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NASA NTRS2016

On Beyond Star Trek, the Role of Synthetic Biology in Nasa's Missions

The time has come to for NASA to exploit the nascent field of synthetic biology in pursuit of its mission, including aeronautics, earth science, astrobiology and notably, human exploration. Conversely, NASA advances the fundamental technology of synthetic biology as no one else can because of its unique expertise in the origin of life and life in extreme environments, including the potential for alternate life forms. This enables unique, creative "game changing" advances. NASA's requirement for minimizing upmass in flight will also drive the field toward miniaturization and automation. These drivers will greatly increase the utility of synthetic biology solutions for military, health in remote areas and commercial purposes. To this end, we have begun a program at NASA to explore the use of synthetic biology in NASA's missions, particularly space exploration. As part of this program, we began hosting an iGEM team of undergraduates drawn from Brown and Stanford Universities to conduct synthetic biology research at NASA Ames Research Center. The 2011 team (http://2011.igem.org/Team:Brown-Stanford) produced an award-winning project on using synthetic biology as a basis for a human Mars settlement and the 2012 team has expanded the use of synthetic biology to estimate the potential for life in the clouds of other planets (http://2012.igem.org/Team:Stanford-Brown; http://www.calacademy.org/sciencetoday/igem-competition/). More recent projects from the Stanford-Brown team have expanded our ideas of how synthetic biology can aid NASA's missions from "Synthetic BioCommunication" (http://2013.igem.org/Team:Stanford-Brown) to a "Biodegradable UAS (drone)" in collaboration with Spelman College (http://2014.igem.org/Team:StanfordBrownSpelman#SBS%20iGEM) and most recently, "Self-Folding Origami" (http://2015.igem.org/Team:Stanford-Brown), the winner of the 2015 award for Manufacturing.

miniaturization and automation↗
NASA NTRS2017

Cost-Driven Design of a Large Scale X-Plane

A conceptual design process focused on the development of a low-cost, large scale X-plane was developed as part of an internal research and development effort. One of the concepts considered for this process was the double-bubble configuration recently developed as an advanced single-aisle class commercial transport similar in size to a Boeing 737-800 or Airbus A320. The study objective was to reduce the contractor cost from contract award to first test flight to less than $100 million, and having the first flight within three years of contract award. Methods and strategies for reduced cost are discussed.

Welstead, Jason R.↗
NASA NTRS2017

NASA's Electric Sail Propulsion System Investigations over the Past Three Years

Personnel from NASA's MSFC have been investigating the feasibility of an advanced propulsion system known as the Electric Sail for future scientific missions of exploration. This team initially won a NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) Phase I NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) award and then a two year follow-on Phase II NIAC award. This paper documents the findings from this three year investigation. An Electric sail propulsion system is a propellant-less and extremely fast propulsion system that takes advantage of the ions that are present in the solar wind to provide very rapid transit speeds whether to deep space or to the inner solar system. Scientific spacecraft could arrive to Pluto in ~5 years, to the boundary of the solar system in ten to twelve years vs. thirty five plus years it took the Voyager spacecraft. The team's recent focused activities are: 1) Developing a Particle in Cell (PIC) numeric engineering model from the experimental data collected at MSFC's Solar Wind Facility on the interaction between simulated solar wind interaction with a charged bare wire that can be applied to a variety of missions, 2) The development of the necessary tether deployers/tethers to enable successful deployment of multiple, multi km length bare tethers, 3) Determining the different missions that can be captured from this revolutionary propulsion system 4) Conceptual designs of spacecraft to reach various destinations whether to the edge of the solar system, or as Heliophysics sentinels around the sun, or to trips to examine a multitude of asteroids These above activities, once demonstrated analytically, will require a technology demonstration mission (~2021 to 2023) to demonstrate that all systems work together seamlessly before a Heliophysics Electrostatic Rapid Transit System (HERTS) could be given the go-ahead. The proposed demonstration mission will require that a small spacecraft must first travel to cis-lunar space as the Electric Sail must be outside of Earth's Magnetic fields to produce thrust. The paper will outline what was done over the past three years from performing various plasma chamber tests to obtain data for the PIC model development, investigation of tether material trades, and conceptual designs of proposed spacecraft.

