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NASA Receives Final Roadmaps from the NRC

The documents will guide the space agency for years to come

Feb 2, 2012 08:53 GMT  ·  By
NRC lists critical technologies that NASA needs to pursue, in a new report
   NRC lists critical technologies that NASA needs to pursue, in a new report

The American space agency cannot go about exploring space without a series of guidelines to ensure that no time and money are needlessly wasted. The latest set of such guidelines were recently delivered to NASA by the US National Research Council (NRC).

In the new report, entitled “NASA Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities,” experts with the council list the 16 top priorities in technological development, which need to be achieved in order for the agency to conduct its future missions.

The NRC did not compile this report all by itself, but drew from 14 draft space technology area roadmaps that NASA experts delivered to the council last year. What the analysis team did was establish priorities among the 300 technologies listed in the 14 categories.

Priorities were then established among categories, leading to the selection of about 83 high-priority technologies that must be developed in order to boost space exploration. Eventually, 16 of those were selected and included in the new report.

With this document, the NRC will begin to shape NASA's technology development priorities in the years to come. The conclusions listed in the document could also significantly influence American aerospace industries as well.

“The report strongly reaffirms the vital importance of technology development to enable the agency's future missions and grow the nation's new technology economy,” NASA Headquarters chief technologist Mason Peck explains.

“The report confirms the value of our technology development strategy to date. NASA currently invests in all of the highest-priority technologies and will study the report and adjust its investment portfolio as needed,” the official explains.

According to the NRC, most of the priorities listed in the new report support NASA's ambitions of extending and supporting human activities beyond low-Earth orbit, such as for example on near-Earth asteroids, the moon, or Mars.

NASA is currently getting ready to begin a months-long process of including the NRC recommendations within its own roadmaps, so that a clear picture of what needs to be done can emerge.