NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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The mission of the Goddard Space Flight Center is to expand knowledge of the Earth and its environment, the solar system and the universe through observations from space. To assure that our nation maintains leadership in this endeavor, we are committed to excellence in scientific investigation, in the development and operation of space systems and in the advancement of essential technologies. In pursuit of this challenge, the Center will:

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Greatly improves testing capability and efficiency.

Enhances previous approaches to protection, optimization and survivability of agent-based systems

Enables much higher productivity than traditional software engineering practices;

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The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research,or EPSCoR,establishes partnerships with government, higher education and industry that are designed to effect lasting improvements in a state’s or region’s research infrastructure, R&D capacity and hence, its national R&D competitiveness.

The EPSCoR program is directed at those jurisdictions that have not in the past participated equably in competitive aerospace and aerospace-related research activities. Twenty-four states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam currently participate.Fivefederal agencies conduct EPSCoR programs, including NASA.

The goal of EPSCoR is to provide seed funding that will enable jurisdictions to develop an academic research enterprise directed toward long-term, self-sustaining, nationally-competitive capabilities in aerospace and aerospace-related research.

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Even though it drops to -279°F at night and -400°F inside its deepest craters, the Moon can reach a scorching 260°F during the day. The range of temperatures is extreme—in part because there is no substantial atmosphere on the Moon to insulate against the heat or cold. What the Moon does have are small amounts of gasses above its surface, sometimes called a lunar atmosphere or exosphere, that consist mostly of hydrogen and helium, along with some neon and argon.

On Earth, traces of an atmosphere extend as high as 370 miles above the surface. Made of 78-percent nitrogen and 21-percent oxygen, 1 percent of Earth’s atmosphere consists of argon and other gasses—some of which help to trap heat from the Sun and create a greenhouse effect. Without this effect, Earth would probably be too cold for life to exist. Another helpful feature of the Earth’s atmosphere exists about 30 miles above the surface, where ultraviolet light from the Sun strikes oxygen molecules to create a gas called ozone. This ozone blocks harmful ultraviolet rays from reaching the Earth.

While the Earth’s atmosphere protects and defends against extreme temperatures like those on the Moon, Earth’s heating and air conditioning systems create an even more comfortable atmosphere indoors. In planning for a return mission to the Moon, NASA aimed to improve the thermal control systems that keep astronauts comfortable and cool while inside a spacecraft.

Partnership

In the late 1990s, Goddard Space Flight Center awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to Mainstream Engineering Corporation, of Rockledge, Florida, to develop a chemical/mechanical heat pump as part of the spacecraft’s thermal control system. Designed to transfer heat from one location to another, a heat pump provides cooling by moving heat out of one area and into another. While working on the heat pump design at Goddard, Mainstream Engineering came up with a unique liquid additive called QwikBoost™ to enhance the performance of the advanced heat pump design.

Previously featured in Spinoff 1999, QwikBoost circulates through a system like a lubricant, working to boost the available cooling capacity. This increases the system’s performance and results in faster heat transfer (cooling) and consumption of less operating energy.

After Mainstream Engineering patented the QwikBoost technology developed with NASA, it started manufacturing and selling the additive to improve the operating efficiency and economy of refrigeration systems, air conditioners, and heat pumps. NASA used QwikBoost to develop more efficient, smaller, and lighter cooling systems, as well as in air conditioning and refrigeration systems at NASA facilities, and air conditioning systems in NASA’s vehicle fleet.

Recognizing the capabilities of QwikBoost, New York-based Interdynamics, Inc., exclusively licensed the additive from Mainstream Engineering in 2004. As a developer of do-it-yourself air conditioning recharger kits, Interdynamics soon merged with EF Products, Inc., of Dallas, Texas, a provider of closed system retrofit kits for automotive air conditioning systems, to become IDQ, Inc., of Garland, Texas, with sales and marketing out of Tarrytown, New York. Today, IDQ incorporates the NASA-derived QwikBoost technology into its line of Arctic Freeze® products.

According to the company, by using Arctic Freeze to replace lost refrigerant and oil in an automotive air conditioning system, the NASA-derived QwikBoost chemistry provides colder air up to 50-percent faster than a conventional R-134a refrigerant product. “Working with NASA technology bolsters our confidence that the chemistry has been thoroughly tested and proven to deliver the benefits and results promised,” said Vincent Carrubba, director of research and development at IDQ.

Product Outcome

IDQ provides a variety of automotive air conditioning products for the do-it-yourself consumer and professional service technician, including its line of Arctic Freeze products. Sold at leading automotive and mass-retail stores and through wholesale distributors in the aftermarket industry in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, Arctic Freeze restores cooling in a vehicle’s air conditioning system once the system is no longer cooling effectively or when the performance has degraded to blowing only warm air. The product replenishes a system with R-134a containing the QwikBoost synthetic refrigerant enhancer.

