Martin, Gary L.

Zornetzer, Steven F.

NASA Technical Reports Server

THE MAKER APPROACH AT NASA
NEW WAYS THE US SPACE AGENCY
BUILDS SPACECRAFT & EMPOWERS
CITIZENS
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20190025925 2019-08-31T14:16:34+00:00Z
THIS IS NOT A NEW PHENOMENON!
Participatory Exploration = A type of Hacking? 
Hackers= Tinkers = Makers 
Just other kinds of explorers
Doing It Yourself
Albert Santos -Dumont 
over Paris, France 1909
Wright Brothers  in 
Berlin 1909
Did it Themselves: Aircraft
 1909  British Advisory Committee on Aeronautcs
 1915 National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics
 1939 NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory
 1918 WWI ends…
…Barnstorming Begins!
Hacked Surplus Curtiss Jenny JN-4
 1926  Air Commerce Act
Regulation: Safety & Licensing
Elsewhere…
Did it Themselves: Aircraft
 1920 Robert Goddard
“A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes”
1926 1st liquid fueled rocket launches
 1923 Hermann Oberth
“The Rocket into Planetary Space”
But these guys were not the first 
hackers trying to explore space….
Did it Themselves: Space
Did it Themselves: Space
Humans have been exploring space…
…a LONG TIME!
“El Caracol” Mexico 600~800 AD
Did It Himself: Space
Galileo Galilei ~ the first documented 
space hacker.
Hand polished custom built 
telescope lenses
Discovered Jupiter’s moons
Re-ignited interest in building
observatories!
Military Space
Royal Greenwich Observatory
Leiden Paris Berlin
 Sad Facts
 Many of the ancient observatories were built to gain 
tactical advantage during wartime
 Airplane development dramatically accelerated due to 
the World War I effort.
 As we all know, World War II & the Cold War were drivers 
of spacecraft development as well.
They Did It For You
October 1957
 Nikolai Kutyrkin
 Designed Sputnik-1
January 1958
 Werner Von Braun
 Designed Juno-I rocket 
 William Pickering
 Designed Explorer-1
Military Space
Something Better
29-July-1958
National Aeronautics & Space Administration 
Doing It Themselves: Space
How NASA Helps Commerce
Suborbital Spaceflight  (eg. Virgin Galactic, Masten Space) 
Commercial ReUsable Suborbital Research program
SpaceX, Orbital Sciences
Cargo Resupply Missions
Thermal Protection Systems
Bigelow Aerospace
Space Act Agreements for Personnel chance, Procurements 
of inflatable modules for ISS.
Ways NASA incubates Makers
Warm-up to real business
 International Space Apps Challenge
 spaceappschallenge.org
 Center of Excellence for Collaborative 
Innovation www.nasa.gov/offices/COECI
Ways NASA incubates Makers
Getting Serious
 Small Business Innovative Research Grant
 sbir.gov
 sbir.nasa.gov
 NASA Technology Transfer Portal
 technology.nasa.gov
Space Act Agreements
Non-Profit Incubator Engagement
NASA Ames SpaceShop
At NASA Ames, we’re making a Fab Lab to 
develop the workforce, train students and 
eventually standardize spacecraft design
FABACADEMY
Do-It-Yourself: Space 
 What is a Fab Lab?
Laser Cutter
3D Printer
Desktop Mill
Vinyl Cutter
Shop Bot
Do-It-Yourself: Space 
Our goal is to make satellite
construction as easy as 
downloading 3Dfiles to be 
printed, milled, & otherwise 
assembled into functional 
spacecraft. 
Leveraging 3D Printing Through 
Innovative Design for Space 
Exploration
Space Transportation Costs
Futron Corporation, Sept. 2002
Launch Costs
Transistor Counts
Do-It-Yourself: Space 
Do-It-Yourself: Space 
Building satellites out of cellphones
Do-It-Yourself: Space 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkPyRXiOTlk
TechEdSat
Do-It-Yourself: Space 
Do-It-Yourself: Space 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkPyRXiOTlk
Do-It-Yourself: Space 
OSCAR
And oh by the way..
21 Countries, 
Dozens of satellites
Launched in 1961
Still not new…
Do-It-Yourself: Space
Space Technology 
isn’t always in orbit
Do-It-Yourself: Space 
Space isn’t always up..
Western Australia
Do-It-Yourself: Space 
United Arab Emirates 
Arabian Peninsula
Do-It-Yourself: Space 
Mars Namibia
Mars
UAE
Do-It-Yourself: Space 
Mars Namibia
Mars
UAE


The Maker Approach at NASA: New Ways the US Space Agency Builds Spacecraft and Empowers Citizens

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