Game Changing Technologies
Ask. Any group of people what organization, is most responsible for, revolutionary. Advances, in space technology, and there is little doubt their, answer would be NASA. Clearly. Over its long history NASA, has been one of the most innovative and exciting, change, agents, the world has ever seen proving. That we can accomplish great things if, only given a goal and the opportunity. That. Feeling, has been firmly imprinted. On the NASA DNA, and continues. To motivate all, those who push the envelope, of technology. But. Rather than just rest on its laurels NASA. Is moving, to expand, its role as a change agent in new, and exciting ways in. Order. To do this the, NASA culture will need some minor tweaking, first. Today's. Generation, of NASA researchers. Are working to alter, some outmoded. Practices. Of how technologies. Are developed, and implemented, at NASA if. These ideas take root they. Have the potential to revolutionize NASA. From the inside, out. Coming, up on this episode of NASA acts we, will follow members, of space technologies. Game changing, development program office. As, they work to revolutionize, and mature, new, technologies, within NASA we, will feature a few of the many technologies, managed, by the gcdp to, see how these innovative, ideas are, advancing, the missions of today and, missions of the future as well. NASA. Has a long and storied past in. Its short history the, agency has accomplished, truly, breathtaking achievements. Forever, changing, how humans, view themselves in the universe the. NASA of today is no different than the one of the past of course it, is still the world leader in space technology and, is still accomplishing, truly unbelievable feats. But. Many in the NASA community have, seen the pace of technological breakthroughs. Slowed in recent years. That. Was not always the case in, NASA's, early years it seemed like many of its projects, were stuck in fast-forward, none. More so than the Apollo program. President. Kennedy made his famous, man, on the moon speech at Rice University, in 1962. And by, July of 1969. Neil. Armstrong, was stepping out of the lander onto the surface of the Moon one. Reason we got there so quickly was, because NASA made the decision, early on to, let the engineers lead. The charge toward the moon rather, than the norm which was to have a more bureaucratic. Structure, that, is not to say there was not structure, there, was just an understanding, that more risk must be taken in order to complete the mission in, the given time line but. As the Apollo program, retired. And the shuttle came on line a shift, began the. Culture within NASA became much more risk-averse, and, rightly, more, focused, on safety, and successful. Missions but, with this new posture, less, focus went into the development, of transformative. Technologies. This. Mindset permeated. Throughout NASA and eventually. In the words of one NASA official NASA. Became more evolutionary. And less, revolutionary. NASA. Never stopped innovating, but, researchers, developing, new technologies, often, found some, natural hurdles in their way to, better, understand, this let's look at what NASA calls TRL's. Or, technology. Readiness levels, the. Ninety are ELLs measure, the maturity, of evolving, technologies, and order them from 1 which is the lowest to, 9 which, is a technology that, is fully developed an example. From history of how the TRL system. Works can be seen in the late 1950s. When the famed NASA engineer, max, vishay came, up with an idea for, the mercury spacecraft, dr.. Fuji was sitting in the cafeteria at NASA Langley drawing. On a napkin when, he came up with the idea for the basic, shape of the mercury, capsule, he fleshed out the details with his team and soon they had the beginnings, of the craft which, put them at technology, readiness level, one for the mercury project. He, and his team then began moving through the other levels, testing.
