Narrative for Nanotechnology at NASA video
Video—Close-up video of scientist viewing laboratory screen
Audio—[narrator voiceover] Most scientists agree that nanotechnology is going to be our next big technological step forward. For NASA, nanotechnology will mean a giant leap outward.
Video—Dr. Ronald Polidan (Former Chief Technologist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) speaking during interview.
Audio—Ron: We’re looking at nanotechnology as ways that we can develop new materials and sensors. Things that would give us a tremendous jump and return on our science missions.
Video—Video of hands holding a laboratory instrument
Audio—[narrator voiceover] What is nanotechnology?
Video—Dr. Meyya Meyyappan (Director for Center of Nanotechnology, NASA Ames Research Center) speaking during interview; then cuts to scientist in laboratory.
Audio—Meyya: Nanotechnology is about creation of useful or functional materials, structures, devices in the nanometer length scale. Thousands of times smaller than the average human hair.
Video—Dan Powell (Lead Nanotechnologist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) speaking during interview; then cuts to slides of atomic structures.
Audio—Dan: By controlling and fabricating devices with perfect atomic structures, you get things like incredible strength and incredible electrical conductivity. Or incredible strength and a super heat conductor. Or maybe it’s an optical conductor and it’s a really good thermal conductor. These things are not usually mutually compatible, but on the nano scale, they are.”
Video—Slide of carbon nanotube
Audio—[narrator voiceover] A basic nanotechnology structure is the carbon nanotube.
Video—Dan Powell speaking during interview; then cuts to slides of carbon nanotubes
Audio—Dan: It’s a graphite sheet, one atomic layer thick of carbon, wrapped on itself into a tube. It’s extraordinarily long and thin but very, very strong.
Video—Video of Dr. Benavides entering laboratory
Audio—[narrator voiceover] Researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have developed an innovative method for manufacturing carbon nanotubes, which typically are made using a metal catalyst.
Video—Dr. Jeannette Benavides (Director, CNT Synthesis & Applications, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) speaking during interview; then cuts to slide of carbon nanotubes.
Audio—Jeannette: After they are made you need to boil them in acid for 48 hours to clean them, to get rid of your catalyst and that increases their cost. In our case, we don’t need the metal catalyst.
Video—Video of scientist demonstrating procedure.
Audio—Jeannette: You have an anode and a cathode. The anode is made out of a carbon rod. The cathode is made out of graphite. You’re putting the rod really close to the surface of the cathode. You apply a current and it starts burning up the anode and that soot that deposits on the cathode, that’s where the carbon nanotubes are.
Video—Video of nanotube technology slides
Audio—[narrator voiceover] This new method might have major implications for the future of nanotechnology.
Video—Video of Dr. Benavides working in laboratory; then cuts to Dr. Benavides speaking during interview
Audio—Jeannette: We’re getting higher yields. We avoid damage of the nanotubes. The cost is much lower.
Video—Dr. Benavides speaking during interview
Audio—Jeannette: Real clean, single-walled carbon nanotubes, they may cost you $500 a gram. We can make them for approximately $10 a gram.
Video—Video of laboratory equipment
Audio—[narrator voiceover] NASA is also looking at using carbon nanotubes to make novel materials with ideal properties
Video—Video of laboratory equipments; then cuts to Dr. Carl Stahle (Associate Branch Head, Detector Systems, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) speaking during interview.
Audio—Carl: We expect that the electrical conductivity will be better than copper. We expect the thermal properties to be as good as diamond and we expect the mechanical properties to be as good as steel. The great thing is that this nano composite material will be very light.
Video—Video of scientist using laboratory equipment
Audio—[narrator voiceover] These unique properties provided by carbon nanotubes are widely applicable to NASA’s space work.
Video—Dr. Meyyappan speaking during interview.
Audio—Meyya: We are looking at carbon nanotubes for a number of applications like chemical sensors, bio sensors, making future electronic devices and circuits and architectures. We are also looking into carbon nanotubes for advanced life support.
Video—Video of team of scientists
Audio—[narrator voiceover] Collaboration is key to achieving NASA’s goals.
Video—Ted Swanson (Senior Fellow, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) speaking during interview.
Audio—Ted: I think collaboration is critical because a lot of people have some very creative ideas. Different people have different resources also. Nobody’s got enough to do everything. We need to gel our resources and find out the best piece and move those pieces forward.
Video—Video of scientist in laboratory
Audio—[narrator voiceover] Some of this collaboration is taking place within NASA.
Video—Nona Cheeks (Chief, Office of Technology Transfer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) speaking during interview
Audio—Nona: NASA’s newest focus on technology transfer is to find uses of technology development within the Agency.
