Posted on 07/24/2004 9:29:55 AM PDT by KevinDavis
Next week, NASA will open a new state-of-the-art laboratory for cutting-edge research into advanced propulsion systems - technologies that one day could power space vehicles to Mars, to Jupiter or to destinations never before imagined
(Excerpt) Read more at spacedaily.com ...
In April, the new laboratory became home to scientists and engineers of the Marshall Center's Propulsion Research Center, a key NASA organization that conducts advanced space propulsion technology research and testing.
The move consolidated work previously scattered among seven buildings at Marshall, providing a centralized location for advanced propulsion research, promoting better communication between researchers and enabling an environment for breakthroughs in technology.
The lab also will accommodate researchers from across the United States, providing engineers and scientists from NASA, government agencies - such as the Department of Defense - universities and industry with the resources and space needed for short-term and long-term experiments. These researchers are provided the opportunity to work at the facility through partnerships or Space Act agreements.
"This facility is intended to be a national resource for the entire propulsion research community - a place where NASA engineers, scientists, and our industry partners and academia can come together and share ideas," said David King, director of the Marshall Center.
"As NASA moves forward to realize the goals of the Vision for Space Exploration, the lab will play a key role in development of advanced propulsion technologies to accomplish our mission in space."
The 108,000-square-foot facility is 600 feet long - the size of two football fields. Its contemporary design, by Jacobs Facilities, Inc. in Orlando, Fla., reflects not only its surrounding environment but also the unique, evolving needs of the Marshall Center's Propulsion Research Center.
The laboratory complements nearby buildings - with its NASA colors of white, blue and gray - and its façade, with swooping curves, is intended to visually represent the state-of-the-art work being done inside.
The design also allows for easy expansion, housing offices in a central location at the front of the building and the facility's labs in the back. This feature allows the building to grow to meet future research demands without disrupting work currently being conducted at the facility.
"The central and guiding design theme we continuously focused on was blending an appropriate mix of flexibility, capability and potential for additional growth," said Harold Gerrish, who was responsible for development of researcher requirements for the lab.
"This facility will be able to support the rapid changing demands of advanced propulsion research while also facilitating synergism among researchers, scientists and engineers."
The Propulsion Research Laboratory, constructed by Baggette Construction Company in Decatur, Ala., encompasses 26 labs and several support areas - more than 66,000 square feet of usable space for large-scale and small-scale advanced propulsion research experiments.
Individual labs range in size from 360 square feet to 10,000 square feet. The facility's 12-foot-wide corridors and oversized doors allow large equipment and experiments to be moved easily from one room to another.
High-bay areas reaching as high as 55 feet and equipped with 5 to 15-ton bridge cranes also provide the necessary space for large experiments. A separate 7.5 to 10 megawatt electrical substation allows the laboratory to conduct high-power experiments without disrupting service to other parts of the Marshall Center.
"The Propulsion Research Laboratory is at the forefront of new ideas and capabilities in advanced propulsion research," says Steve Rodgers, manager of the Propulsion Research Center.
"The work we're doing here could revolutionize space travel and pave the way for a new era of exploration throughout the Solar System."
The versatility of the new laboratory allows for a broad range of study in fields - some of which may seem like science fiction today, but could become a reality a few decades from now. Technologies now under review include solar energy, advanced chemical propulsion, and high power plasma propulsion technologies that don't rely on conventional propellant.
Other scientists at the facility will study high-energy propulsion systems based on fission, fusion and antimatter technologies. Fission is the release of a large amount of energy by splitting atomic nuclei.
The energy density of fission is 10 million times that of state-of-art chemical reactions, such as the liquid oxygen/hydrogen combustion system used to power the Space Shuttle. Fusion releases energy by fusing nuclei together - a process similar to what takes place continuously in the Sun and other stars.
Antimatter energy is obtained when equal but opposite particles - such as protons and antiprotons - collide. This collision releases tremendous amounts of energy - more than any known reaction in physics.
The Propulsion Research Laboratory also will provide an invaluable educational tool to university and K-12 students and teachers to inspire the next generation of space explorers - as only NASA can.
The facility includes a visitor's gallery that will capture the imagination with interactive propulsion research displays and exhibit kiosks that showcase the work of the laboratory.
Closed-circuit plasma screens will give visitors a look inside the facility's labs and chambers to see firsthand the experiments being done, and a 20-by-20 projection screen will show video clips and educational films about propulsion and future missions into our Solar System.
The Marshall Center is a key leader in NASA's development of space transportation systems, including future-generation launch vehicles and in-space propulsion systems.
The Propulsion Research Center is a member of the National Space Science and Technology Center, or NSSTC, which provides an additional resource for propulsion study by NASA and its academic partners.
The NSSTC, a Huntsville-based clearinghouse for cutting-edge space science and propulsion research in operation since 2001, was founded by the Marshall Center and local, state and national university partners and other federal agencies.
Utopia Planitia -- Mars Spacedock
If only.... *sighs*
Sorry Kevin, but I will continue to lay stink bombs on every NASA related thread until criminal negligent manslaughter charges are leveled against the NASA employees that shirked their duty regarding the last shuttle disaster.
