I'm helping NASA turn science fiction into science

I'm both excited and humbled to announce that I'm joining the external council for NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program! NIAC nurtures visionary, sci-fi-esque ideas that could radically transform future NASA missions. Essentially, NIAC is one of the coolest of the many cool programs at NASA.Just recently, NIAC announced funding for 12 projects including a submarine for Saturn's moon, Titan, a comet hitchhiker, and an asteroid wrangler (pictured above, via Robert Hoyt). The previous round of funding saw projects researching everything from human stasis (suspended animation) for long duration space travel to 3D printing biomaterials on Mars. The whole catalog of awards from 2011 onwards is online.If that isn't exciting enough, the NIAC External Council (NEC) is an amazing group of individuals that I am honored to be joining. The council is chaired by Frank Martin who worked on the science operations of Apollo 16 and Apollo 17. The other members include Frank Drake, of the famous Drake Equation who pioneered the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and also created the Arecibo message; Penelope (Penny) Boston, who studies extremophiles and how they can inform us of potential life on Mars; David Brin, a notable science fiction author and science futurist; John G. Kramer, who is conducting experiments on quantum entanglement and authored two hard science fiction novels; Michael Yarymovych, a former VP at Boeing and Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force; and Larry Young, a professor of astronautics at MIT and has been involved in an extensive amount of biomedical research and engineering.NIAC was originally formed in 1998 (at that time the "I" stood for "Institute). The program was then canceled in 2007, but a National Academy of Sciences report in 2009 urged Congress and NASA to reinstate the program:

The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) was formed in 1998 to provide an independent source of advanced aeronautical and space concepts that could dramatically impact how NASA develops and conducts its missions. Until August 2007, NIAC provided an independent open forum, a high-level point of entry to NASA for an external community of innovators, and an external capability for analysis and definition of advanced aeronautics and space concepts to complement the advanced concept activities conducted within NASA. Throughout its 9-year existence, NIAC inspired an atmosphere for innovation that stretched the imagination and encouraged creativity. Utilizing an open, Web-based environment to conduct solicitations, perform peer review, administer grant awards, and publicize its activities, this small program succeeded in fostering a community of external innovators to investigate advanced concepts that might have a significant impact on future NASA missions in a 10- to 40-year time frame.Recommendation 3.1: NASA should reestablish a NIAC-like entity, referred to in this report as NIAC2, to seek out visionary, far-reaching, advanced concepts with the potential of significant benefit to accomplishing NASA’s charter and to begin the process of maturing these advanced concepts for infusion into NASA’s missions.

NIAC, now with the "I" standing for "Innovative", has been back in the business of being awesome since 2010. You can follow some of the awesomeness surrounding NIAC and their funded projects on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NASAIAC.Now for how you can help me: so much of NIAC's success is thanks to the creative and brilliant people that propose ideas to investigate. In the comments, I welcome your suggestions on what organizations NIAC could consider reaching out to in order to further the diversity of breakthrough ideas submitted each year. I encourage you to think broadly: biohackerspaces, sci-fi conventions, Disney imagineers, or who knows... pretty much any places that foster (or have the attention of) bright people who have the capability to conduct intensive scientific research and/or prototyping of exciting, "out there" concepts that could move space exploration forward.

5 years ago

(Thanks to @magnuson for the original tweet)#5yearsagoThis is actually something I think about fairly often. When I give talks, I often mention where I came from, not only to illustrate that anyone can actively contribute to space exploration and scientific discovery, but also in hopes of finding other stories like mine. Stories about being overwhelmingly infatuated by communities of makers and changing your life/location to simply be surrounded by it. As a result, my life and the forces that drive me have radically changed over the course of 5 years, and more often than not, I seem to cross milestones the months of July/August.I thought I'd briefly share where I was in each of the last 5 years in the months of July/August, in hopes of reading yours as well:5 years ago, it was August 2006, I was working at a creative interactive agency in Kansas City, VML, that had been my dream job since the time I was 14. Despite being aware of just how late to the game I was when it came to blogging, I started my first blog, Shake Well Before Use, about the hybrids of art, advertising, sex + technology.4 years ago in August, I took what I still consider to be the biggest leap of faith in my life - I left my job of 8 years and moved to San Francisco without another job lined up. The first "gig" I got was working at a new startup called Pownce, where I met Leah Culver, Kevin Rose, and Daniel Burka for the first time (all of whom greatly inspired me with just how much a tiny team could build). There were many reasons I chose SF, but a large influence had been meeting so many amazing people at SXSW 2007 who *made* all the things I usually just blogged about.3 years ago in July/August, I was watching a documentary called When We Left Earth. I found it so inspiring that I took a shot in the dark and emailed NASA about wanting to work for them. Serendipitously, a job description had been crafted that very day that eerily read like my resume. I got the job. It changed my life forever.2 years ago in July, I attended Sci Foo, an unconference of ~200 world renowned scientists, after receiving a highly coveted invite from the O'Reilly team. As an un-scientist I was a bit terrified, to be honest. But I survived and it drove me to speak out more publicly.1 year ago in July, I rounded up 15 of the awesome friends and acquaintances I had made over the previous 4 years and we collectively started planning Science Hack Day San Francisco. Though the event didn't take place in July/August, looking back, I think putting it together is one of the best decisions I've ever made. Science Hack Day is just awesome.Today, I'm writing while on "half-vacation". Half-vacation because in July/August of this year, I learned that the first grant proposal I had written had been awarded. Like working for NASA, I don't think I had envisioned writing a grant proposal in my life. So, very happily, I'm now burning the midnight oil in Berlin, Paris and now Málaga, alongside the most lovely and awesome person (he came along ~2 years ago, but not in July/August). And yeah, it freaks me out to think where I was 5 years ago.

