Aerospace Research and Development

NASA Headquarters

If past is prelude, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has placed the United States on an enviable trajectory into the 21^st century. This pathway builds upon four decades of innovative research, cutting-edge technological development, and an unending quest to push back the frontiers of aeronautical and space flight.

Established in 1958, NASA has evolved into an amalgam of four Strategic Enterprises: Human Exploration and Development of Space, Space Science, Earth Science, and Aero-Space Technology. NASA Headquarters is the manager for the agency's multi-pronged exploratory mission of scientific research, investigating the solar system and beyond, and technology development and transfer. The space agency's goals stretch out some 25 years. There are many components to this roadmap into the 21^st century.

An image of the International Space Station taken by an STS-96 crewmember during a fly-around by Discovery.

Human Outpost

NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) Enterprise includes the International Space Station, Space Shuttle, and Life and Microgravity research. HEDS seeks to bring the frontier of space fully within the sphere of human activity for research, commerce, and exploration.

The Space Station is the largest peacetime scientific and technological project in history. Thousands of individuals in 16 countries are part of a formidable challenge to build the Space Station. When fully operational in 2004, this orbiting complex will have the pressurized volume of laboratory space equivalent to two jumbo jet airliners.

"In five years, the Space Station will be complete and serving as an outpost for humans to develop, use, and explore the space frontier. The Space Station will greatly expand research opportunities, leading to exploration breakthroughs, scientific discoveries, technology development, and new space products," explains NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin.

Research onboard will help thwart diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and AIDS. By unmasking the effects of gravity, the basic properties of materials can be studied, perhaps yielding products of direct benefit to Earth. The Space Station can serve as a testbed, indeed the platform, to evaluate equipment and flight-qualify humans for long stints in microgravity, in order to regain a foothold on the Moon and place the first footprints on Mars.

The HEDS Enterprise is committed to join with the private sector to spark opportunities for commercial development in near-Earth space as a key to future settlement. HEDS activities include use of resources, even those provided by comets and asteroids, to sustain a human presence beyond Earth. Safe, reliable, low-cost space transportation is critical to the goals of the HEDS Enterprise. NASA's Space Shuttle program, operating as the world's most versatile launch system, is pledged to flight safety as a top priority. Meeting the shuttle manifest of flights, improving system supportability and reliability, and reducing cost follow in that order of priority.

HEDS is also implementing a shuttle upgrade program to improve reliability, performance, and longevity of Space Shuttle operations to meet Space Station requirements.

The Chandra x-ray observatory rests inside the payload bay of the orbiter Columbia.

Looking for Life

What is the destiny of the human species? Are we alone in the universe? How did the universe, galaxies, stars, and planets form and evolve? NASA has started on the path to answer these and other fundamental questions.

Four basic themes have been identified for the Space Science Enterprise: Sun-Earth connection; exploration of the solar system; structure and evolution of the universe; and the astronomical search for origins. In addition, the origins and distribution of life in the universe is a fifth theme, which cuts across the other four.

NASA's Space Science Enterprise has become a shining example of a new way of thinking at the agency. In the last few years, billions of dollars from planned spending have been removed. The philosophy of "faster, better, cheaper" has been embraced, with the size, complexity, and cost of spacecraft missions having been reduced significantly, while at the same time, increasing or maintaining their scientific capability.

Extensive robotic investigation of Mars is now underway or on the books. Plans have been drafted for the first return samples from Mars to arrive on Earth in 2008. Sets of Mars orbiters and landers will transform the mysterious red planet into a more familiar world. Robotic spacecraft will probe Martian weather and climate and help piece together the intriguing story of whether Mars has been, or is currently, an abode for life. Ultimately, these explorations will set the stage for the first footfalls on Mars early in the 21^st century, as humankind extends outward from our home planet.

