Right Place, Right Time

This entry was written as a guest blog for the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, after my attendance at the SpaceX launch in May.  Over there, it's called "No bucks, no Buck Rogers"--a reference to the requirements for investment in spaceflight (and education).  Conveniently and coincidentally, that quote is attributed to Gus Grissom--whose legacy we continue to celebrate later in June in Jasper.  Watch this space.  --BC

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Even in retrospect, it sounds unlikely… but it worked out this way.  When I was first invited to the SpaceX Falcon / Dragon launch attempt on April 30, I was thrilled and excited.  This was the third launch I’ve been invited to as the Director of the Indiana Space Grant Consortium.  However, the Lake County, IN SSEP experiments have been responsible for two of them: the Avicenna Academy experiment on STS-135, and now a larger community collaboration for this first commercial launch to the ISS.  I quickly booked my tickets… and then watched the series of emails and news reports as SpaceX scrubbed that launch date.  How about May 7?  No, I couldn’t attend—my first job is as a Purdue Industrial Engineering professor, and grades were due the next day.  That date slips by, as well.  We’re now looking at early in the morning on May 19.  Well, almost, but still not quite: I had already booked a ticket for Orlando, for my attendance at the Industrial and Systems Engineering Research Conference.  That ticket was for Saturday morning, and expensive to change.  I admitted defeat and put the NASA TV on my smartphone waiting for the countdown.  3..2..1.. Liftoff?  Not this time.  Gwynne Shotwell’s press conference was a marvel of poise and calm, and I was impressed.  But there was a secret bit of guilty thrill.  The next opportunity would be on May 22, and I would be there anyway! 

Jeff was great to respond to me when I explained, first thing Monday morning, that I could attend the launch, after all—if he still wanted to add me.  I could understand that multiple launch attempts can either reduce or enhance the desire to have visitors, and so I gladly escaped the technical session to take his call.  I found a car, took a nap, and found myself leaving the hotel at midnight, as other conference goers are finishing their evening at the banquet.  I was surprised to see very little traffic anywhere along the highways.  Of course, for the Shuttle launches, leaving Orlando only 3-4 hours before the launch could be a recipe for watching the fiery tower from somewhere on State Road 528.  Better safe than sorry, though, and I was relieved to pull into the KSC Visitor Center parking lot an hour earlier than expected.  That’s where I first met the student from Houston’s SSEP, and a few of the resilient folks from Highland Christian School who had managed to hang on and have a semblance of alertness at 2:00AM. These were the real stars of the launch for me, and in fact, some of the people I spent the most time talking to during this historic event.  (There were, of course some other folks in the NASA / SpaceX invite group viewing area, including NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana, and commercial space habitation company founder Robert Bigelow.  Not bad company for me, who studied space systems engineering and design of damping mechanisms for space structures as an undergrad, and mission operations task coordination as a faculty member.)  Watching the launch from the balcony across from the Vehicle Assembly building on a clear, moonless night was a glorious sight—a bright Falcon stretching her wings and leaving the Earth. 

As I spoke to the student experimenters, and the parents, I was stunned.  Here are 12 and 13 year olds, learning about bioreactors and microgravity-based growth of livers, or the challenges of flight operations and project and team management.  When I was 12, I was no less excited about spaceflight, and was eagerly involved in watching and learning about the space station experiments going on at the time (that was Skylab, and the Apollo-Soyuz program).  What would it have been like if I had actually been able to design, build, and fly one of those experiments?  These kids are certainly in the right place, at the right time.  I had a secret lament that I couldn’t benefit from this experience in the ways that they were actively participating. 

