Last year was a great year for space exploration, with over 700 exoplanets discovered outside our solar system, the highest number ever recorded, and the ESA landing Philae, spacecraft Rosetta’s lander module, on a comet.
While NASA has been at the forefront of space exploration and the ‘space race’ for many years, it is evident other agencies and nations are trying desperately to catch up. While the European Space Agency recently celebrated landing the first probe on a comet it is becoming apparent that NASA’s once dominant position in leading the space race is threatened, with China, India and Japan also investing heavily in space projects.
Global expenditure on space activities stood at $290 billion in 2012, but NASA only accounted for six per cent of that. This begs the question, is NASA doing everything it can to maintain its once-certain lead in the space race? And more so, what can the famous space agency do to stay competitive in an ever-more important field?
First and foremost, NASA has to revitalise its workforce by sending them on exchange programmes with other organisations, according to Loizos Heracleous, a professor at Warwick Business School, and Steven Gonzalez, of NASA’s Johnson Space Centre.
After analysing NASA’s strategy and organisation, Heracleous believes a more flexible workforce, effective internal integration among its field centres, and better partnerships with other space organisations will help propel the space agency forward in the face of increased competition both nationally and internationally.
“In the 1960s NASA hired the brightest people, who saw it as the high technology place to be. Back then employee turnover was at 10 to 15 per cent per annum, so the agency could be continually revitalised with fresh talent and new ideas,” he said.
“Now turnover is down to just 1.7%—excluding retirees—which makes revitalisation of the workforce challenging. These days, 58% of NASA’s employees are aged 45 to 59, up from 38% in 1993 and higher than any time in its history.”
Going from the position of the world’s leading, if not only, reputable space agency, NASA’s monopoly on space resources and space exploration is now in jeopardy due to extensive international competition for leadership in space activities. To stay ahead of the curb, NASA will have to look to its own workforce.
“To bring in the fresh ideas and skills needed NASA must have flexibility to manage its human resources and infrastructure based on market-based, competitive, performance-oriented principles,” Heracleous said.
In ‘Two modest proposals for propelling NASA forward’, published in Space Policy, Heracleous and Gonzalez suggest NASA should let more established workers practice and develop their skills elsewhere before allowing them to bring these new skills back to the organisation.
An example of a successful government program that could be utilised by NASA is Sandia's Entrepreneurial Separation to Transfer Technology (ESTT). Under the scheme, Sandia employees are allowed to leave the labs in order to start up new technology companies or help expand existing companies.
Letting scientists do research elsewhere allows them to grow and bring new knowledge back to NASA
“Such entrepreneurs are guaranteed reinstatement by Sandia if they choose to return to the labs. A NASA scheme like this would allow brilliant scientists to not only accomplish great things in NASA, but can facilitate technology transfer and exchange with industry and universities. It will give the scientists and inventors a chance to gain a different perspective on their technology and inventions prior to returning to NASA,” the authors concluded.
NASA is under continuous budget pressure, having seen it fall from 4.5 per cent of the federal budget during the Cold War to just 0.5 per cent today. To combat this, Heracleous suggests an organisational design that fosters continued development.
“Our second modest proposal is for NASA to become a real network organisation. One that is properly integrated both internally - across NASA centres - as well as externally with whatever organisations have superior space-related knowledge and technology, wherever they are.
“Building a real network organisation has both strategic dimensions and dimensions of organisational structure and processes. It is a tricky balancing act, but one that must take place,” he explained.
It is only with this combination of clear, long-term objectives, together with confident leadership, market discipline in human resources and infrastructure and developed networks of knowledge both internally and externally that NASA will remain the pre-eminent space agency globally, according to the authors.
“[NASA] has inspired generations of scientists and captured the imagination of people across the globe. We’ve formulated these ideas not to consign such a legacy to the past, but to help ensure NASA sustains its greatness,” Heracleous concluded.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