Wiegmann, Bruce M.↗
NASA NTRS2017

The Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System (HERTS) - Design, Trades, and Analyses Performed in a Two Year NASA Investigation of Electric Sail Propulsion Systems

Personnel from NASA's MSFC have been investigating the feasibility of an advanced propulsion system known as the Electric Sail (E-Sail) for future scientific exploration missions. This team initially won a NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) Phase I NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) award and then a two-year follow-on Phase II NIAC award in October 2015. This paper documents the findings from this three-year investigation. An Electric sail, a propellant-less propulsion system, uses solar wind ions to rapidly travel either to deep space or the inner solar system. Scientific spacecraft could reach Pluto in ~5 years, or the boundary of the solar system in ten to twelve years compared to the thirty-five plus years the Voyager spacecraft took. The team's recent focuses have been: 1) Developing a Particle in Cell (PIC) numeric engineering model from MSFC's experimental data on the interaction between simulated solar wind and a charged bare wire that can be applied to a variety of missions, 2) Determining what missions could benefit from this revolutionary propulsion system, 3) Conceptualizing spacecraft designs for various tasks: to reach the solar system's edge, to orbit the sun as Heliophysics sentinels, or to examine a multitude of asteroids.

Wiegmann, Bruce M.↗
NASA NTRS2017

NASA Centennial Challenge: Three Dimensional (3D) Printed Habitat, Phase 2

The NASA Centennial Challenges: 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge seeks to develop the fundamental technologies necessary to manufacture an off-world habitat using mission recycled materials and/or local indigenous materials. The vision is that autonomous habitat manufacturing machines will someday be deployed to the Moon or Mars to construct shelters for human habitation. NASA and Bradley University, are holding a new US$ 2.5 million competition to design and build a 3-D printed habitat for deep space exploration, including the agency's journey to Mars. The multi-phase 3-D Printed Habitat Challenge, part of NASA's Centennial Challenges program, is designed to advance the additive construction technology needed to create sustainable housing solutions for Earth and beyond. The first phase of the competition ran through Sept. 27, 2015. This phase, a design competition, called on participants to develop state-of-the-art architectural concepts that take advantage of the unique capabilities 3-D printing offers. The top 3 prizes with a prize purse of $40,000 were awarded at the 2015 World Maker Faire in New York. The second phase of the competition is called the Structural Member Competition and it is divided into three levels happening in the spring and summer of 2017. The Compression Test Competition (Level 1) focuses on the fabrication technologies needed to manufacture structural components from a combination of indigenous materials and recyclables, or indigenous materials alone. For Level 1, teams will develop 3D printable materials, build a 3D printing machine, and print two specimens: a truncated cone and a cylinder. The Level 2 Beam Member Competition is the second of three sub-competitions within the overall Structural Member Competition. For Level 2, teams will print a beam that will be tested. The Level 3 Head to Head Competition is the third of three sub-competitions within the overall Structural Member Competition. For Level 3, teams will develop 3D printable materials, use a 3D printing machine, and print three compression specimens of the elected material, three flexural specimens of the elected material, and one dome structure. Tests conducted on the specimens and the dome structure will determine Level 3 scores and awards. On Earth these same habitat manufacturing capabilities could be used to produce housing wherever affordable housing is needed and access to conventional building materials and skills is limited. Terrestrially, it is envisioned that local indigenous materials (dirt, clay, sand, etc.) could be combined with readily available recyclable materials and used to construct semi-permanent shelters against environmental elements for human habitation. The goal of the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge is to foster the development of new technologies necessary to additively manufacture a habitat using local indigenous materials with, or without, recyclable materials. This paper will summarize the Level 2 results of this NASA Centennial Challenge competition and it will discuss related technology advancement.