I was, eventually, convinced that my participation was valuable too.  INSGC did underwrite the Lake County collaboration at a critical time in their project.  As a line from the Right Stuff points out (via Indiana astronaut, Gus Grissom), “No bucks, no Buck Rogers.”   Inspiration for these young scientists, engineers, inventors and project leaders is essential.  But so is investment.  Elon Musk has made a lot of money, and has decided to use much of it to create and support SpaceX.  Robert Bigelow has made a lot of money, and is committed to using much of it to create and support space habitation at Bigelow Aerospace.  No, most of us don’t have a few hundred million dollars lying around.  But each of us makes choices with the funds we do have.  You don’t just wake up one morning and drive to Cocoa Beach and happen to see a rocket launch.  Sometimes you get a little lucky… but most of is planning and investment and dedication and belief and commitment spanning months and years and even decades.  That commitment is essential, or else success remains a thing of wish and hope and dream.  I want to thank all of those at NCESSE and SSEP who allowed me to be at the right place at the right time.  I’m glad I could be in attendance as a Space Grant partner.  I am hoping, most of all, that others see what commitment and investment in our capabilities can do… and choose accordingly to help us and ours be where we need to be, and do what we need to do—now, not just someday.

Wait for It...

If there is one thing that Space Grant is not… it's not boring.  Nervous waiting, last-minute rescheduling, dynamic rebalancing and reprioritization, and unexpected novelty have all been part of the action since our Affiliates Meeting two weeks ago.  (By the way, if you didn't make it, we missed you.  You could have helped us finish some of the food we ambitiously ordered from Adelino's.)

As promised and intended, the INSGC Central Office submitted our Annual Performance Data (APD) report on Friday (yes, April 13) after the meeting; I was able to add a few details mentioning our rich and very helpful discussions about our SMART Objectives, and the Affiliates' engagement in "Next Big Thing" discussions and priorities.  Officially, our submission of the APD begins the formal process of gaining approval for the 2012-13 Base budget for the program year beginning May 17. 

As I had mentioned, we are very excited and proud of the INSGC-supported group of students whose Student Spaceflight Experiments Project is due to launch on the SpaceX / Dragon mission representing the first commercial launch to the ISS.  I was able to pry open a small window of time to attend the launch on April 30… but the launch was delayed until May 7 (right in the middle of finals and grading for me).  Sigh.  Oh, well.

However, lest I spend too much time sulking and brooding, I got some very good information on Tuesday.  Our Augmentation funding has arrived from NASA Shared Services!  Yes, the moment we've been waiting for, and now subcontracts can be written, additional support can be allocated, and we can even look at repurposing some funds to make sure students can start on their summer NASA Center internships.  This is the source of a huge sigh of relief from Angie, and from Dawn, and from me.  It will still take some time to get all of the paperwork through Sponsored Programs, but we are focusing on that now.

Interestingly, one of this month's Wired Magazine's cover articles is "7 Ways to Spot the Next Big Thing".  Funny, I don't remember any journalists in the audience during our Affiliates Meeting, but that's exactly what we were discussing.  It's clear that we're on our way already.  Based on discussions with, and activities led by, our new INSGC Partners, Indiana Afterschool Network, and Wisdom Tools, INSGC will continue to be involved with the NDIA / AIA discussions to address STEM education and employment in Indiana.   This is certainly a challenge we cannot wait to address.

I could go home now, and wait to post this on Monday… no, I have been doing enough waiting.  Copy, paste, post… doing is better.

Indiana in March: It Must Be Basketball!

The phenomenon that is known as "March Madness" is winding down; NCAA basketball games are now just a manageable number as we watch the continued progression to men's and women's national champions.  But on Saturday, March 17, the concept of March Madness was alive and in full swing on the Purdue campus.  Even the weather was insane—a few days before the Equinox, temperatures were in the 70s and 80s for the great elimination round competitions due to square off in the games of roundball.  The teams were prepared to fill the nets, the fans were loud and engaged in the stands, and the referees were ready to manage the clock timing and check for fouls.  The anticipation is great as we prepare for… autonomous mode!

What?

