) snapshots from the New 

Horizons flyby of Pluto, noted that the 

Juno mission is scheduled to arrive at 

Jupiter in July, and looked ahead to the 

James Webb Space Telescope, which 

will look further out into the universe than even Hubble.

Of course, interplanetary travel has long been the domain 

of satellites and rovers, but Newman also outlined plans for 

human exploration beyond the Earth and Moon. She said 

NASA is planning a new rover on Mars by 2020 and boots 

on Mars by 2030.

Space exploration is about many things, but perspective is 

maybe one of its greatest gifts. We now know our sun is 

one of billions of stars in the galaxy, and our galaxy is one 

of billions in the universe. The Earth is but a blue mote of dust 

captured in the famous 1990 Voyager 1 image that inspired 

Carl Sagan to write:

“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of 

human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To 

me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with 

one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, 

the only home we’ve ever known.”

Throughout 

Newman’s talk, she repeated the 

phrase, “We’re all in this together.” And Kurzweil agreed. 

More and more of us can access the tools of change, and 

with them society is ready to step beyond the world’s barriers 

and boundaries.

This year’s GSP class will learn all about today’s most powerful 

tools—like artificial intelligence, robotics, sensors, and biotechnology—and dream up technology-inspired entrepreneurial 

projects they hope can positively impact a billion people.

It’s a daunting task to be sure, but the future belongs to the bold.

As CEO of Singularity University Rob Nail said, “We all have 

the ability to affect humanity. Why would we do anything less?” 

Rob Nail, CEO of Singularity University

NASA image: Journey to Mars

 Ray Kurzweil
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 7

NRP Post

CMU-SV’s Wireless Emergency Alert Featured Engineering Technology

By Emily Durham 20th June 2016 | CMU Silicon Valley 

T

he Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently 

adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that suggests 

updates to the current regulations concerning Wireless 

Emergency Alert (WEA) messages. These proposed revisions 

will improve the clarity and distribution of WEA messages by 

increasing their efficiency, reliability, accessibility, and timeliness 

to individuals impacted by disasters such as earthquakes, 

tornadoes, and floods.

The FCC’s proposed updates to WEA message regulations are 

supported by extensive research—including research performed 

by faculty members at Carnegie Mellon University Silicon 

Valley (CMU-SV).

The FCC cited Department of Homeland Security Science and 

Technology Directorate (S&T) research undertaken by the 

First Responders Group’s WEA Program, of which Carnegie 

Mellon faculty were a part. This research was the basis for 

the intended rule change, which will empower state and local 

alert originators to participate more fully in WEA and ensure 

that relevant emergency information reaches the public in a 

timely manner.

“The FCC report listed several proposed revisions to WEA, 

many of which we highlighted in our reports,” said Martin 

Griss, principal research scientist and director of the Disaster 

Management Initiative at CMU-SV. “These reports were 

designed to improve the clarity of WEA messages (increased 

message length, embedded URLs), improved geo-targeting 

(embedded polygons, and other methods), and periodic 

systematic testing and training, to ensure that WEA alerts 

only reach those individuals to whom a WEA alert is relevant.”

Former regulations had capped messages at a 90 character 

limit, but in order to improve the effectiveness of WEA message 

content, the proposed revisions includes an expansion of the 

maximum character length to 360. Additionally, the revisions 

call for regular testing of the WEA system and proficiency 

training for those sending the alerts, as well as an improvement 

of WEA geo-targeting through a requirement that commercial 

mobile service providers distribute WEA messages only to 

geographic areas that accurately match the location affected 

by disaster.

The Carnegie Mellon research had several key components, 

each of which contributed to the FCC’s proposed revisions. 

These components included interviews and surveys with alert 

originators in order to understand issues with adoption and 

use of WEA; the development of prototypes that allowed for 

testing of messages of different lengths, levels of geo-targeting, 

and smartphone options; development of new methods to 

substantially compress target polygons enabling embedding 

within WEA messages; experimentation of WEA alternatives 

with sample populations in Silicon Valley and Pittsburgh; and 

creation of a new overlay protocol that allows users to see a 

digested view of messages sent, in order to reduce confusion 

and increase responsiveness.

“The FCC highlights our work and the work of others that 

identifies finer-grain geo-targeting as a major need in improving 

WEA, as well as other improvements,” said Griss. “This ruling 

will go a long way to improving WEA adoption and impact.”

The research cited in the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 

was performed by Principal Investigators and members of 

the Disaster Management Initiative at CMU-SV: Martin Griss, 

Distinguished Service Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering Bob Iannucci, and Associate Teaching Professor of 

Electrical & Computer Engineering Hakan Erdogmus.

