Next giant leaps for NASA tech

[n2doc]

Alan Boyle writes: Rocket refueling stations and new kinds of engines for deep-space travel are high up on NASA's wish list for new technologies. So is a heavy-lift launch vehicle, which happens on Congress' wish list as well. But exactly what kind of next-generation rocket will NASA get? As far as Bobby Braun is concerned, the answer to that question is best left to engineers rather than lawmakers.

Braun, who is the space agency's chief technologist, discussed heavy-lifters and more today in a teleconference conducted during his visit to NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley. Braun's main task is to get NASA's high-tech mojo working again, decades after the space agency made Tang, Teflon and Velcro famous.

NASA didn't actually invent Velcro fasteners, Teflon coating or Tang powdered drink mix - instead, it took those commercial innovations and adapted them for high-profile applications in outer space. Those applications, in turn, heightened public awareness and acceptance of new technologies. Something similar could happen again if NASA pushes through a new burst of technological innovation.

Today, NASA does spaceflight using a space transportation system that's been updated through the years, but really isn't dramatically different from what it was nearly 30 years ago. With the impending retirement of the space shuttle fleet, Braun and his fellow technology planners at NASA have an opportunity to do things in a radically different fashion.

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Concepts for on-orbit refueling could affect how NASA designs future space vehicles.