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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Goddard Space Flight Center

Office of the Chief Technologist

Office of the Chief Technologist

Two Columns

Feature

New Look, New Name, Same Insightful Content

In 2004, the Goddard Office of the Chief Technologist debuted its first issue of Goddard Tech Trends to inform Goddard employees and stakeholders of the technology trends at the center. It’s been a good run. But times are changing and so must this publication — particularly with the funding of NASA’s new Space Technology Program and the Agency’s renewed focus on technology development through its Office of the Chief Technologist.

The technology-development program at the Goddard Space Flight Center isn’t simply developing or changing in a general direction, as was the case when we began publishing our quarterly magazine. It’s increasingly become more focused on early-stage, emerging technologies that could lead to revolutionary leaps in capability — in essence the definition of cutting edge. That’s why we decided to rebrand our quarterly magazine and change its name to CuttingEdge. We believe the new name reflects our focus and the types of information you can expect to find in this publication.

In this debut issue, we pay special tribute to a technologist who personified the “can-do” spirit that made NASA great and highlight Goddard’s recent win of a space-based laser-communications demonstration project funded by the NASA Office of the Chief Technologist under its Space Technology Program.

CuttingEdge
Optical communications will allow NASA to transmit and receive data 10 to 100 times faster than by current radio-frequency systems — truly a leap in capability for space missions who are currently data constrained.

We also feature articles about a new carbon-measuring technique, a miniaturized instrument that will study gamma-ray bursts in the upper atmosphere, and a study funded by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program looking into whether “tractor beams” — truly the stuff of science fiction — could one day be used to gather extraterrestrial samples. Some are early stage and others are farther along in the development cycle. All, however, are forward reaching and representative of the increasingly cutting-edge nature of our technology program.

In closing, welcome to our rebranded publication. Though we’ve changed the name and its design, we are proud to offer this magazine focused exclusively on strategic and emerging technologies at Goddard and how they can provide NASA with the technological solutions needed for exploration and scientific discovery in the future.

Peter M. Hughes
Goddard Chief Technologist


Technologies

The Office of the Chief Technologist is involved in a variety of projects, missions, and technologies.