Page 4 - Aerotech News and Review, Sept. 7 2018

NASA, from 3
since the inception of the agency.” The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was formed on March 3, 1915, and NASA — the National Aeronautics and Space Ad-
ministration — was formed in 1958. NASA technology and inventions have been improving life on Earth since its founding. “If you think about how we navigate using GPS (global positioning system) for example, or how we produce food,” said Briden- stine, citing examples of NASA in- novations in action. He told about a farmer in Nebraska who explained how technology from NASA has helped him to produce a higher yield on his crops. Bridenstine also pointed to advances in weather forecasting technology as an area in which NASA has made significant contribution. “Eighty percent of the data that helps us understand and predict weather is collected from satellites built by NASA or NOAA.” (National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration). Bridenstine continued, “NASA’s budget is one-half of one percent of our nation’s budget and a question that is often asked is, ‘Why are we invest- ing in NASA?’ And the answer is: it has elevated the human condition in ways that most of America doesn’t yet know and we have to get that message out. We have to let people know that it is a tiny investment that has elevated the human condition, not only for ev- erybody in America, but everybody in
the world.”
Bridenstine’s enthusiasm was evi-
dent and Starr Ginn, Deputy Aero- nautics Research Director at the Arm- strong Flight Research Center said, “He has been like a kid in a candy store all day long!” Ginn has served as portfolio manager for Hybrid Electric Aircraft Research at AFRC on many projects, including the X-57.
The last question asked was about
the current administration’s recently proposed “Space Force.”
“You can imagine, I get that ques- tion everywhere I go,” Bridenstine said. “NASA is about exploration, about discovery, about science and technology, that’s who we are and that’s what we do.
“We don’t do national security. That being said, before I was a NASA administrator, I was in the House of
Representatives and I can tell you firsthand as a member of the House of Representatives, I have voted on the Space Corps, which is very similar to the Space Force.
“We voted on creating a Space Corps as a part of the Department of the Air Force. We voted on that three times in the House of Representatives and each time I voted, ‘yes,’ and the third time I voted on it was on the full
floor of the House, not just in commit- tee, and it passed with 344 votes. In other words, there is strong, bipartisan support for the Space Corps, which is really very similar to the Space Force, minus one thing it didn’t have: its own service secretary. The Space Corps would report to the secretary of the Air Force, but it was still a separate mili- tary service, just like the Marine Corps is a separate military service from the Navy, but it reports to the secretary of the Navy.”
Bridenstine said, “All of the Space Force would be separate from NASA. It would not be a NASA program. However, I would say as a NASA administrator, we as a society, we are dependent upon space. If there’s no space, cell phones don’t work because of the time signals from GPS satellites, the electricity on the grid and banking systems won’t work, all of these things mean we are dependent upon space.
“With hundreds of billions of dollars-worth of hardware in space, NASA does have an interest in keep- ing space secure, plus we have humans aboard the International Space Sta- tion,” he said. “As a member of the House I was supportive of it, and as a NASA administrator I am still sup- portive of it, but I want to be really clear that NASA is about science and technology. We’re about discovery and exploration, not defense.”
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September 7, 2018
The electric motor on the X-57 Maxwell.
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