[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] id like to reconvene the committee. Thank you for indulging us while we had to cast nine votes mr. Administrator, so thank you. Good to see you on the floor. I hope that it brought back good old memories. Okay. Well, we are going to resume the fiveth minutes of questioning by our members, and lets see. The gentleman from new york you are first for five minutes of questioning. Thank you. Thank the chair and Ranking Member for this important hearing today and to the administrator for thehe work you do to ensure the success of the worlds preeminent civil space agency and your leadership that you provide. In my district the Capital Region i am deeply proud of the Critical Research and development being done at worldclass academic institutions such as polytechnic institute. Particularly thinking about the rmd and the funding for the biological and physical Science Division within nasas Science Mission directorate. The Division Funding provides novel opportunities to better understand the impact of the space environment on both light and physical sciences. Discoveries made on the International Space station with funding of advanced understanding of Quantum Mechanics and helps facilitate the advancement of Semi Conductor base, electronics. Its also enabled advances in immunotherapy, regenerative medicine, osteoporosis treatments and neuro degenerativese diseases. Despite how important this research is, the Mission Directorate remains severely underfunded and was acknowledge as such in the recent survey. In february, or excuse me, fiscal year 23 the budget was 84 less than it was in 2004. And as a result the number of investigators decreased by some 67 causing significant reductions in education and training and impacting the local economy. Specifically polytechnic institutes the bps division currently funds approximately four and over 25 graduate and undergraduate students however just a few years ago the number was closerla to seven. Without significant reinvestment it would no longer be sustainable as a number of grants awarded is reduced and it would be forced to change the Research Direction threatening the success of nasa as nasas exploration goals. So how is nasa attempting to be responsive to the ambitions of reinvestment from the biological and physical Sciences Community in this constrained budget environment . Congressman, when johnbi glen first flew, we were not sure what was going to happen to the physical body. There was even concern with the eyeballs stay in the sockets. We had flown a chimpanzee prior. But you just think when you dont know whats going to be the physical, biological reaction and how far we now have advanced where we are realistically getting ready to go backon to the moon in order o prepare to go to mars, and so the function of the amount of grants that would go to a university such as thehe very eminent one that you just mentioned in your district is a function of the amount of the budget that you give us. Just in the sciences in this school year in 24, because of the constraints that are upon you in 24 and 25 as a result of the compromise to reach to be able to avoid the default of the full faith and credit of the United States government, for example, just in science its a billiondollar cut in 24. A similar cut in 25. Once you get to 26, and you dont have the constriction that you had on the budget, which you would because the area that you have specified bar areas that we have to know what is going to happen in order to send humans all the way to mars. The moon is four days away. Mars is seven to eight months away unless we develop the new technologies such as propulsion of nuclear through modeling of nuclear electric that could get us there faster. If we go conventionally six, seven, eight months, then we are going to have to stay on the surface of a very long time until the planets realigned to get back in seven or eight months. So these are all a part of the challenges but they are also excitingar problems to solve. We will keep those grants going to universities because that is a main source of the research that we do at nasa. I have another question that i was going to ask that i am out of time so i will forward that to the committee but its my hope that through this budget process, congress will recognize the importance of this research to help fully realized its mission and with that i will yield back. Thank you very much. Id like to now recognize the gentleman from ohio. Thank you mr. Chairman. Appreciate it. Good to see you again, mr. Administrator. A couple of weeks ago after the eclipse i appreciated you coming to cleveland into spending the afternoon with us. It means a lot to have you. While you were out there we had some great conversations including the importance of the Research Center which is located right in my district. Administrator nelson, the Space TechnologyMission Directorate funds a lot of significant priorities for nasa many of which the Research Centerrt is involved in, however, funding has been relatively stagnant over the last five years. The budget request proposals ramping up funding for st gandy in large part to support the development of the Power Technology to create Nuclear Power systems that could operate on the moon. Can you please talk about the importance of the surface power why we need to invest in it now andop not just further down the line and can you address the importance of ones role in the project . Yes, congressman and it was great seeing you in cleveland. And before i forget, our commander going to