Why Does NASA Not Provide New Space Station Researchers With The References They Need?
NASA held a ISS National Lab Public Day CAN meeting on 10 December 2010. The purpose was to explain the pending Cooperative Agreement Notice and how interested parties should structure their proposals. The main speaker was NASA’s Mark Uhran, Assistant Associate Administrator for ISS at NASA SOMD.
At one point Uhran bragged that he had “written 5 papers” on discoveries that had been made on the ISS, but he said that he was not going to tell anyone where to find them – thus challenging the attendees to go dig these papers up themselves. That is certainly an odd stance for a NASA official to take – especially one who is charged with promoting the value of the ISS as a platform for scientific research.
So I thought I’d try and find these pivotal five papers Uhran referred to.
There is no mention of these papers in this online bio on Uhran. Nothing by Uhran in PubMed. A search of arXiv.org yields nothing. And no “papers” listing Uhran as an author show up after a search on NASA.gov.
A search on NTRS only finds these old papers:
– Express Payload Project – A new method for rapid access to Space Station Freedom, IAF, International Astronautical Congress, 44th, Oct. 16-22, 1993, Graz, Austria
– Accommodation requirements for microgravity science and applications research on space station, NASA-CR-175038
– Equipment concept design and development plans for microgravity science and applications research on space station: Combustion tunnel, laser diagnostic system, advanced modular furnace, integrated electronics laboratory, NASA-CR-179535
A search of SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service finds these three general papers (one of them old and mentioned above):
– Role of the Space Station in Private Development of Space, 34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, The Second World Space Congress, held 10-19 October, 2002
– Progress toward establishing a US national laboratory on the International Space Station, Acta Astronautica, v. 66, iss. 1-2, p. 149-156.
–Express Payload Project – A new method for rapid access to Space Station Freedom, IAF, International Astronautical Congress, 44th, Graz, Austria, Oct. 16-22, 1993
Another generalized paper is on line here at AIAA:
– Emergence of a US National Laboratory on the International Space Station , 46th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit 7 – 10 January 2008, Reno, Nevada AIAA 2008-797
There is no mention of any papers by Uhran (or anyone else) in the Draft ISS National Lab CAN, in the ProOrbis Reference Model for the International Space Station, U.S. National Laboratory, on NASA.gov or on the ISS National Laboratory page.
Indeed the CAN itself makes no mention of the ProOrbis Reference Model for the International Space Station either – even though it was completed before the Draft CAN was released. So, if Uhran’s papers (or other documents citing the relevance/potential for ISS research) are not mentioned in the CAN, The ProOrbis model, or by NASA itself, why is Uhran bothering to mention them? Seems oddly inconsistent to me.
Are these old and or generalized papers listed above what Uhran was referring to when he said that he had written “five papers on research results from the ISS”? If so, they are somewhat underwhelming. Aren’t there any real research appears (peer reviewed, etc.) that he can point to? If indeed Uhran has written papers with value to potential proposers on the ISS National Lab CAN (I assume that is why he mentioned their existence) then why does he not provide links to the articles? Are the articles he is referring to not online? (how 20th century), or is he just misrepresenting the importance of his publishing track record?
Perhaps Mark Uhran and/or his staff could do the potential future users of the ISS a favor and reveal the content of these 5 papers by posting them online.
Earlier posts
– NASA: It’s Our Space Station – Not Yours
– NASA’s ISS National Lab Concept: Flawed Plans – Closed Thinking
– How NASA Plans to Drag Its Feet in Implementing the ISS National Laboratory
– NASA’s Not So “Public” Day for ISS National Lab Plans
– NASA CAN for ISS National Lab Released
– Another Stealth NASA Report