Compared to operating with only PAG-oil (a lubricant), the addition of QwikBoost reduces wear and tear on the system by lowering compressor temperatures and extending the useful life of the lubricant. Arctic Freeze also incorporates a system-safe leak sealer that conditions rubber o‑rings, seals and hoses, which are the primary source of minor system leaks.

In addition to delivering low vent temperatures, Arctic Freeze also delivers low costs. Depending on which Arctic Freeze product a customer uses, recharging an automotive air conditioning system can cost approximately $15–$30, compared to $100 or more at an automotive repair shop. Each Arctic Freeze product provides do-it-yourself customers with everything needed to recharge a vehicle air conditioning unit.

Carrubba believes that NASA technology has made a world of difference by providing a demonstrable and affordable solution to improve the efficiency and economy of operating air conditioning and refrigeration systems here on Earth. “The all-in-one solutions of Arctic Freeze make it possible for nearly anyone to safely, effectively, and affordably recharge their own vehicle’s air conditioning unit.”

QwikBoost™ is a trademark of Mainstream Engineering Corporation. Arctic Freeze® is a registered trademark of IDQ, Inc.

To view the original Arctic Freeze spinoff success story, click here.

The full line of Arctic Freeze products incorporates a QwikBoost refrigerant enhancer originally developed by NASA and Mainstream Engineering Corporation. According to IDQ, QwikBoost provides vehicle owners with colder air up to 50-percent faster than a conventional refrigerant product. (Photo credit: NASA Spinoff 2010)

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center: Exploring Earth and space by remote control

Reference article: Facts about the Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is the nation’s largest organization of space scientists and engineers, according to the agency’s website. With a main campus just northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, GSFC has managed or played key roles in hundreds of NASA missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Landsat satellites, the Parker Solar Probe and the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) network.

GSFC also manages several installations in other locations, including:

• The Wallops Flight Facility on Viriginia’s eastern shore — a launching site for suborbital rockets, research balloons and research aircraft.
• The Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City — a hub for climate research.
• The Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility, in Fairmont, West Virginia, where computer programs for space missions are tested.
• The White Sands Complex in New Mexico — one of the ground stations for the TDRS network.

A visitor center at the Greenbelt campus welcomes the public and operates educational programs, and a visitor center at Wallops provides viewing for launches as well as educational exhibits and programs.

A new research center for the space age

GSFC was founded shortly after NASA itself, in late 1958. As Alfred Rosenthal explained in his 1968 publication “Venture Into Space: Early Years of Goddard Space Flight Center” (NASA, 1968), GSFC provided an institutional base for experts from military projects, such as the Navy’s Vanguard satellite program and the Army’s work on space communication, who were being transferred to the new civilian space agency. The Center was also assigned a long list of other duties, including theoretical research, development of instruments to fly in space, interpretation of scientific results from flight programs and administration of contracts.

In contrast to some other NASA centers, such as Glenn and Langley, which were based on established aeronautical facilities, Goddard was created specifically to work on space research.

Construction of the new center began in 1959 on land formerly owned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In March 1961, the center was formally dedicated and named in honor of American rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard, 35 years after he launched the first successful liquid-fueled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts.

Today, according to the Center’s website, the main Goddard campus comprises more than 34 buildings on a campus occupying 1,270 acres. All the Goddard installations, combined, employ more than 10,000 people, the Center stated in its 2018 annual report.

Notable early achievements

A NASA chronology of Goddard missions lists 104 launches in its first decade (1959-1969), including 40 Explorer satellites to measure the space environment surrounding Earth, 10 TIROS weather satellites, five Orbiting Solar Observatories, three Syncom communications satellites, five Orbiting Geophysical Observatories, eight ESSA cloud-photography satellites, two Orbiting Astronomical Observatories and four Applications Technology Satellites. A variety of technical problems affected some of these early missions, but the majority were successful.

Goddard’s early Explorer satellites ushered in the new field of space physics by measuring Earth’s magnetic field, and showing how Earth’s magnetic field deflects most solar wind particles around the Earth while trapping some particles in the Van Allen radiation belts.

Teams at Goddard managed the 1960 launch of the very first communications satellite — a huge mylar balloon called Echo that reflected radio transmissions back to Earth, as well as the first international space satellites: Ariel, in collaboration with the United Kingdom, and Alouette I, with Canada, both in 1962. Ariel and Alouette pioneered a “no exchange of funds” type of partnership, in which the partners contribute services and equipment to a project, but none of the partners pays any of the others with money. This arrangement is used to this day in projects such as the International Space Station.

