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Coming up on Destination Tomorrow, NASA has developed a revolutionary satellite sensor

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that will greatly improve weather forecast accuracy, as well as change the way weather

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information is conveyed to the public.

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Plus, NASA's commercial invention of the year might help people with heart disease

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live longer.

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And we meet the chief engineer of one of the most successful spaceflight missions in NASA

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history.

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All this and more, next on Destination Tomorrow.

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Hello everyone, I'm Steele McGonigal.

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And I'm Kara O'Brien, and welcome to Destination Tomorrow.

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This program will uncover how past, present and future research is creating today's knowledge

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to answer the questions and solve the challenges of tomorrow.

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Current weather forecasts give us a best guess of storm formation, moisture, temperature

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and winds.

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Considering the difficulties of forecasting these variables, it is not surprising that

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predictions sometimes differ from what actually occurs.

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Accurate forecasts are valuable.

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Ones that go astray can be costly in terms of property loss and sometimes human life.

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A new program at NASA called GIFTS will use three-dimensional cameras onboard geostationary

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satellites to continuously observe Earth's surface and atmosphere.

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Measurements and data from GIFTS will enable meteorologists to predict the future position

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of storms and their changing intensity.

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This capability will give earlier warnings of the development of destructive weather.

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Jennifer Pulley finds out how this revolutionary satellite sensor will change the way weather

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information is predicted.

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In this modern age, weather forecasting is something that many of us take for granted.

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We depend on accurate information from forecasters every day in order to make travel plans, dress

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appropriately, and in cases of extreme weather, protect our lives and our property.

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But unfortunately, weather predictions are still not as accurate as we would like.

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In fact, you may be surprised to find out that forecasts over three days are still only

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correct about 50 percent of the time.

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In an effort to make weather prediction much more accurate, researchers at NASA are developing

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a revolutionary new weather satellite instrument called GIFTS, or the Geostationary Imaging

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Foyer Transform Spectrometer.

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GIFTS will provide more than 1,000 times more data than current satellite weather sensors.

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I spoke with Dr. Bill Smith at NASA Langley Research Center to find out more.

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GIFTS is a revolutionary new satellite sensor, which will not only change the way we convey

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weather information to the public, but will drastically improve weather forecasts.

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Today, weather is very difficult to predict, although weather satellites provide two-dimensional

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images of clouds, which help us detect where storms currently exist.

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Quantitative temperature, moisture, and wind data are needed to forecast where storms will

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devolve and where they will move.

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The poor vertical resolution of current satellite observations now limits the range of useful

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forecasts to about three days.

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Currently, weather predictions are not only made from information gathered from satellites

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and radars, but a large part of the prediction information comes from ground-based weather

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balloons, which are launched into the atmosphere every 12 hours, about 500 miles apart.

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These readings create gaps of weather information between the balloons.

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With upper atmosphere conditions changing very quickly, making timely, accurate predictions

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with old data can sometimes lead to a confusing weather picture.

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To help change this, the GIFTS satellite will update weather information used for atmospheric

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predictions in minutes rather than hours, without gaps in the geographical location.

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Most of the weather information needed for visualizing the current state of the atmosphere

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will come from GIFTS, making the weather picture much clearer.

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GIFTS is a three-dimensional digital movie camera being on a geostationary satellite.

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And with a 3D camera, you can actually see water vapor, temperature, and even pollutant

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gases move in the atmosphere.

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We will be able to see the temperature changes, the flow of water vapor molecules, and the

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upwards by-rolling air before the clouds appear, enabling us to detect the storm's

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location even before the destructive forces develop.

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Also, being able to watch the motion of the atmosphere in three dimensions will enable

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meteorologists to predict the future position of the storm and its changing intensity.

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By providing today's weather forecasting models with more data, more often, it's projected

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that for the first time, weather forecasts can be made reliable many days in advance.

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Having reliable forecasts could potentially have huge economic advantages for our country.

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Outdoor workers will be better prepared for inclement weather.

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Homes and offices will be able to regulate thermostats better.

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And farmers and communities will be better prepared for storms, floods, and drought.

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Another potential economic and safety improvement will be in hurricane landfall predictions.

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Currently, 24-hour predictions are given in about a 300-square-mile radius of potential

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landfall locations.

