NASA Selects ACMI as Second Approved Exploration Park Facility

NASA and the American Center for Manufacturing and Innovation (ACMI) signed an agreement Thursday, Feb. 29 to lease underutilized land in a 240-acre Exploration Park at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. ACMI will enable the development of facilities to enable commercial and defense space manufacturing.

The agreement is the second such public/private lease agreement to allow industry and academia to use NASA Johnson land to create facilities for a collaborative development environment that increases commercial access and enhances the United States’ commercial competitiveness in the space and aerospace industries. NASA signed a similar lease with the Texas A&M University System earlier this month.

Calling it the Space Systems Campus, ACMI plans to incorporate an applied research facility partnered with multiple stakeholders across academia, state and local government, the Department of Defense and regional economic development organizations.

“For more than 60 years, NASA Johnson has been the hub of human space exploration,” said NASA Johnson Director Vanessa Wyche. “This Space Systems Campus will be a significant component within our objectives for a robust and durable space economy that will benefit not only the nation’s efforts to explore the Moon, Mars and the asteroids, but all of humanity as the benefits of space exploration research roll home to Earth.”

As the home of Mission Control Center for the agency’s human space missions, astronaut training, robotics, human health and space medicine, NASA Johnson leads the way for the human exploration. Leveraging this unique role and location, Exploration Park will play a key role in helping the human spaceflight community attain U.S. goals for the commercialization and development of a robust space economy by creating an infrastructure that fosters a multi-use environment where academic researchers, aerospace companies and entrepreneurs can collaborate with NASA. Exploration Park will create an infrastructure that allows for a multi-use space hardware development environment, where academic researchers, aerospace companies and entrepreneurs can collaborate on space exploration’s greatest challenges.

“ACMI Properties will develop this Campus to serve the needs of our future tenants, aerospace industry, the Department of Defense and other significant stakeholders that comprise our ecosystem approach,” said Simon Shewmaker, head of development for ACMI Properties. “Our aim is to support human spaceflight missions for the next 40 years and beyond.”

NASA issued an announcement for proposals for use of the undeveloped and underutilized land near Saturn Lane on June 9, 2023, and has just completed negotiations with ACMI to formalize the lease agreement. The parcel is outside of Johnson’s controlled access area and adjacent to its main campus. NASA will lease the land for 20 years with two 20-year extention options, for a potential of up to 60 years.

In the coming years, NASA and its academic, commercial, and international partners will see the completion of the International Space Station Program, the commercial development of low Earth orbit, and the first human Artemis campaign missions establishing sustainable human presence on the Moon in preparation for human missions to Mars.

Johnson already is leading the commercialization of space with the commercial cargo and crew programs and private astronaut missions to the space station. The center also is supporting the development of commercial space stations in low Earth orbit, and lunar-capable commercial spacesuits and lunar landers that will be provided as services to both NASA and the private sector to accelerate human access to space. Through the development of Exploration Park, the center will broaden the scope of the human spaceflight community that is tackling the many difficult challenges ahead.

-end-

Kelly Humphries
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
kelly.o.humphries@nasa.gov

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Wendy K. Avedisian

Langley Celebrates Black History Month: Clayton Turner

Clayton P. Turner serves as the Director of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. His career at NASA Langley has spanned 33 years. His experiences prior to his career with NASA include three years of military service. He graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y. with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. 

  Who or what inspired you to choose your career and why?   

A snowstorm in western New York inspired me to go back to college. An interest in engineering inspired me to pursue an engineering degree. The work of others behind the scenes brought me to NASA.  

When I graduated from high school, I went to college to study what all my friends were studying. I didn’t have the proper motivation, so that didn’t go well. I went into the service and was in the military for three years. I worked as a recording engineer for about ten years. I worked repairing pinball machines and video games. It was in the last career piece where I was in a blizzard, outside on the back of a pickup truck when I decided to go back to college, significantly more motivated! 

I think my story highlights the story of many people: there’s not a storybook path to get to NASA. Everybody’s path will be their own path.

 What do you find most rewarding about working with NASA?   

I find it rewarding that we get to reach for new heights to reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind. We get to change the lives of people in a positive way. We get to impact the country. I have a saying on my board that reads, “We have the privilege to serve our country and the power to unite it.” That’s what’s exciting about being at NASA for me. 

 What do you enjoy doing outside of work?   

 I enjoy traveling. The thing I’ve enjoyed the most over the last two years was going to visit my grandson, who is my first grandchild.   