And Building models and after a few years arrived. At TRL, 9 which, culminated, with the first man flight of the vehicle on May 5th 1961. The. Same basic, concept is, still used today researchers. Come up with concepts, and ideas and hope to move them through the early, TRL, stages, all the way to full, maturity. This. System is the framework from which NASA engineers, develop, technologies, so, it goes without saying that the TRL's, are very important, within NASA but. In the last few decades many researchers. Have come up with great ideas only. To find themselves stuck. In the, lower TRL stages. But. In the early 2000s. Pushback began happening within the nasa research community, it was, widely agreed, that there needed to be a way to push important, concepts, to the front of the line and move them more quickly through the technology, readiness level, stages, to. Do this a sea change needed to happen within NASA which. Would completely, alter the current culture, and get, us back to, our leaner engineer. Leads the way mentality. That, sea change happened. When nasa's space technology mission, directorate created. The gcdp, or the game changing, development program, office. Space. Technology, developed, the gcdp, with, the idea that new exciting. Disruptive. Technologies, would be rapidly, infused, and given, the chance to prove themselves, more quickly, if. You look at the space technology program, especially. If you get a game-changing, program within our. Projects. Are about two years long with an option to extend them for a third year so basically we are carrying on executing. Our existing, portfolio. And by, then the year to develop dozens. Of new technologies, that we can make available to other. Programs. Within space technology, or the stakeholders such. As, human. Explorations, under, the AES project or maybe we can pass on technologies, to. Science. Directed up as well. The, idea here, is to take. Some more risks and, to do some things instead. Of incrementally. But in a transformative. Or disruptive, way let's. Look outside of the box let's. Look for completely, different ways of doing technology and, so the idea is that we. Can afford. To take risks, and target. Technologies. That will hopefully have. Orders of magnitude, improvement that, can do things that we've never been able to do before with, this idea firmly established. The team needed to begin looking throughout, NASA to, determine, which projects, would be first on the list somebody. Might have a great idea a new, way of doing. Navigation. Or communication. And they'll come and they'll pitch that idea to a PI. If. The, p.i believes, it it's a it's a good fit within our portfolio that, it meets game-changing, metrics, that, it's aligned well with agency. Priorities. Then. They'll develop what we call a new start, proposal. And they'll bring that to our program board, so, they have to be a TRL, 3 and that's that they've gone through the proof-of-concept it's, not basic research. It's. Not a scientist, in the lab but it's someone who's taken it and said, look I've checked it out in a small way a small, scale and it's, it's proven itself I need to get it from, TRL 3 to. TRL 5 through the valley of death we thought this, term valley, of death is apropos, because this, is where so many promising, technology, ideas falter. Generally. An idea in the TRL, range of one to three our, proof of concept ideas. But. Once they get into the TRL, 3 range more, often than not excess. Funding, and time needs to be spent on them to move them forward this, level is where so many technologies, of the past fizzled, out but, one of game-changing. Central, goals is to grab the hand of some of these ideas and, lead, them through this valley of, and on, to actual missions what. We are, doing here in game-changing, is we're taking a bunch of technologies. In this, three to six range and we're rapidly. Advancing, them we can take selective. Ones the best ones that we can find it can Vance them for two to three a period, we can mature them from this lower TRL to, where they can be used by projects, and missions and then we can go on to the next to do it again and again and again with. The goal set the, team began the process of looking at some of the best ideas within, NASA choosing. A wide-ranging, set of technologies, to, help rapidly. Mature, and begin, this new approach for the agency. The. Gcdp.
Manages, Over 30 projects, that focus on everything, from, nanotechnology and. Lightweight, materials, to nuclear systems, and solar, electric, propulsion the. Hope is that with enough support, the, gcdp, managed, technologies. Will eventually, be used to help create innovative, new space technologies. For, our nation's exploration. Science. And economic. Future, one. Of the first technologies. They chose is from NASA's robotics, and autonomous systems, and is located in this lab at the NASA Johnson Space, Center, here, a small team of highly, motivated young robotics. Engineers, are working, on an idea that has the potential to help astronauts, on long-duration missions. And may, end up changing, the lives of millions as well. One. Of the first space, technologies. Gcdp. Projects. We will explore is located, in this lab at, the NASA Johnson Space, Center, here. A group of NASA researchers. Have come up with an exoskeleton, that, they call the x1, it has, the potential to solve some major problems for astronauts, on long-duration missions. This. 60-pound. Assisted, mobility device is worn on the legs of the wearer and is, used to assist them in various ways to, understand. Why NASA is interested in a device like this you, have to understand, a little about physics, in space a major. Problem faced by astronauts, in space is, bone loss and muscle atrophy due to a lack of use, generally. On shorter, trips the bone and muscle density problem, can be easily managed. But, longer duration, missions pose a much greater threat to crew health and performance. Here. On earth we use our legs every, day to walk around but. On orbit, the astronauts, are in microgravity. So, muscles, and bones especially, those in the legs aren't, being used as they would be normally, because. Of this muscles. Weaken, and bones, begin, to lose their density, as a, result, some, astronauts, come back to earth with up to 30%, less. Bone structure, in their legs and with, significantly. Weakened, muscles to. Combat this NASA, doctors, prescribe, a strict regimen of exercise on-orbit. But there is only so much that can be done, generally. There is a treadmill and other bulky devices used to keep in shape but. These only provide, limited, success the. X1, may, be able to change that I guess. One of the biggest things for NASA and their astronauts is keeping their astronauts safe and keeping them fit and keeping them in good shape we're looking at in. In the next few years we're, gonna start sending astronauts to the space station for, a year-long mission instead of just six months right and so, how do we keep them fit how, do we look at muscle density loss and bone density loss and. Muscle atrophy and things like that if, we look at a device like this look. How much you can see how much smaller and compact it is and this. Is really going to hopefully pave the way towards. Smaller, technologies. For countermeasures. That. We can use when we're in a smaller capsule we want to go back to the moon and LTL orders so, the, goal in Space Station we're looking at two different things right now we're.
