I need to know.

[pioneer0333]

Who do I talk to about getting in on building and designing and next lunar lander? Or is NASA not accepting any outside help? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[5stone10]

Talk to jimglenn !<br /><br />He's a poster on SDC.

 

[nexium]

My guess is NASA does not want to analyze 100 formal proposals per day, but some NASA employees read these forums, so some of your ideas may be stollen if you post details here. Much less likely, you will be invited to participate in the decision process, if your posts here are really impresive. Missions and launch is likely a better place to give ideas for the luner lander. Neil

 

[telescopewizard]

I agree with nexium. NASA is busy with budget cuts and less staff... but of the staff left over, NASA is made up of some of the dumbest smart people out there... every one of them has a clue (if they only could find it). See there is some sort of superiority complex among them yet half of them will sit there and ask you if you have seen their glasses when the glasses are sitting on their head.<br /><br />Don't hold out too much hope for you to get any response from them... you are better off approaching another country to get it done.

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Who do I talk to about getting in on building and designing and next lunar lander? Or is NASA not accepting any outside help?<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />NASA is certainly accepting outside help -- they always contract out for this kind of work. In these situations, what they do is to release an RFP: Request For Proposals. This is a formal document which solicits the aerospace engineering community to start bidding on the work. It's a very big job; an individual cannot do it. A small company can not do it. They'll be looking for a major corporation with substantial experience in aerospace, systems engineering, and in particular, systems integration, because the company who wins that contract will not be doing it alone but will themselves be soliciting bids for subcontracts. One common term for the top-level company is "prime contractor" and another is "lead systems integrator". The difference between those is usually more political than anything else, but there are some contractual implications as well. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[drwayne]

It is also possible to write what is referred to as a "White Paper" - which is basically an unsolicited proposal - however<br /><br />(1) There is a HUGE NIH (Not Invented Here) effect and<br /><br />(2) If the idea is good enough, you may be giving it away with this approach - not legally - but I have seen ideas be "transplanted"<br /><br />Another avenue that small businesses with good ideas can use is the SBIR (Small Business Inovative Research) program. These can be and are awarded to companies as small as one person. I am not familiar with the timing of the NASA cycle for SBIR's, but solicitations come out about once a year in some general topics.<br /><br />Phase 1 is a study phase, funded to a max of $75K and lasting 6 months. You do a little study work, but mostly you write your phase 2 proposal. Phase 2 can be up to a couple of hundred K$, and can take up to 2 years.<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>

 

[telescopewizard]

Yep sounds like NASA to me. Get involved with only the corporations that have the most red tape and cost the most. The beauty of inefficiency... I used to work for one of those "Large Corporations" (United Technologies Corp – Holding company for Hamilton Sundstrand) I heard the stories both on the administrative sides and from some of the scientists in the field.<br /><br />Don't get me wrong I would love to work for NASA myself... however they are most likely taking the route the rest of the large organizations are following and sending everything over to India and Egypt to then have manufacturing done in China (being sarcastic and they are probably not, well one can only hope they are not)<br />

 

[drwayne]

The SBIR front can be a good pathway for getting ideas funded, both from your perspective and the governments. Government agencies have really been leveraging off of SBIR funds (that don't come from them) to advance their objectives in recent years.<br /><br />Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>"1) Give no quarter; 2) Take no prisoners; 3) Sink everything."  Admiral Jackie Fisher</p> </div>