Volume 4, Number 3 July/August 1996
When the quake hit, Ernest Schmidt was in a St. Louis skyscraper. Major earthquakes in the Midwest were exceptionally rare, but they could happen. Schmidt had never felt one and, like many in the building, felt only a momentary sense of surprise and fear. Then he remembered the Disaster Defense System the city had mandated five years earlier. An integrated network had been overlaid across all the major buildings downtown, including a web of sensors to detect dangers; discrete mechanical dampers, actuators and a range of other similar systems to allow individual buildings to react; and distributed computing and power supplies-all coupled together by continuous communications and monitoring from satellites in space. At the time, Schmidt had doubts about the cost, which was targeted on more typical threats in the region such as twisters. Surprisingly, individual elements of the system proved to be inexpensive, and collectively they were affordable. Now, as an earth- quake rippled through the structure, dampened automatically to a fraction of the force it would have had on an unprotected building, he had no doubts. It was rather amazing to him that by using technologies and systems developed for space program purposes, so many lives could be affected right here in his home town. Or maybe, he thought as the tremors faded, it was not really that surprising after all.
There are many areas in the marketplace where NASA and the space community's expertise, technology and facilities can be applied to do more directly for the public than just make scientific and technological discoveries. Strong programs for space technology commercialization have been developed by NASA, with an equally strong underpinning of policy in NASA's "Agenda for Change," which details Agency goals and objectives in this area. Similarly, the aerospace industry has developed many technology application partnerships with nonaerospace industry- frequently between divisions of the same company.
As we enter the new century, NASA and the space community must further technology transfer and commercialization. Obviously, NASA and the space community cannot and should not be developing and deploying the commercial applications of their technologies. However, as we invent innovative and important new systems concepts of space technologies and capabilities, we must ensure that those that have terrestrial applications make their way to the private sector-quickly and easily. Revolutions of space technology might come in big ways: earthquake damage may be mitigated by a systems approach to precise computational modeling of structures and the placement of "smart" actuators that applies equally well in constellations of space telescopes or in the highrises of a terrestrial city. Terrestrial transportation may be transformed through the application of superconducting electromagnetic systems that are developed for future space launchers. These revolutions may be life-saving, such as new software developed both for geographically distributed space program management and for small hospitals and medical care centers operating as part of a "virtual hospital"-with instant access to specialists nationwide via the Internet. Or such revolutions might be as small as a system that simply allows a company to exploit a satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) to more efficiently manage pizza delivery nationwide.
Scientists and engineers of space technologies may be in the best position to conceive innovative terrestrial applications of their inventions. The space community can collectively "shake up" established thinking at the systems level if it "pushes the envelope" for these new terrestrial applications by turning its inventions loose in these directions. The public and the "bottom line" will certainly expect no less
For more information, contact John Mankins at NASA Headquarters.
Phone: 202/358-4660, E-mail: jmankins@hq.nasa.gov
Please mention that you read about it in Innovation.
Curator: Joe Goldfus