Video—Video of work being done in laboratory
Audio—Nona: We’ve been working with some of the other NASA Centers, such as the Ames Research Center.
Video—Dr. Meyyappan speaking during interview
Audio—Meyya: We have a very wide portfolio of activities in nanotechnology.
Video—Dr. Qi Laura Ye (Senior Research Scientist, Eloret/NASA Ames Research Center) speaking during interview; then cuts to video of laboratory work.
Audio—Laura: The nanotechnology work at NASA Ames composes of both experimental and computational work. We are having about sixty scientists coming from different backgrounds. We are working together to try to solve the challenges for nanoscience and nanotechnology.”
Video—Scientist working in laboratory; then cuts to Dan Powell speaking during interview
Audio—Dan: The research centers give us all of the pieces of the puzzle that we get to put together at a flight center. We take those pieces and we are able to put them together into a picture that is of interest and value to the scientists we support.
Video—Dr. Meyyappan speaking during interview; then cuts to work being done in laboratory and back again to Dr. Meyyappan speaking
Audio—Meyya: It is important for us to work with mission centers like Goddard because they can take whatever we do and then they can actually convert them into deployable technology. This can only happen with the partnership between a research center and a mission center.
Video—Technicians using laboratory equipment
Audio—[narrator voiceover] NASA is also teaming up with the private, academic, and government sectors.
Video—Nona Cheeks speaking during interview
Audio—Nona: We’re looking to see who else is out there developing nanotechnologies that we can partner with and perhaps spin that opportunity back into the NASA mission.
Video—Dr. Meyyappan speaking during interview; then cuts to video of NASA mission
Audio—Meyya: Our missions, in general are characterized by their complexity. It’s generally not possible for getting everything needed for that mission within the NASA centers.
Video—Ted Swanson speaking during interview
Audio—Ted: We’re working with the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics lab and then there’s also an Army research lab which are also very physically close to us. That facilitates the ability to share equipment and to share research.
Video—Dr. Ronald Polidan speaking during interview; then cuts to video of laboratory work.
Audio—Ron: By broadening our scopes we get access to top graduate students, faculty at the universities, we get exposed to a lot of the issues within the commercial sector, a lot of start-up companies.”
Video—Video of laboratory work.
Audio—[narrator voiceover] And NASA is part of the Nanotech Alliance.
Video—Videos depicting partners; then cuts to Dan Powell speaking during interview.
Audio—Dan: The Nanotechnology Alliance is a partnership of non-profit organizations in the greater Washington area. Federal laboratories, academic institutions and some private nonprofit organizations as well.
Video—Dan Powell speaking during interview.
Audio—Dan: The charter is to facilitate a resource exchange in the areas of nanotechnology applications development.
Video—Video of partners teaming together.
Audio—[narrator voiceover] Collaboration not only advances basic research by combining resources, but it also greatly contributes to technology transfer.
Video—Nona Cheeks speaking during interview; then cuts to video of scientist working
Audio—Nona: Technology transfer is very important to NASA.
Video—Video of scientists working in laboratory
Audio—Nona: Nanotechnology is something we feel very strongly about.
Video—Video of scientists working in laboratory; then cuts to Dr. Carl Stahle speaking during interview
Audio—Carl: We’re quite eager to explore partnerships and have folks come to us to work with our people. To come in and work in our laboratories. We’ll work out arrangements so that we can have technology partnerships that work for the best interest of everyone.
Video—Video of astronauts working in space shuttle
Audio—[narrator voiceover] And the potential for nanotechnology inside and outside NASA is enormous, from computers and electronics to health care.
Video—Dr. Meyyappan speaking during interview
Audio—Meyya: Anything we do for NASA mission’s needs always has a benefit in our society and nano is not going to be any different.
Video—Video of laboratory work and Dr. Jeannette Benavides in laboratory; then cuts to Dan Powell speaking during interview
Audio—Dan: Nanotechnology is everywhere and everything. It is physics. It is chemistry. It is mathematics. It is engineering. So Jeannette’s work has application in localized cancer treatment. We can now make a dramatically enhanced Magnetic Resonance Image or MRI.”
Video—Dan Powell speaking during interview; then cuts to video of cars.
Audio—Dan: Or imagine that your car is now consuming one-tenth of the gasoline because its one-tenth as heavy but it is four or five times as strong. Or has features that you never thought were possible like reshaping itself, expanding for soccer practice, contracting for a fast trip down the coast. This is of ubiquitous importance.
Video—Video of partners working together.
Audio—[narrator voiceover] But these advances can only be achieved by working together.
Video—Dr. Carl Stahle speaking during interview; then cuts to video of astronauts in space.
Audio—Carl: We’re looking forward to working in partnership, to sharing our technology, transferring it out, and then having it transferred in. So that we can serve the American public well.