Scott Hubbard, director, Ames Research Center

NASA Tech Briefs, Aug 2003

Scott Hubbard worked at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA, for 15 years at the branch and division levels prior to becoming Center Director in September 2002. He also serves on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

NASA Tech Briefs: Research at Ames focuses on three areas: biotechnology, nanotechnology, and information technology. Can you describe the impact Ames research has had in these areas?

Scott Hubbard: Work began here at Ames in high-end computing in the 1980s, and since then, it has spawned a revolution with an impact of well over $10 billion in direct sales in the commercial world. Today, we're trying to extend this with our work in the nanotechnology area, as well as the combination of biology, nanotechnology, and information technology.

Nanotechnology is an emerging field that is affecting everything from cosmetics, to medical science, to future robots. Information technology is pervasive, from your desktop to advanced vehicle health monitoring for future spacecraft. Each one represents an area that has an impact on NASA and on the external world.

NTB: As NASA's lead center in nanotechnology, how is Ames positioned to bring this type of research to the commercial community?

Hubbard: We're trying to address both the technology pull and the technology push, and to incorporate into our planning the university community working at the front lines of basic technology, as well as with the industrial people who are learning how to fabricate these materials and how to manipulate them for usable products.

One of the ways we're promoting this is that we've just awarded a series of cooperative agreements or grants for research, engineering, and technology institutes. One is for nano materials, and we're working directly with people at Purdue and UCLA.

NTB: So you support the technology transfer effort NASA has put in place?

Hubbard: Having come from industry, I understand the tech transfer process very well. Part of the technology I developed when I was a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, I carried out into the entrepreneurial world, and it was the basis of a small company I worked with. I've seen that from both sides of the fence.

We're focused on going all the way from an advanced concept or technology through a flight application or an application that takes the technology and inserts it into a mission. That is one of the metrics for NASA technologists to see it actually fly, whether it's on an advanced aircraft or a spacecraft. That's what is so appealing about working on technology for NASA - the chance to see it go somewhere and be part of a new discovery or exploration.

NTB: One of the most advanced computing projects at Ames is FutureFlight Central, which lets the nation's airports simulate new facilities before construction. What are other benefits this facility can provide?

Hubbard: We continue to talk not only with the FAA, but with all of the different airports that are considering ways in which they might modify their approach, landing, and management sequences and how to make them better. We've had discussions with the San Francisco Airport Authority, as well as five or six others around the country, and this tool is something that will be very useful as the demand for air travel comes back up. It took a dip after September 11, 2001, and now is actually a good time to do some thinking and planning.

We're working with the Mars Program Office on ways to use the data from recently launched Mars rovers when it comes back. This tool will be an exciting way of communicating to the various teams what the planet looks like in three dimensions and in a 360[degrees] view.

NTB: As a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, you've seen test results that point to a problem with foam striking the shuttle wing. How is NASA implementing ways to correct the problem?

Hubbard: It's my understanding that at the area of the external tank where the orbiter attaches to it, there is a history of big blocks of foam coming off of this area. No one quite understands why. From the briefings, I understand that NASA is on the way to redesigning that area, possibly putting some type of metal box around it or doing something to keep the foam in that area from shedding. We have unequivocal evidence that that's where the foam came from that hit the wing leading edge, and that it probably cracked the leading edge.

NTB: Will solving this problem require new technology, or is it simply a matter of implementing existing technology?

Hubbard: I think that the near-term return to flight issues are engineering issues. It's a matter of finding a fix for an existing problem. In the longer term, though, I think as we contemplate the next generation of human-carrying spacecraft, we need to think about advanced technologies like vehicle health monitoring. The Board found that through recovered data from a box like a flight recorder that played the scenario out after the fact one sensor did, in fact, see the foam strike. But none of that data was available to the crew. Having advanced capability to monitor what's going on in the spacecraft would be a useful new technology.