NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman led a return visit to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) on Sept. 2 as part of NASA's "Inspiration Tour," meeting with Lab scientists and engineers to highlight LLNL's capabilities in areas including space science, national security, fusion, computing and other advanced technologies.
Isaacman, who was joined by Department of Energy (DOE) Deputy Secretary James Danly, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction Taylor Jordan, representatives from NASA, other government agencies, industry CEOs and universities, called the visit "absolutely extraordinary" and said it opened his eyes to a broader connection between LLNL and NASA than he had expected.
"Going into this job, I had somewhat of a vision for this 'nuclear NASA' that was going to come," Isaacman told Lab employees during an afternoon town hall. "I assumed that would be the bulk of the conversation [at LLNL], and couldn't have been more incorrect when we actually came out here [in May] and was enlightened as to your contributions to so many of our initiatives at NASA."
Earlier in the day, Isaacman and the visiting delegation were introduced to the Lab's work in mass spectrometry, cosmochemistry and planetary science. The group learned how LLNL researchers are analyzing samples collected from asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission to better understand the formation and evolution of the solar system. Lab scientists are also preparing to analyze lunar samples collected by NASA's Artemis program.
Isaacman's delegation, which included former LLNL engineer, current LLNS board member and NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez, also saw the Lab's high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer's capabilities for planetary science. Developed for NASA's Psyche and Dragonfly missions, the instrument will help identify elements on the iron asteroid Psyche, which is believed to be an exposed planetary core. The LLNL spectrometer on Dragonfly will identify the composition of the Saturn moon Titan's surface and guide selection of materials for further analysis. The delegation also visited the National Ignition Facility for discussions on inertial confinement fusion and initiatives led by the Livermore Institute for Fusion Technology.
For the last stop of the tour, Lab experts staffed stations where Isaacman, Danly, Jordan and the rest of the contingent were briefed on key areas of work relevant to NASA and NOAA. Scientists presented on the Lab's development of space optics and the CODA telescope used for Pandora, which is studying the atmospheres of exoplanets and their host stars in conjunction with the James Webb Space Telescope; research in advanced manufacturing, design optimization and simulation, and how the capabilities could support approaches to space nuclear propulsion; an AI emulator capable of accelerating global atmospheric simulations at the kilometer scale; and a new Laboratory Directed Research and Development-funded effort using LLNL's Tuolumne and other supercomputers to analyze data from the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to discover black holes.
Following the tour, Lab Director Kim Budil and National Nuclear Security Administration Livermore Field Office Manager Florence Tindle joined Isaacman, Danly and Jordan for an employee town hall. In her remarks, Budil pointed to how the Lab's unique expertise in space science, fusion, Earth system modeling, supercomputing and AI could be brought to bear to support other federal agencies, including NASA and NOAA.
"We showed today the incredible synergy between missions across agencies, how we build foundations, people, ideas and tools and bring them to this broad range of capabilities," Budil said. "We would really like to acknowledge the importance of this work to inspire and bring in the next generation of scientific talent."
DOE's Danly emphasized strengthening the relationship between NASA and DOE, pointing to the national laboratories' contributions to NASA missions and the potential for supporting NASA's goals of once again putting "boot prints on the Moon."
"My hope is that the Department of Energy and NASA have as tight a collaboration as possible," Danly said. Even if DOE scientists don't have an existing solution, he added, "at least the clue to the direction to get the answer is on a shelf in one of the national labs. We want to be there to help you with the specific mission sets you have."
NOAA's Jordan highlighted similar connections between LLNL and NOAA, particularly in atmospheric modeling, which is taking advantage of AI and exascale computing. He also pointed to the LLNL-developed mirrors used on the GOES satellite network's Solar Ultraviolet Imagers and other Lab research that has played a significant role in the agency's space situational awareness efforts.
"Our partnership between NOAA and Lawrence Livermore is incredible," Jordan said, assuring employees that "others outside of Lawrence Livermore see what you're doing, respect it, and then translate that over to their work as well."
Isaacman's town hall remarks focused on NASA's goals of "returning to stay" on the Moon through the Artemis missions, future efforts to explore Mars and beyond, and the potential for nuclear-powered propulsion for those missions, which NASA plans to develop incrementally.
"If we do this the right way and build up logically through lots of missions and not just try and jump to the dream state … you could have something pretty powerful there," Isaacman said.
Joined by Danly and Jordan for the Q&A portion of the event, Isaacman discussed NASA's participation in DOE's Genesis Mission in response to a question about how the national AI initiative could contribute to shared scientific goals.
"I'm a huge believer in the Genesis program," Isaacman said, explaining that federal agencies like NASA can achieve more by collaborating with DOE, particularly in the computing arena, than by applying their own limited resources to similar AI problems.
Isaacman emphasized the agency's need for DOE supercomputing to analyze enormous datasets collected by its instruments, citing the collaboration with LLNL on the Roman Space Telescope project. AI and supercomputing could also reduce the time and cost of designing future spacecraft, he said.
Describing NASA as focused on complex challenges that industry cannot solve on its own, Isaacman also spoke about the opportunity for partnering more with national security organizations, adding that the agency is working to overcome cultural and institutional barriers that have made those partnerships difficult in the past.
"It's certainly not our primary mission, but it's the right thing to do, and obviously [there is] substantial benefit back within the agency itself," Isaacman said. "We very much want to collaborate in all respects, including on national security work."