3D printing↗
NASA NTRS2017

Findings from NASA's 2015-2017 Electric Sail Investigations

Personnel from NASA's MSFC have been investigating the feasibility of an advanced propulsion system known as the Electric Sail (E-Sail) for future scientific exploration missions. This team initially won a NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) Phase I NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) award and then a two-year follow-on Phase II NIAC award in October 2015. This paper documents the findings from this three-year investigation. An Electric sail, a propellant-less propulsion system, uses solar wind ions to rapidly travel either to deep space or the inner solar system. Scientific spacecraft could reach Pluto in approx. 5 years, or the boundary of the solar system in ten to twelve years compared to the thirty-five plus years the Voyager spacecraft took. The team's recent focuses have been: 1) Developing a Particle in Cell (PIC) numeric engineering model from MSFC's experimental data on the interaction between simulated solar wind and a charged bare wire that can be applied to a variety of missions, 2) Determining what missions could benefit from this revolutionary propulsion system, 3) Conceptualizing spacecraft designs for various tasks: to reach the solar system's edge, to orbit the sun as Heliophysics sentinels, or to examine a multitude of asteroids.

Wiegmann, Bruce M.↗
NASA NTRS2018

A Summary and Analysis of NASA's Strategic Astrophysics Technology PCOS/COR Investments Since Program Inception

The NASA Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) Program was established in 2009 as a new technology maturation program to fill the gap in the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) range from 3 to 6. Since the inception of the program, 47 tasks have been awarded under the auspices of the NASA Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) Program in the areas of optics and detectors as well as lasers, electronics, and micro-thruster subsystems. In addition, 31 tasks have been awarded under the auspices of the NASA Cosmic Origins (COR) Program to develop optics, coatings, cooling subsystems, and detectors from the Far-IR to the Far-UV. We present the PCOS/COR portfolio distribution in terms of specific technology areas addressed and show an analysis of the rate and cost of TRL advancements. We present highlights of the infusion success stories that have emerged from the SAT maturation program as it relates to enabling future NASA astrophysics strategic missions. Finally, we present an outlook for future technology priorities for investment by the SAT Program.

COR↗
NASA NTRS2018

Dynamic Power Convertor Development for Radioisotope Power Systems at NASA Glenn Research Center

The Thermal Energy Conversion Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is supporting the development of high-efficiency power convertors for use in Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS). Significant progress was made towards such a system that utilized Stirling conversion during the 2001 to 2015 timeframe. Flight development of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) was cancelled in 2013 by the Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA Headquarters primarily due to budget constraints, and the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC) technology contract was subsequently concluded in 2015. A new chapter of technology development has recently been initiated by the NASA RPS Program. This effort is considering all dynamic power convertor options, such as Stirling and Brayton cycles. Four convertor development contracts supporting this effort were awarded in 2017. The awarded contracts include two free-piston Stirling, one thermoacoustic Stirling, and one turbo-Brayton designs. The technology development contracts each consist of up to three phases: Design, Fabricate, and Test. As of May 2018, all contracts have completed the Design Phase, and each underwent a design review with an independent review board. Three of the contracts are planned to execute the Phase 2 option for fabrication. Convertors manifesting from these development efforts will then undergo independent validation and verification at NASA facilities, which will consist of convertor performance and RPS viability demonstrations. Example tests include launch vibration simulation, performance mapping over the environmental temperature range, and static acceleration exposure. In parallel with this renewed development effort, NASA GRC is still demonstrating free-piston Stirling convertor technology using assets from previous projects. The Stirling Research Laboratory (SRL) is still operating several convertors from previous development projects which have similarities and relevance to current contract designs. Four of which are flexure-bearing based, and another six are gas-bearing based. One of the flexure-bearing convertors has accumulated over 110,000 hours of operation, and holds the current record for maintenance-free heat-engine run-time. Another flexure-bearing convertor was recently manually shutdown after 105,620 hours of operation, then disassembled and inspected. This inspection produced a wealth of information about the effects of this amount of runtime on the technology's components. One of the engineering unit flexure-bearing convertors recently underwent launch simulation vibration test, a static acceleration exposure up to 20 g, and was then placed on extended operation. Amongst the gas-bearing convertors, the longest running unit has accumulated over 70,000 hours of operation. Four high-fidelity gas-bearing convertors from the ASRG project are still operating continuously, for which the longest runtime has reached 28,000 hours.

