{"id":936,"date":"2025-01-04T08:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T08:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=936"},"modified":"2024-12-29T08:39:19","modified_gmt":"2024-12-29T08:39:19","slug":"nasas-infrastructure-crossroads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/?p=936","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s infrastructure crossroads"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Foust<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The next administration will have its share of challenges to deal with involving NASA. There may be scrutiny of NASA\u2019s Artemis lunar exploration campaign, including both its technical approach and its schedule. It will have to examine if NASA\u2019s plans to replace the International Space Station with commercial stations are feasible and on a schedule that will permit the ISS\u2019s retirement in 2030. NASA\u2019s science programs are also facing budget challenges, and the next administration could revisit whatever the agency decides in the coming months on a new approach to the Mars Sample Return program.<\/p>\n

Underlying all of those issues is problems with the agency\u2019s infrastructure. Many of NASA\u2019s field centers still rely on facilities built many decades ago, dating back to the original space race with the former Soviet Union if not earlier. That aging infrastructure is putting a strain on NASA\u2019s ability to carry out its various missions independent of specific technical or budgetary challenges those missions face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNASA\u2019s solution to the problem has been to underinvest in infrastructure and so on in the future,\u201d Augustine said. \u201cThat tactic, frankly, has run out of gas.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The problem with NASA\u2019s infrastructure is not a new one, but is now an issue that can no longer be deferred. That was the overarching conclusion of a report issued in September by a National Academies committee chartered by Congress in the 2022 NASA authorization act and chaired by Norm Augustine, the retired chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin.<\/p>\n

The report, titled\u00a0\u201cNASA at a Crossroads,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0got its name from the committee\u2019s conclusion that the agency was at a crossroads regarding investment in its infrastructure. \u201cThe underpinnings of the unique and critical capabilities the agency provides to the United States are eroding and will be inevitably lost if certain trends are not reversed,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n

In a webinar held by the National Academies to roll out the report, Augustine and other committee members said that NASA has underinvested in facilities because of budget pressures. The amount of the agency\u2019s budget that went to \u201cmission support,\u201d a line that includes facility maintenance, fell from 20% of NASA\u2019s overall budget in 2013 to 14% in 2023. \u201cIn an opportunity-rich environment, such as NASA has confronted over the years, the choice has too frequently been to pursue near-term missions at the expense of investing in the ostensibly invisible foundational assets of the organization,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n

Augustine, at the webinar, offered a blunter explanation of that \u201copportunity-rich environment\u201d: NASA was being asked to do more than its budget provided. \u201cNASA\u2019s solution to the problem has been to underinvest in infrastructure and so on in the future,\u201d he said. \u201cThat tactic, frankly, has run out of gas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee\u2019s concerns ranged from specific infrastructure, like the Deep Space Network that is increasingly overtaxed trying to support a growing number of missions, to basic facilities like labs and offices. \u201cIn fact, during its inspection tours, the committee saw some of the worst facilities many of its members have ever seen,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concerns that it faces are ones that have built up over decades,\u201d Augustine said of the agency during the webinar. \u201cNASA truly is, in our view, at a crossroads.\u201d<\/p>\n

The infrastructure comments in the report got the most attention, but the committee also raised concerns about investment in enabling technologies, its workforce, as well as \u201csystemic\u201d issues like a shift in management authority from field centers to NASA headquarters.<\/p>\n

The committee came up with eight major recommendations included in the report. It called for sufficient funding for infrastructure \u201ceven if that requires a rebalancing of the relative allocations of funding between mission work versus institutional support,\u201d as well as the establishment of a working capital fund for infrastructure upkeep. Others called for improving investment in technologies and development of a human capital strategy.<\/p>\n

The report did not prioritize those recommendations. However, in an interview after the release of the report, Augustine said he considered two of the eight recommendations the most important. One was the recommendation on increasing investment in mission support, which he said could be tackled in two ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first solution is to give NASA more money,\u201d he said, arguing that NASA is a \u201cminiscule\u201d part of the overall budget, even with the recent caps on discretionary spending. \u201cGetting more money is something you can hope for but can\u2019t bet on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second approach, he said, it to shift money from missions to mission support. \u201cJust don\u2019t so some of the missions,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s going to be really painful.\u201d He added that neither he nor the committee attempted to identify what missions should be curtailed or cancelled to free up money for mission support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat are the institutional transformation initiatives we need to implement starting today,\u201d Swails said of the ANSA 2040 effort, \u201cto make sure we\u2019re set up for success in the future?\u201d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The other recommendation he considered the most important was what the report called a \u201cpriority assessment of its current mission management model,\u201d which he said involves ensuring the \u201cproper checks and balances\u201d between center management and management of mission directorates at headquarters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe belief of the committee is that this is out of balance and could have dire consequences,\u201d he said in the interview. He added, though, that his committee was \u201cvery reluctant\u201d to tell NASA what that balance should be. \u201cThat is something it will have to address on its own.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA 2040<\/h3>\n