3 points on why government isn't ready for 2.0 yet

While listening to a congressional hearing on Enhancing the Relevance of Space, a quote from Miles O'Brien (54:39 minutes in on the webcast) carried a powerful message to NASA and similar government agencies:

Olson:"How do we communicate how beneficial NASA has been to our society from a technological, from a national security perspective, and from an inspirational perspective?

And y'all talked about what Congress and the government can do, but one thing I find when I meet with constituent groups, we just had a group up here yesterday from all the NASA centers, some employees. And they all asked what can I do? What can I do to help you or to help make sure that the American public understands how important this is for our future?

Ms. Myers and Mr. O'Brien, I'd like to give you the first crack at that. What can we tell our constituents? What can they do to make a difference?"

[Myers answers]

O'Brien:"You know I think the irony is that 40 years after the launch of Apollo 11 NASA suffers from a bit of timidity when it comes to unleashing the message. Now they have a natural legion of foot soldiers, evangelizers. Everyone I meet who is involved in space is deeply passionate about what they do; love what they do. They are committed to their jobs in ways most people are not. And unfortunately if they attempt to blog about it or tweet about it they get shut down. This happens all the time because the concern is that they'll be off message.

It's important to empower the agency and thus its foot soldiers to know that they can -- they can be a part of this. If -- if a flight controller wants to tweet and let her social network in on what's going on inside mission control, assuming we're not you know in some sort of mission critical situation that would cause danger to somebody, why not empower her to do that? But instead the message is you can't.

So I think what Congress can do is to the extent they can streamline the rules for NASA and make it easier for them to do marketing, but also to the extent that they can avoid the tendency to get on the phone every time something comes across the bow that might -- might offend somebody in somebody's constituency. Because what that does is it cows the agency. And they need to be empowered too because if you unleashed the power of that workforce and allowed them to spread the word we could just stand by and watch them win the country over."

Relearn the phrase "don't burn bridges"The quote above comes at a time where I still to this day receive emails from people inside NASA who tell me about how they were forced to shut down their personal blog for fear of being fired. Even worse, I still receive stories about people being forced by their managers to unblock people who are harassing them from their *personal* social networking accounts. The social web is a bridge between personal and professional lives and should be respected as such. Learning how to navigate this isn't easy. Scrambling to put together a "digital policy" for employees might sound like the right solution, however, digital policies are equally dangerous due to their inability to evolve as the digital environment does. Starting off with general guidelines like "play nice" that encourage the use of social networks and respect privacy is a better first step.Eliminate "the public"The mindset of people in government is deeply rooted in using the term "the public" when referring to anyone who doesn't also work in government. Not only does this term massively inhibit their ability to communicate effectively and connect with anyone, but it also frames their view for using the social web - something that "the public" uses and thus they should use as an extension of their job (instead of having a personal AND professional interest in it). This is a hard term to tackle, as I started saying it shortly after joining NASA as well. I recommend stepping down from using the term by saying things like "people will be able to better access this" or "this program allows people to get involved with XYZ".We need a "Freedom of Information, Except for Jerks" ActThe title of this section was joked about while conversing about this issue over dinner. The government has no standards or process in place for blocking abusive, harassing and/or all-around trolling people (see Tantek's Troll Taxonomy). In fact, the government is so terrified of being called out for denying conversational access to someone, that they often pander to the poisonous person over protecting their own employees. As a result, "super villains" are created to feed off of the fear culture - a term Heather Champ, the community manager at Flickr, uses to describe someone who keeps coming back to haunt you forever. As Heather stated in a talk about Shepherding Passionate Users, "Sometimes you have to make difficult decisions and take actions that won’t be appreciated". Recommended listening for everyone: How Open Source Projects Survive Poisonous People.

Exciting news!

I just wanted to make a brief announcement on what's new in my world. Beginning today, I'm working full-time under the CoLab program at NASA! A bit about what CoLab is:"NASA CoLab serves as an advisor and consultant to groups within NASA, building direct and open collaborations between the public, and NASA scientists and engineers. We use technology to facilitate public contributions to NASA activities, programs and missions."I'm very excited to work with such a talented team on projects that have a ton of potential.FYI, I will continue to serve as Pownce's community manager as well as keep up with my current writing projects with this new position.Have a great rest of the week!