What advice would you give to someone who might be interested in pursuing a career at NASA?   

Once you find your passion and the thing that excites you, you need to come and talk with us at NASA! Yes, we need scientists and engineers, but we need accountants, lawyers, and communications specialists. We have a great need right now for technicians. There is a wide range of fields where you can come and do exactly what I described: reach for new heights to reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind.   

How does your background and heritage contribute to your perspective and approach in your role at NASA?   

I think what was poured into me as I was growing up and was in the people who surrounded me was a desire and energy to serve and the insistence on making life better for others. That has been a big influence in me. I tend to be a bit of an introvert but because of my culture and because of my background I recognize it’s not actually about me, it’s about what you’re going to do for someone else.

The 2024 theme for Black History Month is “African Americans and the Arts,” spanning the many impacts that Black Americans have had on visual arts, music, cultural movements and more. How have the arts played a role in your life?    

The arts have pulled me out of my shell a bit and allowed me to try new things, experience new things, and listen to new things. If you listen to my playlist on my phone, you’d be surprised at what’s on there, but there are songs that come from a wide range of cultures that just light up my heart and make me think deeply. Being exposed to those things has made a big difference in my life. 

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Student Teams to Help Fill the Inflatable Void with Latest Student Challenge  

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Student Teams to Help Fill the Inflatable Void with Latest Student Challenge  

This year will be a “BIG” year for several college and university teams as they research, design, and demonstrate novel inflatable systems configured for future lunar operations through a NASA-sponsored engineering competition.

NASA’s Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge asked student innovators to propose novel inflatable component and system concepts that could benefit future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.

The Inflatable Systems for Lunar Operations theme allowed teams to submit various technology concepts such as soft robotics, deployable infrastructure components, emergency shelters or other devices for extended extravehicular activities, pressurized tunnels and airlocks, and debris shields and dust protection systems. Inflatable systems could greatly reduce the mass and stowed volume of science and exploration payloads, critical for lowering costs to deep-space destinations.

Award values vary between ~$100,000 and $150,000 and are based on each team’s prototype and budget.

The 2024 BIG Idea Challenge awardees are:

Once funded, finalist teams continue designing, building, and testing their concepts, which could lead to NASA innovations that augment technology currently in development. Work performed by the teams culminates in a final technical paper, prototype demonstration, and potential opportunity to present in front of a diverse panel of NASA and industry experts. 

As a program affiliated with NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII), the BIG Idea Challenge incubates new ideas from the future workforce. Through the challenge, student teams aid LSII’s mission to advance transformative capabilities for lunar surface exploration across NASA’s Space Technology portfolio. 

We truly love engaging with the academic community and incorporating the students’ novel ideas into our approaches to technology development. We need cutting-edge and groundbreaking technologies for successful space exploration missions, so it’s important that we continue to push the envelope and ignite innovation. I can’t think of a better way to do that than collaborating with bright, creative minds who will comprise our future workforce.

Niki Werkheiser

Director of Technology Maturation at NASA

Since its inception in 2016, the challenge has invited students to think critically and creatively about several defined aerospace topics, including extreme terrain robotics, lunar metal production, Mars greenhouse development, and more. Each year, the theme is tied directly to a current aerospace challenge NASA is working on. 

Through the BIG Idea Challenge, we enhance the university experience by providing students and faculty with more opportunities to engage in meaningful NASA projects. This not only enables a multitude of networking opportunities for the students but also gives them a real sense of accomplishment and lets them know that their ideas are important.

Tomas Gonzalez-Torres

NASA’s Space Grant project manager

The BIG Idea Challenge is one of several Artemis student challenges sponsored through NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Game Changing Development (GCD) program and the agency’s Office of STEM Engagement Space Grant Project. It is managed by a partnership between the National Institute of Aerospace and The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

BIG Idea supports GCD’s efforts to rapidly mature innovative and high-impact capabilities and technologies for possible infusion in future NASA missions, while creating a rewarding student and faculty experience.  The 16-month intensive project-based program supports innovations initiated and furthered by the student teams that can possibly be adopted by NASA, and it works to endeavor ambitious new missions beyond Earth.

Learn more about this year’s BIG Idea Challenge 

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Astronaut Victor Glover Visits NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center

NASA Artemis II astronaut Victor Glover met with Edwards Air Force Base school-age children at a joint NASA and Air Force Black Employee Resource Group event at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Feb. 15.

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