Goddard engineers organized the creation of the Delta rocket as a vehicle to launch small to medium-size payloads into Earth orbit, and used it for many of Goddard’s early launches. Among many later variations on the design, the Delta II became an “industry workhorse,” with 155 launches from 1989 to 2018, according to Boeing.

The key to it all: communication

A satellite in low Earth orbit spends only a few minutes within range of any one tracking station, so many stations are needed to keep in touch with a craft throughout one orbit. As NASA historian Lane Wallace explains in her book “Dreams, Hopes, Realties,” (NASA, 1999), over the decades, Goddard has organized a series of worldwide networks of antennas on Earth to communicate with spacecraft in orbit, setting an example of international cooperation on technical projects.

Goddard’s Minitrack network, created for the very first satellites starting in the 1950s, led to the Mercury Space Flight Network of the 1960s, with seven ground stations and two ships at sea communicating with solo astronauts in Mercury capsules. Communication between ground stations depended on telephone lines, which could fail. So, during Project Gemini, which sent two-man crews into orbit in the mid-1960s, Goddard maintained a backup mission-control center that could take over from Houston if necessary.

To handle the big data downloads from the first robotic space observatories, Goddard set up a new Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition Network (STADAN), with antenna dishes up to 85 feet (25 meters) wide in 21 locations around the world. Goddard’s Applications Technology satellites (ATS) demonstrated the concept of using satellites in orbit to relay messages between spacecraft and Earth stations. ATS led to TDRSS, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, which now includes 10 satellites in geosynchronous orbits providing near-continuous communication with the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and other spacecraft.

Goddard also manages the Near Earth Network of more than 15 worldwide commercially operated ground stations for communication with orbiting spacecraft, and the NASA Communications Network (NASCOM), which sends data between control centers. According to its 2018 annual report, Goddard is working on space communications using laser light, which can transmit more data per second than radio waves.

Earth and space in depth

Starting in the 1970s, Goddard’s work grew to include deeper views into space and closer examination of Earth using robotic spacecraft.

Orbiting solar observatories watched the sun in ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma-ray light that can’t be seen from observatories on the ground because those wavelengths are blocked by Earth’s atmosphere. The Solar Max satellite observed solar flares and was also repaired by space shuttle astronauts in 1984, paving the way for future on-orbit servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Uhuru satellite, developed at Goddard, launched in 1970 and discovered Cygnus X-1, the first observed object thought to contain a black hole. Uhuru’s project manager at Goddard, Marjorie Townsend, was the first woman to manage a NASA satellite project.

Other Goddard satellites sensitive to X-rays and gamma-rays established the link between galaxies and mysterious powerful sources of light called quasars. The satellites also analyzed the gas in clusters of galaxies, found new pulsars and discovered gamma-ray bursts.

Another of Goddard’s accomplishments was the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite, which launched in 1978 and featured a new type of stabilizing gyroscope that was later used on the Hubble Space Telescope. The satellite also demonstrated a new “transparent” software system, allowing guest astronomers to use the telescope.

The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, launched in 1989, made the first precise measurement of the cosmic microwave background, also known as the afterglow from the Big Bang. GSFC scientist John Mather shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for the project.

Early weather satellites flew in relatively low Earth orbits, able to photograph a particular geographical region only when they passed over it. In 1975, GSFC developed the first Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), which flew in a high orbit that kept it almost stationary above the longitude of North America. The GOES series has progressed through several generations of improvements, leading to the GOES-16 and GOES-17 satellites monitoring the Western Hemisphere today. The GOES satellites, once built and launched, are turned over to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for daily operation.

An early Goddard geosynchronous satellite, ATS-3, took the first space-based color photograph of an entire hemisphere of Earth in 1967. And an instrument on Goddard’s Nimbus 7 confirmed the existence of an ozone “hole” over Antarctica in 1985.

Recent past, present and future

• A centrifuge than can subject 5,000 lbs. (2,268 kilograms) of spacecraft hardware to 30 g.
• A reverberation chamber that can generate up to 150 decibels of sound, subjecting hardware to the noise levels of a rocket launch.
• A Space Environment Chamber that can achieve a wide range of vacuum and thermal conditions.
• The Spacecraft Magnetic Test Facility, with a magnetic coil system that can cancel Earth’s magnetic field.
• The High Bay Clean Room, suitable for final assembly of a spacecraft, the largest of its kind in the world, with a volume of 1.3 million cubic feet (36,800 cubic meters).

