NASA ARC Internal Memo: Flight Opportunities Program Webinar
From: Centerwide Announcement
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 11:18 AM
To: ARC-cwdist
Subject: Might your research payload successfully compete for a free parabolic or suborbital flight? Join us via Webinar on June 26, 2012, 10-11AM for a Flight Opportunities Program (FOP) Tour and find out.
TO: Resident Staff
FROM: Dougal Maclise, ARC Payloads Manager for the Flight Opportunities Program
SUBJECT: Might your research payload successfully compete for a free parabolic or suborbital flight? Join us via Webinar on June 26, 2012, 10-11AM for a Flight Opportunities Program (FOP) Tour and find out.
Your research payload can compete for a free ride (or rides) in a space-like environment to support its technology advancement and verification. Find out how by participating in our Webinar, with a Tour and update on the Flight Opportunities Program (FOP) and the commercial suborbital research opportunities available and emerging for your potential use.
The NASA Headquarters Office of the Chief Technologist’s (OCT) Space Technology Program contains 10 sub-programs. One of these is the FOP, which is managed from Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) with ARC’s Dougal Maclise as the Payloads Manager. The Payloads Manager is responsible for seeking out cutting-edge space technology payloads for flights on commercial reusable launch vehicles, balloons and a commercial parabolic aircraft. In order to introduce the FOP and outline the payload flight opportunities it can offer to the ARC R&D community, Dougal and Richard Mains, FOP Technology Liaison, will host the June 26 event. The meeting is being supported by the office of the Ames Center Chief Technologist, John Hines.
Please join us for a 30-minute multi-media presentation introducing the FOP, followed by a Q&A session, by logging into the Webinar at http://connect.arc.nasa.gov/fop/ . Participation requires only an Internet connection and a browser. If this is your first time using Adobe Connect, please allow a few extra minutes for a Plug-In to install prior to the 10AM start time. We ask that you log in as a guest entering your first and last name in the block provided.
We intend to follow this FOP Tour with a FOP Workshop Webinar scheduled for July 17 from 10AM – 1PM. Material presented at the Workshop will include more information on the commercial flight platforms available and presentations by several ARC researchers with interest in proposing to fly their technology-focused payloads on parabolic and/or suborbital vehicles. FOP has contracted with 8 different flight platform providers, 5 of which are now active and for which we are competitively soliciting payloads. Workshop presentations will also include descriptions of the current flight platform opportunities, an update on our solicitations, the FOP payload selection criteria, and information on the kinds of payloads that can be accommodated at this time. The Workshop goals are two-fold: 1) help build a community of candidate researchers developing technologies suitable to propose and after selection fly as research payloads in flight-like environments (including to near-space with 3+ minutes of micro, lunar or Mars-g) to mature their technologies for potential future NASA applications, and 2) help stimulate the development of the commercial suborbital reusable vehicle industry.
We value your questions and suggestions so please join us for either or both of these FOP Webinars. If you would like to respond to this memo electronically, you may contact Dougal Maclise by double-clicking on the following
