Jacobs engineers battle extraterrestrial challenges from Houston area

NASA's acting chief technologist Douglas Terrier was in the Clear Lake area Thursday to learn about devices that can detect space debris, extract drinking water from urine and test the role a sock can play in reducing vibrations caused by exercise equipment aboard the International Space Station.

"The pace of technology refresh is so fast, you've got to work pretty hard to keep up," Terrier said.

So he spent the afternoon touring the Jacobs Engineering Development Facility near the intersection of Bay Area and Space Center boulevards.

Jacobs partners with large businesses and more than 2,500 small business suppliers, including 750 in Texas, to provide NASA with a host of products. The company's Clear Lake Group is working on more than 100 projects at Johnson Space Center.

The Engineering Development Facility allows Jacobs to quickly create prototypes and concepts for NASA. The facility is also used to develop new technologies.

"This just accelerates a lot of the work that we do," said Joy Kelly, Jacobs vice president and deputy general manager of the Clear Lake Group.

One of the items that grabbed Terrier's attention during his visit from NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday was the Alternative Microgravity Distiller. This system extracts drinking water from urine to provide astronauts with a constant supply of water.

A similar system is being used aboard the International Space Station, but the device being developed in the Jacobs Engineering Development Facility is smaller and less complex, making it better suited for deep-space exploration in a spacecraft with limited room for equipment. Similarly, fewer moving pieces means it's less likely to break down millions of miles from Earth.

"Hopefully, it will be on its way to Mars one day," said Lon Miller, Jacobs senior vice president and general manager of the Clear Lake Group.

Another piece of interest was Jacobs' testing of the sock solution. Jacobs maintains cycling exercise equipment on the space station. One part of that equipment is designed to reduce vibration when astronauts are working out. But sometimes, two pieces of that equipment can bump into each other.

Astronauts aboard the space station found that a well-positioned, rolled up sock prevented such contact. So now Jacobs has equipment in its Engineering Development Facility to test how well that sock actually does at reducing vibration. This information will be put into a model used by engineers on the ground to fix the space station's exercise equipment should it break down.

The Engineering Development Facility is also focused on the outside of the space station. Its Space Debris Sensor is scheduled for launch in November and, once installed, will be able to determine the size and speed of debris that hits the space station.

This will help experts understand what type of debris hits the space station - a paint chip, for example, or parts from a decomposing satellite - so they can keep track of what's out there and update tracking models.

"NASA wants to be in a position to really pull on the best and the brightest, the best ideas across the entire industry," Terrier said. "As the chief technologist, the perks of me being here is to ensure that I'm well informed about that so we can make the best decisions."

Terrier also emphasized how NASA is taking a different approach in reaching Mars compared with previous missions.

In the past, Terrier said, NASA had to invent most of the technology itself. Other industries have since made significant technological advances, and these ideas can be cross-pollinated. That helps NASA lower costs, and the sharing of technologies can foster other industries and help stimulate the larger economy.

"It's about space exploration, but it's really about economic opportunity and jobs in the broadest sense beyond space," Terrier said.

Still, there are many obstacles to overcome before humans can survive in deep space. The limited size of a spacecraft means there won't be room for a lot of spare parts. So equipment needs to be reliable and easily repaired. Maybe a 3-D printer could be put on the spacecraft to create replacement parts as needed.

Other areas of concern include protecting astronauts from radiation and having sophisticated robotics that allow doctors on Earth to perform surgeries on astronauts en route to Mars.

Miller hopes explaining the complex challenges of deep-space exploration will encourage Congress to maintain funding for NASA programs.

"What you saw here today is a very, very small example of the complexity that goes into a spacecraft or a space mission," he said.