ISDC Excerpt

NASA Plenary - Transterrestrial Musings:

George Whitesides (former NSS Executive Director, now at NASA HQ): ... Talking about Centennial Challenges, showing awards to date (several millions available, less than a million awarded). Want to expand the base of people working on these problems, and open it up to new people with new ideas. Science directorate doing student collaborations with balloons and suborbital flights. Naming contest: Mars Science Lab will be named “Curiosity” by sixth grader. SMD putting on Twitter feed for each mission, and many people have develed affection for rovers. Cubesat, easier access for payloads, easier access for research grants for students. Competition for business ideas, moonbuggy races, etc. Discussing naming of node that resulted in Colbert winning, but naming of the node Tranquility and naming the treadmill COLBERT (for which they came up with an acronym).