Goddard has a hand in more than 50 current space flight projects. Among them, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter both have their mission control centers on the GSFC campus. Two currently operating Mars probes, Curiosity and MAVEN, carry Goddard-developed science instruments. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which has been searching for planets around other stars since 2018, is under Goddard management.

Goddard missions being prepared for launch include Landsat 9, the latest in a series of Earth-monitoring satellites going back to 1972; the James Webb Space Telescope (in collaboration with the European and Canadian space agencies); Lucy, a mission to explore the Trojan asteroids that accompany Jupiter; and WFIRST (Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope), which should image large areas of the sky 1,000 times faster than Hubble.

If you’ve seen a particularly beautiful animation of how a solar eclipse works or what makes the moon’s phases, it may well have come from Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio, which produces still images and animations based on data collected by NASA missions.

Wallops: Small and adventurous

Relatively small rockets, called sounding rockets, fly up to altitudes from 62 to 870 miles (100 to 1400 kilometers) from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, in Wallops Island, Virginia. Wallops originated as a missile test facility at the end of World War II and was put under Goddard management in 1981.

Sounding rockets provide an economical way to test space instruments and study regions of space that cannot be reached with aircraft, balloons or orbiting spacecraft. By the end of 2018, Wallops had hosted over 116,000 launches, according to Goddard’s 2018 annual report.

Adjacent to NASA’s operations on Wallops Island is the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), where Antares rockets have launched Cygnus cargo modules to the International Space Station. MARS is operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

GISS: Climate research in New York City

The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) was established in NASA’s early days under the directorship of physicist Robert Jastrow, who had been doing theoretical work for the Naval Research Laboratory’s Vanguard satellite program in the 1950s.

When the Vanguard team was incorporated into the new NASA Goddard center, Jastrow convinced NASA managers that the theoretical research division should be located near major research universities to attract academic researchers. In 1961, GISS began operating in offices in New York City near Columbia University.

In the late 1960s, GISS moved a few blocks to the building it now occupies. This building later became famous because its ground floor includes Tom’s Restaurant, the regular hangout of characters on the “Seinfeld” TV series.

During its early years, under Jastrow, the institute concentrated on astrophysics and planetary science. Under James Hansen, director from 1981 to 2013, and his successor, Gavin Schmidt, GISS research has turned to climate change and other global aspects of Earth’s environment.

Additional resources:

• Take a 360-degree virtual tour of the Hubble Control Center at Goddard.
• Watch the complex, weaving trajectory planned for the Lucy spacecraft.
• Read a summary of astronomers’ research priorities for the decade of the 2010s.

Special delivery: Parker Solar Probe heads to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center for environmental testing

Spacecraft designed, built at JHU’s Applied Physics Lab is scheduled for launch in 2018

Image caption: The Parker Solar Probe team at Johns Hopkins APL prepares to lift the heat shield in preparation for shipment to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Image credit : NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Ed Whitman

How do you prepare to move the first spacecraft to touch the sun? The same way you would move anything else: carefully wrap it, pack it, rent a truck, and perform a nitrogen purge.

Last month, the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft traveled from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where it was designed and built, to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. It’s a short drive, but it took significant preparation.

Image caption: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, shown in protective bagging to prevent contamination, is mounted on a rotating pedestal

Image credit : NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Ed Whitman

First, the spacecraft was wrapped in a special protective layer to prevent dust or dirt from reaching the probe. Then it was bolted to a specially designed pedestal that carefully tilted the probe onto its side to fit it inside a shipping container. If kept upright, the probe would have been too tall to pass under highway bridges during transport.

Once boxed and loaded onto a truck bed, the scientists performed a nitrogen purge, slowly sucking air and moisture out of the container and replacing it with ultra-dry nitrogen with an extremely low dew point. A nitrogen purge is a common practice among military and commercial aerospace projects to prevent corrosive moisture and condensation from reaching sensitive electronics.

Image credit : NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Ed Whitman

The move, accompanied by a state police escort, took place at 4 a.m.—to avoid traffic, of course.

Image caption: No, it’s not a still from the movie E.T., it’s members of the testing team preparing the Parker Solar Probe for environmental testing in the Acoustic Test Chamber at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Image credit : NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Ed Whitman

At Goddard, the Parker Solar Probe has undergone extensive testing and simulations to ensure it’s ready for its historic mission next year (launch is scheduled for between July 31 and Aug. 19).

It underwent an acoustic test, which subjected the probe to sound forces like those generated during a rocket launch. Goddard’s Acoustic Test Chamber is a 42-foot-tall chamber that uses 6-foot-tall speakers that can reach 150 decibels to simulate the extreme noise of the Delta IV Heavy, the highest-capacity rocket currently in operation and the vehicle that will carry the probe into space.