the moon read wiseman on artemis to, he is a graduate of. So, congressman, weve got to have more power on the moon. We go to mars we got to have more power particularly as you get further away from the sun and cant rely on all solar power, so efficient surface power is going to be a necessary element. We are going to start this with the moon. So this is part of the reason we go back to the moon in order to go to mars. The 25 request is 113 million. Now do you want me to get into Nuclear Light and thermal as well or do you want to keep it to vision service2 power. Id like to keep it to vision. Okay. While i certainly respectfully request that you all grant our 25 request of 115 million. We will take a look at it. I understand. And i get it. Youve already acknowledged its been a tough year working with of the budget and the last thing we want to do is cut down but we have to make sure that we are being responsible but yes im with you 1000 and thank you for your answer. Additionally, as you know, the Research Center leads the Communication Service project which leverages commercial capabilities to provide nextgeneration data for the satellites to ensure there is no data gaps as the communication satellites continue to age. Can you speak to the importance of the work performed and do we have your commitment that you will provide the resources to the center that needs to complete this project quickly . You cant fly in deep space unless you can communicate. Our deep Space Communication system ran into a problem because we needed to communicate with the science instruments including the James Webb Space Telescope bringing back all of that data from deep in space ad lo and behold, we had to have the capability of communicating to artemis one in the test flight of the rocket and we didnt have all of the bandwidth that we wanted, so we needed to improve that. And this is especially essential as we are going further and further out into space. Right now in low earth orbit, weve got enough communications we can handle that and we need updated modernized et cetera. But deep space is a different thing. If theres anything we can do to work with you especially at nasa glenn getting the resources or getting the education and familiarizing with how to make it more efficient to get to the next step i would appreciate it and what makes me glad to hear is your acknowledgment of how important nasa glenn is not only to the region but the country and more so the world in the capabilities we have there andi want to thank you for your time. Its been a pleasure to work with all of you and your staff. Thank you again and anything we can do in the future to make sure we can continue to evolve and progress in the right way, you have a friend in me so thank you and i yield back. Thank you. And mr. Chairman, if i may, at another example of the deep Space Communications that we just reestablished with voyager one, which is outside of our solar system approaching interstellar space and it came back to life. Lo and behold, we got it. Where its located so far away at the speed of light the transmission takes 22 hours and we just reestablished to that. If you dont mind my asking, what caused that to come back . Again, they does all kinds of things and this is a spacecraft, very old to spacecraft, voyager one i think it was launched back in the 70s. And so it is still perfect. While. Thats great information to know. The gentleman from florida, mr. Frost for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman at administrator nelson. With of the goal of returning americans to the moon and aiming for mars, the Artemis Program has private partners in all 50 states and over 2,000 and the tenth Congressional District which is my district. Artemis is a significant contributor to nasas 4. 7 billion Economic Impact on Central Florida alone and partnered with of the university of Central Florida, go lights on several Research Projects to support lunar living and landing. This is why we are leaving a bipartisan letter to the appropriations subcommittee calling for an additional artemis funding to overcome delays and technical complications. Mr. Administrator with all the challenges of such a complex and cutting edge program, what can nasa do to minimize further delays of the mission . First of all, we can have congressman like you to help us make an additional request. Understand that we are not going to launch until it is ready. That is because safety is our first when we put humans on an explosive bomb called a rocket, we are going to do Everything Possible to make sure its as safe as possible realizing that everything is cutting the edge of the envelope that we do. But especially when humans are in the loop, we are going to make it that much more safe. So, we are on schedule next year to have four astronauts circle the moon and check out the artemis spacecraft space x for septemberr of 26 to have a landr of which we go into lunar orbit and that would transfer in and go down to the surface for six days. Obviously if the lander is not ready, we are not going to fly it at that time. But that is the schedule and that is what the contract calls for. The success in the partnership of the private space industry is a soft landing on the moons south pole as a part of the commercial lunar payload to serve as this program how does the work of the commercial Lunar Payload Services program complement the work of the Artemis Program . They are scouts for us, just like sending the scouts out into the wilderness, so for example one of them that is going on Intuitive Machines at the end