2011 NASA PLAN ESTRATEGICO

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The future of aeronautics and space exploration is built on sound strategic planning and the commitment of our employees and partners. The images on

the cover show activities that contribute to achieving our strategic goals, artist concepts of future missions or innovative ideas, and our education efforts.

On May 17, 2010, NASA Astronaut Steve Bowen, STS-132 mission specialist, participates in the mission’s first session of extravehicular

activity as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station.

Aerospace engineer Rod Chima works with the Large-Scale Low-Boom supersonic inlet model in the Glenn Research Center’s 8' x 6'

Supersonic Wind Tunnel. Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation and the University of Illinois–Urbana Champaign partnered with Glenn to test

the model with micro-array flow control to try to alleviate the thunder-like sonic booms produced by supersonic aircraft. (Credit: NASA/B.R.

Caswell)

Dr. Heather Oravec, a postdoctoral researcher at the Glenn Research Center, works with a new device developed there that tests lunar soil

strength. Called a vacuum bevameter, the device measures the characteristics of lunar soil simulants, or lunar regolith, in a vacuum chamber

at specific temperatures while accounting for lunar gravity. The system may be used to predict strength characteristics of lunar regolith in

previously unexplored regions of the Moon. (Credit: NASA/M.M. Murphy, Wyle Information Systems, LLC)

Leland Melvin, Associate Administrator for the Office of Education and former astronaut, high-fives fifth- through 12th-graders at the Minority

Student Education Forum. The forum was part of our Summer of Innovation initiative and the Federal Educate to Innovate campaign to

increase the number of future scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. (Credit: NASA/C. Huston)

Our heavy-lift rover Tri-ATHLETE, or All-Terrain Hex-Legged Extra-Terrestrial Explorer, carries a logistics module mockup during the summer

2010 DesertRATS field test. The spider-like Tri-ATHLETE can roll or climb over uneven terrain to deliver a load to its destination. Desert-

RATS, or Research and Technology Studies, offers a chance for a team of engineers, astronauts, and scientists to conduct technology

development research in the Arizona desert, a good stand-in for destinations for future planetary exploration missions. (Credit: NASA)

An engineer works with the fully functional, one-sixth scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope mirror in the optics testbed. This

large, infrared-optimized telescope will search for the first galaxies that formed in the early universe. It will peer through dusty clouds to see

the birth of stars and planetary systems. (Credit: NASA)

A crew member from STS-132 photographed the International Space Station on May 23, 2010, after the Space Shuttle undocked and

began separation. (Credit: NASA)

An artist’s concept of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity (left), compares it with the much-smaller Spirit, one of the twin Mars

Exploration Rovers. Mars Science Laboratory, in development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still

today, an environment able to support microbial life. (Credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech)

Solar Probe Plus, its primary solar panels retracted into the shadows of its protective solar shield, approaches the Sun in this artist’s concept.

Managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar Probe Plus will repeatedly sample the near-Sun environment, revolutionizing our

knowledge and understanding of coronal heating and the origin and evolution of the solar wind. (Credit: NASA/JHU–APL)

Kenneth Silberman, an engineer at the Goddard Space Flight Center (right), guides a student from the Maryland School for the Blind through

an exploration of one of several tactile, scale models. During the visit to NASA Headquarters, one of several events sponsored by the Equal

Opportunity and Diversity Management Division during National Disability Employment Awareness Month, students from the school met with

representatives from each Mission Directorate. (Credit: NASA/P.E. Alers)

The SUGAR Volt is a twin-engine ultra-fuel efficient aircraft concept with a hybrid propulsion system that combines gas turbine and battery

technology, a tube-shaped body and a truss-braced wing mounted to the top of the aircraft. This aircraft is designed to fly at Mach 0.79

carrying 154 passengers 3,500 nautical miles. This concept was one of four designs presented to us in April 2010 for our NASA Research

Announcement-funded studies into advanced subsonic aircraft that could enter service in the 2030 to 2035 time frame. (Credit: NASA/The

Boeing Company)

Life aboard the International Space Station always requires the crew members to put our core values—safety, integrity, teamwork, and

excellence—into action. The International Space Station brings together people from many backgrounds and nations in a relatively small

working and living environment to achieve a wide variety of science and engineering goals. In this photo Naoko Yamazaki, Japan Aerospace

Exploration astronaut (center), joins NASA astronauts T.J Creamer (back left), Alan Poindexter (STS-131 commander, back right), and

Stephanie Wilson (lower right) in the busy Destiny Laboratory. (Credit:

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