Bryan
Bear (l.), master's student in English, and Christopher Dow (r.), the
Outstanding English Undergraduate of 1992, served as assistant project editors for the
Woods Hole Report along with Dr. Irving N. Rothman, chief project editor.ISSO and the National Space Grant Program
The Woods Hole Conference, August 24-28, 1992
1000-Day Mission to the Moon and Mars
When Congress created the Space Grant Program in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Act of 1987, it provided the University of Houston and colleges throughout the nation access to NASA's resources. Through ISSO, the Space Grant Office at the University of Houston functions under the direction of Dr. David Criswell who serves as an Associate Director of the Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC). Under 1987 law, the Space Grant Program is analogous to the National Land Grant Program of 1862 which, under the Morrill Act, created permanent funds for the establishment of a college of agriculture and mechanic arts in each state. In 1887, Congress added research activities to the Land Grant Program through the Hatch Act, which established agricultural experiment stations in Land Grant Schools.
The Space Grant Program became law under Senate Bill 2098, which was introduced by Texas's senior senator Lloyd Bentsen in 1986.
Housing an office of the Texas Space Grant Consortium, the University of Houston seeks to accomplish Space Grant objective intended to encourage and support multidisciplinary programs of space research within the university community engage in consortia comprised of university and industry members to advance the exploration and development of space resources.
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The University of Houston played a major role in the development of the National Space Grant Program in the summer of 1992 when it assumed responsibility for preparing the conceptual report of the newly-formed National Council of Space Grant Directors. Directors of the various Space Grant consortia throughout the nation met at the home of the National Academy of Sciences in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, August 24-28, to plot a course of action for the future.
The Woods Hole report entitled Mission To America consisted of a four-pronged approach-an assessment of the current status of science and engineering education and NASA-based programs (Now: 1992-1995); a projection of immediate developments through multi-university centers and coalitions for aerospace-oriented research and flight programs (Fusion: 1995-2000); a vision of space-age education and research in the year 2000 and beyond (Vision: 2000+); and the development of a long-range strategy for linking the Space Grant Program with other federal, state, and industrial groups committed to the advancement of learning and science in aeronautics and space (Mechanics).
The Woods Hole Report was developed under the direction of Dr. David Criswell, associate director of the Texas Space Grant Consortium, and funded in part by NASA through the Johns Hopkins University and by the various Space Grant Consortium. Planning began six months earlier when Dr. Criswell and Dr. Richard Henry, Director of the Johns Hopkins SG Consortium convinced NASA of the need for a top-level think tank at Woods Hole to develop a plan for the fulfillment of Congress's goals in Space Grant legislation.
While it was clear that institutions throughout the United States were expected to upgrade their syllabuses and laboratories to meet space-age discoveries, the means of effecting changes required a plan of action. Sixty-five Space Grant directors from Hawaii to California, from Maine to Texas, met with representatives of the Higher Education Branch of NASA and University affairs officers from NASA research centers and with industrial participants for the week-long session.
The University of Houston editing team immersed themselves in planning meetings to edit, design, and produce the Woods Hole Report. Dr. Irving N. Rothman, professor of English and chief project editor, organized an editing team comprised of master's student Bryan Bear and senior writer Christopher Dow. Editors worked closely with the chairpersons of each of the four seminars-Vision, Now, Fusion, and Mechanics, as conceptualized by David Criswell, and with Richard Henry of Johns Hopkins, Victoria Duca, director of the Oklahoma Space Grant Consortium, and Steven Nichols, first chair of the National Council of Space Grant Directors based in Texas Space Grant Consortium, with headquarters at the University of Texas at Austin.
The report evolved through meetings lasting into the evening hours and culminated in the publication of the 58-page report in November 1992. The report gained its spiritual focus from the words of Frank Press, President of the National Academy of Sciences,who addressed the workshop and cited the nation's priorities: "Education is recognized as a national crisis by the highest levels of political concern. The slope has turned around only in the realization that education is a national problem." The Woods Hole Workshop produced l5 recommendations, which are now being implemented.
Bryan
Bear (l.), master's student in English, and Christopher Dow (r.), the
Outstanding English Undergraduate of 1992, served as assistant project editors for the
Woods Hole Report along with Dr. Irving N. Rothman, chief project editor.
Copies of the report are available from Workshop Editorial Offices at the Texas Space Grant Consortium, University of Houston Office, Houston, TX 77204-5505 [Phone (713) 743-9135; FAX (713) 743-9134)].
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The Houston Office of the Texas Space Grant Consortium managed the development of a proposal to NASA's Closed Ecological Life Support Branch (CELSS) at the Johnson Space Center focusing on developing and characterizing selected technologies now perceived as needs for long-duration (1000 days) human missions on the moon and human flight to Mars with operations on the Martian surface. TSGC teams from the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University met with NASA-JSC personnel to determine the development of new methods for providing air and water to astronauts and the management of their food and waste during deep space missions. Researchers expect to study aspects of life support and systems requisite for sustaining populations in space. Specific projects for study were selected on the basis of extensive consultations between the CELSS Branch at JSC and the TSGC team.
The Houston office of the Texas Space Grant Consortium is engaged in cooperative programs with other institutions of the state, comprising the largest consortium of academic institutions, scientific laboratories, government agencies, and industrial firms in the Congressional State Grant program.
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Contents
ISSO -- Institute for Space Systems Operations
1992-1993 Annual Report
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