Marshall Space Flight Center Development and Test Capabilities
Evolution of MSFC’s changing pursuits and strategy, MSFC capabilities, and how to work with MSFC.
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Evolution of MSFC’s changing pursuits and strategy, MSFC capabilities, and how to work with MSFC.
It's wonderful to be back home again in Indiana. I am honored to be here with you today to share two important results of effective technology management. The first is the indirect return on investment that Americans get from NASA's relatively lean annual budget, and the second is the direct economic benefits that the great state of Indiana and businesses nationwide realize through multiple contracts with NASA. As a proud Purdue graduate and deputy director of one of NASA's highest-priority, multi-billion dollar projects, I have a vested interest in this conference and in the outcome of this work. My goal today is to help you better understand the types of work in which NASA engages and to provide avenues for you to pursue opportunities with America's space Agency, if that is a good fit for your company. You may already know that NASA and various Indiana businesses and universities are partners in the pursuit of improving life on Earth through scientific discoveries that pay dividends in terms of expanded knowledge, as well as big-picture conveniences and a multitude of spin-offs. Whether your organization is large or small, NASA offers numerous opportunities to participate. Before I provide some motivating facts and figures about the aerospace industry and its economic impact, I want to set the stage by sharing several notable examples of how 2005 was an extraordinary year for technology management at NASA, a subject that I can speak about firsthand.
The NASA Human Health and Performance Center (NHHPC) was established in October 2010 to promote collaborative problem solving and project development to advance human health and performance innovations benefiting life in space and on Earth. The NHHPC, which now boasts over 150 corporate, government, academic and non-profit members, has convened four successful workshops and engaged in multiple collaborative projects. The virtual center facilitates member engagement through a variety of vehicles, including annual in-person workshops, webcasts, quarterly electronic newsletters, web postings, and the new system for partner engagement. NHHPC workshops serve to bring member organizations together to share best practices, discuss common goals, and facilitate development of the collaborative projects. The most recent NHHPC workshop was conducted in November 2013 on the topic of "Accelerating Innovation: New Organizational Business Models," and focused on various collaborative approaches successfully used by organizations to achieve their goals. Past workshops have addressed smart media and health applications, connecting through collaboration, microbiology innovations, and strategies and best practices in open innovation. A fifth workshop in Houston, Texas, planned for September 18, 2014, will feature "Innovation Through Co-Development: Engaging Partners". One area of great interest to NASA is mobile health applications, including mobile laboratory analytics, health monitoring, and close loop sensing, all of which also offer ground-based health applications for remote and underserved areas. Another project being coordinated by NASA and the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute is the pursuit of one to several novel strategies to increase medication stability that would enable health care in remote terrestrial settings as well as during space flight. NASA has also funded work with corporate NHHPC partner GE, seeking to develop ultrasound methodologies that will enable NASA to further understand the eye changes related to long-duration space flight. The adaptation of ultrasound to this type of eye examination could also expand the use of ultrasound in health care on the Earth in settings where MRIs are not available. To further engage NHHPC members and facilitate partnership development for NASA, the NHHPC created and deployed an engagement system in 2014 that facilitates identification and evaluation of technical needs and opportunities among all NHHPC members.