INSGC is proud to be a sponsor of the annual Boilermaker Regional competitions of FIRST Robotics (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), held in the Purdue Armory during Friday and Saturday of the university's Spring Break.   It is truly amazing to see over 2000 high school students, teachers, parents, and other participants come to watch the competitions every year.  In fact, attendance was down a bit this year… because the fire marshal was concerned about too many people in the pits and stands.

INSGC logo during the FIRST Qualification Round, Saturday morning.  The bleachers represent less than  ¼ of the crowd; beyond the screen is the pit area.

This year's competition, entitled Rebound Rumble^SM, highlights "coop-etition" with robots designed to shoot foam basketballs at hoops for 1-3 points, and then balance on teeter-totters for additional scoring.  I have always been amazed at the FIRST competitions, not just from the innovation and creativity of each year's event, but the variety and ingenuity that high school teams generate in only 6-8 weeks between contest announcement and Regional events.  (Rebound Rumble^SM was announced on January 7, in a ceremony including George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and will.i.am along with Dean Kamen, and carried on NASA TV.)

One of the enjoyments I have of attending the Boilermaker Regional is that INSGC is not a sponsor of any one team.  No matter who does well, I can enjoy it.  So, it's easy to get excited about a well-crafted range sensing and guidance mechanism, an effective multi-shot loft mechanism, or even the clever team that decided that just a hollow tube that pours balls into the 1-point hoop was an effective and low-risk scoring mechanism.  In other words, it is everything that an engineer could love about requisite variety in problem solving and pathways to solution.  Shoot the ball!

Robot from FIRST Team 868 (Carmel, IN TechHOUNDS) shoots free throws during autonomous mode.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the whole event, as I had another basketball event to attend.  Yes, at the same time as FIRST, and just a few hundred yards away in Mackey Arena, Purdue was also hosting the first round of the NCAA Women's Basketball tournament.  Purdue was playing their first round game against South Dakota State, and as a very loyal season ticket holder, I needed to attend that game, too.  Of course, I was a lot more invested and focused on which team won that one… Purdue came out on top there, too, with a record-breaking shooting performance.

Purdue player KK Houser shoots a free throw against South Dakota State.

However, I'm not here as a sportswriter.  I'm here to express my appreciation for the Purdue FIRST student organization, who began with a dream to bring FIRST teams to the university, and then to host a regional competition, and to support K-12 engagement and STEM education excitement in Indiana.  Anytime you can fill the bleachers for robots, while two Miss Indiana basketball stars are playing just down the street, that's a fantastic accomplishment.  A slam dunk, if you will.

Godspeed, Janice Voss

The week of February 20 was an historic and meaningful one for space geek folk and Space Grant Directors like me, for a variety of reasons.  (Please excuse me for the delay in posting this entry—although I had wanted to, the emotional intensity of it all actually made it more difficult than I expected to process my thoughts in an eloquent way.)    The sharing may be insightful for others, or simply cathartic for me; I hope that you won't find the sentiments too maudlin or mundane.

The Director aspect of me was engaged, and enthused, and enmeshed by an email that we have been waiting to receive for several weeks—the acceptance of our 2011-12 Augmentation funding proposal.  Yes, I know that it seems confusing and unreal, but it was only on February 21 that we were able to determine our total budget for the current program year that is scheduled to end on May 16.  Ironically, it was only a day or two later that I received another email, reminding INSGC that we should begin our annual performance report, due 60 days before the end of the program year, or March 16.  Yes, there is a bit of a scramble to simultaneously begin to generate award authorizations for scholarships, fellowships, and grant activities, while also trying to identify how we would report on their activity in preparation for next year.  Such is the nature of being at once a manager of award funds (within INSGC) and the recipient of those funds (from NASA) in what is seen as a novel and challenging federal budget environment.  Those of you who are patiently (or impatiently—I understand your perspective as well) for announcements, I can sympathize, and I especially appreciate your ability to function in this chaotic environment.