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On average, it costs about $1 million per mile to evacuate a threatened coastline.

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Unfortunately, with poor forecasting, the public often delays evacuation until storms

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are very close to shore.

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If forecasters can make accurate landfall predictions within tens of miles rather than

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several hundreds of miles, more people might consider taking proper measures to secure

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their lives and their property.

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Will GIFS be able to help in aviation as well?

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Actually, GIFS will have a significant impact on both general aviation safety and the cost

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of commercial flight.

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With regards to general aviation safety, GIFS will help delineate where supercooled water

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exists in clouds, which causes airframe icing when an airplane comes in contact with it.

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It may also be possible to uplink this data directly into the cockpit of an aircraft.

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So a pilot looking at a screen, like a TV screen, will be able to see clouds which have

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these supercooled water droplets and avoid them during his flight.

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So what are your overall hopes for this system?

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Probably the most important thing is that GIFS will help us understand weather processes,

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understand climate.

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GIFS will be able to observe not only weather variables, but also atmospheric pollution

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and see how it's transported around the globe.

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Of course, understanding weather better will help us improve hurricane prediction and other

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severe tornadic storm forecasts and the like.

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All in all, GIFS is not only going to create a much better life for human beings, it's

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going to save us property and probably most important, save lives as well.

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NASA's Aviation Safety Program, a project created to reduce the threat of weather-related

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aviation accidents, will also benefit from GIFS technology.

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Coming up, NASA's commercial invention of the year may help save millions of people

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stricken with heart disease.

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But first, did you know that you can tell the temperature by listening to the chirping

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of a cricket?

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Crickets are called the poor man's thermometer because their activity is directly affected

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by temperature.

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Count the number of chirps a cricket makes in 15 seconds, add 37, and the sum will equal

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the Fahrenheit temperature.

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NASA's commercial invention of the year, the VAD, or Ventricular Assist Device, represents

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the next generation in heart assist devices.

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This ingenious pump uses space age technology to help keep patients alive while waiting

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for a transplant.

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Tonya St. Romain spoke with the VAD's co-inventor at NASA Johnson Space Center to find out more.

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Every year, approximately 20 million people worldwide suffer from heart failure, nearly

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5 million of them in the U.S. alone.

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In many cases, a heart transplant is the best chance for survival, but unfortunately, only

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about 2,500 donor hearts are available each year, leaving many patients with little hope

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of survival.

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Until now.

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A unique device called the DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device, or VAD, is now able to prolong

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life until a suitable transplant heart is available.

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Based on the vision of Dr. Michael DeBakey and designed by NASA engineers, this device

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uses advanced flow technologies, first used in the space shuttle, to increase blood circulation

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for heart failure patients awaiting a transplant.

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I spoke with Jim Ackerman at NASA's Johnson Space Center to find out more.

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The assist device is a lot like a fan.

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You can imagine a fan in a little pipe, and it just sort of blows the blood along.

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Blood is a very fragile fluid, a very unusual type of thing to be pumping along, and there's

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been a lot of work for many years with plunger type pumps that are able to handle the fluid

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very tenderly, but they've all been big and not very practical.

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The key to us, blood has to flow fast through it, and of course that generates problems

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with turbulence and low pressure zones and blood damage, and it's just turned out to

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be a real challenge.

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Jim, how does the device work?

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The assist device essentially hooks to the left ventricle, and a small hose comes up

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and connects onto this end of the pump.

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The blood flows in here.

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These little blades sort of screw into the blood flow.

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It runs 10,000 revolutions a minute.

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The blood is rotating with the rotor, and then when it flows into the diffuser blades

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in the aft end of the pump, the blood's rotating motion is decelerated, discharged, and flows

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over into the descending aorta.

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So how did NASA become involved in a medical project?

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Well essentially, they got involved with DeBakey through one of his patients.

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Dr. DeBakey, of course, is a heart surgeon.

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In fact, he invented the first pump that was used to support the life of the person while

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they worked on the heart.

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DeBakey had been working on a blood pump for like 30 years, trying to get something that

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was practical and realistic, and I think he had essentially pretty much thrown in the

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towel almost, because it was such a challenge technically.

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And he asked if maybe somebody down at NASA would be interested in looking into it.