of the year is going to start digging in the south pole to see if there is water underneath the surface. If theres water and it is in enough abundance then we have rocket fuel. And overall, what cane. We as members of congress to do to support the economic and scientific impact of the work especially when it comes to the Artemis Program and we know i think any day now china will be sending, we will do the First Mission to bring back things from the far side of the moon and we know that this is funding these programs is the best interest of our National Security end of the work that we do but what can we as members of congress to do . And lastly, can you briefly describe some of the scientific highlights of the commercial missions in terms of the Payload Program . Yes, sir. For example this last one, it was an intuitive machine. If caught its leg on iraq as it was coming down and it tipped over. [laughter] the fact that it tipped over it did not have its antenna pointing in the right direction to receive. To get enough to know that it was alive. Ththere were six nasa experimens on board. Now, this is incredible story of the chairman of the full committee is University Morgan state. Mick support the commercial program. But, in this case was not able. To communicate. They did not have enough of power from their emotional locations. But morgan state was uniquely positioned that it could also communicate with our government deep Space Communications that had the power in order to receive the weak signal. And therefore, most of the objectives of the mission were successful with a connection made through morgan state. That is an example of a daring dude thats certainly the nasa scientists in the commercial community and a university were able to figure it out real time. Bucks thank you for your time mr. Administrator and the yield back. Thank you very much proud to recognize a gentleman from new york mr. Williams. Think it mr. Chairman. Mr. Administrator, great to see you again. Its good to see you on capitol hill and testifying in these Committee Sits among your favorite things to do. So, we have a Hometown Hero that is in orbit right now on the International Space station. Doctor janette is beloved by her hometown of syracuse. Really has inspired a whole generation of young kids in school. She is the talk of the town and the toast of the town. Shes only been up there now for almost two months. Can you gives an insight in the importance of hersc work and her mission while she is up in space . Jenness is an example of the extraordinary ability of our astronauts, their capability in her case she had to wait a long time to fly. And yet, she is there on orbit for six months performing great science. And maintenance of the International Space station. Sometimes ourrf astronauts havea great disappointment. The best example i can think of sadik slayton he was one of the original seven jon glenn, alan, deke was one of them. They discovered a heart murmur. Deke was not qualified to fly. And yet deke then took the role as chief of the Astronaut Office through all of those years of gemini and apollo. For doctor if i may, could you talk about how her mission is helping us get back to the moon specifically . Oh well, everything we do on a low earth orbit is in preparation to have the understanding and the preparation so that we can go further. That is what we are starting to doto to go back to the moon not just for the sake of going to the moon because if we did that a halfcentury ago but we are going back to thear moon to lean in order to go to mars. Just like we are doing things in low earth orbit on the International Space station to go further. In addition we are doing serious science on board the International Space station. Earlier in the Committee Hearing or testified about things going on with Cancer Research with construed and stem cell research. All of that is going on. D although i do not note jenness specific science a project that she is working on today, she will be working on a lot of that science for. We look forward to having her back but not too soon shes got a lot of work to do while she is there. I would like to spend the last little bit of our time talking about the draco project. In the cooperation between nasa and darpa with Nuclear Energy and propulsion. Are we still on track for 2026 test launch . How is the project progressing . Draco is primarily fate and darpa projects. We are working with them on nuclear thermal is a joint nasa project. Yes, it is my understanding it is on schedule. It is testing out nuclear thermal propulsion. That is not the only Nuclear Propulsion there is nuclear electric propulsion. And i hope to get this cranked up and going. Why . We need to go faster to mars. Chemical propulsion will get us there in seven or eight months. Nuclear thermal, nuclear electric can get us there faster. The reason that its important is important isif we can go fase to stay on the surface on the first time, second time, a year or two until the planets realigned boot have a chance of hagetting back we go for a short visit, test out what we needed to with all the systems, the equipment, the spacecraft, the landers, etha cetera. And get back. I think nuclear thermal and nuclear electric is a propulsion of the future. Gratefully at Nuclear Propulsion time you would be happy to go pretty thank you very much i yield back because i want to also say congressman the end of the story about dick slayton is, he ended up flying. He did an experimental medical procedure and it worked on a heart murmur. He was able to fly years later h