Also during the week of February 20 was the 50^th Anniversary (Really?  Already?)  of John Glenn's first orbital flight that heralded the entry of the United States into human exploration in space.  I don't remember the state of the world the day of Glenn's launch from Cape Canaveral—I was in existence, but not yet external.  For people older than I, the phrase, "Godspeed, John Glenn" was a password, an "open sesame" to a different type of future.  I find it amazing, then, that I had the opportunity to meet John Glenn – astronaut, US Senator, national treasure (a semi-official designation that kept him from flying again for over 30 years) at a Space Grant meeting a few years ago.  That is a special connection to history, more than any artifact or piece of memorabilia could provide.   A connection to history, a special gift.

BC and Sen. Glenn at National Space Grant Distinguished Service Award Banquet, 2006.  Photo courtesy of Ann Broughton.

However, the more significant and intense experience of the week for me was on Friday, February 24.  This was the day of the Distinguished Engineering Alumni (DEA) awards on the Purdue campus.  One of the awardees was Janice Voss, the first of Purdue's female astronauts, and a VIP guest at Purdue's Fall Space Day.  I was not alone in my excitement to see her back on campus and speak to her about how she continues to inspire students, including the student project team designing an educational model of the solar system as an exhibit to be placed on campus.  The exhibit is named, most appropriately, "Visiting Our Solar System," or VOSS, and had just moved into the phase of selecting the artist and refining the final design concepts. 

Janice Voss and students at Purdue Fall Space Day 2000.  Photo courtesy of Ann Broughton.

However, the celebration changed significantly as we learned that Janice died on February 6, unable to continue her fight against breast cancer.  And yet, there was still a celebration, one of life and presence and effect.    Janice's parents and sisters came to Purdue, and brought a number of artifacts and reminders of her five spaceflight launches.  Dr. and Mrs. Voss accepted the DEA award for Janice, and insisted on a Celebration of Life reception later that afternoon. 

My connection to Janice Voss is more direct than that to John Glenn, and one that I was grateful to be able to share at the reception.  When I was the faculty mentor for a Purdue reduced gravity student flight experiment project, one of the students had connected with Janice and scheduled dinner.  We had a wonderful meal together at one of the little restaurants that surround Johnson Space Center, and though the mentoring was mostly directed at the students, I learned some important lessons as well.  I have no pictures of the event, no posed shots or autographs… just a reminder of her appreciation for Purdue's continuing embrace and connection, and her insistence that we pay for the students' meals.  I told that story, and managed to get through it without choking up… too badly, that is.  I also offered to have INSGC help support a named scholarship in Janice's honor, one that the Voss family has endowed.  For all of our desire to celebrate them, the best gifts were given by the Vosses.  The reception, they stated, should not be seen as a somber memorial, but a special connection, a recognition and observance of a "sixth launch". 

Godspeed, Janice Voss.

NASA and the Super Bowl

Of course, it would be considered impossible for anyone but a geek to do this, but...

Imagine that you scheduled a trip, and didn't check the travel schedule very closely.  As a result, your flight home occurred while hundreds of thousands of people were descending on your city to one of the biggest sports events of the entire year.

Actually, if your home airport is Indianapolis, this happens every year for Memorial Day weekend.  (It's that 500 mile race we have at the motor speedway near the airport.  You might know we are very proud of that race--so much so, it's on our state quarter.)  But last week, you might have noticed some news reports and some late night TV shows from Indianapolis, and a particular football game last Sunday night.    Clearly, sports get a lot of attention in Indiana... but I was pleased to see NASA provide some links to the game.  Not only was there a Landsat photo of Indianapolis from space, but even an acknowledgment of critical Super Bowl technologies that were spin-offs of NASA innovations.  You will want to check the article in more detail, but I will spare you the suspense:

1.  Foam padding for helmets and pads

2.  Anti-scratch visors for helmets

3.  Cushioning material for shoes

4.  Moisture-wicking garmets

5.  Wireless headsets in helmets

6.  Video stabilization software

So, whether you were rooting for the folks who play their home games in East Rutherford, NJ, or the folks who play their home games in Foxboro, MA, when you take a look at the picture of Mario Manningham's feet landing inbounds during a critical pass in the 4th quarter... yeah, NASA was responsible for that technology.  And I could feel justified for being a fan.  (Of NASA spin-offs.  No comment on the teams in the game.)

