How can NASA become one of many customers?
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Private enterprise has demonstrated increased interest in exploring opportunities for research & development, marketing, and production in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) over the past ten years. NASA and the International Space Station (ISS) have played a pivotal role in the development of diverse private activities in space. As NASA moves towards a new era of space exploration, they seek to leverage the ISS as the pre-existing infrastructure necessary for the further commercialization of space.
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NASA has been pushing to be “one of many customers” in the future of the space economy for several years. This means there’s a need for more service providers for everything from rocket launches to life support systems.
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UX Research
ROLE
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UX Researcher,
Concept Development Designer​
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TOOLS
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Adobe Suite, Miro, G Suite,
iMovie, Canvas, Hand Sketch
DURATION
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5 months in 2019
at Parsons School of Design, NY
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As a team we established a weekly cadence of co-creative meetings that tested specific leverage points, and their potential impact. Through these co-creative sessions we used tools like Mural white boards, storyboards, and word clouds populated in real time with a shared screen. We gathered the project constraints and the success metrics in order to test the outcomes of the research.
In our first phase of research, we took advantage of the wealth of secondary sources regarding NASA, the ISS, and the future of a commercialized LEO. We also interviewed various internal and external stakeholders in order to understand the current state of LEO commercialization and the multiple perspectives on what the future of this environment could be. Our first phase of research helped us produce a guiding question to reframe the challenge and three hypotheses that we used as a guide for developing concepts.
Our second phase of research responded to our hypotheses from Research Phase I. After working with the challenge for eight weeks, new areas of inquiry emerged, so we returned to stakeholders from Research Phase I and also included new voices in our second round of interviews. Now that we better understood the ecosystem, we took the time to map out the entry points and barriers. We also presented early concepts to get feedback on the feasibility, desirability, and viability
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Team: Lee Anderson, Kellie Ojeda, Rashina Bhula, Bailey Foote, Jesse Flores, Raed Jumean, Kenny Morfi, Narissa Dalla, Jay Hsiao, Maria Kaliora, Katherine Salamat, Kevin Chu, Brooke Olefson, Sinem Ergunay
Research
Design Process
Envision shared Outcomes
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The client shared the rationale and hopes for the engagement.
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Understand & Clarify​
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We diverged and converged around the problem to inform the direction and determine the scope of the project.
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Research the Landscape​
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We built a knowledge base around the problem and peel back the layers to reveal insights
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Collaborate & Ideate​
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We synthesized the research, share findings, and generate ideas for a solution to build and test
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Prototype & test​
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We built out a solution and cycle through testing, feedback, and iteration until we land on a final solution
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Pilot the solution​
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We revealed a plan to pilot the solution to a broader audience. We will set goals and make recommendations for ongoing success of the concept
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Asset + Ecosystem Map
The insights
The most significant takeaways from our research are the 12 insights below, which we believe capture the elements of our thinking, the research we have conducted, and the different perspectives we have tried to reflect in the solution we present in this report
The Emerging Themes
Synthesis
Hypothesis
Through 3 different hypothesis we generated different scenarios which helped us define our concept statement.
Future Casting
This challenge requires us to understand a future that is not yet here. There is no data about the future of LEO. We borrowed a tool from Futurists called signals to the future. According to the Institute of the Future, a signal “is something that catches our attention at one scale and in one locale and points to larger implications for other locales or even globally.” Using information acquired throughout Research Phase II, we mapped out the series of fact-based signals against anticipated assumptions over time. As we organized this data, trend lines emerged, depicting the future NASA envisions.
Ideation + Concept Development
Lead in Space
We argued NASA will need to be replaced at the centre of the LEO ecosystem by some kind of facilitating mechanism which we called Lead in Space. This new organization would require five years and three stages to achieve the ultimate end.
​Lead in Space consists of 3 different pillars, the entity, the competition and the digital platform.
Lead in Space is an integrated system that streamlines the flow and management of assets and interactions through the internal procurement process from interest to acquisition. By reducing pain points in the existing relationships and process, Lead in Space facilitates more efficient information sharing and accelerates the development of a connected ecosystem.
The Entity, The Competition, The Digital Platform are the three components intended to fulfill Lead in Space’s vision. We have a multi-phased approach we think you should take in order to build a robust, accessible, and resilient LEO economy
Lead in Space is an integrated system that streamlines the flow and management of assets and interactions through the internal procurement process from interest to acquisition. By reducing pain points in the existing relationships and process, Lead in Space facilitates more efficient information sharing and accelerates the development of a connected ecosystem.
The proposed entity should begin separating from NASA, and incorporating the needs of private industry by year two. This begins with the launching of the Lead in Space competition. NASA provides a great deal of money today, but they also provide leadership in vision for technology because of the size of their wallet. In order to expand this mechanism Lead in Space will source the forecasted visions of private industry to source the necessary supporting technologies.
#1 The Entity
At the Competition Phase, Lead in Space pulls information from NASA’s projected needs for the next two to three years and commercial partners’ projected needs for the next two to three years. The information is then distilled into a single annual competition statement, which will be given to interested parties. Synchronously, it is reaching out to commercial-sponsor partners and government-sponsor partners that may be interested in addressing the identified competition statement for that year. The idea is to combine the needs of NASA within the government and the needs of the commercial sector to align and advance both NASA’s interests with commercial interests in their short or long term technology advances.
#2 The Competition
Since the ISS National Lab and NASA are at the center of the LEO economy they own most of the means of participating. This is traditionally understood to be an impediment to the growth of the LEO economy, but we started to imagine that it could be an asset. If the pathways, systems, and mechanisms available today were housed on a single platform, and NASA’s contractors adopted it as their central access point then the process today would be streamlined and more effective. This clears the way for new entrants, and eases the anxiety of current NASA contractors.
#3 The Digital Platform
We were fortunate enough to speak with a few implementation partners: Axiom, Nanoracks, Techshot, and some NASA stakeholders outside of the ISS team. We were able to walk them through the lo-fidelity prototype of our digital platform and user testing to receive feedback. The goal of these interactions was to identify potential pitfalls or barriers that we might face with the proposed concept and to understand the channels that the current NASA and ISS National Lab partners go through to become a part of the LEO economy. An important part of that conversation requires understanding how each stakeholder defines commercial activity in LEO. These definitions helped us create a model of what a robust economy would look like and design a platform that would self-produce
Flight Plan
Animation courtesy of Rashina Bhula.