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We went over the requirements, and it became obvious that a special kind of technology

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was going to be required.

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Because blood is the operating fluid for the VAD, the device must be designed to gently

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propel blood through the apparatus to minimize damage to the red blood cells.

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In order to accomplish this, NASA engineers designed the pumping device to avoid regions

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of high stress and separated flow inside the pump.

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They also designed the pump to properly wash out all of the blood from low flow regions

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inside the device, helping to prevent the formation of blood clots.

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These modifications were accomplished by using the same type of complex computational flow

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models developed to increase fuel efficiency inside the space shuttle engines.

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By using a computerized model of blood flow for the device, researchers were able to refine

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the VAD's problem areas, gain valuable insight into the blood flow process inside the device,

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and most importantly, help save lives.

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Jim, how long is this device designed to work?

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It's designed to run for at least 100 days, but we've already run it 110 days and no signs

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of any problem at all.

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As long as the bearings are still intact, it's still going to function.

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We can envision the thing almost indefinitely.

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The really exciting part of it all is that with the extra circulation this little unit

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provides, there's a large percentage of the patients that are recovering to the extent

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that they don't have to have a transplant.

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Actually the heart itself recovers with good enough circulation.

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That's a real advantage to know that a lot of people that need the support will eventually

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not need a transplant.

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It was really a challenge, a fun kind of challenge that engineers really enjoy, and with the

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technology NASA has, we were able to solve the problem.

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In the early days of the space program, many at NASA dreamed of extending our reach outside

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of the boundaries of Earth.

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One dream in particular was to send a spacecraft to another planet to determine if life existed

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beyond Earth.

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This is where the idea for the Viking mission was developed.

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This extraordinary mission was not only designed to land on the surface of Mars to do basic

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research, but to also perform scientific experiments to search for life on the red planet.

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Planning for the Viking project began on November 15, 1968, but the actual missions didn't launch

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until August and September of 1975 due to the complexity and challenge of the project.

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The mission included two identical spacecraft, each consisting of a planetary lander and

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an orbiter.

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Their primary mission objectives were to obtain high-resolution images of Mars, determine

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the composition of the Martian atmosphere and surface, and most importantly, to conclude

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if life existed.

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In the summer of 1976, both Viking spacecrafts arrived at their destination.

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As they eased into orbit, onboard cameras began scanning for potential landing sites.

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After a favorable landing location was chosen, each lander separated and descended to the

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planet's surface.

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The landers touched down over 4,300 miles away from each other, making history by becoming

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the first mission to land spacecraft safely on the surface of another planet.

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Well, when we landed on Mars, I was quite jubilant, especially jubilant when I knew

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after the second landing that we had two relatively successful landers.

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In fact, the experiments on both landers worked beautifully.

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Before the Viking mission was ever launched, many people thought Mars might harbor abundant

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plant life and microbes living among its rust-colored rocks.

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But the two landers quickly dispelled these notions.

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The landers revealed a world seemingly devoid of life at all.

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In an attempt to conclusively prove or disprove life on Mars, the two landers conducted three

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biology experiments by remote control from Earth.

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One of the experiments, called the Labeled Release Life Detection Experiment, collected

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soil samples that showed signs of possible microbes, but the consensus of scientists

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interpreting the data believed that the findings did not prove that life existed on Mars.

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We guaranteed it for 90 days, three months, and I think the lander landed and operated

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successfully for about six years, which was quite a surprise to me because I was familiar

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with the failure rates of parts, and it turns out that once a few failed, as they did on

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the way to Mars, when we got to the surface, we were relatively lucky and had very few

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failures thereafter.

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Together the two landers accumulated 4,500 up-close images of the Martian surface.

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They also collected more than three million weather-related measurements, including the

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first on-site observations of a global Martian dust storm.

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The two orbiters circling high above the planet snapped 52,000 images covering 97 percent

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of the Martian globe.

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I was very thankful that I came to Langley.

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Those spacecraft were successful not because of me, they were successful because we had

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such a tremendous pool of talent here at the field, and I hope that can continue into the

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future.

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I believe research ought to go on.

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It's the best way to get your money back.

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You can't spend too much for research.

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The data retrieved from the Viking mission exponentially increased our knowledge of Mars.