Looking At it for dynamometer. II applications, which, is basically measuring, muscle strength and so we've been working with the human health and performance group, and saying wouldn't. It be great if we had a device on Space Station that, we could use to measure muscle strength while they're up there because. They don't do that right now so now what they can what we're looking at this to do is say. You. Know you go use a red you go use a treadmill or the stationary bike and then. Maybe once a month or once every two weeks you, use the, x1 as a dynamometer e-application. So we can measure your muscle strength and we can really start to close the loop with the positions on the ground and, the prescriptions, of exercise, that they're giving the astronauts to see how effective they are you, know at its core it's a mobility assistance device so. You can imagine that when. We go to Mars no. Matter how much you exercise along, the way you're. Going to be very tired when you get there and so, now maybe. We can use this not, exercise, but, you can use it for mobility assistance, when you get there because you're gonna be weak all, of your joints that are actuated you. Can use them to resist. You or you, can use them to assist you. NASA. Is very interested. In the x1 for use in space and this, same device could also be a game-changer for anyone, who needs rehabilitation like. Stroke victims, x1. Could be even, more life-changing for, paraplegics. Early. On in its development, the team partnered, with the Florida Institute for. Human and machine cognition, this. Group has been working on, a mobility device, that, could serve as the legs for, wheelchair-bound, patients. At. That time they had their own exoskeleton that they had developed called Mina v-0 and they, were really focused on mobility, assistance, helping. Persons with paraplegia, get up out of the wheelchair walking. Again and at, that same time we had you know Robonaut, which we had just flown to space station we, worked on all this hardware we developed all the all the, actuators and all the mechanical and electrical assemblies, for.
That We developed all the safety systems in order to be able to send it to Space Station and, so we said well why don't we come together we, take that knowledge that we have about building. These structures and we'll, take the knowledge that you guys have with assistive mobility and your. High level software and, we'll come together and build x1 and. So x1 is really about improving life for people, here on earth and in space the. X1, has the potential to change the lives of anyone, suffering, from limited, mobility when. Asked, many, paraplegics, say just, being able to stand reach. The top of a shelf or have a conversation with, another person at eye level and improve, their quality of life significantly. Much. Work is going into the x1, to, make it accessible to as many people, as possible it. Is relatively, lightweight and, has been designed in a way where it can be adjusted to fit many different body types and for, persons, who have lost their ability to walk there's, also a pre-recorded. Walking, gait that can be adjusted, to help them learn to walk again in this. Iteration of the x1, paraplegics. Must still use crutches, to help them balance and walk but. The hope is that the technology will, develop to where the device can be utilized, without crutches. You. Know my mom has multiple. Sclerosis. She-she. Is 80%, kind, of confined, and, for. A device like this to help her that's. Something that she looks at saying I wish I could have that but in ten years from now people people. Won't be saying that I think people will be saying oh let me go get that out of my closet because I'm ready to go go, out and walk around. Sometimes. Technologies. Develop, slowly and. Incrementally. And sometimes things happen all at once. To. Determine the tipping point I think with this type of technology we've, actually found. A tipping point where the. The actuation, technology, is there the computation, technology the, applications. For space flight and the willingness. And people's, interest, in this. Type of technology and, all these things converging, at once I think, that's what makes something, that's. How the game has changed all these technologies, happen at the same time and. People. Are grasping, and grasping, that opportunity. To really make. A difference so. It's not only, changing. The lives of, astronauts. Improving their health but it's also improving. Lives here on earth. We, feel that it's not just game shaving it's actually life changing. Space. Flight has many obstacles one. Of which is weight any, mission, off this planet has a weight restriction NASA. Has estimated roughly, ten thousand, dollars per pound to, get something into orbit so weight reduction, is a huge factor, if, manufacturing. Costs, could be brought down as well millions. Of dollars could be saved on each launch the. Challenge, of creating low, weight and less, costly, launch components, is very attractive, the. Game-changing, office is taking this challenge very seriously. And has, created a composite, cryotank, to. Offset additional, weight and possibly, save money current. Propellant, tanks are made from metals like aluminum, as the. Name suggests the. Composite, cryotank is being, made from a strong lightweight, composite. Material, that have a huge upside, when talking about saving, weight and money, we. Start out the project, looking at, 30%. Weight savings, over, traditional. State-of-the-art. Aluminum. Or aluminum lithium tanks, and, we did a phase one activity with four contractors, before we down selected, to Boeing for phase two and, now that studies.
