HOUSTON – The spacecraft of the next century might be able to mimic life rather than just be a machine that transports it.
Speaking at NanoSpace 2000 on Monday, Sam Venneri, NASA's chief technologist told a group of about 200 researchers that instead of relying upon ground controllers, programmers or astronaut repairmen, the spacecraft of the future will be able to take care of itself.
"We need to have research people thinking in terms of what’s the vehicle IQ?" Venneri said. "I have to have something with distributive intelligence, has the capacity to learn, say when it’s hurt, take action and ask for help."
Nano-technology will play a key part in making this possible, Venneri said.
But what sounds like science fiction could soon be fact. Labs and researchers took notice Friday when President Clinton said he would double federal nano-technology research funds almost $500 million for fiscal year 2001.
Federal agencies including the National Science Foundation, the Defense Department, the National Institutes of Health and the Energy Department, along with NASA, fund nano-technology research.
Medical researchers, chemists, engineers and space scientists are some of the people convening this week near Johnson Space Center (JSC) to network and cut across technical and disciplinary boundaries. This is the third year the space center has hosted the conference.
"We’re opening up a dialog," said JSC’s Dr. Ken Cox, who organized the event. "We’re bringing some people together who normally don’t work together."
Nano-technology applications haven’t strayed far from the laboratory yet, but scientists hope to change that in the next few years.
Machines, computers and biomechanical devices the size of atoms or molecules could revolutionize applications from medicine to energy -- even to space scientists’ holy grail of cheap access to space. For example, carbon nano-tubes, stronger and lighter than steel, could be used to fabricate spacecraft or a space elevator.
Venneri added nano-technology advancements are needed for the space agency to reach its goal of having a reusable launch vehicle within 20 to 25 years that is 100 times to 10,000 times cheaper to operate than the current space shuttle. Currently it costs about $10,000 per pound to place something in orbit, and the shuttle has a 1 in 500 chance of being lost on ascent.
Smaller and lighter components can also mean greater safety through increased redundancy of systems.
"With the shuttle, we bragged about our triple redundancy and quad redundancy and here we [now] could have levels of redundancy of 100 to 200 times," said former astronaut John Casper, now JSC’s director of safety, reliability and quality assurance.
Casper said JSC is studying replacing the current shuttle’s sensors with nano-technology applications to save weight and money, along with exploring a Jet Propulsion Laboratory plan to produce gyroscopes roughly the size of quarters.
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