Human Spaceflight

 Dr. Jones will report on the design and cost of a starship, with emphasis on life support systems. He will describe a multigenerational interstellar voyage to colonize a new planet. Nuclear propulsion is required. The mission is more feasible if a small crew travels slowly and lands with minimal equipment. Growing food is about as expensive as taking dehydrated food. Highly reliable life support can be achieved by providing spare parts and full systems.

Protecting spacecraft from severe heating during hypersonic flight is a challenging task that leaves no room for error. Likewise it is difficult to simulate on the ground the effects of flying at Mach numbers greater than 20. But that is what the NASA Ames arc jet facility does for designers of human spacecraft and robotic probes. It requires directing multi-megawatts of electrical power inside a tube less than 3 inches diameter containing hundreds of water cooled parts. All of that to perform a test on piece of heat shield material that you can hold in your hand.

Science fiction is clear that our future includes conversations with our machines; think of HAL or the Star Trek computer. In 2005, the Clarissa Procedure Assistant made a step toward that future, when its use on the ISS made it the first spoken dialogue system in space. Dr. Beth Ann Hockey, project lead for Clarissa, will describe the science and technology behind that system, and examine uses of this technology in space and on earth, interacting with robots, wheelchairs, cars and software. Dr.

Since 2004, NASA has been working to return to the Moon. In contrast to the Apollo missions, two key objectives of the current exploration program are to establish surface infrastructure and an outpost. Achieving these objectives will enable long-duration stays and long-distance exploration of the Moon. To do this, robotic systems will be needed to perform tasks which cannot, or should not, be performed by crew alone.

Lally was involved with the space program from the beginning in the United States starting in 1955, before Sputnik. Eugene worked with key people from Peenemunde and JPL and contributed many pioneering concepts when he was referred to as a Rocket Scientist. Eugene was considered a driving technical force and helped promote spaceflight through many papers delivered at American Rocket Society conventions. Eugene will discuss his personal story of the people and ideas (he worked with) that bought spaceflight out of the cradle and into reality.

Future long duration lunar and planetary missions will require that astronauts leverage automated systems to a far greater extent than has ever been experienced. Dr. Jessica Marquez will outline the latest research on automated mobility systems that future astronauts will need and potential pitfalls that may be encountered if too much automation is used.

During the Apollo era, lunar regolith was commonly brought into the lunar module via dirty spacesuits and as a result, the cabin surfaces and the cabin atmosphere became contaminated. Based on detailed technical debriefs of the Apollo astronauts, it was apparent during the missions that respiratory effects, skin effects and potential ocular effects of lunar dust needed to be evaluated.

NASA Ames was recently announced as the center for development of the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission, to be launched in 2011. Dr. Marshall arrived at NASA Ames in 2006 and since then has been at the forefront of NASA Ames small satellites development program. Dr. Marshall will discuss the work that has already taken place to develop a common bus architecture for the LADEE Mission and beyond.