Video credit : Applied Physics Lab

The spacecraft’s specially designed Thermal Protection System, or TPS, has also gone through thorough testing. The heat shield, developed by scientists at APL and the Whiting School of Engineering, is made of carbon-carbon composite material to protect the probe from the intense heat of the sun’s atmosphere, which can reach temperatures of almost 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. As the spacecraft hurtles through the hot solar atmosphere and back out into outer space, the TPS will keep the instruments on the spacecraft at approximately room temperature.

Image caption: The probe’s Thermal Protection System is lowered into the Thermal Vacuum Chamber at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in preparation for environmental testing

Image credit : NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Ed Whitman

The heat shield was tested in Goddard’s Thermal Vacuum Chamber, which simulated the harsh conditions that it will endure during the mission.

During its mission, the Parker Solar Probe will use seven Venus flybys over the course of nearly seven years to gradually shrink its orbit around the sun, coming as close as 3.7 million miles—about eight times closer to the sun than any spacecraft has come before. Upon its closest orbit, the Parker Solar Probe will be traveling at about 450,000 miles per hour. That’s fast enough to get from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., in one second.

The solar probe, named for Eugene Parker, the astrophysicist who predicted the existence of the solar wind in 1958, is a “true mission of exploration,” the scientists write on the mission homepage. “Still, as with any great mission of discovery, Parker Solar Probe is likely to generate more questions than it answers.”

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center: Disability Employment Done Right

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center sets the bar for cutting edge technology and space exploration, but they also are setting the bar right here on Earth for disability hiring and inclusion. I recently had the unique opportunity to visit one of the most interesting agencies in the Federal Government and wanted to share with you some of the innovative things happening there.

The Goddard Space Flight Center has developed an inclusive culture from recruitment, to hiring, through training, and ultimately the retention of people with disabilities. In 2009, the Office of Personnel Management held the first ever Federal Government disability job fair; human resource managers from Goddard attended and actually hired candidates they met using Schedule A hiring authority, which expedites the hiring process for persons with disabilities. The agency also actively recruits folks with disabilities at great science and technology schools. They have a close working relationship with vocational rehabilitation centers, the Workforce Recruitment Program, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s internship program for interns with disabilities who feed them highly qualified candidates in Science, Technology, Engineering , and Math (STEM). Thanks to these great practices, the Goddard center has reached its internal agency goals both for disability and veteran hiring.

Kareem Dale, Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy (center) tours the satellite testing facility at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. August 3, 2011. (by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

But, for this agency, hiring individuals with disabilities is not viewed as a box to be checked. Goddard ensures that training for new hires is accessible, through a robust feedback mechanism which helps to reduce unintentional barriers. Goddard also offers development and learning sessions for current staff and managers, including the Diversity Dialogue Project which provides a space for conversation where employees can discuss barriers and combat insensitivity. They also run a very popular “Power and Privilege” series where employees can learn about disability history and discuss disability related issues.

One of the most significant barriers to successful employment for people with disabilities is the lack of reasonable accommodations. The Goddard Space Flight Center uses one of the best practices for ensuring that accommodations are provided to level the playing field for all employees—the agency maintains a centralized accommodation fund, meaning individual managers do not feel pressure to make reasonable accommodations decisions based on their department budgets.

Diversity in Goddard’s hiring matches the diversity of the skillsets required to be on the cutting edge of earth and space sciences. We took a great tour of the facility which is currently building and testing parts of the James Webb SpaceTelescope (JWST), a new powerful telescope the size of a tennis court which will be in orbit nearly one million miles from Earth (in comparison, the Hubble telescope was about 350 miles from Earth’s surface). JWST is Hubble’s successor and will enable scientists to help us understand more about the Big Bang.

The diverse employees of the Goddard Space Flight Center are responsible for inception, building, testing, and launching the coolest high-tech stuff around. From a blind equal employment opportunity specialist who welcomed us, to a thermal engineer with a physical disability who showed us a huge machine that simulates the space vacuum and extreme temperatures, to Deaf engineers who showed us mockups and test equipment they designed for the satellite’s data and command center (its brain), this just once again proves that people with disabilities can work anywhere and do anything.

