State Of Nasa - Blog Posts

State of NASA Address at Marshall Space Flight Center

On February 10, 2020 I was honored to be a part of a group of 30 people who were granted special access to the goings on at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama as part of the NASA Social program.

The day started off with the issuing of our credentials which would allow us access through the main gate.

The pure joy of seeing my name at the bottom of that badge was glorious.

After driving through the main gate, we wound up at the heart of MSFC, Building 4200. This is where we had our first briefing of the day. It was an overview of MSFC by Steve Miley, MSFC Associate Director. Director Miley filled us in on the importance of MSFC to the whole of NASA, and the state of Alabama. Huntsville is a Top 10 city for career opportunities. During this briefing, the topic of ARTEMIS was addressed. ARTEMIS is our country’s new manned lunar landing program. NASA intends to land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024.

Next up was the live stream of NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine’s State of NASA address. Administrator Bridenstine detailed the efforts behind the Space Launch System, the Lunar Gateway, the Orion spacecraft, and the ARTEMIS missions to the Moon. There was excitement in the air as budget increases by the current administration were discussed.

After the State of NASA address, we went to the Lunar Lander Lab for a briefing by Logan Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy showed us concepts for the next Moon landings by contrasting with the Apollo program. During the Apollo missions, the astronauts brought all of their supplies with them. This severely limited the amount of time the astronauts had on the Lunar surface. For ARTEMIS, the intent is to land payloads on the Moon ahead of the manned landings. Mr. Kennedy showed us concepts of relatively inexpensive Pallet Landers which payloads could be wheeled off of.

Next up, was a tour of the ISS Payload Operations and Integration Center. Amanda Lowman briefed us on the Payload Control Area. This is where all the science and experiments on the ISS are controlled and monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Vince Vidaurri then briefed our group about the Laboratory Training Complex. The LTC is a mock-up of the U.S. lab on the ISS. Procedures for experiments are ironed out by controllers in the LTC before being communicated to the astronauts on the ISS.

We then went to the Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Lab. Engineer Mike Kynard showed us hardware that could replicate the results of testing a nuclear rocket at a fraction of the cost and many times more safely.

Our last stop of the day was the SLS System Integration Lab for a briefing by Dan Mitchell. The SIL contains a full size “control ring” for the SLS rocket. This control ring has all the computers and systems that monitor every aspect of the SLS. Everything is placed exactly where it would be on the actual rockets. Even the wiring is measured to the same distances to avoid any lags or time differences. There are three redundant computers that are the “brains” of the whole deal.

At this time I want to thank the team at Marshall Space Flight Center for hosting our group and giving us the opportunity to report on the progress of the Space Launch System and the ARTEMIS program. I am excitedly looking forward to being a part of ARTEMIS over the next few years as my career develops.