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Volcanoes, canyons, craters, and evidence of surface water for the first time became

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apparent from the orbiter images.

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The Viking mission proved to be one of the most successful missions in NASA history,

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forever changing our understanding of Mars.

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In fact, it's been said that scientists learned more about Mars in the first five minutes

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of the Viking mission than in the 500 years before it.

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The last data from the Viking 2 lander arrived at Earth on April 11, 1980.

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The Viking 1 lander made its final transmission to Earth November 11, 1982.

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The total cost of the Viking project?

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One billion dollars.

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Coming up, we'll see how NASA research is able to predict, prevent, and eliminate aircraft

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accidents with new technologies, but first, did you know that the Mars Odyssey spacecraft

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has detected evidence of ice below the surface of Mars?

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Using a device called a gamma ray spectrometer, the craft scanned the southern hemisphere

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of Mars, finding enough water ice to fill Lake Michigan, twice.

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NASA's Aviation Safety Program is developing innovative technologies that are making our

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skies safer.

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Researchers in one program called the Single Airplane Accident Prevention Program, or SAP,

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are hoping to use data available from aircraft and simulators to identify and correct aircraft

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system problems before they lead to fatal accidents.

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Derek Leonidoff explains.

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We've all heard that flying is the safest way to travel, and statistically, it is.

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Even as our world's airspace becomes more crowded, flying today is actually becoming

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safer.

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But unfortunately, fatal aircraft accidents can still occur.

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That's why researchers in the Aviation Safety Program are working on revolutionary technologies

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that may make fatal aircraft accidents a thing of the past.

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The Single Aircraft Accident Prevention Project, or SAP, is part of the Aviation Safety Program

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that is developing new technologies that may help pilots recover and safely land an aircraft

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from a potentially fatal event.

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I spoke with John Foster in the Vehicle Dynamics Branch at NASA Langley to find out more about

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SAP.

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Well, the SAP project is developing systems that will anticipate failures on the airplane

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before they occur and help the pilot recover the airplane if an out-of-control event should

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occur.

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What's an example of an out-of-control flight situation?

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Well, there are a number of factors that can contribute to an airplane loss-of-control

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accident.

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These factors can be both internal or external to the airplane.

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Some external factors may include severe weather or just poor visibility.

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Some internal factors, though, could include some failure in the control system as well

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as a structural failure or just an inappropriate crew input.

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In many of these situations, catastrophic failures cause the pilots to lose control

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of the airplane, resulting in a fatal accident.

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Researchers in the SAP project are working on new technologies which they hope will prevent

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these types of accidents from ever occurring again.

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They're developing a series of revolutionary systems that will not only detect and predict

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system or component failures before they become severe, but are also developing automatic

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control recovery systems, which will actually help pilots recover an airplane from an upset

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situation.

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Okay, so how do these systems help a pilot out?

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I mean, how do they work?

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Well, the vehicle health management system is being developed, which will continuously

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monitor the airplane's health and compare that to the math model for a healthy airplane.

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In case a disturbing trend or an anomaly occurs, it can send that information to the

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ground crews, and they can take the appropriate maintenance action to fix the part after the

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airplane lands.

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Wow, kind of like an onboard doctor.

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Exactly.

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That's why it's called health monitoring.

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Another system being developed as part of the SAP project is the control recovery system.

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This system is being designed to help the pilot in case the airplane gets into a loss

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of control situation.

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That system will carry a math model of a normal maneuvering airplane on board.

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And if the system detects that the airplane is about to enter a loss of control situation,

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it can alert the pilot and help him to recover the airplane, or it can automatically recover

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the airplane for the pilot.

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These systems will not only be able to help a pilot regain control of an aircraft quickly,

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but will also be able to help land an aircraft that has suffered catastrophic damage.

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With these new systems on board commercial planes, pilots will be able to maintain safe

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flight even under the most adverse flight conditions, potentially making fatal crashes

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a thing of the past.

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Okay, so the systems you've mentioned are obviously computer systems, but we're standing

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here in a wind tunnel.

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How does wind tunnel testing help?

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Wind tunnels are used to develop pilot training simulators.

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We can take the data out of the wind tunnel for extreme flight conditions and put that

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in the simulator and allow the pilot to experience an out-of-control event and conduct training

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to learn how to recover from such a situation.