Goddard Space Flight Center: Building a Learning Organization (a)

20 Pages Posted: 21 Oct 2008

James G. Clawson

University of Virginia – Darden School of Business

Gerry Yemen

University of Virginia – Darden School of Business

Goddard Space Flight Center: Building a Learning Organization (a)

Goddard Space Flight Center: Building a Learning Organization (a)

Abstract

While reading the Wall Street Journal, Edward Rogers notices an advertisement for a Knowledge Management Architect at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Rogers is an academic whose scholarship centers on developing models of how and why people cooperate intellectually. After submitting his résumé and completing the interview process, Rogers is offered the position for a term appointment of three years. After one month on the job, Rogers wonders how he should proceed in helping the Goddard Space Flight Center become a learning organization. It is, in fact, the kind of opportunity Rogers has looked forward to for many years, but what will his plan of attack look like? How can he help this collection of rocket scientists work better together? The A case presents an undisguised picture of a NASA center that is fostering a learning approach to developing the organization. See also the B case (UVA-OB-0835).

GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER:

BUILDING A LEARNING ORGANIZATION (A)

While reading the Wall Street Journal, Edward Rogers noticed an advertisement for a Knowledge Management Architect at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Though he was not particularly looking for a job, he felt that this ad closely described the focus of his last 10 years of work. Rogers was an academic whose scholarship centered on developing models of how and why people cooperated intellectually. He had taught at Cornell, Duke, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The NASA position sounded like a marriage of many of Rogers’s long-term interests. After submitting his resume and completing the interview process, Rogers was offered the position on a term appointment for three years. Following his first month of work, during June of 2003, Rogers was left with more questions than answers. Given the scope of NASA’s projects, Rogers knew he had to have a road map but wondered what it would look like. Where would he start? What should he actually do?

NASA Centers and Project Eras

NASA was created on October 1, 1958, and under the Kennedy administration was assigned the job of putting a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. The organization was headquartered in Washington, D.C. with 10 centers located around the country—each with different mission responsibilities and capabilities. All centers worked together to accomplish NASA’s vision and missions. The President of the United States appointed NASA Administrators, and George W. Bush appointed Sean O’Keefe as the 10th administrator on December 21, 2001. O’Keefe was responsible for leading the agency and managing NASA’s resources. With a strong financial management background (former chief financial officer at the Department of Defense and deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget), he came with a mandate to reform financial management at the agency. Testifying before Congress O’Keefe said, “Cultural change is required.”

Keywords: action planning, organizational culture, organizational development, organizational problems, management change

Photo, Print, Drawing Display at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland

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• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
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Highsmith, Carol M, photographer. Display at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland . Greenbelt Greenbelt. Maryland United States, None. [Between 1980 and 2006] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2011634848/.

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Highsmith, C. M., photographer. Display at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland . Greenbelt Greenbelt. Maryland United States, None. [Between 1980 and 2006] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2011634848/.

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Highsmith, Carol M, photographer. Display at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland . [Between 1980 and 2006] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, .

Review of NASA’s Distributed Active Archive Centers (1999)

Chapter: 3 Goddard Space Flight Center DAAC

3
Goddard Space Flight Center DAAC

Panel Membership

J.-BERNARD MINSTER, Chair, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California

FERRIS WEBSTER, Vice Chair, University of Delaware, Lewes

SYDNEY LEVITUS, NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center, Silver Spring, Maryland

RICHARD S. LINDZEN, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

TERENCE R. SMITH, University of California, Santa Barbara

JOHN R.G. TOWNSHEND, University of Maryland, College Park

ABSTRACT

The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) DAAC is the largest of the EOSDIS DAACs. It manages a variety of data sets related to climate, the biosphere, and the upper atmosphere, and it will also process, disseminate, and archive data from the flagship EOS instrument, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The DAAC understands its role and is doing a good job with its current data sets. However, the large data volumes and complex algorithms of the MODIS data stream present a significant challenge to the DAAC, and the panel’s main recommendation is that the DAAC continue to focus its efforts on preparing for the AM-1 platform, and particularly the MODIS instrument.

INTRODUCTION

The GSFC DAAC was created in 1993 to archive and distribute data related to climate change, atmospheric dynamics, global biosphere, hydrology, and upper atmospheric chemistry (Box 3.1). Its roots are in the NASA Climate Data System and the Pilot Land Data System. The first data sets archived by the DAAC included data collected by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and the Nimbus-7 Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS). Today the DAAC manages data sets from a variety of missions and experiments, supports the Goddard Data Assimilation Office, and also manages some of the hydrology holdings of the Marshall Space Flight Center DAAC, which was closed in 1997. With a staff of 114 and current holdings of 4 TB, the GSFC DAAC is one of the largest DAACs in the EOSDIS system.