And now, back to basketball season...  (Did I mention that we like our sports here in Indiana?)

BC

Lights and Darkness

As I write this, we are well into a very special time of the calendar, one that celebrates lights that remind us of what we strive to be.  A wick that burns though the oil has run out.   A fire on the darkest, longest night.  A star that shines brightly above.  Even the space geek can take comfort in such images, and plan for the coming year.

I want to thank the INSGC staff and affiliates for bringing us to a place of light over the past year.  Yes, there are definitely new anxieties surrounding our funding for next year, and that is really the point of these Directors’ Notes.  When we first moved to Designated status in 2005, there was an influx of funding, and a range of unexpected new challenges.  Despite the challenges, we have definitely shown through these past years, in ways that make our current situation a bittersweet interplay of darkness and light. 

Those of you who remember our Affiliates Meetings between 2003 and 2005 will recall, though others may find this improbable:  at one point, we feared having too few affiliates to manage a rich and vibrant portfolio of higher education, K-12, and general public activities.  Fortunately, we developed a process, even then, that allowed us to consider how we would add new affiliates, and when we’d say, “enough”.  This month, however, we are processing a request that would bring us to 27 affiliates—including a significant fraction of all outreach affiliates in the national Space Grant network.  This is a glorious riot of illumination across the state… but from a Director’s standpoint, a delicious burden.  More affiliates than ever before in the history of INSGC, but budgets that are flat at best.  More academic affiliates to provide supplemental support, and more competition to select a diversity of campuses and cultures and disciplines for undergraduate scholarships.  It’s at this point that I can say with confidence that we celebrate our current affiliates, and welcome those currently under consideration… but to maintain the quality of our light, we no longer seek to add quantity of affiliates. 

A few years ago, INSGC implemented a process of Consortium Priorities, in an attempt to ensure that we could meet and exceed NASA expectations for Space Grant each year, while supporting a rich competition and cultivation of new ideas and affiliate contexts.  During 2010-11, we experienced the last bright year of funding exceeding Priority demands.  We were able to identify and manage the old model of priorities then, but the new Base + Augmentation model from NASA Headquarters does not permit that model to continue as we designed it previous.  It’s curious how something novel can become traditional and expected in just a few years (“well, of course we’ll burn that log tomorrow night!” for a habit that just started within the memory of all but the youngest members of a family), and painful when the tradition changes.  As you read through the funding levels and focus areas for the 2012-13 INSGC award programs, you’ll notice some changes.  Smaller award levels.  We’re requesting additional elements of budget detail in the proposals.  This is not because we love bureaucracy in the INSGC Office.  It is because new winds and potential storms blow in the East, and I am determined to have INSGC navigate these storms well and with beauty.  We will maintain our commitment to serve our citizens well, and to be a spark for STEM education—Space Grant is STEM. 

Despite what looks like danger and darkness, I have never been more proud or confident of how INSGC is poised, and where we will be able to shine in the future.  We’ve ridden the candle of STS-135, a student spaceflight experiment on the final space shuttle flight.  We’ve celebrated our first guiding navigators: Gus Grissom and his pioneering flight 50 years ago, and took our turn to celebrate the memory of Yuri Gagarin’s flight that is now an international party.  We’re linking Education and Engineering, kids and kinematics, imagination and implementation.  

Even our State Seal and our INSGC logo celebrate light: stars and a torch flame.  It’s what we do, to burn brightly, and to shine into the distance. 

Blessed Holidays to all.

