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Innovating at the Intersections of Change

Hubbard was the focal point for integrating new technology and eventual human exploration goals into the Mars Program

Space is the place -- for lessons in leadership, according to two speakers at GTC in Sacramento.

On Wednesday G. Scott Hubbard -- the first Mars Program Director at NASA headquarters --addressed an executive luncheon. Hubbard had responsibility for redefining all robotic Mars missions in response to the Mars failures in 1999. In addition, Hubbard was the focal point for integrating new technology and eventual human exploration goals into the Mars Program. Among his many accomplishments, he was NASA's manager for the Lunar Prospector Mission that launched on January 6, 1998, and that discovered evidence of water ice at both the north and south poles of the moon.

Hubbard repeatedly discussed the challenge of innovating at the "intersections of change." NASA Ames was at one time challenged to show its relevance -- how it was different from nine similar units, and developed what Hubbard termed "a whole new kind of science," astrobiology. Hubbard explained that life is much more resilient than previously thought, that there is life on the deep sea floor, in the dry valleys of Antarctica, or in boiling acidic waters of Kamchatka, Russia.

Hubbard said that water ice on the moon may contain organic traces of what Earth was once like before most life disappeared from our planet 63 million years ago. Water ice that contained oxygen could be used to make rocket fuel, provide oxygen for explorers and more. Even further from our shores, a moon of Saturn has a geyser shooting out and Europa may have a salty ocean under its surface.

Thursday morning, Rick Searfoss -- a former shuttle astronaut -- keynoted GTC West. Searfoss, who also spoke at GTC in Texas earlier this year -- is now retired from the Air Force and is flying experimental planes. He was chief judge on the Ansari X Prize that awarded a $10 million prize to a private team that piloted a rocket more than 70 miles high.

Searfoss said things worth doing are often difficult, and if you choose to do the difficult things, even failure will often yield new discoveries and accomplishments.
Wayne E. Hanson served as a writer and editor with e.Republic from 1989 to 2013, having worked for several business units including Government Technology magazine, the Center for Digital Government, Governing, and Digital Communities. Hanson was a juror from 1999 to 2004 with the Stockholm Challenge and Global Junior Challenge competitions in information technology and education.