We want HOU! Join us to discover NASA’s toughest tech challenges–and apply your skills and expertise to solve them.
In these presentations, occurring the fourth Thursdays of the month, Mr. Montgomery Goforth and other aerospace subject matter experts will discuss the technology development challenges faced by NASA’s Johnson Space Center and the surrounding Aerospace community in our ongoing efforts as the hub of human spaceflight. Presentations will focus on the ways in which these challenges, and the associated opportunities, can be leveraged by Houston’s innovation community.
Dr. Jeffrey J. Sweterlitsch has collaborated with Faraday Technology, Inc., since 2017 when he served as a NASA Technical Monitor for Faraday Technology. During the September 28th presentation, Dr. Sweterlitsch will discuss the hydrogen peroxide solution that Faraday Technology developed. This solution can be used for several cleaning and disinfection applications, including hard surfaces, laundry, medical applications, and urine stabilization – all challenges that must be overcome for long-term human spaceflight missions to be feasible and successful, as current state-of-the-art technologies rely on regular resupply of chemicals and consumables from Earth.
Join us after the talk for drinks and networking at Second Draught!
Past NASA Tech Talks have included: Montgomery B. Goforth discussing NASA Intellectual Property suitable for commercialization by small/start-up companies and Jared Daum discussing Orion’s parachutes and risk identification and mitigation that are showstoppers for the spaceflight parachute industry. Future NASA Tech Talks will include: dual-use (space/terrestrial) technologies in the areas of:
About the Speakers
Jeffrey J. Sweterlitsch serves as the Atmosphere Revitalization Systems Technical Discipline Lead for the Life Support Systems Branch as part of the Crew and Thermal Systems Division at NASA, JSC.
Dr. Sweterlitsch joined Atmosphere Revitalization Systems group at JSC in 2005, serving as a Project Engineer and Principal Investigator for several projects focusing on carbon dioxide removal systems and oxygen generation systems. He served as the Principal Investigator for a series of ground-based tests of an amine-based carbon dioxide and humidity control technology, culminating in a human test subject test that was the first human test of Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) hardware that was planned for the Orion Crew Module. Following the success of the ground-based tests, he served as the Principal Investigator for the Amine Swingbed Payload that operated onboard the International Space Station (ISS), where the technology successfully operated for more than twice its intended period of performance ending in 2014. Since 2017 he has coordinated oxygen generation technology maturation efforts for Exploration Missions across multiple projects and NASA centers, focusing on both low-pressure and high-pressure oxygen systems. He has also served as the NASA Technical Monitor for a variety of Small Business Innovation Research projects, including trace gas analyzers, novel sorbent technologies, and electrolysis technologies, including in-situ hydrogen peroxide generation for spacecraft habitation systems. Dr. Sweterlitsch was born in Indiana, raised in Vermont, received his BSE (‘96) in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and his MS (‘99) and PhD (‘02) in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University.
Dr. Sweterlitsch has collaborated with Faraday Technology, Inc., since 2017 when he served as a NASA Technical Monitor for a series of Phase II, Phase IIE, and Phase III SBIR contracts with Faraday. Faraday Technology developed a technology to electrochemically generate aqueous hydrogen peroxide using only air or oxygen and deionized water as the feedstock, resulting in up to one liter per day of 3% aqueous hydrogen peroxide. This hydrogen peroxide solution can be used for several cleaning and disinfection applications, including hard surfaces, laundry, medical applications, and urine stabilization – all challenges that must be overcome for long-term human spaceflight missions to be feasible and successful, as current state-of-the-art technologies rely on regular resupply of chemicals and consumables from Earth. Dr. Sweterlitsch will be presenting Faraday’s technology development efforts over the past 5+ years.
Montgomery B. Goforth serves as the Assistant Director, Strategic Pursuits & Partnerships – Engineering Directorate, NASA JSC.
Mr. Goforth has more than 30 years of experience as both Engineer and Manager in a variety of highly technical space and defense-related efforts. He joined NASA in 1990 as part of the Mission Operations Directorate, working on planning systems and automated procedure execution tools for the International Space Station (ISS). He became Deputy Project Manager for the Portable Computer System, the laptop used for command and control of the ISS, in 1996, and ultimately became Chief of the Branch responsible for all laptops onboard ISS and the Space Shuttle.
In 2002 he moved to the ISS Avionics and Software Office as Manager of the Flight Software Development Office and later served as Chief Engineer. During 2005 he spent several months at NASA Headquarters working in the Robotics Lunar Exploration Program. In 2006 he joined the Constellation Program as Chief of Avionics and Software Test and Verification and became Chief of the Software and Avionics Integration Office in 2007. In this role he was responsible for leading a large nation-wide Systems Engineering & Integration (SE&I) organization which provided program-level coordination, oversight, integration and management of the system-of-systems avionics and software, including the coordination of integrated modeling and simulation and test activities across the Constellation program and the technical integration of Constellation’s Command, Control, Communications, and Information (C3I) architecture.
In 2011, he joined the Avionic Systems Division to support their Strategic Planning and Partnership efforts. In 2015, he moved onto Engineering Directorate Staff to support Strategic Pursuits and Partnerships. In this role, he put together a framework to better focus Engineering’s efforts toward Human Spaceflight technology and systems development consistent with JSC and Agency goals for exploration. This framework guides Engineering’s internal investments and external partnerships supporting Lunar and Mars Exploration.
Mr. Goforth was born in East Texas, raised in Southern California and Arizona, and graduated from Rice University (BSME 1982, MSME 1987). Prior to coming to Johnson Space Center, he was employed by a small defense contractor specializing in anti-submarine warfare.
Ion District Parking Garage
Enter 4111 Fannin Street into your GPS for directions directly to this parking garage, located a block from the Ion. Parking in the Ion District Garage is free for the first two hours.
Red Parking Lot
Enter 4203 Fannin Street into your GPS for directions directly to the red parking lot, located across the street from the Ion. This lot is for overflow guest parking and tenant parking and is free for the first three hours.
More information and access to pay online for parking in the red lot can be found here.