Engaging STEM Education

Those who have visited the INSGC website in the past few days have noted a new page reference and splash leader, “Engaging STEM Education for Indiana”.  In some ways, that’s not anything novel—the INSGC Mission, Vision, and Values all highlight those elements (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math).  But, why did we decide to make this change at the very top of our website presence (figuratively and literally)?

Thanks, Angie Verissimo.

Angie is our Operations Coordinator, and is primarily responsible for keeping our accounts and budgets aligned when dealing with NASA, Purdue, and our affiliates’ sponsored programs and activities.  But more importantly, she takes the time to remind us what it feels like not to have spent the past 10, 20, or more years thinking about NASA research and student opportunities.  As we in INSGC (and Space Grant nationally) know, there is more to Space Grant than astronauts, satellites, and stellar formation (although we do fund projects that link to all of those).  But, a friend whose college-aged son or daughter was thinking about returning to Indiana in a science discipline.  Angie pointed out that there could be INSGC scholarship funds available. 

‘Why would they want to apply to a Space Grant?  They’re not interested in being an astronaut.’

What sort of answer do you provide for that?  We took a look at the website, from the perspective, “Why would someone know to look at INSGC for scholarships, projects, and outreach programs in STEM, if they didn’t already know about us?”  In my research life, and the courses I teach, an ongoing theme is that one of the challenges of developing expertise is that once one becomes an expert in something, it’s very hard to remember what it’s like to be a novice in it.  Dr. Dawn and I know about the breadth of NASA research… because we have lived it through our PhDs and our careers.  But it’s easy to forget how much others never learned, things like:

• ·      Why “Space Grant?”  Senator Lloyd Bentsen, who wrote the original legislation, wanted something for NASA STEM education that echoed the transformative impact on the country that Land Grant did for the nation’s universities (including Purdue) that were created in the 1860s to improve the education level in the “agricultural and mechanical arts”.  That’s why there is a Space Grant in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.  The name is supposed to evoke, not restrict, a picture of innovation and stimulation of children’s imagination. 
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• ·      Aren’t you just astronomy and astronautics?  Space Grant is a NASA Office of Education program, recognizing that our strengths as a nation are based on a broad view of STEM education.  If you think about what’s involved in keeping an astronaut alive on the International Space Station, or keeping a rover alive and talking to us from the surface of Mars, you realize there’s a lot going on: biology, electronics, energy storage, life support, materials science, radiation monitoring, signal processing, software development, water purification, and many other fields.
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• ·      What if I don’t want to go to Purdue?  Yes, INSGC is hosted at Purdue, and that’s where I am a faculty member.  However, INSGC now has over a dozen academic affiliates, and we have over two dozen disciplines and majors involved. 
• 
  
• ·      Didn’t they cancel / defund NASA?  The short answer is… NO.  Over the past 20-30 years, NASA has averaged approximately 0.7% of the federal budget.  (That’s seven-tenths of one cent of each dollar.)  The Space Shuttle program has ended, but NASA continues work in space science (those pretty Hubble pictures; rovers current and future), aeronautics (those winglets on airplanes that save gas), and human exploration (to a destination to be named later) at 10 Centers.  NASA funding is being considered for cuts (as is every agency), but 0.5% is not the same as 0%.  (Even the planned Space Grant budget for next year is less than we saw last year, but it certainly isn't zero.  There are many people who believe strongly in the Space Grant mission, and allocate funds accordingly.)

But when doing a quick web search, people don’t focus on all of that.  If they want to talk about STEM Education, they look for that.  (In fact, I am writing this while at a life sciences entrepreneurship discussion in Warsaw, the orthopaedics capital of the world.  There’s a lot I don’t understand, but when they talk about STEM education as an important element of bringing companies to Indiana and keeping them here, I get that.)  Our primary job emphasis from NASA is to engage and enhance STEM education and science literacy.  We’re designed and built to focus on the contexts, needs, and strengths of Indiana…

Engaging STEM Education for the State of Indiana.

Oh, yeah.  We’re about that.  Why don’t we just say it?