In the EOS AM-1 era, DAAC holdings will increase in size by a factor of 500 (Box 3.1). The Sea-Viewing Wide-Field-of-View Sensor (SeaWiFS) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) instruments, which have already been launched, will produce 65 TB of data, and MODIS, which will be launched in early 1999, will produce nearly 2,000 TB. To prepare for these large data streams, the DAAC is staffing up. Approximately 40 EOSDIS Core System (ECS) contractors have been added to process MODIS data, and about 12 permanent staff have been added to manage DAAC operations. The average budget for the DAAC, which includes DAAC personnel and functions, civil servants, ECS contractors, and ECS-supplied hardware, is about $15 million per year.

Managing the enormous MODIS data stream poses daunting managerial and technological challenges for the GSFC DAAC. Of most concern is whether the information system, particularly the ingest system, can be scaled up to accommodate increasing loads (see “Technology,” below). To prepare for the new data streams, the DAAC will start “day-in-the-life” exercises and operations rehearsals several months before launch. As of June 1998, the ECS was still not ready for day-in-the-life exercises, but so far, it has been sufficient to test the science algorithms. Delays in the launch of the EOS satellites will provide additional preparation time.

The Panel to Review the GSFC DAAC held its formal site visit on October 20–21, 1997. To ensure that its report and recommendations reflect recent developments, several panel members visited the DAAC again in June 1998. The following report is based on findings from both visits and e-mail discussions with DAAC managers in July and September 1998.

HOLDINGS

Even before the launch of TRMM and AM-1, the GSFC DAAC has been managing and distributing numerous data sets of substantial size. These include in particular the Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and the

BOX 3.1. Vital Statistics of the GSFC DAAC

History. The GSFC DAAC was created in 1993 out of the NASA Climate Data System and the Pilot Land Data System. Its holdings go back to 1978.

Host Institution. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Disciplines Served. Atmospheric science and hydrology; data are available on the chemistry of the upper atmosphere, global biosphere, atmospheric dynamics, and climatology.

Mission. To maximize NASA’s investment benefits by providing data and services that enable its customers to fully realize the scientific and educational potential of data and information from the Earth Science Enterprise.

Holdings. The DAAC holds 4 TB of heritage data sets and anticipates receiving more than 2000 TB of data from the AM-1 platform.

Users. There were 12,216 unique users in FY 1997, based on log-in addresses.

Staff. In FY 1998 the DAAC had 74 staff (9 of them civil servants) and 40 ECS contractors.

Budget. Approximately $9.2 million in FY 1998 (including DAAC costs and ECS-provided hardware, software, and personnel), increasing to $17 million in FY 2000.

Television and Infrared Observation Satellite Operational Vertical Sounder (TOVS) Pathfinder data sets, which have been used extensively by EOS investigators to prepare for the processing of AM-1 data (Box 3.2). These holdings consist primarily of imagery and remotely sensed data, and constitute one of the best resources available to date to support research on the atmosphere and global climate change. Figure 3.1, for example, illustrates changes in the size of the ozone hole, as detected by several remote sensing instruments, whose data are managed by the GSFC DAAC.

Eclipse circumstance at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC; lat 38.99, long −76.84) on 25 December 2000 between 16:04:13 and 19:16:25 UTC. The maximum AOD during the eclipse occurs at the maximum obscuration of 0.42, which results in a change of ∼ 0.28 for AOD at 500 nm compared to data before and after the solar eclipse. Utilizing the NASA Solar Eclipse database, the AOD measurements are removed between the partial eclipse first contact and partial eclipse last contact as denoted by the vertical dashed lines.

+20

Context in source publication

Citations

80 days per year to less than

30 days. While fine-mode particles exhibited a continuous decrease by

30-40% during the time period of 2013–2018, the levels of coarse aerosols had no regular variations. MISR fraction AOD of different size modes shows that there has been an obvious overall decline in coarse particles over eastern China, but natural sources such as long-range dust transport make a considerable contribution. The Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) increased steadily from 2001 to 2012 by more than

0.05. In contrast, aerosol absorption has been getting stronger since 2013, with SSA increasing by

0.03, due to a much larger reduction in sulfate and nitrate. The drastic transition of aerosol properties has greatly changed aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) in eastern China. The negative ARF at the top (TOA) and bottom (BOA) of the atmosphere decreased by

50 W/m2, respectively, in Beijing during the 2001–2012 period. Although aerosol loading continued to decline after 2013, the magnitudes of TOA and BOA ARF have increased by

30 W/m2, respectively, since 2013, due largely to the enhanced aerosol absorption. Our results suggest that more comprehensive observations are needed to improve understanding of the intense climate and environment effects of dramatic aerosol properties in eastern China.

