Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

e) A Special Mission Development Division that will concern itself with implementing
standard and innovative institutional arrangements with other agencies and
interests, such as special-purpose institutes, seminars, training agreements, development
of R&D cadres for other agencies, NASA-industry cooperation for specific
purposes, assistance to public affairs objectives, and other administrative and
management support for the Program Office.
I emphasize that no scientific and technological work, other than the Market
Research and Mission Requirements Analysis, is to be performed in the Program Office.
The reservoir of technology resources will be in the Centers, industry, universities and
institutes. The Program Office acts as the integrative mechanism for policy, decision making,
planning, allocation of resources, program control, communication and progress
reporting.
[4] 2. After deciding on its desired course, NASA management should conduct a discreet
program of persuasion among leaders of Congress, Bureau of the Budget, Office of
Science and Technology, other government agencies, private industry, and others to
gain prior acceptance of the policy.
3. NASA management should identify at Headquarters and in the Centers existing and
potential capabilities applicable to those programs and opportunities deemed worthy
of NASA participation. Of particular interest are people who would wish to apply their
skills and experience in new need environments.
4. NASA should, after application of proper criteria and adequate problem definition
studies, select a limited number of promising challenges, negotiate the required
agreements, develop objectives, assign resources and move ahead under a new major
Program Office as it normally does when assuming new missions. NASA identification,
in the scientific and technical communities and in the public eye, with a limited number
of major programs of perceived urgency will follow naturally.
5. The new activity should receive separate funding as a line item titled, “non-aerospace
technology transfer and applications” to maintain its identity and permit adequate
congressional exposure.
II - Observation
Although a broad management consensus and policy are lacking, NASA currently has
an impressive number of projects, some of them quite promising, relating directly to public
problem areas. Many of them do not show up in the formal management control system.
Some of them are disguised, some are bootlegged, whereas some are shown explicitly
in the formal system. It would be a formidable task to assemble them for consideration as
a single group, but it would be extremely useful to do so, if only to provide integrative
management and source information for a splendidly cogent answer to the question of
what NASA is now doing for the common man.
Recommendation
EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN 549
NASA should organize a team effort to visit all the Centers, dig into and underneath
the formal documentation, interview key people, and assemble a current catalog of efforts
applicable to public problem fields, in accordance with clearly understood criteria. This
information should be kept current and be made available to NASA public affairs, congressional
relations and top level NASA staff, as well as to other government agencies,
[Office of Science and Technology, Bureau of the Budget], etc. It is important to make
this largely invisible activity respectable and subject to evaluation, planning, and management
awareness.