Still the Right Stuff

You may be old enough to remember when manned spaceflight was something that was exceedingly exciting to follow. It wasn’t just when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made it to the surface of the Moon, but when Mercury and Apollo flights were in preparation, TV sets across the U.S.—and elsewhere, no doubt—were tuned to any of the three networks, which somehow managed to forego game shows and soap operas without too much consternation from the viewers. As we watched the vapors escape from the rockets, the fact that the images on the screen were in black and white only enhanced the fact that something extraordinary was occurring.

As time has gone on and as the capsules gave way to the Space Shuttle, interest waned. It got to the point that the primary interest in a flight was only if there was something gone wrong. That was when there was drama. And, unfortunately, the resolutions of those dramas were not happy ones.

Soon, the last Space Shuttle will have its mission (Discovery is scheduled to launch on February 24, 2011). After that, U.S. participation in the International Space Station program will be based on outsourcing. In order to get scientists and researchers to the station, it will be necessary, in effect, to call a cab. It won’t be like our car is in the shop, because, in effect, there will be no car—the shuttles are being retired—and no shop: NASA is literally planning to rent out space at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

But exploration isn’t over. The manner is changing. And while there is a considerable number of people in the U.S. who are about frugality, especially as it relates to government spending, it is interesting to note that in some instances, NASA has been ahead of that curve. No, I’m not overlooking the billions that have been spent—a considerable fraction of which I’d argue was invested, invested in a greater understanding of not space, but of a wide array of things from computational fluid dynamics to material behavior to electronics that has aided the development of everything from commercial aircraft to cell phones.

Realize that the whole undertaking of NASA—and the NACA before it—has been a massive product development project, perhaps the most massive ever in history. It isn’t over. It’s just different.

For example, right now—assuming that you’re reading this not later than about July 20 (which some of you will identify as a significant date)—odds are the NanoSail-D is still in low-Earth orbit. The nanosatellite was ejected from FASTSAT—Fast Affordable Scientific and Technology Satellite—and on January 20, its 100-ft2 polymer solar sail was unfurled. (The satellite has an expected life of 70 to 120 days, so if it makes the 120-day mark, it will make that anniversary in July—but it may be like the Explorer or the Mars Rover and surprise everyone.)

While the whole notion of “crowdsourcing” is gaining social currency, this is an example of something along those lines, something that has been occurring for a considerable number of years, though not with such an au courant label. NASA is asking amateur ham radio operators to help them out by listening for signals from NanoSail-D (the beacon signal can be found at 437.270 MHz) and then advising them at nanosaild.engr.scu.edu/dashboard.htm.

Maybe things like the NanoSail-D are not the stuff of The Right Stuff. But in some ways, as the scientists and engineers work to do the amazing with less, they are no less noble than their predecessors in this incredible product development journey.