Oriti, Salvatore M.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Centennial Challenges Program Update: From Humanoids to 3D-Printing Houses on Mars, How the Public Can Advance Technologies for NASA and the Nation

The Centennial Challenges (CC) program, part of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), was founded upon the principle that engaging the public at large was a very important part of garnering the true magnitude of grassroots American innovation and ingenuity. The program uses a focused problem-statement approach to obtain solutions and/or stimulate innovation in key NASA technology gaps by catalyzing sources outside of the traditional aerospace community. The CC program announced the first two challenge competitions in 2005 incentivizing the public to participate using a congressionally authorized prize purse. Since then, the program has developed and executed more than 18 competitions and has awarded over $9 million in prize money. The challenges have covered a variety of technology areas, including propulsion, robotics, communications and navigation, human health, science instrumentation, nanotech, materials and structures, and aerodynamics. Centennial Challenges' accomplishments from October 2016 to December 2017--including significant increases in the amount and diversity of participants; increase in prize purse awards; strong alignments with NASA missions; and partnerships with industry, academia, and other government agencies-are summarized in this paper. Technological advancements, communication strategies, and legal authority are also discussed. NASA is leading the government agencies in the area of prizes and competitions to push technologies, and the CC program is one powerful example of NASA's continuing commitment to technological advancement and innovation through non-traditional programs. Currently, the Agency has in place the proven infrastructure, policies, and people needed to enable the successful use of competition tools, including the ones used as part of the CC program.

Centennial Challenge Prize↗
NASA NTRS2018

Dynamic Power Convertor Development for Radioisotope Power Systems at NASA Glenn Research Center

The Thermal Energy Conversion Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center is supporting the development of high-efficiency power convertors for use in radioisotope power systems (RPS). Significant progress was made toward such a system that utilized Stirling conversion during the 2001 to 2015 timeframe. Flight development of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) was canceled in 2013 by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA Headquarters primarily due to budget constraints, and the Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC) technology contract was subsequently concluded in 2015. A new chapter of technology development has recently been initiated by the NASA RPS Program. This effort is considering all dynamic power convertor options, such as Stirling and Brayton cycles. Four convertor development contracts supporting this effort were awarded in 2017. The awarded contracts include two free-piston Stirling, one thermoacoustic Stirling, and one turbo-Brayton design. The technology development contracts each consist of up to three phases: design, fabrication, and test. As of May 2018, all contracts have completed the design phase, and each underwent a design review with an independent review board. Three of the contracts are planned to execute the phase 2 option for fabrication. Convertors manifesting from these development efforts will then undergo independent validation and verification (IV and V) at NASA facilities, which will consist of convertor performance and RPS viability demonstrations. Example tests include launch vibration simulation, performance mapping over the environmental temperature range, and static acceleration exposure. In parallel with this renewed development effort, Glenn is still demonstrating free-piston Stirling convertor technology using assets from previous projects. The Stirling Research Laboratory (SRL) is still operating several convertors from previous development projects, which have similarities and relevance to current contract designs. Four of these are flexure-bearing based and another six are gas bearing based. One of the flexure-bearing convertors has accumulated over 110,000 h of operation and holds the current record for maintenance-free heat-engine run time. Another flexure-bearing convertor was recently manually shut down after 105,620 h of operation, then disassembled and inspected. This inspection produced a wealth of information about the effects of this amount of run time on the technology's components. One of the engineering unit flexure-bearing convertors recently underwent a launch simulation vibration test, a static acceleration exposure up to 20 g, and was then placed on extended operation. Among the gas-bearing convertors, the longest running unit has accumulated over 70,000 h of operation. Four high-fidelity gas-bearing convertors from the ASRG project are still operating continuously for which the longest run time has reached 28,000 h.

Oriti, Salvatore M.↗
NASA NTRS2018

MAGESTIC: Magnetically Enabled Structures Using Interacting Coils

In our NIAC Phase I study, awarded September 2011, the MIT Space Systems Lab (MIT SSL) began investigating a new structural and mechanical technique aimed at reducing the mass and increasing the stowed-to-deployed ratio of spacecraft systems. This technique uses the magnetic fields from current passing through coils of high temperature superconductors (HTSs) to support spacecraft structures and deploy them to operational configurations from their positions as stowed inside a launch vehicle fairing. These electromagnetic coils are tethered or hinged together in such a way that their motion in some directions or around some axes is constrained, as in Figure 1. Our Phase II study,awarded in Fall 2012, continued this work on electromagnetic structures, with an added focus on developing a new thermal system, investigating additional, non-structural electromagnet functions, and creating a maturation roadmap and plan for addressing barriers to feasibility of the technology. We now call the project MAGESTIC, or Magnetically Enabled STructures using Interacting Coils.

