NRC Report Urges More Technology R&D Using Space Station

In response to a request by NASA, a committee of the National Research Council (NRC) examined how the International Space Station (ISS) could best be utilized as a platform for engineering research and technology development (ERTD.) On June 12 the NRC released their 76-page report, entitled “Engineering Research and Technology Development on the Space Station.” Instead of attempting to “justify the space station on the basis of potential contributions to ERTD,” the report assumes the station will be built and focuses on assisting NASA in using the orbiting laboratory’s unique capabilities most effectively for technology R&D.

The NRC committee states that “until costs can be reduced and capabilities enhanced, the nation will be unable to realize the full economic, cultural, and scientific benefits from its investment in space.” It adds that ERTD will be necessary to achieve those benefits. The committee finds that much valuable ERTD could be performed on the ISS, resulting in new knowledge and technologies of benefit to the station itself and other space missions, as well as on Earth. However, it notes that NASA currently has no plan for effectively prioritizing ERTD to be done on the station. The report recommends that the space agency develop a technology roadmap that will articulate how engineering and technology R&D would support its overall strategic goals, and that NASA establish independent peer-review panels to ensure unbiased selection of research for government funding. The committee suggests that one of the goals of the roadmap should be to reduce ISS operations and maintenance costs through advanced technology development, but adds that few incentives presently exist for project managers to take risks with untried technologies.

Finding that experimenters face difficulties and obstacles in working with NASA, the report recommends that NASA set up a single contact organization to assist ERTD experimenters with safety and integration rules, that technical interfaces are standardized whenever possible, and that the use of off-the-shelf equipment is encouraged.

The station is scheduled for on-orbit assembly beginning next year. Even at this late stage of ISS design, the committee believes that minor modifications could greatly facilitate ERTD, and recommends that NASA immediately convene a rapid-response group to determine what modifications should have the highest priority. Pointing out that new technology development is most beneficial if commercialized, the committee recommends that NASA enhance its efforts to transfer government-funded R&D results to industry, and that the agency begin a pilot program to help small contractors commercialize their developments. It urges NASA to let market-based mechanisms determine the privately-funded experiments to be performed, suggesting that the agency auction off a certain percentage (maybe 15 percent) of the U.S.'s station resources to industrial bidders for commercial use. The committee also urges that ERTD on the ISS be used to help educate the next generation of scientists and engineers with accommodations for student experiments.

NASA is currently preparing a response to the report. A limited number of copies of the NRC report are available free of charge from the Council’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board at (202) 334-3275.