So far they have walked away scott free. I think that is a crime. I won't approve of anything NASA does until it is held responsible for what it has done.
I will not approve of one dime spent supporting NASA as long as it is allowed to run an operation as willfully negligent as it has.
For once NASA is doing something right...
Yupper. Can't go anywhere quickly without engines.
About time NASA funded something other than protection of their SFC staffing.
ping
I'm one of those guys who always championed the NASA cause. When folks would say the money was money wasted, I'd trot out the R&D line and talk of spin-offs and a brighter future. I told people that if you're not aggressively expanding your horizons as a nation, you're dying as a nation.
I can no longer support a thing NASA does. Close the doors and use it's former funding to fund space prizes for private space achievements.
One of the last straws before this last shuttle disaster, was when we spent about $80 billion of the $100 billion dollar fee for the space station, then called it an international space station, as if the U.N. put it up there.
The whole NASA mission has run it's course. It's been an abject failure and a bottomless rabit hole for internationalists and flunkies that couldn't find employment in the private sector.
If I sound bitter, you better damned well believe it. We've been wondering in the wilderness for damn near 40 years, and we're still no closer to the promised land.
"F" NASA
-""F" NASA"
Got it wrong. Gub-mint is what fouled up NASA in the past.
Clinton wanted to rely on the Russians too much is one example.
The American peoples boredom is what fouled it up in the past. That is changing big time!
68% of Americans support the new space plan........
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040719/dam055_1.html
Columbias Astronauts despite all the problems and issues pressed on. And you should TOO! Honor them with making sure we get the NASA our nation deserves! Free Enterprise will do what it all ways has done. I champion the X-Prize as well. I have followed NASA since I was a small child watching Saturn V's launch. What is happening at NASA now with the new plan is a miricle and a one in a lifetime opportunity to get things working right. One more time sir. I implore you, one more time get behind NASA.
Even when NASA is not running right there are MAJOR discoverys and leaps in technology. Imagine NASA again fuctioning on all main engines 104%!
No one else, free enterprise or foreign can do what NASA does. I believe the politization of NASA is over. Stay on board one more time. Columbias crew believed. They never gave up. And neither should you.
I prefer hyperspace.
What is NASA if not big government gone bad?
I appreciate your well-meaning comments, but everything "EVERYTHING" government touches turns to pasture patties.
I will allow for the exceptions of the Military and import/export controls. Other than that, it's has no business doing about 95% of what it does today.
As for the military, I'm not even convinced it wouldn't be better off without liberals screwing with it's mandate.
As for import export, what can you say about a government that charges around 5% on imports, but allows other nations to charge 40% on our exports.
NASA had decades to get it's act together. NO MORE!
Close the doors and let private enterprise do the job, with massive incentives from NASA's old budget.
This 'new plan' is decades too late. It's like Sirhan Sirhan saying, I'm a new man. Nope Bobbie and the Columbia crew are history. NASA should be next!
Then NASA will have to earn your support again.
Im confident that will happen.
Thank you for your comments. NASA will never earn my renewed support until it has owned up to what it's criminally negligent employees did, and they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
I think NASA was done 35 years ago. The Feds could disband NASA, create a Land Office, and space development would proceed much quicker and for no cost to the public sector except services demanded by the private sector.
I wish Bill Gates would plow some of his foundation's $30 Billion into advanced propulsion.
Sadly, I agree.
In the heady days of the late 1960s (man oh man was that a long time ago), I flattered our nation with the thought that the space race was absolutely not a space 'stunt'. We were committed to space and it was only a matter of five to ten years before we'd have a revolving donut space station stepping stone to solar exploration.
Thirty-five years later and I have to say it was a space stunt. We had not developed the knowledge necessary to enter space, much less inhabit it.
It makes my blood boil to know we went to the moon just to beat the Ruskies, without a single notion of conquering space or inhabiting it.
To my way of thinking, that was the single mandate for NASA. In that it was an abject failure. We have burned up countless billions, if not trillions of dollars to put between one and seven people into space occassionally.
The space station has turned into an international joke on us.
This reality makes me sick. And I might add, quite angry.
In my case it was Sputnik that sparked my choice of career. Not really Sputnik in itself, but the call in Washington for more and more engineers. We were so far behind Russia and all that. We had to catch up, it was vital. So in a dozen years we went from the Vanguard joke to the moon and I went from a clueless high schooler to aerospace engineer. And then out. There is no continuity in DC.
There is no continuity in any level of gov't. It is hard to be angry all the time. Even terrorists get past anger, I suppose. I am looking for something to do in my retirement, and this week I am taking some intensive jazz classes. I solo Monday. Last Monday was my first lesson, so this ought to be really cool and has nothing to do with NASA or gov't continuity. It will probably take as long to get to the point where I can make a coherent jazz statement as it took to begin speaking as a child or as long as it took to get an undergrad degree.
Which is more important, designing interplanetary trajectories or comping to 'A' Train?
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