Learn more about the research: http://cmtoday.cmu.edu/

issues/october-2014-issue/feature-stories/text-alert/
NRP Post

8 www.nasa.gov

If results are promising, Made In Space is prepared to develop larger 

scale optical fiber production facilities in space.

“The goal of this partnership is to combine our in-space manufacturing 

expertise with Thorlabs’ optical fiber expertise in order to rapidly develop microgravity-manufactured high-quality fiber and introduce it into 

existing and new markets.” — Andrew Rush, CEO of Made In Space

The project was one of the twelve new research agreements awarded by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) 

announced today. CASIS, selected by NASA in 2011 to manage 

the use of the ISS, acts as a gatekeeper and helps determine which 

experiments are allowed on the station.

Once on board, Made In Space will use their new manufacturing facility 

to produce at least 100 meters of optical fiber. While the promise of 

a superior microgravity-grown, fiber-based internet is exciting, we’ll 

have to wait for that initial batch of fiber to come back down to Earth 

next year for a true comparison.

Made DSI Interplanetary Mining Mission, continued from page 1

partner, the government of Luxembourg, announced plans to build and fly Prospector-X, 

an experimental mission to low-Earth orbit 

that will test key technologies needed for 

low-cost exploration spacecraft. This precursor mission is scheduled to launch in 2017. 

Then, before the end of 

this decade, Prospector-1 will travel beyond 

Earth’s orbit to begin 

the first space mining 

exploration mission. 

“Our Prospector missions will usher in a 

new era of low cost 

space exploration”

said Grant Bonin, chief 

engineer at DSI. “We 

are developing Prospector-1 both for our own 

asteroid mining ambitions, but also to bring 

an extremely low-cost, 

yet high-performance 

exploration spacecraft 

to the market. At a tiny fraction of what 

traditional custom-built space probes cost, 

the Prospector platform has the versatility 

and ruggedness of design to become the new 

standard for low cost space exploration.”

Prospector-1 is a small spacecraft (50 kg 

when fueled) that strikes the ideal balance 

between cost and performance. In addition 

to radiation-tolerant payloads and avionics, 

all DSI spacecraft use the CometTM water 

propulsion system, which expels superheated 

water vapor to generate thrust. Water will 

be the first asteroid mining product, so the 

ability to use water as propellant will provide 

future DSI spacecraft with the ability to refuel 

in space.

“During the next decade, we will begin the 

harvest of space resources from asteroids,” 

said Daniel Faber, CEO at Deep Space Industries. “We are changing the paradigm 

of business operations in space, from one 

where our customers carry everything with 

them, to one in which the supplies they need 

are waiting for them when they get there.”

The destination asteroid will be chosen from 

a group of top candidates selected by the 

Prospector-1 Spacecraft 

Optical Fiber, continued from page 4

NRP Post

Yuichi Yamaura is the head of JAXA international relations office, he 

and his team visited Ames and NASA Research Park on September 22, 

2016. Mejghan Haider, Deputy Director of NRP provided an overview of 

the partnerships and business practices followed by a visit to 

NRP Partner Made In Space.
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 9

NRP Post

world renowned team of asteroid experts at Deep Space 

Industries. When it arrives at the target, the Prospector-1 

spacecraft will map the surface and subsurface of the 

asteroid, taking visual and infrared imagery and mapping 

overall water content, down to approximately meter-level 

depth. When this initial science campaign is complete, Prospector-1 will use its water thrusters to attempt touchdown 

on the asteroid, measuring the target’s geophysical and 

geotechnical characteristics. 

“The ability to locate, travel to, and analyze potentially 

rich supplies of space resources is critical to our plans,” 

continued Faber. “This means not just looking at the target, 

but actually making contact.”

Along with customer missions already in progress, such 

as the cluster of small satellites being built by DSI for 

HawkEye 360, the Prospector missions will demonstrate 

the company’s simple, low-cost, but high-performance 

approach to space exploration. The Prospector platform 

is now available to government and commercial explorers 

interested in developing sophisticated, yet low-cost missions 

of their own.

“Prospector-1 is not only the first commercial interplanetary 

mission, it is also an important milestone in our quest to 

open the frontier,” said Tumlinson. “By learning to ‘live 

off the land’ in space, Deep Space Industries is ushering 

in a new era of unlimited economic expansion.”

