From NASA to the Moon: Lisa Valencia on the Future of Space Exploration

Joining me now is Lisa Valencia, retired NASA engineer.

Thank you so much for being here, Lisa.

Thank you for having me.

I am so excited about this interview.

When I was 5, I wanted to be an astronaut, then I discovered I probably didn't have the math skills for it, so I'm excited to hear from you.

Thank you.

So tell us a little bit about your background.

I know you.

Had decades of experience at NASA and maybe some of the projects you worked on.

Sure, so I worked for NASA for 35 years, almost 30 as a civil servant, and then the last 5 as a contractor and a consultant role, and I worked on so many amazing projects with truly incredible people.

I worked on satellites, Mars rover launch team, rockets, many rockets, the space shut. uh, autonomous flight termination system, commercial crew program, um, where we, you know, SpaceX launches our astronauts, um, a, a new program that NASA started out recently where we pay companies to have landers that land on the moon.

I just had a very successful payload on the one of the landers that that actually um was successful it landed up right.

And so that's how I ended uh the 35 year career.

It's, it's been truly amazing.

Wow, you say that so casually like we just had to land on the moon very successfully.

It was incredible.

So I mean with 35 years you have such a unique vantage point, and I'm really interested in, you know, these increasing public private partnerships that we're seeing.

How does NASA approach these?

So originally even back before I started like 50 years ago back in the Apollo era, we were very.

Government centric, we were going to be Russia to the moon.

Um, we had 4% of the national budget at one point and then over time, of course, now today we have 1/3 of 1% of the national budget, so the government spending in space is much less.

So what we're doing now in public private partnerships is is putting seed money into private industry.

So one example of a great um public private partnership when we retired the shuttle that carried out astronauts and you know built our space station.

We, we had to finish that project to use the funds for our Artemis program, so we funded SpaceX and also Boeing, but I worked with SpaceX commercial crew to launch out astronauts to the International Space Station.

Now that rocket was built for uncrewed missions like, like I said, satellites I worked on and launched before rovers, but now we had to work closely with SpaceX to make sure that vehicle was safe for our crew.

And one of the projects I worked on um before entering this public-private partnership with this is strictly on government.

With the autonomous flight termination system.

When we launch a rocket, we have to keep the public safe.

So if it starts to go off course and it looks like it might impact public safety, we have to destroy or terminate the flight, which usually means blowing up the rocket.

So we designed a new way to do it.

It used to be a human in loop, a lot of ground-based infrastructure, and, um, you know, NASA and and the space force, it was the Air Force at the time were closely together on autonomous flight termination.

So we provided software to um 40 companies.

SpaceX uses the core AFTS software with their hardware, and we had to make sure when they started flying out astronauts that they were implementing AFTSA for our crew.

Another public private partnership, I also designed hardware for AFTS that I did a technology transfer to to US companies.

So over 40 companies and government agencies have the AFTS hardware and software that they could use as is or modify for their rocket or their mission.

Um, another great public-private partnership is the Clips program.

So, commercial learner services program.

Where we send 100, we give $100 million to different companies.

We've had 3 so far that have launched.

Unfortunately, Intuitive machines had two missions where they landed, but it fell over.

We had the first successful eclipse mission where we, NASA gave this uh company called uh Firefly Aerospace in Austin, Texas, $100 million to fly 10 NASA payloads to the surface of the moon.

We landed in Mari Christium.

It was perfect.

So we launched um from Kennedy, but I was actually in Italy supporting the engineering.

Um, launched from Kennedy, we had a 45 day orbit, which was around like Earth lunar distance and then around the moon, and then we landed.

And again 100% successful.

So now NASA has like really two missions a year we're funding in that capacity.

So let's see money, right?

We're, we're giving these companies like $100 million for example, the one I just landed was so successful they're gonna launch one a year now and they're gonna have now private payloads along with the NASA.

Payloads so this this public private partnership in my experience is working out very well.

Mm well speaking of partnerships, you know the space exploration requires collaboration, but sometimes just like in financial services collaborators can also be competitors.

So how do you navigate that?

OK, so I have, um, really great partnerships with Europe, right?

So I'm also part of the United Nations Committee of the future use of Outer Space International Committee on GNSS, but we work very closely with the international community and my area is is GPS in Galileo as well as, um, you know, Baidu and GONAS are the four global navigation systems.

So the US and Europe partner so well together.

So, uh, first I'll tell you about the partnership, then I'll tell you about the little friendly competition.

So, Um, we work with ISA a lot, European Space Agency, but the mission I just had, the payload that landed on the moon was in partnership with strictly the Italian Space Agency alone standalone.