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Our goal is to provide the most realistic training possible for the pilots in case they

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would enter a loss of control situation.

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John, how will these systems be tested before being implemented on an airplane?

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Well, there's several methods that we can use to test the systems before they are actually

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implemented in the airplane.

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One is to use a subscale, dynamically scaled flying model of the airplane.

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And that model, which is remotely controlled, we can install the actual systems in on-board

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computers and then fly the model through various out-of-control flight conditions and then

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see how the system works to recover the airplane.

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What are your hopes for the future of this project?

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I mean, what are the future goals of SAP?

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Well, flying is already a very safe form of transportation, but accidents still occur.

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And our goal in this research is to develop systems that will specifically help reduce

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those kind of accidents and save lives.

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The term virtual reality has become synonymous with futuristic technologies.

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Although it seems futuristic, it is being used every day by researchers as a cheap,

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safe and efficient way to study complex computer data and environments.

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Even though it is being used every day, it is still not widely understood by the general

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public.

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Our Johnny Alonzo visits the Immersive Design and Simulation Lab at NASA Langley to help

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explain virtual reality and find out how it works.

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The great poet Walt Whitman once said, I accept reality and dare not question it.

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Well, if old Walt was here to see this, he just might question it.

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Today, NASA researchers are working in high-tech virtual reality simulation labs using numbers,

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graphics, mathematical models to create three-dimensional images of objects and environments.

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Man, it's like working inside a real holodeck.

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Now, I spoke with Dr. Chris Sandridge at NASA Langley's Immersive Design and Simulation

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Lab, better known as the CAVE, to find out how it works.

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What we're standing in right now is called a CAVE.

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It stands for Cave Automatic Virtual Environment.

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Basically, it's a multi-screen theater where we can generate 3D images, 3D sounds and simulate

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various NASA missions.

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The CAVE has three walls made of 10-foot by 10-foot rear projection screens and a floor

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that is projected from above, giving the users a near-complete immersion in computer-generated

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graphics.

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The simulation looks like double images until you put on the goggles that gives everything

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a three-dimensional quality.

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The hardware and graphics equipment used to operate the system were first developed for

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use in computer games and in the theme park industry.

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So, how does this virtual environment work?

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We need the glasses to describe that.

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Basically, what we have here are shutter glasses and what they do is they kind of decode the

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stereo image so that we see the depth.

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Basically, the computer is generating two images, one for your left eye, one for your

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right eye.

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And then there's a little sensor here on the glasses that is detecting an infrared signal

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from behind the screen that synchronizes the glasses so you see a 3D image.

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In addition, the person who's actually running the CAVE is also being head-tracked.

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There's a black box above us that is putting out an electromagnetic field that's being

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picked up by this antenna.

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And then that relays information back to the computer and tells the computer where the

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person is looking and what his head orientation is.

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And then it updates the visuals and it updates the sound based on this person's position.

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And then finally, because we don't have a mouse and a keyboard available to us, we need

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some type of an input device.

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So what we have here is the wand that we use to control the application.

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It has joysticks on it, it has some buttons, and then also it is tracked as well so the

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computer knows where the position of this is so we can interact with the environment.

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So that's basically how it works.

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And then of course there's a kind of a supercomputer in the back room that's driving it all.

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00:25:39,020 --> 00:25:40,980
So can you show me how this application works?

364
00:25:40,980 --> 00:25:41,980
Sure.

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Put your glasses on and then we'll go to town.

366
00:25:44,500 --> 00:25:45,500
Got it, man.

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00:25:45,500 --> 00:25:46,620
So what's the name of this thing?

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This is a pull-up configuration of the station and we're using this application basically

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for two different environments, the radiation environment and the sound environment.

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Currently, NASA Langley researchers are developing tools to help design improved radiation shielding

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and reduce noise for the International Space Station.

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They're able to move equipment or install shielding in the virtual reality image and

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then observe and store calculations of what effects the changes make.

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Simulations can be shared with other researchers at distant locations via computer network

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connections.

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So, Johnny, you want to try giving it a shot?

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00:26:19,300 --> 00:26:20,300
Absolutely.

378
00:26:20,300 --> 00:26:21,300
Let me see this.

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00:26:21,300 --> 00:26:22,300
Take the wand.

