NASA, Partners Announce Launch: Beyond Waste Innovators

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington          

202-358-1100

jbuck@nasa.gov

 

Priscilla Vega

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-1357

priscilla.r.vega@jpl.nasa.gov

 

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the State Department and Nike Inc. opened the fourth installment of the LAUNCH initiative Friday.

This year's forum, which is being held at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is called LAUNCH: Beyond Waste. It aims to identify and accelerate solutions in waste management, an immediate issue for astronauts aboard the International Space Station, as well as people around the world. The forum runs through Sunday, July 22.

The LAUNCH program identifies innovations poised to create transformational change in critical sustainability issues, connects LAUNCH innovators to leaders and advisors, and provides resources and guidance to accelerate the implementation of the technologies, businesses and programs.

For NASA, LAUNCH draws parallels between resource challenges humans face aboard the space station and on Earth. With no natural resources in the hostile environment of space, astronauts must generate, collect, store, conserve, recycle and manage their resources wisely. LAUNCH offers NASA's problem-solving expertise to crucial conversations on sustainability-related topics with innovative problem solvers from around the world. It enables the agency to promote emerging, transformative technology to sustain and enrich the quality of life on Earth. The engineering approaches needed to solve many of the development challenges facing Earth are similar to those needed to overcome the challenges of long-duration human missions beyond low Earth orbit.

The innovators were chosen for this forum because of their groundbreaking technologies and programs that address a broad range of waste issues, including waste-to-energy; eWaste, which includes discarded electrical or electronic devices; upcycling, the process of using waste to create new materials; recycling; agricultural waste and conservation; medical waste; sustainable chemicals and materials; and improved sanitation.

The LAUNCH innovator organizations are listed below.

-- Attero Recycling (India): Nitin Gupta - India's leading provider of end-to-end electronic and electrical goods e-Waste management services.

-- Goonj (India): Anshu Goonj - A grassroots Indian non-governmental organization focused on transforming and revaluing clothing and textiles waste by working on these issues directly at the community level.

-- Kiverdi (US): Lisa Dyson - Provider of a bioprocess that recycles waste carbon into sustainable oils and chemicals for a wide variety of applications such as biomaterials, detergents, and fuel additives.

-- Pylantis (US/Japan) Jeff Toolan - An advanced biomaterials manufacturing company whose non-toxic, biomass-based materials replace traditional plastics in a variety of applications.

-- re:char (US/Kenya): Jason Aramburu - A leading developer and provider of biochar, a carbon-negative charcoal that can be used as a charcoal substitute and as a powerful soil amendment which boosts crop yields.

-- Recyclematch (US): Brooke Farrell - An online global marketplace for recyclables and waste byproducts for the more than $500 billion market in materials trading.

-- Sanergy (US/Kenya): Joseph Atnafu - A provider of sanitation infrastructure in Nairobi, Kenya, and of fertilizer and electricity from its byproducts.

-- SeAB (United Kingdom): Sandra Sassow - A renewable energy and waste-to-energy company that provides compact, easy to install anaerobic digesters, a scalable solution for addressing food waste and other bio wastes directly at the site.

-- SIRUM (US): Kiah Williams - Provider of a technology platform that manages donations of surplus medicines, with the ultimate goal of zero medical waste.

During the 3-day forum, LAUNCH innovators will discuss their most pressing business and program issues with LAUNCH Council members, who represent the business, waste management, investment, international development, policy, engineering, science, communications and sustainability sectors. The sessions are designed to identify key challenges and opportunities for the entrepreneurs' innovations in an effort to accelerate more rapidly their solutions toward even greater real world impact.

NASA, USAID, Nike Inc. and the State Department are LAUNCH founding partners. Additional partners for LAUNCH: Beyond Waste include are the Office of Naval Research, Vestergaard Frandsen, IDEO, a design and innovation consulting firm, and Architecture for Humanity.

The partners all contributed to planning the forum, selecting innovators and recruiting other event participants. A list of the innovators and innovations will be available online before the forum at http://www.launch.org.

The public may access and engage in the Launch: Beyond Waste conversation online through MindMapr at http://mindmapr.nasa.gov.

A link to live video of the conference will be on UStream at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) July 20 at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-educational.

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov.

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Earth-Observing Camera to Launch to International Space Station

Steve Cole

Headquarters, Washington

202-358-0918

stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

 

Janet L. Anderson

Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

256-544-0034

janet.l.anderson@nasa.gov 

WASHINGTON -- A remote-controlled Earth-observing camera system called ISERV will be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's third H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-3) this week. Once installed, the system will be directed by researchers on the ground to acquire imagery of specific areas of the globe for disaster analysis and environmental studies.

ISERV Pathfinder is a new imaging instrument designed and built at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The HTV-3 launch is scheduled for 10:06 p.m. EDT July 20 from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.

ISERV stands for the International Space Station SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System. The space station provides researchers a unique perspective through global observations from space. SERVIR is a Spanish acronym meaning "to serve." Also known as the Regional Visualization and Monitoring System, the program provides satellite data and tools to environmental decision makers in developing countries. SERVIR is a partnership between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

ISERV will be installed in the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF) in the station's Destiny laboratory. The system is intended to help scientists gain operational experience and expertise and inform the design of a more capable system in the future. Ideally, a future operational system will be able to monitor disasters on Earth.

"ISERV came about because officials in developing countries are sometimes unable to acquire the images they need to address environmental threats and provide post-disaster assessments," said Nancy Searby, capacity building program manager for the SERVIR program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The SERVIR team approached NASA's ISS and Earth Science Applied Sciences Program with the concept of acquiring the needed imagery from the ISS. The ISERV test bed payload is a result of that collaboration."

