Project Is Part Of NASA's Celebration Of The 40th Anniversary Of The Moon Landing

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the historic first moon landing, NASA is seeking ideas from the public, academia, and industry about how to analyze and catalog notes from spaceflight pioneer Wernher von Braun into an electronic, searchable database or other system.

Von Braun was the first director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and a key figure in the development of the Saturn V rocket and NASA's Apollo program. NASA has a full collection of "Weekly Notes" von Braun wrote during the 1960s and 1970s. These notes were used to track programmatic and institutional issues at Marshall, and are considered by many historians to be a valuable source of data.

NASA has issued a request for information and is looking for concepts that will provide an innovative resource for agency engineers and scientists, as well as researchers in academia and industry. It is not a request for proposal or invitation to bid.

Respondents are requested to provide information that addresses how NASA should proceed with all or any subset of the following:

• How should NASA catalogue the Weekly Notes? Do you have specific ideas on how to implement the approach or strategy?
• What format(s) should the Weekly Notes be available in?
• How should the Weekly Notes be indexed?
• What timeframe do you expect this work to require?
• What other strategies or approaches do you recommend that NASA pursue that would contribute to successful cooperation between NASA and other entities to create a successful and useful product from the Weekly Notes? Could these notes form the basis for understanding management best practices? Could engineering design and operational considerations be derived from these notes? Could these notes form the basis for formal classroom training?

NASA is planning several activities and events for the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing on July 20. The events will celebrate the Apollo Program, its accomplishments, and the benefits to our lives today.

FMI: www.nasa.gov