WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) led the Ohio Congressional Delegation in sending a letter to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator Bill Nelson urging him to support the NASA Glenn Research Center’s Lewis Field Campus in Cleveland and the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky in the upcoming Fiscal Year 2023 budget request. The lawmakers highlighted in the letter specific areas where NASA Glenn is prepared to lead.
“Ohio is the ideal place to advance the technologies discussed here. The birthplace of aviation and home to more than twenty astronauts, Ohio is also one of the largest suppliers of airplane components and a national leader in manufacturing. It is clear that NASA Glenn’s current areas of leadership are only the beginning of what the Center can do,” wrote the lawmakers. “We urge you to take full advantage of the expertise and capabilities of NASA Glenn and the Ohio aerospace industry.”
In the funding package that President Biden signed into law last week, Brown was able to secure key wins for NASA Glenn. Those awards include:
Earlier this month, Brown welcomed students to the Great Lakes Science Center as they learned from astronauts on the International Space Station.
In February, Brown and Ohio House members sent a letter to Congressional leaders in the Senate and House Appropriation Committees, urging them to include Ohio’s NASA priorities in the final, conference appropriations bill.
A copy of the letter to NASA can be found here and below.
Dear Administrator Nelson:
We write in support of NASA Glenn Research Center (Glenn or GRC), both the Lewis Field campus and the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility (ATF). In advance of the Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) budget request, we would like to highlight areas of excellence where Glenn is prepared to lead: surface power; electric propulsion; space communications; flight hardware testing; and aeronautics, including hypersonics and sustainable aviation.
NASA showcases many of America’s greatest strengths, from technological innovation and engineering excellence, to a boundless scientific curiosity about the universe around us. We commend you for your strong leadership of the Agency during the past year. Despite the challenges of a global pandemic, NASA successfully landed the Perseverance rover on Mars, sent Lucy to the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter, launched the James Webb Space Telescope, and completed critical milestones for the Artemis missions to the Moon. Each of these missions, and many others, relied on the unique engineering expertise and testing capabilities of Ohio’s NASA Glenn Research Center.
Surface Power: GRC specializes in surface power technology, especially the conversion of diverse power sources to electricity and power distribution. A reliable source of surface power will be essential to NASA’s human and robotic exploration of the Moon and Mars. While conventional solar power is suitable for the short surface missions of Apollo, the Agency’s more ambitious plans will require other power sources. The Artemis missions, for example, seek to establish a sustained human presence on the Moon, where lunar night lasts two weeks and regions containing valuable resources like water ice lie in permanent shadow. Fission Surface Power (FSP) technology being developed at GRC is essential for these mission classes. Although initial concept studies are underway, increased support is urgently needed for FSP to be operational when Artemis missions bring humans back to the Moon to stay.
Electric Propulsion: Advancements in propulsion are opening up new mission concepts, from efficient, time-saving trajectories to Mars, to long-duration journeys unconstrained by onboard fuel. Much of this ground-breaking work is being done at GRC, including Nuclear Electric Propulsion and Solar Electric Propulsion. Every electrical propulsion device of U.S. origin has come through the center’s testing facilities and relied on the expertise of Glenn engineers. In some cases, these thrusters are employed on NASA missions like Lucy, Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), and Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element. But often the technology supported by Glenn benefits commercial partners, aiding in the development of advanced thrusters that NASA can then simply purchase. This is just one example of government expertise at GRC serving as a catalyst for the growth of U.S. industry.
Space Communications: GRC is at the forefront of leveraging the growing private space industry through the Commercial Services Program (CSP). Commercial satellite communication systems currently support thousands of commercial and government customers around the world. With a long history of pioneering space communications work, Glenn is well-suited to ensure companies have the ability to meet NASA mission requirements and lead a smooth transition away from the legacy systems owned and operated by the government. This new approach will be more versatile and responsive to rapidly evolving communications technology and provide significant cost savings.
Flight Hardware Testing: The United States still reaps the benefits from infrastructure investments made decades ago. NASA is no exception. Our nation’s civil, commercial, and national security space sectors all rely on GRC facilities for testing space flight hardware. These facilities, and the experts who operate them, are each unique. ATF, for example, includes the world’s only facility capable of testing full-scale, upper-stage launch vehicles and rocket engines under simulated space conditions; the world’s largest space environment simulator; and the world’s most powerful vibe table and most powerful reverberant acoustic test chamber. NASA’s Orion crew capsule, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, and Blue Origin’s New Shepherd are just a few of the high-profile spacecraft that have relied on GRC for critical testing. Many of these testing facilities were constructed over sixty years ago but are still unmatched in their capabilities.
Upgrading and re-activating existing equipment would bring GRC’s test facilities up to their original design specifications and capitalize on decades of investment. Maintenance of shared infrastructure, like electrical grids and roads, would allow industry, NASA, and the DOD to fully utilize Glenn’s testing capabilities. But it is not enough to merely sustain current testing infrastructure; a combination of consolidation and improvement of facilities must be used to purposefully evolve and meet the Agency’s future needs.
Aeronautics: Aeronautics is another fast-changing area with close partnership between GRC and industry. Nearly all ice protection technologies in use today were developed at GRC, with its Icing Research Tunnel and on-site pilots and research aircraft. Glenn’s wind tunnels are used by every engine manufacturer to test aircraft propulsion systems and parts over a wide range of altitude and speed conditions up to Mach 4 and 90,000 feet. Clients span private, civil, and national security aeronautics, and testing facilities are fully booked for the next three years; requests extend into the late 2020s.
Aeronautics – Hypersonics: Hypersonics research, encompassing materials and other technology for flight above Mach 5, is increasingly important to U.S. national security. GRC’s Hypersonics Tunnel Facility and subject matter experts are an invaluable asset to NASA, the Department of Defense, and other researchers.
Aeronautics – Sustainable Aviation: GRC is leading on transformative developments in aircraft power and propulsion that will make aviation more sustainable. As the administration pursues technology investments to lower emissions, aviation must be a priority. A transition to Sustainable Aviation Fuels will provide near-term improvements, but meeting long-term goals will rely on technologies where Glenn leads, like engine efficiency gains through HyTEC, electric aircraft propulsion at transport scale via the NASA Electric Aircraft Testbed (NEAT), and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) concepts like vertical take-off and landing.
Ohio is the ideal place to advance the technologies discussed here. The birthplace of aviation and home to more than twenty astronauts, Ohio is also one of the largest suppliers of airplane components and a national leader in manufacturing. With fourteen public universities and a dozen federal research labs, the state has long been engaged in cutting-edge research and has a robust pipeline for training an innovative science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. It is clear that NASA Glenn’s current areas of leadership are only the beginning of what the Center can do. Already every federal dollar spent at NASA Glenn is estimated to result in three dollars spent by private companies, but organizations across the state are eager to multiply this impact if given the opportunity. To this end, we urge the following:
We urge you to take full advantage of the expertise and capabilities of NASA Glenn and the Ohio aerospace industry. We appreciate your consideration of this letter and timely response. Please reach out if we can assist in any way.
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