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The satellite sector is poised to see a period of rapid innovation and growth, spurred by the new U.S. National Space Policy, a broadband-hungry military and planned launches of more powerful and nimble satellites in the coming decade.
Ever-smaller satellites, software-defined radios, next-generation electronics and higher performing propulsion systems underscore a few of the new space capabilities that are attracting R&D investment
NASA Embraces Risk Taking, Competitive Model
The fertile environment for research and development is most apparent at NASA, where more than 70 percent of the agency’s new space technology budget will be awarded competitively. In fact, the program follows a DARPA model — operating in a very, open, competitive manner, says Bobby Braun, NASA’s new chief technologist. “We’re incentivizing people to think more about risk. In the past, NASA has been about beating out all the risk in every activity we do. Well, in technology development you have to take some risk. We have to incentivize people to reach a little farther out and have a little grander vision.”
NASA recently released 14 space technology roadmaps for public comment covering critical areas such as in-space propulsion, shielding and nanotechnology. These future technology investments will enable NASA to meet its strategic plan in the next two decades for science and discovery and are pivotal to the agency’s plans to embark on deep space exploration missions to Mars and beyond. According to Braun, the agency’s biggest challenge is not budgetary but cultural. Braun worked at NASA as an aerospace systems engineer from 1987 to 2003 and recently returned to lead NASA’s technology office after working in academia. He says that NASA over the past decade was focused on near-term missions and not on future investments. “We are to a large extent living off the technology investments made in the 70s and even the 80s,” he says. Braun hopes to change that by getting NASA directorates to think more long-term and take more calculated risks. “Changing these mindsets is difficult. It takes senior agency leadership and it takes engineers and scientists all through NASA and throughout the country to think a little bit differently.“ Braun says that means not always choosing the lowest-risk, proven technology for a given mission but instead weighing the long-term benefits of trying a new technology that offers a performance benefit and the integrated risk across NASA’s future mission portfolio. A key innovation driver in NASA remains small business, which work with the agency through the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. NASA in December announced $50 million in phase one awards that will help NASA develop new capabilities and fill technology gaps in its current mission work. The programs previously operated independently and now are under the office of the chief technologist.
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