That We had we were getting anywhere from like 35, to 40 percent weight, savings every, pound that you save in math on lost people you get that savings, in payload. And it's, depending, on whether you're you know at the core stage or an upper stage that, that ratio is very but, you do get significant, savings, so you get more, performance you get more, capability, or you get increased payload the. Process, of building the cryo tank is not only cost-effective. The, weight reductions, could ultimately save millions, during a mission, current. Composite, materials, are cured in large ovens called autoclaves. This, process, can be very expensive. But NASA's composite. Cryotank is being, developed out of autoclave. Making, it much less expensive. Saving. The. Out of autoclave, --ax are the autoclave expense, meaning, that normally you have this huge tank and it's a composite, and it's got all these, materials, that are in it and you have to cure it in a huge, oven, you got to maintain the oven you got to buy the oven you got to procure the oven so if, you, can find a way to manufacture with. The same technical, integrity as a, tank that's gone through the autoclave. Outside. The autoclave you, can cut development. Costs significantly. 30%. I think, is the number that they're saying and, and. Not only development, costs but recurring, cost you make these tanks it doesn't have to go into it an, oven the. Way it works is a fiber, placement. Hat on a robot, is programmed, to lay down the material, exactly, where it is needed this, new process reduces. Costs, time, and most, importantly, produces, a better product because. All of this technology is, relatively, new the NASA, team is using a process called the building block approach first. They test small, coupons, or pieces of the material, to make sure that it can measure up to expectations. It is, then made into larger, pieces and test it again the. Project, is currently at the point where a scale model 2.4. Meter tank is being tested with, the eventual goal to, build a full-scale, tank to fit on a launch vehicle. The. Current 2.4, meter section, is located, here in this silo, in the west test area at the Marshall Space Flight Center under. The shadow of test, stands for, the Apollo engines, Engineers. Have placed a foam coating, over the tank and will then test it in a way that would be expected, on a launch vehicle. We. Put the tank through, the exact, conditions, that it would see in the launch vehicle, so we fill it with the cryogenic, material, in this case it's liquid hydrogen and then in, the case of a launch vehicle we, may have to empty that so we would fill and drain, pressurize.
Unpressurized. All. To, determine how the tank reacts to those conditions. And lives with, this test completed, engineers. Can look for problem areas fix, them and then move on to building the larger, tanks, and if, successful this, game-changing process. Can, be adapted to other parts, of a launch vehicle making. It more lightweight and less, expensive, these. Are just a few of the ideas that are being worked on by the game changing, development program, office. But. Many more innovative, ideas and technologies. Are being moved through the game changing lane each day and with, each new development, changes, coming to NASA that is allowing the agency to, rapidly, infuse, technology and, make smarter, decisions about how to move forward and, create, different, approaches, while changing, the culture much. Of the credit for this positive, change can be placed directly at the feet of space, technologies. Game changing development program office. Personally. I I. Would, love if, five years from now somebody said they really changed the game, they. Made a difference for NASA. That's. All I need to hear.