Next week the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) meets in Washington, D.C. - a group that provides independent advice directly to NASA Administrator, Mike Griffin, on the long-term implementation of national space policy.

One item on the NAC plate is a potential recommendation that NASA consider establishing a Thermal Protection System (TPS) Technology Consortium, meshing space agency research work in this arena with the Department of Defense and others.

Leading the look into some sort of TPS sharing of critical technology needs, ideas and programs is NAC member Neil Armstrong. He is chair of the Council’s Aeronautics Committee.

One of the questions being probed by Armstrong and fellow members of his committee is what are clear synergies between the Air Force “Operationally Responsive Space” needs and such activities as NASA’s Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) heat shield program.

An early finding of Armstrong’s fact-finding group is that it was not clear the Air Force is aware of where NASA is currently going in the CEV effort. Furthermore, Air Force capabilities have synergies for NASA in the future, but they have not been harmonized as well as they could be.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 at 2:17 pm and is filed under Space & Astronomy, Technology, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.