More detailed information about the Prospector 

program, including the Prospector-X (eXperimental) and Prospector-1 missions, and the DSI 

technologies that are making these missions possible, can be found on the company’s website: 

http://DeepSpaceIndustries.com/Missions

deployment stages. Immage Credit: Bryan Versteeg / Deep Space

Global Entrepreneurship Panel, continued from page 3

Space Portal Chief Rasky said, “The Portal goal is to foster 

development of space customers and emerging space industries in order to attract investors and commercialize the space 

frontier. Essentially -- We serve as a ‘space accelerator’ at 

the NRP.”

The Portal is developing several breakthrough ideas: such as 

using a Lego model to send pieces of spacecraft and assemble 

them in space and developing space “highways” to the Moon. 

“It’s a new era in the next 50 years, to open a new frontier 

resulting in jobs and a vibrant space economy,” Rasky noted.

Rasky also discussed the Portal’s innovative COTS program 

(Commercial Orbital Transportation Services) originated at 

the Portal whose ambitious goal is forging a commercial path 

to the Moon and Mars. The first step is “CIS Lunar Cots”, he 

said. “This is an economical, affordable approach to the 

Moon, Mars and beyond. It is an introductory dance between 

government and entrepreneurship. The economy needs to get 

beyond geography, to move the boundary to launch to the 

moon and asteroids. The goal is to extract resources from the 

Moon such as water, from a Lunar Station,” he said. 

Besides the Portal at the NRP, it fosters relationships with the 

Silicon Valley commercial space network including Google, 

Space X, Apple, the Space Frontier Foundation, Moon Express 

and United Launch Alliance, and other major firms.

The panel discussion was followed by an audience Q&A with 

questions on how the upcoming 2016 election will affect space 

commercialization, when to call it quits if ideas such as water 

in space don’t pan out, and the technical feasibility of several 

futuristic concepts. 

The panel and discussion are part of the ongoing NRP Exploration Lecture Series. Further information can be found on: 

www.nasa.gov/researchpark
10 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

Foundations for Modern Requirements Management

By Madeline Wigen 9th April, 2016

Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley students learn Requirements Management using Jama 

The NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, nestled amongst the global headquarters of Google, LinkedIn, Yahoo and 

Symantec, is home to Carnegie Mellon 

Silicon Valley. At this campus, graduate 

students prepare to become the technical 

leaders of the Fortune 100 companies that 

surround them.

Professor Cécile Péraire teaches courses 

out of the CMU ECE Master Program in 

Software Engineering. With a PhD in software testing, she has a robust background 

working with the world’s leading software 

companies.

In the past, Professor Péraire’s classes used 

Word documents to write and manage requirements and used basic Kanban boards 

to track work. But those traditional processes didn’t reflect the complex, critical work 

students would do after graduation. She 

sought out a SaaS, cloud-based solution 

that students could use to write, manage 

and trace requirements. It needed to be 

user friendly, so students could find value in 

it quickly and accomplish their work within 

the term. After in-depth evaluation of five 

requirements management tools, Professor 

Péraire selected Jama Software and became a member of Jama’s Innovator Partner 

Program. “Overall,” she said, “Jama was 

the one that performed the best and satisfied all the criteria on my list.” At the start of 

the term, Professor Péraire introduced the 

Jama solution to her class and provided an 

overview of the tool. Thanks in part to Jama 

eLearning, she quickly learned the basics of 

the tool to help her students hit the ground 

running. Students used Jama to collaborate 

on their term project, which involved developing an application to assist real-life local 

first responder teams. Students reported 

that the tool has helped them work in teams 

more effectively. One student noted: “Jama 

is a great collaboration platform.”

Students weren’t the only ones to benefit 

from the introduction of a modern requirements solution. “I used Jama’s Review 

Center to evaluate my students’ work and 

provide more frequent and actionable feedback,” says Professor Péraire. She used 

item-based reviews to comment on specific 

elements of the students’ projects and help 

them improve their work throughout the semester. She concluded: “Overall, as the faculty, a tool like Jama provides me with an 

improved visibility into the students work, 

and also improves my ability to effectively 

collaborate with students outside the classroom, for both mentoring and evaluation 

purposes. For students, the tool reduces 

overhead in terms of structuring the information so they can focus on content creation and hence maximize learning.”

Interested in trying Jama in an academic 

setting? Sign up for a free trial and explore 

our free eLearning to get up and running 

quickly.