Superconductors↗
NASA NTRS2019

The Role of Synthetic Biology in NASA's Missions

The time has come to for NASA to exploit the nascent field of synthetic biology in pursuit of its mission, including aeronautics, earth science, astrobiology and notably, human exploration. Conversely, NASA advances the fundamental technology of synthetic biology as no one else can because of its unique expertise in the origin of life and life in extreme environments, including the potential for alternate life forms. This enables unique, creative "game changing" advances. NASA's requirement for minimizing upmass in flight will also drive the field toward miniaturization and automation. These drivers will greatly increase the utility of synthetic biology solutions for military, health in remote areas and commercial purposes. To this end, we have begun a program at NASA to explore the use of synthetic biology in NASA's missions, particularly space exploration. As part of this program, we began hosting an iGEM team of undergraduates drawn from Brown and Stanford Universities to conduct synthetic biology research at NASA Ames Research Center. The 2011 team (http://2011.igem.org/Team:Brown-Stanford) produced an award-winning project on using synthetic biology as a basis for a human Mars settlement and the 2012 team has expanded the use of synthetic biology to estimate the potential for life in the clouds of other planets (http://2012.igem.org/Team:Stanford-Brown; http://www.calacademy.org/sciencetoday/igem-competition/). More recent projects from the Stanford-Brown team have expanded our ideas of how synthetic biology can aid NASA's missions from "Synthetic BioCommunication" (http://2013.igem.org/Team:Stanford-Brown) to a "Biodegradable UAS (drone)" in collaboration with Spelman College (http://2014.igem.org/Team:StanfordBrownSpelman#SBS%20iGEM) and most recently, "Self-Folding Origami" (http://2015.igem.org/Team:Stanford-Brown), the winner of the 2015 award for Manufacturing.

Rothschild, Lynn J.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA's Human Lunar Landing Strategy

In early 2020, NASA's Human Landing System Program made awards to a set of American companies to compete for the design, delivery and demonstration of an integrated human landing system to land the next Americans near the South Pole of the Moon by 2024. Awards were made utilizing the NextSTEP Broad Agency Announcement procurement mechanism and kicked off a seven-month Certification Baseline Review, leading up to a Continuation Review and possible down-select by NASA at the end of 2020. This paper discusses the work that has been done thus far for the rapid development of a human landing system to safely carry the first woman and the next man to the lunar surface. It will also provide a preview of the work that remains ahead for the program. Keywords: Artemis, Human Landing System, Mars, Moon, Propulsion

Lisa Watson-Morgan↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Spaceflight Biospecimen Sharing in Support of Science Discovery and Exploration

For decades, NASA and international partners have flown non-human biological experiments in space to understand the effects of spaceflight and address potential biological hazards. Sending organisms into space is a costly endeavor which makes space-flown biological specimens a valuable resource. To enable maximum scientific return, samples not required by the Principal Investigators are harvested and collected mostly by NASA’s Space Biology Biospecimen Sharing Program. These specimens are collected according to well-established SOPs that maintain quality and integrity. The specimens are then preserved, archived, and made available to the international scientific community through NASA’s Institutional Scientific Collection (ISC) at Ames Research Center (ARC). The ISC-ARC biospecimens and descriptive metadata are findable and accessible for request through the Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA). The NASA ISC-ARC currently stores over 32,000 specimens from Shuttle, International Space Station, and ground-based investigations (spaceflight analog experiments involving either hindlimb unloading, centrifugation, or partial weight-bearing study designs). Tissues are predominantly from mice and rats, though samples are also available from bacteria and quail. The specimens include tissues from many physiological systems including musculoskeletal, neurosensory, reproductive, respiratory, circulatory, and digestive. Tissues are stored at -80°C, -20°C, +4°C, or ambient and preserved in various fixatives. Descriptive metadata is available for all samples. Historically, these tissues have been used for a wide range of analyses, including histology, genomics, and transcriptomics. Plans are underway to expand the ISC-ARC beyond the mostly-rodent contents, to include a space-relevant microbial culture collection including bacteria, fungi, and yeast. This expansion of the ISC-ARC will now involve identifying and standardizing best practices for microbial curations. To ensure safe long-term storage of microbial isolates, a microbiology laboratory will be dedicated for identification, cell culture, and lyophilization. Awarding of tissue to public science investigators has resulted in 33 publications since 2011, with 48 requests being submitted since 2016. Of note, NASA GeneLab has been awarded ISC-ARC biospecimens in the past few years. GeneLab processes the biospecimens to generate various levels of ‘omics’ data, which are published on GeneLab’s open access online platform for bioinformatics analysis and visualization. This has helped a systems biology community grow around the processed-biospecimens’ datasets, resulting in many new publications and insights. Websites: https://www.nasa.gov/ames/research/space-biosciences/isc-bsp ; https://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/Biospecimen