380
00:26:22,300 --> 00:26:23,300
Okay.

381
00:26:23,300 --> 00:26:25,300
You need to put it on these glasses because these are the ones that are tracked.

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00:26:25,300 --> 00:26:26,300
All right.

383
00:26:26,300 --> 00:26:27,300
Thank you.

384
00:26:27,300 --> 00:26:33,220
And the way it works is that you point the wand in the direction you want to go and then

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00:26:33,220 --> 00:26:34,220
push the joystick forward.

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00:26:34,220 --> 00:26:35,220
Forward.

387
00:26:35,220 --> 00:26:36,220
To go forward.

388
00:26:36,220 --> 00:26:37,220
Oh, man.

389
00:26:37,220 --> 00:26:38,300
And you pull it backward to go backwards.

390
00:26:38,300 --> 00:26:41,300
And then rotating is pulling the joystick left and right.

391
00:26:41,540 --> 00:26:42,540
Check this out.

392
00:26:42,540 --> 00:26:43,540
You might want to back out so you can see.

393
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Fly around the station.

394
00:26:44,540 --> 00:26:45,540
Yeah, I'm going to throw up.

395
00:26:45,540 --> 00:26:46,540
All right.

396
00:26:46,540 --> 00:26:47,540
All right.

397
00:26:47,540 --> 00:26:48,540
Here we go.

398
00:26:48,540 --> 00:26:49,540
Rookie drivers.

399
00:26:49,540 --> 00:26:50,540
Yeah.

400
00:26:50,540 --> 00:26:51,540
Here, take the wheel.

401
00:26:51,540 --> 00:26:52,540
Here.

402
00:26:52,540 --> 00:26:53,540
Your glasses back.

403
00:26:53,540 --> 00:26:54,540
Thanks.

404
00:26:54,540 --> 00:26:55,540
And I'll take these.

405
00:26:55,540 --> 00:26:58,540
So, what are some of the other uses for this technology?

406
00:26:58,540 --> 00:27:03,900
Another use that we're just starting to work on is to develop a simulation to evaluate

407
00:27:03,900 --> 00:27:11,140
community noise of jets and aircraft flying near airports to look at how we can quiet

408
00:27:11,180 --> 00:27:16,180
the aircraft and be less intrusive to the neighbors around the airport.

409
00:27:16,180 --> 00:27:21,180
And then finally, I guess, these types of cave environments are used by the automotive

410
00:27:21,180 --> 00:27:24,180
industry to lay out the interior cockpit of the car.

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00:27:24,180 --> 00:27:29,180
So they'll, in a virtual environment, they'll look at like where the mirror is, where the

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console is.

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00:27:30,180 --> 00:27:35,180
Anything that where human factors are involved and you can put it in actual size and look

414
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at it in the correct perspective before you build hardware prototypes, which are fairly

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00:27:40,220 --> 00:27:41,220
expensive.

416
00:27:41,220 --> 00:27:42,220
Well, this was a lot of fun.

417
00:27:42,220 --> 00:27:43,220
This was really something else.

418
00:27:43,220 --> 00:27:44,220
And thanks a lot for everything.

419
00:27:44,220 --> 00:27:45,220
Yeah.

420
00:27:45,220 --> 00:27:46,220
No problem.

421
00:27:46,220 --> 00:27:47,220
One more question?

422
00:27:47,220 --> 00:27:48,220
Sure.

423
00:27:48,220 --> 00:27:49,220
Can I keep the glasses?

424
00:27:49,220 --> 00:27:50,220
Yeah.

425
00:27:50,220 --> 00:27:51,220
Everybody wants the glasses.

426
00:27:51,220 --> 00:27:52,220
They are very stylish.

427
00:27:52,220 --> 00:27:53,220
So cool.

428
00:27:53,220 --> 00:27:54,220
Check these out, man.

429
00:27:54,220 --> 00:27:55,220
That's all for this edition of Destination Tomorrow.

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00:27:55,220 --> 00:27:56,220
Thank you for joining us.

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00:27:56,220 --> 00:27:57,220
I'm Steele McGonigal.

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And I'm Kara O'Brien.

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For all of us here at NASA, we'll see you next time.

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Transcription by ESO.

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Translation by —