The National Academies report comes as NASA is working on an internal effort to reshape the agency called NASA 2040. \u201cIt\u2019s an agency transformation initiative to propel us into the future,\u201d said Casey Swails, NASA deputy associate administrator, during a talk at the American Astronautical Society\u2019s von Braun Space Exploration Symposium last week in Huntsville, Alabama.<\/p>\n

NASA has mentioned the NASA 2040 initiative from time to time but rarely discussed it in detail outside the agency. The effort has the goal of making NASA the \u201cpreeminent organization\u201d in space science and engineering through various institutional reforms.<\/p>\n

Swails said the approach to NASA 2040 is modeled on other strategies, like its Moon to Mars architecture, that \u201cstart from the right\u201d with a specific end state and work backwards to determine how to get there. \u201cWhat are the institutional transformation initiatives we need to implement starting today,\u201d she said, \u201cto make sure we\u2019re set up for success in the future?\u201d<\/p>\n

That work has focused on what the initiative calls \u201cworkstreams\u201d in seven areas: mission, structure, budget, people, infrastructure, technology, and process. Those efforts are led by personnel at both headquarters and the field centers with assistance from more than 200 \u201cemployee champions\u201d that serve as liaisons between leadership and the overall workforce. \u201cThis is a whole-of-agency effort,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been focused on this as an entire leadership team.\u201d<\/p>\n

She highlighted the work of the technology workstream, which is looking less at mission-specific technologies than those that enable agency operations, from artificial intelligence to cybersecurity. \u201cThis is more around the technology to help us do our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

One example of the efforts coming out of those workstreams is the concept of a \u201cNASA front door\u201d for companies interested in working with the agency. \u201cHow many of you can say where NASA\u2019s front door is?\u201d Swails asked the audience, getting muted laughter in return. Even at a single center, she argued, there can be so many ways for companies to try to seek to do business with, or engage in partnerships with, the agency, that it can make it confusing for companies to figure out the best way to proceed.<\/p>\n

She said NASA is looking at ways through technology to create such a front door. An example she gave is a company looking for access to a wind tunnel going to this portal to find out what agency facilities and expertise could meet its needs. \u201cIt’s not about creating this big organization you have to go through,\u201d she said, \u201cit\u2019s about a technology platform to see what\u2019s out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t know NASA, it can be hard to partner with NASA,\u201d said Joseph Pelfrey, director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, of that \u201cfront door\u201d initiative in an interview during last week\u2019s conference. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to make it easier for industry to be able to come in and identify where those capabilities are, where those test facilities are, and where they have capacity to support.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTheir response has been very encouraging,\u201d Augustine said of NASA. \u201cMany of the things we talked about they are addressing.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

He said he was optimistic about the prospects of NASA 2040 making lasting, positive reforms to the agency. \u201cIt’s very committed to really looking at ourselves through the mirror to say, how can we be better as an agency, and what do we need to focus on to really enable the goals of the nation in space exploration, to enable commercial space, to be a good partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelfrey said the NASA 2040 effort identified the need for infrastructure investment would be a challenge. \u201cThe National Academies report validated that, in that we have not been able to invest in the infrastructure and somewhat in the workforce for at the level that we would like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Swails said that the NASA 2040 effort got underway just before the National Academies study started. \u201cWhat it\u2019s really shown us is that we\u2019ve been on the right track with the things that we\u2019ve been working on,\u201d she said of the study. \u201cA lot of their summary and the findings of their report are really well aligned with the things that we\u2019ve been working on in the last year for 2040.\u201d That includes, she said, the need for more infrastructure investment and a \u201ccomplex matrix structure\u201d for agency management.<\/p>\n

The efforts of the various workstreams are wrapping up, she said, providing recommendations to NASA management. Implementing recommendations will begin sometime in 2025, although funding for specific efforts may have to wait until fiscal year 2026.<\/p>\n

Augustine said in September that his committee had briefed NASA on its report shortly before the public release. \u201cTheir response has been very encouraging,\u201d he said. \u201cMany of the things we talked about they are addressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That response, he said, was one reason he had a \u201cfair amount of optimism\u201d about NASA\u2019s future as it grapples with infrastructure and other institutional challenges. Another, he said, is because \u201cNASA is not going to have much of a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: thespacereview.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Foust The next administration will have its share of challenges to deal with involving NASA. There may be scrutiny of NASA\u2019s Artemis lunar exploration campaign, including both its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,40],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-opinions","category-space","tag-nasa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/NASA-INFRUSTRUCTURE.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=936"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1215,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions\/1215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedefencenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}