Announcement of Opportunities for Public Input to a National

Research Council Study on NASA Technology Roadmaps

NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) has drafted a set of 14 Space Technology Area
Roadmaps (STARS) as an initial point of departure for mapping NASA's future investments in
technology. The scope of the technologies to be considered includes those that address the needs of
NASA’s exploration systems, Earth and space science, and space operations mission areas, as well
as those that contribute to critical national and commercial needs in space technology. (This study
will not consider aeronautics technologies except to the extent that they are needed to achieve
NASA and national needs in space; guidance on the development of core aeronautics technologies
is already available in the National Aeronautics Research and Development Plan.)

The Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board of the National Research Council (NRC) has
appointed a steering committee and six panels to solicit external inputs to and evaluate each of the
roadmaps (see http://www.national-academies.org/NASAroadmaps).
• As part of this effort, the NRC is soliciting public comment regarding the proposed technologies
contained in the roadmaps (see www8.nationalacademies.org/asebsurvey/tabs/).
• In addition, each of the 14 roadmaps will be discussed during a public workshop held by one of the
NRC study panels, beginning in early March 2011, as follows:

Panel 1: Propulsion and Power Panel

Workshop Details:
Dates for public sessions: March 21-24
Location: Caltech, Pasadena, CA (Room 101 of the Guggenheim building)
Roadmaps covered by this workshop:
• TA03 Space Power and Energy Storage Systems (March 21)
• TA02 In-Space Propulsion Systems (March 22)
• TA01 Launch Propulsion Systems (March 23)
• TA13 Ground and Launch Systems Processing (March 24)
For additional information please click on Workshop Details. If you wish to attend this
workshop, please contact Dionna Williams (dwilliams@nas.edu) at least 10 days prior to the
workshop.

Panel 2: Robotics, Communications, and Navigation Panel

Workshop Details:
Dates of sessions open to the public: March 29-30
Location: Washington, D.C. (exact location TBD)
Roadmaps covered by this workshop:
• TA05 Communication and Navigation Systems (March 29)
• TA04 Robotics, Tele-Robotics, and Autonomous Systems (March 30)
For additional information please click on Workshop Details. If you wish to attend this
workshop, please contact Rod Howard (rhoward@nas.edu) at least 10 days prior to the workshop.

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Panel 3: Instruments and Computing Panel
Workshop Details:
Dates of sessions open to the public: March 29-30
Location: Beckman Center of the National Research Council, Irvine, CA
Roadmaps covered by this workshop:
• TA08 Scientific Instruments, Observatories, and Sensor Systems (March 29)
• TA011 Modeling, Simulation, Information Technology, and Data Processing (March 30)
For additional information please click on Workshop Details. If you wish to attend this
workshop, please contact Joe Alexander (jalexander@nas.edu) at least 10 days prior to the
workshop.

Panel 4: Human Health and Surface Exploration Panel

Workshop Details:
Dates of session open to the public: Apr 26-27
Location: Houston, TX or Irvine, CA
Roadmaps covered by this workshop:
• TA06 Human Health, Life Support and Habitation Systems (Apr 26)
• TA07 Human Exploration Destination Systems (Apr 27)
For additional information please click on Workshop Details. If you wish to attend this
workshop, please contact Ian Pryke (ipryke@nas.edu, 703-485-7230) at least 10 days prior to the
workshop.

Panel 5: Materials Panel

Workshop Details:
Dates of sessions open to the public: March 9-11
Location: Washington, D.C. (exact location TBD)
Roadmaps covered by this workshop:
• TA10 Nanotechnology (March 9)
• TA12 Materials, Structural and Mechanical Systems, and Manufacturing (March 10)
• TA14 Thermal Management Systems (March 11)
For additional information please click on Workshop Details. If you wish to attend this
workshop, please contact Rod Howard (rhoward@nas.edu) at least 10 days prior to the workshop.

Panel 6: Entry, Descent, and Landing Panel

Workshop Details:
Dates of sessions open to the public: March 23-24
Location: Beckman Center of the National Research Council, Irvine, CA
Roadmap covered by this workshop:
• TA09 Entry, Descent, and Landing Systems (March 23 and 24)
For additional information please click on Workshop Details. If you wish to attend this
workshop, please contact John Wendt (jwendt@nas.edu) at least 10 days prior to the workshop.

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After the above workshops are held, the NRC’s NASA Technology Roadmaps Steering
Committee and the above panels will prepare two reports, as follows:

Interim Report
Based on the results of the community input and its own deliberations, the steering committee will
prepare a brief interim report that addresses high-level issues associated with the roadmaps, such as
the advisability of modifying the number or technical focus of the draft NASA roadmaps.

Final Report
Based on evaluation criteria and other guidance provided by the steering committee, each panel will
meet individually to suggest improvements to the roadmaps in areas such as:
• the identification of technology gaps,
• he identification of technologies not covered in the draft roadmaps,
• development and schedule changes of the technologies covered,
• a sense of the value (such as potential to reduce mass and/or volume, number of missions it
could support, new science enabled, facility to operate, terrestrial benefit) for key technologies,
• the risk, or reasonableness, of the technology line items in the NASA technology roadmaps, and
• the prioritization of the technologies within each roadmap by groups such as high, medium, or
low priority; this prioritization should be accomplished, in part, via application of relevant
criteria described above in a uniform manner across panels.

Each panel will prepare a written summary of the above for the steering committee. The steering
committee will subsequently develop a comprehensive final report that
• Summarizes findings and recommendations for each of the 14 roadmaps
• Integrates the outputs from the workshops and panels to identify key common threads and issues
• Prioritizes, by group, the highest priority technologies from all 14 roadmaps

FUTURE MEETINGS, COMMITTEE MEMBERS, PANEL MEMBERS, AND STAFF

For information about future meetings and the membership of the steering committee and the
panels:
• See the workshops listed above.
• See the NRC web site for this study: http://www.national-academies.org/NASAroadmaps
• See the individual web sites for the steering committee and the panels, as follows:

Steering Committee
NRC staff: Alan Angleman and Dionna Williams

Panel 1: Propulsion and Power Panel

NRC staff: Alan Angleman and Dionna Williams

Panel 2: Robotics, Communications, and Navigation Panel

NRC Staff: Robert (Roc) Riemer and Rod Howard

Panel 3: Instruments and Computing Panel

NRC staff: Joe Alexander and Terri Baker

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Panel 4: Human Health and Surface Exploration Panel
NRC Staff: Ian Pryke and Linda Walker

Panel 5: Materials Panel

NRC Staff: Robert (Roc) Riemer, Maureen Mellody, and Rod Howard

Panel 6: Entry, Descent, and Landing Panel

NRC Staff: John Wendt and Linda Walker

For questions or comments send email to: roadmaps@nas.edu