BUSINESS, INDUSTRY, EDUCATION AND CIVIC LEADERS INVITED TO JSC TO LEARN HOW SPACE BENEFITS BOOST PRIVATE SECTOR CAPABILITIES



June 16, 1998



Doug Peterson
Johnson Space Center
Phone: 281/483-5111

<h4>Release: J98-22</h4> <h3>Business, Industry, Education and Civic 
Leaders Invited to JSC to Learn How Space Benefits Boost Private 
Sector Capabilities</h3> 

Bringing the benefits of space down to Earth for industrial, 
scientific, medical and educational application is the focus of 
displays and demonstrations this fall at the Johnson Space Center in 
Houston.



Called Inspection 98, the event scheduled for Oct. 14-16, will be the 
third in a growing and increasingly successful series of yearly 
meetings for those in various areas of the private sector, educators 
and community leaders.



For almost four decades Johnson Space Center has been the world leader 
in human spaceflight operations, and many of the required technical 
advances have resulted in commercial applications. JSC Center 
Director George Abbey said of the mid-October event, "Our mission at 
Johnson Space Center is human exploration and development of space. 
At Inspection 98 we will introduce visitors to NASA-developed 
technologies that can be utilized to solve problems on Earth, and put 
our guests in touch with the engineers and scientists who are 
designing the missions of tomorrow."



Activities at Johnson Space Center range from recruiting and training 
astronauts to all areas of spaceflight operations. They include 
programs from spacecraft development to aircraft operations, from 
materials analysis and testing through advanced communications and 
management.



As NASA&rsquo;s lead center for human space flight, the Johnson Space 
Center has a variety of unique world-class facilities. Many of the 
technologies developed at the center already are meeting 
manufacturing, medical, educational and other challenges. Some of 
those applications are a result of contacts initiated at the two 
previous inspection events, Inspection 96 and Inspection 97.



The diverse center activities will highlight opportunities for 
application in a wide range of industrial and business areas 
including:



&middot; Information technology, &middot; Biotechnology, &middot; 
Energy, &middot; Environmental protection and remediation, &middot; 
Aerospace, &middot; Agriculture, &middot; Medicine, &middot; Robotics 
and automation, &middot; Petrochemicals, &middot; Manufacturing, 
&middot; Transportation, and &middot; Training.



Two years ago, Inspection 96, a two-day event, drew more than 1,200 
attendees from companies in 28 states. Among them were employees from 
the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center in Lubbock. "We saw a lot 
of manufacturing technologies that we had heard about but never 
seen," one attendee said. "We saw things that NASA is trying to 
commercialize that we can take directly back to small manufacturing 
businesses to use."



At the Inspection, a representative for Montana Biotech, a small 
laboratory near Yellowstone National Park, met space scientist Dr. 
Carl Allen and discovered a common pursuit, research of bacteria that 
live in extreme environments, "extremophiles." The company researches 
possible uses of the bacteria living in the hot springs at 
Yellowstone, while at the same time NASA is developing processes for 
handling Mars samples brought back from future trips to the planet. 
Montana Biotech&rsquo;s expertise in extremophiles turned out to be a 
natural fit with NASA&rsquo;s need for greater knowledge of how to 
handle and sterilize samples which may have similar life forms. 
Stemming from that initial Inspection contact, a non-reimbursable 
Space Act Agreement was signed between NASA and Montana Biotech to 
help NASA acquire specialized expertise and helped Montana Biotech 
explore unexpected uses of its capabilities. Inspection 96 offered 
120 exhibits and demonstrations in 17 buildings. Inspection 97 grew 
to three days, with more than 185 exhibits in 22 buildings. It 
attracted about 2,400 attendees from 45 states and 13 countries. The 
number of visitors is expected to grow substantially for Inspection 
98, as is the number of exhibits.



Inspection 98 will run from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. October 14, 15, and 
16, with registration each day beginning at 7:30 a.m. 
Pre-registration is highly recommended. For more information or to 
register for Inspection 98, visit the Inspection 98 website at 
http://inspection.jsc.nasa.gov or fax (281) 244-1316, phone at (218) 
483-9193, or email to inspection@jsc.nasa.gov.



- end -

	
-end-