So this great company in Italy called QOASCO, they built the receiver, and you know, the, we have to get GPS signals only at lunar distances where, you know, GPS is a satellite system around the Earth.

So it's very challenging, um, to meet this, this week signal acquisition and processing and get a navigation solution.

So NASA, we have a lot of experience, you know, with, with GPS and receivers, and we actually held the previous world record, a satellite NASA built called MMS process GPS signals halfway to the moon, but now we, we are actually in the Guinness Book of World Records for the, the furthest acquisition of GPS and G, Galileo signals on the surface of the moon, as well as in lunar orbit.

So the partnership.

The Italians were was phenomenal, um, technically strong, um, welcoming, great teamwork.

So in the European Space Agency, they're also applying a GNSS receiver on Lunar Pathfinder that's set to launch next year, and it's going to orbit the moon for, I think it was 8 years or so.

And so we had this little friendly competition because we're all in the GNSS community together.

Who's going to be.

First, who's gonna break the world record, you know, so we actually had colleagues from Isa who we're friends with because we've been working together for so long, come to our launch and landing, um, and they definitely were supportive of us, but you know, they wanted to be ours, but it's, it's really cool, um, having that collaboration, little friendly competition, but that same Pathfinder, satellite lunar Pathfinder.

NASA provided a lunar retroreflector array, so there was another partnership that went alongside the friendly competition for GNSS.

We were able to provide a lunar retroreflector array for that that payload for that satellite.

Well, that friendly competition probably fuels innovation and drive, and you know, speaking of that, this whole space economy is just so exciting.

What excites you the most about it?

So there's, I, I'm.

Excited about lunar colonization and space tourism.

I'm so excited that this time we're going back to the moon to stay, to colonize.

Um, you know, we have helium 3 that we plan to mine, some rare minerals we plant, you know, we just scratch the surface literally of the moon, right?

We, we wanna go and, you know, get the resources to help us back here on Earth.

Helium 3 will be a great resource for us.

Um, we're gonna have a lot of robotic missions.

I'm interested in space tourism, like, even now.

Um, Jeff Bezos company Blue Origin, New Shepherd sent 64 space tourists into space, you know, above the Carmen line.

Yes, it was only maybe 4.5 minutes of microgravity, but they got to experience microgravity and get to see, you know, the edge of the Earth from space.

And then Axiopace sent 16 private crew members to the International Space Station.

So this is like the beginning of space tourism.

I hoped in my lifetime that we actually have space tourists on the moon.

I love that picture of the moonrise that was taken first originally by Apollo 8, and I personally would love to just.

Like, go to vacation on the moon for a few days, see the earth rise, you know, hit that golf ball, and once it's gravity.

So, uh, I'm, I'm pretty excited about the future of, of lunar colonization because it's a blank canvas right now and we know China is going to colonize the moon, you know, US has plans to colonize the moon.

Um, we're partnering with ISA and JaxA.

JackSA is the Japanese space agency.

So I think this next, you know.

You know, at least the next 1020, 30 years, I mean it's just gonna be really exciting to see how it unfolds.

Yeah, I mean, when you talk about lunar colonization, I'm like, wow, are we really talking about this?

So it used to be just something that was sci-fi way off in the future, but you're thinking this could actually happen in the next 10 years.

So what would that look like?

Yeah, so the planet is, you know, send astronauts back to the the south pole of the moon where the water is, um, you know, frozen water in the regolith.

And start the colonization process, you know, with, so we have plans and, you know, Artemis 3 to land on the moon in just a couple of years from now, but then like by 10 years, I'm hoping that there's some habitation there by 20 years.

Let's see what happens because now you have China and Russia mining for helium 3, sending people to the moon.

I'm hoping before I die I get to go as a tourist to the surface of the moon and the earth rise.

I hope so.

30 years from now.

We'll see.

When you say habitation, what would that look like?

Would it be space tourists like you and I?

Would it be engineers?

So initially it'll be science research engineers, um, again, you know, big push for that, that helium 3.

So first, yes, anything is space exploration, especially the part that's funded by the government, um, even though the business case you really want to mine the resources in order to pay for the program.

So, at first I think it will be a sciences engineers.

I'm hoping it evolves into space tourism, uh, you know, with like, like people now that are just privately going.

Into space in in suborbital space or lower orbit on station, I hope at some point that we actually have people like you and me go on a vacation for a few days on the moon and come back.

That would be so incredible.

And I just wanted to ask you about one more thing.

You you talked about the mining.

What would be the most exciting use case scenario for what we find there?

So the 3, the main use case is for, for fuel, um, for nuclear fusion.

Yeah, wow.

A lot of exciting stuff.

Good time to be alive.

Hopefully we'll get to hit that golf ball together like the wild west.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Thank you.

I appreciate your time.