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Betsy Pugel

Publications and source records attributed to Betsy Pugel.

5 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2023

Technology Scouting Phase 1 Report

Identifying emerging technologies is critical to a mission-oriented agency such as NASA that is always endeavoring to achieve first-of-a-kind human and scientific exploration goals. While NASA attempts to embrace faster and novel development approaches, there have been several recent examples where the Agency has been outpaced in technology research and development, especially by emerging companies. This is in part due to the democratization of space, as seen in the flood of new space companies and capital, and because capabilities and performance levels that used to be almost exclusively demanded by space missions are now scattered across many industries. Also, NASA tends to focus on technologies and techniques developed internally, within the space sector, or in clearly related disciplines. In this context, the overall goal of the Technology Scouting project is to develop an approach to conduct effective technology scouting within NASA by first assessing the need for such a capability, evaluating current and recommended approaches, and then developing a strategy to address any weaknesses in the current approach. The study was designed to be conducted in three phases, each with its own goals and objectives: - Phase 1: Validate whether NASA’s technology scouting capability is consistent with best practices from industry, academia, and other government organizations, and identify whether there is the appetite for adopting a more rigorous technology scouting capability across the Agency. - Phase 2: Identify specific opportunities and challenges to adopting a more comprehensive technology scouting program through a pilot effort. - Phase 3: Define the implementation approach for the more comprehensive technology scouting program that is in response to the information learned during the earlier phases of the study.

Ellen Gertsen↗
NASA NTRS2020

Restricted and Uncontained: Health Care and Public Health Considerations in the Event of Loss of Containment During the Restricted Earth Return of Extraterrestrial Samples

The normal scope of an adequate public health response to released biological material is framed by working with biological vectors with known pathogenicity and virulence. Defining the scope of a response to the release of biological material with unknown pathogenicity and virulence enters into a novel and yet to be framed domain. A current case, the case of returning samples from a location other than Earth, extraterrestrial samples from a location such as Mars, which may harbor life as we know it, requires framing a public health response. An unintentional release of biological material with unknown pathogenicity and virulence may occur when biological containment mechanisms in the Earth-returning transport method are lost. This paper raises initial public health and healthcare response questions during a return of extraterrestrial samples to Earth, in the event of its release from biological containment mechanisms: How does the public health community prepare for a response when there is release of samples that may contain potential extraterrestrial organisms from a planetary body or hardy terrestrial organisms surviving a round trip? If a mishap occurs during the return of these samples, what considerations need to be made to confine, decontaminate, and collect material in regions around the mishap? How will the public health community work with relevant government organizations to prepare the general public? The unknowns of exposure, potential extraterrestrial pathogenicity, and decontamination approaches, underscore gaps in biopreparedness for this novel case from the federal to local levels.

Betsy Pugel↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Restricted by A Historical Review of Strategies and Organization for Restricted Earth Return of Samples from NASA Planetary Missions

Return of samples from the Moon via the Apollo 11, 12 and 14 missions represented NASA's first attempts into conducting what is now known as Restricted Earth Return. When Apollo returned samples from the moon, there were few of the agencies, legal and organizational structures that exist now. A half a century later, the U.S system has seen changes in legal and organizational structures with the appearance of different agencies and legal requirements. During the Apollo era, U.S. legal and organizational structures, assessed threats to the Earth’s biosphere with a priority towards the risks of effects from extraterrestrial pathogens on humans, though the guiding document, the Baylor Protocol, also considered animal and plant models. This presentation focuses on a review of two main questions: Did the return of samples from the Moon happen at a “sweet spot” in time, where the number of requirements and conservatism was commensurate with the scientific knowns and unknowns? Could the emphasis of risk mitigation on human pathogens during the return of extraterrestrial samples be more about human solipsism, leaving us with a blind spot to sources of pathogens, such as fungi, which could lead to an impact to our biosphere, and we humans, via our food chains and agricultural pathways?

planetary protection↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Planetary Protection, Parts, and Perception: The Ranger Missions as the Origin Story of the Myth of Planetary Protection-Related Mission Failures

There has been a long-standing perspective in the planetary engineering community that the use of planetary protection sterilization techniques such as dry heat microbial reduction (DHMR) have led to significant mission failures in the past. This perception has led to a hesitation to craft mission designs that incorporate sterilization beyond the component-level. Via interviews with long-standing members of the planetary engineering community across the Agency, we have identified the root historical missions that have driven this perspective. The source, or Origin Story, which has been passed down to subsequent generations of engineers, is the failures tied to the early series of the Ranger missions. In this presentation, we examine the details behind the Ranger failures, the majority of which are non-planetary protection sterilization-related, and bring to light the myth of this perception.

planetary protection↗