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NASA’s Michael Krainak Demonstrates Rare Combination of Skills; Named IRAD Innovator of the Year

Man with fair skin and short grey-brown hair wears glasses and a grey polo. He is holding a blue dry erase marker and standing next to a white board with many equations written.
Michael Krainak, a native of Wheaton, Maryland, is passionate about ideas and won the IRAD Innovator of the Year award for applying his vast knowledge and orchestrating the development of new laser- and electro-optical-based capabilities.
NASA/W. Hrybyk

Mention integrated photonics, optical transistors, artificial guide stars, or any other emerging laser or electro-optical capability and Michael Krainak at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, more than likely has familiarized himself with the topic or has invented ways that NASA could benefit from the technologies. 

For this reason, Goddard’s Office of the Chief Technologist recognized Krainak as its IRAD (Internal Research and Development) Innovator of the Year, an award it bestows annually on those who demonstrate the best in leading-edge research and development.

“Krainak is passionate about ideas — spending at least an hour each day perusing technical literature — but his greatest skill is his ability to apply his vast knowledge and orchestrate the development of new laser- and electro-optical-based capabilities that help keep NASA at the forefront,” said Goddard Chief Technologist Peter Hughes, announcing Krainak’s selection.

So innovative and wide ranging is Krainak’s mind that many have trouble keeping up as he jumps from one technical subject to the next. His ideas have resulted in a prodigious number of technical articles in peer-reviewed journals as well as in multiple patents, the most recent awarded for a recirculating etalon spectrometer in late 2017.

“Mike is an innovator. He understands NASA’s toughest challenges and sees how to apply emerging technologies to solve them. He then uses his management acumen to not only secure funding to further advance the idea, but also pull together the right mix of people to work on the effort,” Hughes added. “With this choice, we celebrate a rare combination of skills that NASA values — technical acumen, visionary thinking, and inspirational leadership,” Hughes said.

Successes Run the Gamut

Krainak’s successes can affect virtually every area of science and technology.

As the head of Goddard’s Laser and Electro-Optics Branch, he played an important role in NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration, or LCRD. This mission will show a fully operational laser communications system involving a hosted payload and two ground stations capable of relaying data at more than a gigabit per second via laser light, using significantly less mass and power. Such a leap in technology will deliver high-speed data rates and high-definition video from across the solar system.

Understanding that laser communications is the gateway to the future, Krainak directed his organization to develop and demonstrate a low-cost optical communications ground station, with the hope that this commercially available system would help lay the foundation for widespread adoption of optical communications. He also guided the development of NASA’s first low-Earth-user modem, which will fly on the International Space Station where it will serve as a low-Earth terminal for LCRD.

Furthermore, he is also considered an expert in integrated photonics chips, which are similar to integrated circuits except they use light rather than electrons to perform a variety of optical functions. Leveraging this technology will lead to a revolution in communications and in science instruments, Krainak has said. 

His leadership in the field is one of the reasons NASA appointed him as its representative to the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics, a non-profit, Defense Department-funded consortium that brings together the nation’s leading talent to establish global leadership in the field. He also serves as the integrated photonics lead for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate’s Early Stage Innovation, Early Career Faculty and Space Technology Research Grants Programs.

Artist rendering of NASA's Laser Communications Relay Demonstration beaming two red lasers  from a spacecraft with a 5 square panel towards Earth.
Among the many projects that IRAD Innovator of the Year Mike Krainak worked on was NASA’s Laser Communications Relay Demonstration, which is now under development.
NASA

“Mike really understands the value of research — even in those areas where there isn’t an immediate application,” said Robert Lafon, an optical physicist who is researching, at Krainak’s direction, the use of ultrafast lasers for different spaceflight applications. “He keeps up on the latest research. And, of course, he’s really sharp. He has this ability to go through the literature and identify applications to benefit NASA.”

One of those potential applications is a patent-pending custom laser crystal that could promote more widespread use of artificial guide stars in laser communications ground stations and space-based observatories.  

Astronomers use guide stars and a technique called adaptive optics in ground-based observatories to correct aberrations in telescope imaging. These distortions are caused as light from an astronomical target travels through Earth’s turbulent atmosphere and becomes blurred. The same principal could assist in laser communications. By using a laser to probe the atmospheric turbulence, an adaptive-optics system could correct the aberrations and focus the beam more tightly as it travels to and from space and ground terminals.

Scientists have also identified an artificial laser guide star as a potential solution for easing highly demanding requirements for several conceptual space missions searching for Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars. The optical components of these systems can’t move or distort by more than the size of an atom during an observation. Otherwise, the movement will jeopardize the telescope’s ability to gather and focus enough light to image and characterize the exoplanet. The crystal could enable a laser guide star that works in space as it does for ground-based observatories. It would allow the telescope to better focus the light from distant exoplanets, thereby relaxing in-orbit system-stability requirements by orders of magnitude.

In other mission-enabling efforts, Krainak and his team developed a patent-pending ultra-low-noise laser to detect cosmic gravitational waves that ripple across space-time after cataclysmic events in the cosmos. He has also developed a quantum sensor and an optical transistor — technologies for which Krainak has already submitted patent applications.

“These technology developments are groundbreaking and potentially transformational,” Hughes said. “I’m awed by the breath and scope of his technical knowledge and ability to envision how NASA might use emerging technology to bring about breakthrough capabilities. Mike is well overdue for recognition.”

Though Krainak’s colleagues may speak highly of his intelligence and vision, he remains humble, giving credit to his family and faith for modeling honor, integrity and even grit. The Wheaton, Maryland, native and graduate of Catholic and Johns Hopkins Universities sees himself as an orchestra leader or coach. “I’ve worked with many geniuses over my career and I’m not one,” he said. “I am passionate about ideas, but I want my people to be smarter than me. I personally want to be inspired and I want to inspire others.”

By Lori Keesey
​NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center