Mars is not the only frontier for exploration. The Lunar Prospector has identified what are apparently caches of ice hidden within craters at the Moon's north and south poles, resources protected from the Sun's warming rays. The Galileo spacecraft has produced striking images of Jupiter's moon, Europa. Scientists believe an ocean may exist underneath Europa's icy facade, perhaps an ocean teeming with life.

Closing in on its target, the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) will begin a yearlong investigation of the asteroid Eros. The Cassini spacecraft is on a 7-year journey to study Saturn, its moon, and its rings. Onboard is the European Space Agency-built Huygens probe that will parachute in 2004 onto Saturn's enigmatic moon, Titan. The Stardust spacecraft is now trekking toward comet Wild-2, on a mission to return a sample of cometary dust to Earth in 2006. Similarly, the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) will image and spectrally map at least three very different comets and the dust flowing from those objects between 2002 and 2008.

Orbiting observatories, like the 12.5-ton Hubble Space Telescope, have taken stunning images of the surrounding cosmos. Joining Hubble is Chandra, outfitted to address fundamental questions in science by obtaining x-ray images of neutron stars, black hole candidates, quasars, and active galaxies. Also to be launched is the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) with duties to scrutinize young galaxies in formation, study quasars, and probe the very nature of black holes.

But to investigate the way our universe formed following the Big Bang demands a new type of spaceborne observatory. Working with industry teams, NASA's Next-Generation Space Telescope (NGST) is to harness state-of-the-art technologies, allowing scientists to peel back time and observe an era when stars and galaxies started to form.

Little stirs the soul of exploration more than the question: Are there other habitable planets like Earth circling nearby stars? A systematic approach to answer this query involves the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF), and the Life Finder observatory. NASA is positioning itself to directly detect Earth-sized planets around stars within 100 light years of Earth. If these planets are detected, spaceborne instruments should be able to pick up the signs of whether or not these worlds are conducive to life. The ultimate goal is to take a picture with a resolution high enough to see oceans, mountain ranges, cloud cover, and the continents of an Earth-like world.

Mission to Planet Earth

NASA's Earth Science Enterprise has been organized to better understand the entire Earth system and the effects of natural and human-induced changes on the global environment. To this end, the field of Earth System Science is being pioneered. An emerging interdisciplinary field, this research considers Earth's land surface, oceans, atmosphere, ice sheets, and life as both dynamic and highly interactive.

Astronaut James H. Newman holds one of the hand rails on the Unity connecting module during the early stages of a 7-hour, 21-minute spacewalk.

To comprehend our changing planet, new knowledge and tools for better weather forecasting, urban and land-use planning, agriculture, and other areas that yield both economic and environmental benefit are being sought. Space, air, and ground-based platforms are providing the scientific foundation for policies that strive for sustainable development of Earth.

The space agency's Earth Observing System (EOS) era has begun with the recent launch of the Landsat 7, to be followed by the EOS-AM-1. This scientific duo, and others being readied for orbit, will collect needed data to help answer key questions about Earth. With EOS, how land and coastal regions are changing over time can be evaluated. Also, forecasting precipitation a year in advance may be feasible. Furthermore, by determining the probabilities of floods and droughts, predicting changes in Earth's climate a decade to a century in advance will be a reasonable expectation. Lastly, monitoring ozone depletion to determine the effectiveness of efforts to control harmful chemicals is planned. EOS launches will continue through the second decade of the 21^st century.

A series of lightweight, low-cost science missions tagged Earth System Science Pathfinders (ESSP) are also being readied. The first two ESSP missions are scripted, one designed to make the first global inventory of the world's forests, and the other focused on measuring the variability of Earth's gravity field. As part of NASA's New Millennium program to validate cutting-edge technology, an Earth Orbiter-1 mission will demonstrate an advanced land imaging system with multispectral capability starting in 1999. Another technology validation mission is the Space-Readiness Coherent Lidar Experiment to be flown on a Space Shuttle in 2001. This experiment will test whether a space-based sensor can precisely measure atmospheric winds from the Earth's surface to a height of 10 miles.

