ITech 2018 Jim Reuter Deputy Associate Administrator NASA Space Technology

ITech 2018 Jim Reuter Deputy Associate Administrator NASA Space Technology

Notes Transcribed by Paul Andreas Fischer

If you are in the imaging business and you look at it from the input to the output, the possibilities for application are limitless.

As long as you have a measure of urgency, you can use academic debate to reach a solution.

Ten winners have been selected and another 3 will be given.

Today is the day ten years ago that Columbia happened. Remembering Columbia.

I remember exactly where I was at the time. I was at Time Square.  It was the 15th birthday of my twin daughters. 

Strategic thrusts

4 mega drivers lead to 6 technology thrusts

Mega drivers:

Increasing access- to our systems

Accelerating pace of discovery - all we have to do is look at the planetary exploration and the emergence of private industrial investment, and even of private finances leading the way

Democratization of space - much broader participation, emphasis on public partnerships, and greater international participation. NGO investments in space was 3.9 billion, the increase was exponential after being flat for years, beginning in earnest in ’15. ISS as a cohesive agent.

Growing utilization of space - the nascent form of industry, sees manufacturing for use in space and on earth, assembly and mining  

These were four concepts when we considered which thrust to emphasize.

Strategic thrust

Accelerate industrialization - servicing, manufacturing, assembly there are many different parts to the process. Searching for life on another planet is an example. If we can assemble machinery onsite it will be faster and safer to transport the mechanisms

Safe and efficiency - even if we have to travel interstellar by the gram-size using directed laser energy, that is an example of how we have been willing to spend 100 million before.

increasing access to planetary surfaces - good places to land tend to be lest interesting, so hazard landing etc is important, we have a mechanism on landing Mars 2020

enable next generations of space discovery - we hope to greatly enhance data quantity and quality. Where those next generations can be on our icy moons, such as Europa. We believe there to be water and volcanic activity, yielding the essential ingredients to life, if we can drill through 5 miles of ice, and radiation and other hurdles.

enable humans t o live and explore in space and on planetary surfaces - Space habitation, radiation protection, increased crew effectiveness. I worked 7 years on the ISS from 1993 to 2000 on life support. We went through alot of iterations on how we could make ISS with multiple partners, with the Russians, we had the advantage of doing so close to earth, with a solid logistical supply. Our return capability on Mars will make us limited, we need robotics and other capabilities to enhance our abilities.

Grow and utilize the US industrial and academic base - iTech is part of achieving Nasa’s dream. Most of the time, 35 years at NASA, have been spent in logistics. We never bought services, we never did any of the cooperation with the private sector that we do today, so once you are used to doing something in one way, you have to adapt.

Space Technology Programs

Early Stage

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts

Space Tech Research Grants

Center Innovation Fund

Game Changing Development

Small Spacecraft Tech

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Commercial partnerships

iTech

SBIR/STTR

tech transfer

Flight opp

Centinial challenge

Regional econ dev

I do not have time to go through all of these.

We are probably at about 8 now

Some of these are industry specific

But these can be conducted by anyone, such as NIAC, we pay 125k for research project and if we like it we up the pay to 500k for a further 2 years studying the topic.

We express the privilege to utilize the tech, but beyond that we exercise no additional copyrights

We see ourselves as the best in the world, approval for phase 1 gives 125k for 6 months, and phase 2 gives 750k for two years this leads to a contract phase.

We sponsor payloads for suborbital platforms, and we do not pay for the payloads, but we provide the launch and a small amount of money for integration. Servicer and payload get manifested.

My time is up but I also address regional economic development and centennial challenges.

Zorb

2018 NASA iTech Cycle I

notes transcribed by Paul Andreas Fischer

Tacile interface for communication

Not a map you see, but a map you feel, for blind people, is a centuries old idea

If you think about the technologies you interact with on a day to day basis, probably a screen

Millions of people rely on inefficient communication and their vision and hearing are overloaded

Sematic labs thinks about communication, and believes they have found another way of solving the problem: communicating information by touch

The product is Zorb, as a hardware desing to enable delivery of information through touch

The helmet draws your eyes to areas that need attention, such as an emergency

The sensations created by the software allow creation of sensations to communicate anything.

20 multi-billion dollar business have expressed interest

We have created a pipeline of patented products that allow us to creat an IP viable line

The pre-order campaign raised 25k, and it took 9 months to deliver the first version of the hardware for users

Collection of feedback has allowed the next generation to emerge

3 objectives

Industrial safety

Military coordination

Augmented reality

The technology of touch has not evolved in 20 years.

We are currently raising 500k to evaluate the effectiveness of the technology in specific controlled circumstances. To demonstrate how many lives are saved, how easy it is to send a message by touch, and exactly what efficiency is gained.

Our product is not like a pager, which is on or off, our product allows a wide variety of signals to be sent, from proximity alarms to the value of a pressure gauge.

Our team is comprised of employees from google, entrepreneurs, biologists, and more

So the next concept is how to take this technology to space. There are unique conditions and communication failures that can occur in space. This can be beneficial in a space suit, underwater, or in the factories where equipment is manufactured.

Q you have exclusivity in the field, and the product is already prepared for use. My question is what about security? Sensitive fields such as military might not want to allow hacking that could compromise their objectives? Is your defense an external platform or a cybersecurity focus?

A Our team coordinates with teams in the intelligence communities with separate encryption, our Bluetooth would not be active, the security is handed off on transfer.

Q Is your objective to create a new language of touch that can be used across multiple platforms?

A precisely, you already have specific emotions and responses to specific stimuli and we are able to utilize this to promote the coherency of our technology.

Q you hope to quantify how many lives you expect to save?

A exactly, by using games such as football, and the technology we can use the data from a coach giving insturctions to players as a base line for how effective it will be in the field.

Q where are the signals coming from and how are they controlled?

A right now all of the signals have a human in the loop, so there is a human who initiates the signals. We can coordinate this how you want.