A MESSAGE FROM NASA
UPFRONT WITH . . .
Carol A. Dunn
Project Specialist, Kennedy Space Center
EXCELLENCE
The United States wouldn’t have a space program without a commitment to excellence—that indefinable “something” that has propelled men and women for centuries into the realms of achieving the impossible. NASA is more than a federal agency, it is an imaginative idea exemplified by its commitment to achieving the highest standards in engineering, science, management and leadership. The agency attracts people because it offers a vision that challenges the intellect and offers a rigor of purpose. This rigor of purpose can only be achieved by a hallmark of excellence. This hallmark of excellence often manifests itself in imaginative and creative solutions to problems.
Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” I see this hallmark of excellence every day in my position as a project specialist. Men and women solving today’s problems with a commitment to the future—imagination blended with science. These people truly demonstrate and communicate an unquenchable spirit of ingenuity and innovation; and in turn, inspire me to process their paperwork with a regard for the importance and integrity of their work. One such technology that demonstrates the combination of both scientific excellence and imagination is Kennedy Space Center’s Zero-Valent Metal Emulsion for the Reductive Dehalogenation of DNAPLs (EZVI). During the early history of the space program, the ground around Launch Complex 34 (LC-34) at Kennedy Space Center was polluted with chlorinated solvents used to clean Apollo rocket parts. Dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) were left untreated in the ground.
EZVI is one of the few available methods that can treat the source of these unwanted substances known as dense nonaqueous phase liquids, or DNAPLs. Benefits of this technology include requiring less treatment time, reducing treatment costs and producing less toxic and more easily degradable by-products. The product is also safe for the environment. The groundwater treatment technology developed at Kennedy Space Center combines a food-grade surfactant, biodegradable vegetable oil, water and ZVI particles (either nano- or micro-scale iron), which form emulsion particles that contain the ZVI in water surrounded by an oil-liquid membrane. Encapsulating the ZVI in a hydrophobic membrane protects the nano-scale iron from other groundwater constituents that would otherwise exhaust much of the reducing capacity of the nano-scale iron. EZVI was developed by a team of researchers from NASA and the University of Central Florida.
Whether it is an environmental process for cleaning contaminated ground water at the launch pads or a process that turns nitrogen oxide waste to fertilizer, the fallouts from the space program have contributed to the wealth of human knowledge. Science propels these quests of the imagination and continues to propel the men and women of NASA as we pioneer into the future. Carl Sagan once said, “We make our world significant by the courage of our questions, and by the depth of our answers.” The men and women I associate with each day truly exemplify the NASA value of “excellence” in their work as scientists and engineers.
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