80 days per year to less than

30 days. While fine-mode particles exhibited a continuous decrease by

30-40% during the time period of 2013–2018, the levels of coarse aerosols had no regular variations. MISR fraction AOD of different size modes shows that there has been an obvious overall decline in coarse particles over eastern China, but natural sources such as long-range dust transport make a considerable contribution. The Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) increased steadily from 2001 to 2012 by more than

0.05. In contrast, aerosol absorption has been getting stronger since 2013, with SSA increasing by

0.03, due to a much larger reduction in sulfate and nitrate. The drastic transition of aerosol properties has greatly changed aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) in eastern China. The negative ARF at the top (TOA) and bottom (BOA) of the atmosphere decreased by

50 W/m2, respectively, in Beijing during the 2001–2012 period. Although aerosol loading continued to decline after 2013, the magnitudes of TOA and BOA ARF have increased by

30 W/m2, respectively, since 2013, due largely to the enhanced aerosol absorption. Our results suggest that more comprehensive observations are needed to improve understanding of the intense climate and environment effects of dramatic aerosol properties in eastern China.” publicationUrl=”publication/339100259_Reversal_of_Aerosol_Properties_in_Eastern_China_with_Rapid_Decline_of_Anthropogenic_Emissions” abstractClassName=”js-target-abstract-undefined”>

Unexpected Glimpse of Newly Discovered Black Hole Caught by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx

By University of Arizona March 3, 2020

This image shows the X-ray outburst from the black hole MAXI J0637-043, detected by the REXIS instrument on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. The image was constructed using data collected by the X-ray spectrometer while REXIS was making observations of the space around asteroid Bennu on November 11, 2019. The outburst is visible in the center of the image, and the image is overlaid with the limb of Bennu (lower right) to illustrate REXIS’s field of view. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/MIT/Harvard

University students and researchers working on a NASA mission orbiting a near-Earth asteroid have made an unexpected detection of a phenomenon 30 thousand light-years away. Last fall, the student-built Regolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) onboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft detected a newly flaring black hole in the constellation Columba while making observations off the limb of asteroid Bennu.

REXIS, a shoebox-sized student instrument, was designed to measure the X-rays that Bennu emits in response to incoming solar radiation. X-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation, like visible light, but with much higher energy. REXIS is a collaborative experiment led by students and researchers at MIT and Harvard, who proposed, built, and operate the instrument.

On November 11, 2019, while the REXIS instrument was performing detailed science observations of Bennu, it captured X-rays radiating from a point off the asteroid’s edge. “Our initial checks showed no previously cataloged object in that position in space,” said Branden Allen, a Harvard research scientist and student supervisor who first spotted the source in the REXIS data.

Last fall, the student-built Regolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) aboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft detected a newly flaring black hole in the constellation Columba while making observations off the limb of asteroid Bennu. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The glowing object turned out to be a newly flaring black hole X-ray binary – discovered just a week earlier by Japan’s MAXI telescope – designated MAXI J0637-430. NASA’s Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope also identified the X-ray blast a few days later. Both MAXI and NICER operate aboard NASA’s International Space Station and detected the X-ray event from low Earth orbit. REXIS, on the other hand, detected the same activity millions of miles from Earth while orbiting Bennu, the first such outburst ever detected from interplanetary space.

“Detecting this X-ray burst is a proud moment for the REXIS team. It means our instrument is performing as expected and to the level required of NASA science instruments,” said Madeline Lambert, an MIT graduate student who designed the instrument’s command sequences that serendipitously revealed the black hole.

This visualization simulates an X-ray outburst from the black hole MAXI J0637-043, detected by the REXIS instrument on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, as it moves through REXIS’s line of sight. At first, the outburst is visibly intense, but it gradually fades as it subsides. The animation was constructed using data collected by the X-ray spectrometer while REXIS was making observations of the space around asteroid Bennu on November 11, 2019. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/MIT/Harvard

X-ray blasts, like the one emitted from the newly discovered black hole, can only be observed from space since Earth’s protective atmosphere shields our planet from X-rays. These X-ray emissions occur when a black hole pulls in matter from a normal star that is in orbit around it. As the matter spirals onto a spinning disk surrounding the black hole, an enormous amount of energy (primarily in the form of X-rays) is released in the process.

“We set out to train students how to build and operate space instruments,” said MIT professor Richard Binzel, instrument scientist for the REXIS student experiment. “It turns out, the greatest lesson is to always be open to discovering the unexpected.”

The main purpose of the REXIS instrument is to prepare the next generation of scientists, engineers, and project managers in the development and operations of spaceflight hardware. Nearly 100 undergraduate and graduate students have worked on the REXIS team since the mission’s inception.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator, and the University of Arizona also leads the science team and the mission’s science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft and provides flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.