NASA's goals are to predict the weather, climate, and natural disasters with a much higher accuracy and to make forecasts on a seasonal to interannual basis. "If we can predict, we can prepare, maybe even prevent," Goldin believes. "Hopefully, within 25 years, we'll be able to make multi-decade predictions of climate and environment, so we can better manage our resources for sustainable development...globally, regionally, and locally," he adds.

Pillars of Progress

The Aero-Space Technology Enterprise is responsible for answering the question: How does the space agency enable revolutionary technological advances that provide air and space travel for anyone, anytime, anywhere more safely, more affordably, and with less impact on the environment, while improving business opportunities and global security? NASA's vision of future flight runs from supersonic travel to highways in the sky and huge flying wings.

NASA's agenda in this area is focused on "Three Pillars" for success: Global Civil Aviation; Revolutionary Technology Leaps; and Access to Space.

Initiatives have been put in place to work on aviation system technologies that support pilots and air traffic controllers. NASA has teamed with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to prioritize technology efforts that can ensure aviation safety is maximized for the flying public. NASA's Aviation Systems Capacity (ASC) Program is one such activity, looking at modernizing and improving the Air Traffic Management System and the introduction of new vehicle classes that can potentially reduce congestion.

A new effort has begun, called the Ultra-Efficient Engine Technology Program, established to enable the next breakthroughs in propulsion systems that could spawn a new generation of high-performance, operationally efficient, economically viable, and environmentally compatible U.S. aircraft.

Small planes also mean big business. A partnership between government and industry is revitalizing the U.S. light airplane industry. The challenge is to create a small aircraft transportation system as an alternative to short-range automotive trips for both private and business transportation. NASA is joining forces with the FAA and U.S. industry to make personal aircraft as affordable as luxury automobiles. Making flying as safe as driving on the interstate, and increasing the ease with which pilots learn and maintain their flying skills are challenges meant to help invigorate the general aviation industry.

Space transportation technology work at NASA translates into the goal of affordable and reliable access to space. Toward this end, the space agency has partnered with U.S. industry and the Department of Defense to build next-generation reusable space transportation.

The challenge is to lower the high cost of access to space. At present, the expense of placing payloads into low-Earth orbit is roughly $10,000 a pound. This expensive price tag cripples the hope for a dynamic, creative, and productive U.S. space enterprise. A major NASA focus is reducing within 10 years the payload cost to low-Earth orbit by an order of magnitude, from $10,000 to $1,000 per pound. By the year 2020, that cost to low-Earth orbit is to drop from the $1,000s to the $100s per pound.

The X-38 Crew Return Vehicle is released from high altitude, so the project team can conduct aerodynamic verification maneuvers, among other tests.

Reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) require advancements in several areas. These include propulsion, composite fuel tanks and structures, improved thermal protection systems, and diagnostic sensors. Rapid turnaround and frequent flights of RLVs using small ground crews are also among the major objectives.

Two unpiloted RLVs--the X-33 and X-34--are being readied for maiden flights. The wingless, wedge-shaped X-33 flight demonstrator is a suborbital prototype for a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle. Featuring vertical takeoff and glider-like landings, the X-33 will approach speeds of 15 times the speed of sound at altitudes of 50 miles. The smaller, winged, air-launched X-34 also lands horizontally. This vehicle will approach speeds 8 times the speed of sound at 50 miles altitude.

NASA has also embarked on the Future-X series of demonstrations. To validate technologies beyond the X-33 and X-34, Future-X sets the stage for creating a new generation of space launchers, to be built faster and cheaper than previous vehicles. Through Future-X, NASA can readily test and validate new, state-of-the-art space transportation technologies in flight.

"NASA remains committed to providing the American taxpayer with the best possible space and aeronautics program in the world. Our accomplishments demonstrate we are capable of that. We are determined to continue that tradition. I truly believe the best is yet to come," Goldin concludes.