School of Business and school of engineering host Nasa administrator to talk to students at convoselect

Liberty’s School of Business and School of Engineering hosted Jim Bridenstine, the 13th administrator for NASA, who shared the future of NASA and the changes being made at Feb. 6’s ConvoSelect. 

Bridenstine said NASA is trying to increase access to space while driving cost down. NASA plans to do this through commercializing space. He explained how NASA wants to be able to benefit in this preexisting market. 

“NASA said, ‘Well look, if there’s already launches happening why don’t we tap into that market? Why don’t we — rather than purchasing, owning, and operating the market — we buy the service from this already robust commercial marketplace?’” Bridenstine said. 

He wants NASA to begin commercializing space so it can operate sustainably.

“Because we want to go to the moon, the president has given us an amazing agenda. The president has said we’re going to the moon sustainably. We’re gonna go with commercial partners. We’re gonna go with international partners. We’re gonna learn how to live and work in another world for long periods of time,” Bridenstine said. 

Bridenstine said space exploration has led to the invention of technology that has relevancy outside space. According to Bridenstine, one of the best examples of this is the potential of 3D printing in micro to zero gravity for the medical and pharmaceuticals field. 

“We have figured out that it is possible to print human organs in three dimensions in space in a way that you cannot do here on Earth using adult stem cells. So, when we think about printing human organs, if you do it in the gravity well of Earth, then the tissue just goes flat, but if you do it in space, it is in fact suspended,” Bridenstine said.

Bridenstine spoke on the danger of enemies holding space at risk and said this was the reason behind the creation of the U.S. Space Force. He said they wanted to establish a tone that the U.S. is not weak. The goal is to be prepared for what may come without being aggressive. 

He left the business and engineering students with a key value to take with them to “sustain superior performance.”

Hanna Trosien a business student in attendance, said she liked hearing from Bridenstine because he focused on multiple aspects when speaking with the students.

“I thought it was really good. I liked how he focused on business, economics and engineering rather than just sticking to one thing. It was very well rounded, and he was actually really motivational. It was very surprising,” Trosien said.

Haydon is a news reporter.