Learn more about how academic institutions, 

technology incubators and educational 

foundations can join Jama’s Innovator Partner Program: http://www.jamasoftware.

com/partners/
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 11

NRP Post

Vivek Wadhwa Joins 

Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley By Adam Dove 8th July, 2016

S

ILICON VALLEY – Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering announced 

that Vivek Wadhwa has joined its faculty 

as Distinguished Fellow at the university’s Silicon 

Valley campus. Vivek will be teaching courses 

in exponential technologies, technology convergence and industry disruption, and the new rules 

of innovation. He will also be working with CMU 

students and faculty to research the policy, law, 

and ethics issues of these technologies.

“Vivek is a thought leader about technology innovation and the Silicon Valley ecosystem,” said 

Jonathan Cagan, Associate Dean for Strategic 

Initiatives for the College of Engineering. “We 

are excited to welcome Vivek to our campus and 

support his exploration of the impact of technology on society.”

Carnegie Mellon’s Silicon Valley offers unique graduate programs in software management, software engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and venture creation that 

connect deeply to Silicon Valley enterprise companies and 

start ups. Research in cyber physical systems, wireless systems, 

connected vehicles and drones, security and privacy, and data 

analytics and machine learning contribute fundamental and 

actively applied knowledge, producing successful spin off startups along the way. Education in entrepreneurship connects local and Pittsburgh students to the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

Wadhwa will also be developing a new seminar series that 

connects Silicon Valley’s innovators with the university’s global 

faculty, further bridging its Silicon Valley and Pittsburgh campuses.

About Carnegie Mellon University 

Silicon Valley:

The Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley (CMU-SV) campus opened 

its doors in 2002, and has since grown into a vital connection 

between CMU’s Pittsburgh campus and Silicon Valley, while 

expanding the university’s degree offerings to include the Masters of Software Management, and three bi-coastal Information Technology Master’s programs. From cyber physical systems research, to privacy, data analytics, connected vehicles 

and more, the CMU-SV campus brings the innovative spirit of 

Carnegie Mellon students to the start-ups of Silicon Valley.

About the College of Engineering:

The College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University is 

a top-ranked engineering college that is known for our intentional focus on cross-disciplinary collaboration in research. The 

College is well-known for working on problems of both scientific and practical importance. Our “maker” culture is ingrained 

in all that we do, leading to novel approaches and transformative results. Our acclaimed faculty have a focus on innovation 

management and engineering to yield transformative results 

that will drive the intellectual and economic vitality of our community, nation and world.

Media contact: Adam Dove 412-268-6792 amdove@andrew.cmu.edu

Vivek Wadhwa, the former Triangle tech entrepreneur turned academic and author, is joining the 

faculty of CMU Silicon Valley

www.nasa.gov/researchpark 11
12 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

On August 24, 2016 representatives from Office of Management and Budget visited NASA Ames and NASA Research Park. Janice Fried Director of NRP provided 

an update on rehabilitation timeline for Hangar One.

May 10, 2016, Mejghan Haider, Deputy Director of NASA Research

Park briefed a group of MBA students from City University London on success of 

NASA Research Park and public-private partnerships.

NP-2016-11-04-ARC

GeoCosmo Honored at Singularity 

Summit By: Charles Gonzales, GeoCosm

GeoCosmo Science Research Center, a new NASA 

Research Park partner, is honored to have won the 

Singularity University Summit Global Grand Challenge 

Award for Disaster Resilience in August 2016.

Every major earthquake is preceded by measurable 

pre-earthquake (pre-EQ) signals, typically days, 

sometimes weeks before the main shocks. GeoCosmo 

and its network of NASA and academic researchers 

have measured these bursts of precursors and have 

successfully forecast to within hours 22 of 22 earthquakes over the past eighteen months.

Our Mission: 

Help 2 billion people.

If you are interested in speaking with us about your 

participation please come to our offices in Building 

19, Room 1070I at NASA Research Park.

NASA Research Park

Editor, Layout and Design: TED TRIANO

Phone: (650) 604-2NRP

Email: arc-dl-nrp-post@mail.nasa.gov NRP POST Website: www.nasa.gov/researchpark

THE

On August 4, 2016, Jason Dunn, confounder and CTO of Made in 

Space, presented “The Future of Making Things in Space” at the Ames 

Summer Series colloquium held at the Ames auditorium. Jason shared 

Made in Space’ accomplishment of being the first space manufacturing 

company that launched two operational 3D printers on the International Space Station and highlighted their current initiatives such as 

the Archinaut Program, a collaboration with Ames, that would enable 

in-space robotic manufacturing and assembly of large space structures; 

and their next big mission for growing optical fiber in microgravity (see 

article “Made in Space Plans to Create a Superior Optical Fiber in 

Microgravity” on page 4).

Jason Dunn

The Future of Making 

Things in Space

14th August 2016