The ISERV system, based on a modified commercial telescope and driven by custom software, will use the Earth-facing Destiny science window to obtain images of Earth's surface. It will then transmit the data to scientists on the ground.

"Images captured from ISERV on the ISS could provide valuable information back here on Earth," said Dan Irwin, SERVIR program director at Marshall. "We hope it will provide new data and information from space related to natural disasters, environmental crises and the increased effects of climate variability on human populations."

ISERV is the first of an envisioned series of space station Earth-observing instruments, each to feature progressively more capable sensors. Future sensors could be mounted on the exterior of the station for a clearer, wider view of Earth. ISERV development was funded as a collaboration between NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Directorate and the Science Mission Directorate's Earth Science Division Applied Sciences Program.

The team at the Payload Operations Center at Marshall is creating computer-based materials for training the space station crew to assemble and install ISERV in the WORF rack. Normal operations aboard station are set to begin in November.

"The addition of ISERV will enhance the growing set of tools aboard the station to monitor Earth," said Julie Robinson, International Space Station program scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "It reaffirms the station's commitment to helping solve global issues."

SERVIR consists of a coordination office and student research laboratory at Marshall and active hubs located in Kenya and Nepal as well as a network affiliate in Panama. The coordination develops application prototypes for the SERVIR website, and integrates new or relevant technologies from NASA and other scientific research partner organizations into the system to meet the needs of the host countries. SERVIR's primary technical work occurs at the hubs, which are staffed by in-country and in-region experts. The hubs coordinate with other international and national organizations in their respective regions regarding climate change, environmental monitoring, disasters, weather and mapping, among others.

SERVIR, jointly funded by NASA and USAID, is part of the Earth Science Division's Applied Sciences Program in NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Four other NASA field centers work with Marshall on the program: Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.; and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

For more information about the International Space Station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

For more information about SERVIR, visit http://www.nasa.gov/servir.

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NASA JPL Hosts Launch: Beyond Waste Forum

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington     

202-358-1100

jbuck@nasa.gov

 

Will Schmitt

U.S. Agency for International Development, Washington

202-712-4971

wschmitt@usaid.gov

 

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA and partners from the LAUNCH: Beyond Waste forum will discuss innovative ideas for waste management during a 3-day forum July 20-22. Waste management is important for planning long-duration human spaceflight missions to an asteroid, Mars or beyond.

Reporters are invited to attend the forum at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Reporters must register in advance by contacting Joshua Buck at jbuck@nasa.gov by 2 p.m. PDT (5 p.m. EDT) July 19.

LAUNCH: Beyond Waste is part of an initiative to identify, showcase and support innovative approaches to sustainability challenges through a series of forums. It is the fourth forum in the series.

LAUNCH allows NASA to propel innovative solutions that help those outside the agency make the connection between our lives on Earth and how we live and work in space. Through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)'s involvement, LAUNCH places a special emphasis on accelerating innovations poised for large-scale impact in improving the lives of people in the developing world.

During the forum, nine international participants will showcase new innovations that could address waste management problems on Earth and may be used to solve problems for long-duration spaceflight.

NASA, USAID, Nike Inc. and the U.S. State Department are LAUNCH founding partners. The Office of Naval Research; Vestergaard Frandsen; IDEO, a design and innovation consulting firm; and Architecture for Humanity are partners for LAUNCH: Beyond Waste.

The partners all contributed to planning the forum, selecting innovators and recruiting other event participants. A list of the innovators and innovations will be available online before the forum at http://www.launch.org.

The public may access and engage in the Launch: Beyond Waste conversation online through MindMapr at http://mindmapr.nasa.gov.

A link to live video of the conference will be on UStream at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) July 20 at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-educational.

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov.

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USAID-NSF PEER Program Announces First Round of Awardees

PEER-funded developing country researchers will use science and engineering to address global development challenges

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced the first round of awards under a joint National Science Foundation (NSF)-USAID program launched last summer. Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) capitalizes on competitively-awarded investments to build scientific and technical capacity in the developing world.

"I am very pleased that nearly 500 scientists in developing countries submitted PEER proposals linked to awards from every NSF research directorate, demonstrating robust international interest and unmet potential at the interface of science and development," said DeAndra Beck, NSF program director for PEER.

"Through PEER, collaboration will occur between scientists in developing countries and a variety of NSF awardees, including small businesses, CAREER awardees, large NSF centers and international consortia, as well as with single investigators. Each of these collaborations will bridge a shared goal of advancing development with science."

The USAID-funded PEER program, administered by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in coordination with USAID and NSF, convened review panels of topical experts and evaluated nearly 500 applications from 63 developing countries. Based on scientific merit, projected development impact within country and the strength of collaboration between developing country scientists and their American counterparts, 41 projects from 25 countries were selected for funding.

In the following examples, newly PEER-funded proposals address important capacity needs by:

•Developing translation software to convert spoken Arabic to Moroccan Sign Language in partnership with an NSF-funded small business;

•Assessing ecological strategies to assist with bird conservation in Kenya with NSF-funded students engaged in international research collaboration;

•Monitoring air quality over the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator with an NSF-funded postdoctoral scientist;

•Studying marine biodiversity in Indonesia and the Philippines in collaboration with an NSF-funded international research and education consortium;

•Assessing landslide risk in Lebanon with an NSF-funded engineer;

•Analyzing climate change impacts in Colombia and Ecuador with NSF-funded climate researchers; and

•Incorporating Bali's Subak heritage into primary and secondary education curriculum with an NSF-funded anthropologist.

-NSF-