Ryan T. Scott↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Enabling Space Biology Knowledge Discovery Through Biospecimen Sharing: The NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection and Space Microbial Culture Collection

NASA and international partners have conducted experiments in space to understand the biological impacts and address hazards to health. The resulting basic and applied science is imperative to enabling humanity to venture back to the Moon and then to Mars and beyond. Sending organisms into space is a costly endeavor. All biospecimens not required by spaceflight-relevant Principal Investigators are harvested, preserved, and archived in the NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection (NBISC) to maximize the scientific return. The NASA Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) Division ‘Open Science’ endeavor includes NASA Genelab, the Space Biology Program’s Biospecimen Sharing Program, Physical Sciences Informatics, the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive, and NBISC to integrate extensive data and biospecimen resources from spaceflight and/or ground-based analog experiments. NBISC biospecimens are collected and preserved according to well-established standard operating procedures to maintain scientific quality and are available on-request by the international scientific community. NBISC currently stores over 32,000 biospecimens from Shuttle, International Space Station, and ground-based space analog investigations. Tissue sharing has resulted in at least 33 publications since 2011 and 48 requests since 2016. Many requests for NBISC biospecimen come from first-time investigators who subsequently submit grants as the port-of-entry into the field of space biology. Some NBISC biospecimens have been awarded to NASA Genelab, who then generate various ‘Open Science’ -omics data sets on their platform for bioinformatics. Other NBISC biospecimen awards have led to multiple studies such as fecal microbiome analysis, DNA damage analysis using single-cell DNA sequencing, enzymatic-pathway identification involved in spaceflight muscle atrophy, and characterization of ocular morphological changes. Of note, NBISC has expanded to include a new Space Microbial Culture Collection (SMCC) for the collection, identification, documentation, long-term preservation, and distribution of space-related microbial isolates.

biospecimens↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Enabling Space Biology Knowledge Discovery Through Biospecimen Sharing: The NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection

NASA and international partners have conducted experiments in space to understand the biological impacts and address hazards to health. The resulting basic and applied science is imperative to enabling humanity to venture back to the Moon and then to Mars and beyond. Sending organisms into space is a costly endeavor. All biospecimens not required by spaceflight-relevant Principal Investigators are harvested, preserved, and archived in the NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection (NBISC) to maximize the scientific return. The NASA Biological and Physical Sciences (BPS) Division has an ‘Open Science’ endeavor which includes NASA Genelab, the Space Biology Program’s Biospecimen Sharing Program, Physical Sciences Informatics, the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive, and NBISC. Its purpose is to integrate extensive data and biospecimen resources from spaceflight and/or ground-based analog experiments. NBISC biospecimens are collected and preserved according to well-established standard operating procedures to maintain scientific quality and are available on-request by the international scientific community. NBISC currently stores over 32,000 biospecimens from Shuttle, International Space Station, and ground-based space analog investigations. Tissue sharing has resulted in at least 33 publications since 2011 and 48 requests since 2016. Many requests for NBISC biospecimen come from first-time investigators who subsequently submit grants as the port-of-entry into the field of space biology. Some NBISC biospecimens have been awarded to NASA Genelab, who then generate various ‘Open Science’ -omics data sets on their platform for bioinformatics. Other NBISC biospecimen awards have led to multiple studies such as fecal microbiome analysis, DNA damage analysis using single-cell DNA sequencing, enzymatic-pathway identification involved in spaceflight muscle atrophy, and characterization of ocular morphological changes. Of note, NBISC has expanded to include a new Space Microbial Culture Collection (SMCC) for the collection, identification, documentation, long-term preservation, and distribution of space-related microbial isolates.

Ryan T. Scott↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Enabling Biological Discovery Through Biospecimen Sharing: The Nasa Biological Institutional Scientific Collection

Understanding biological impacts from spaceflight hazards and the subsequent development of countermeasures are a high priority to enable humanity to venture back to the Moon, and then to Mars and beyond. Experiments have been conducted with model organisms flown to space and analogous investigations terrestrially, to identify biological mechanistic impacts from spaceflight hazards and to develop mitigation countermeasures, thus contributing towards basic and applied science goals. However, sending organisms into space is a costly endeavor. To maximize scientific return, all biospecimens not required by spaceflight-relevant Principal Investigators are harvested, preserved, and archived in the NASA Biological Institutional Scientific Collection (NBISC). Biospecimens are collected and preserved according to well-established standard operating procedures to maintain scientific quality and are available on-request by the international scientific community. NBISC currently stores over 32,000 biospecimens from Shuttle, International Space Station, and ground-based space analog investigations. Tissue sharing has resulted in at least 33 publications since 2011 and 51 requests since 2016. Many requests for NBISC biospecimens come from first-time investigators who subsequently submit grants as their point-of-entry into the field of spaceflight biology and health. The NBISC biorepository is part of the NASA ‘Open Science for Life in Space’ collaborative group of projects, which includes NASA Genelab, the Space Biology Program’s Biospecimen Sharing Program, Physical Sciences Informatics, and the Ames Life Sciences Data Archive. NBISC biospecimens have been awarded to NASA Genelab, who then generated various open access science ‘omics datasets through the GeneLab Sample Processing laboratory, with resulting data widely used for biological study. Other NBISC biospecimen awards have led to studies on fecal microbiome analysis, DNA damage analysis using single-cell DNA sequencing, enzymatic-pathway identification involved in spaceflight muscle atrophy, and characterization of ocular morphological changes. Of note, NBISC is expanded to include a new Space Microbial Culture Collection (SMCC) for the collection, identification, documentation, long-term preservation, and distribution of space-related microbial isolates.

Biospecimens↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

NASA’s Human Landing System: Enabling the Next Generation of Lunar Science

The Human Landing System (HLS) is the mode of transportation that will take astronauts to the lunar surface as part of NASA's Artemis exploration program. HLS also serves as a research platform both on the surface and in lunar orbit, enabling critical scientific investigations on and of the Moon. With support at NASA centers around the country, the HLS program, based at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is working closely with its commercial partners throughout the development process to design and build innovative and technically advanced lunar landers – new vehicles designed for the modern era of space travel – leveraging decades of human spaceflight experience and the speed of the commercial sector. In 2019, NASA asked U.S. industry for proposals to design and develop a human lander for the first human mission to the lunar surface under Artemis. Initial contracts were awarded to Blue Origin Federation, Dynetics, and SpaceX to advance their designs. Following the execution of the ten-month Base Period, NASA announced in April 2021 that the agency selected SpaceX to move forward with its human landing system [1] and land the first two astronauts on the lunar surface during the Artemis III mission. Following two protest periods, NASA awarded the contract, known as Option A, to SpaceX in July 2021 and resumed work in November 2021 (Fig. 1). In parallel, the HLS program has been preparing for the acquisition that will procure regular crewed transportation to the lunar surface following Artemis III. NASA released a request for information (RFI) in July 2021 asking U.S. industry for feedback to help inform the future solicitation, known as Lunar Exploration Transportation Services (LETS) [2]. Also in July 2021, NASA released the NextSTEP-2 Appendix N broad agency announcement soliciting new work from U.S. industry to mature their HLS designs and perform risk reduction activities in advance of the LETS procurement [3]. NASA selected Blue Origin Federation, Dynetics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX to participate [4]. This work will also help better inform the LETS procurement and prepare industry to propose. NASA hopes to release a draft request for proposals (RFP) in Spring 2022.

R C Weber↗