Technologists Supporting Artemis: Ray Wagner

The Exploration Technology Office advances human space exploration through technology development, technology transfer, and partnership development. They identify agency priorities and engage with NASA Johnson Space Center’s technical community to execute on projects. This series features technologists at Johnson and the projects they are working on that will help us get to the Moon and Mars! (See the first installment featuring Adam Sidor.)

Get to know more about Ray Wagner, below.

Background
Wagner completed his undergraduate through doctorate degrees at Rice University in electrical engineering. His doctorate thesis concerned distributed data-processing algorithms for wireless sensor networks. Shortly after, he came to NASA’s Johnson Space Center as a contractor to evaluate internet of things (IoT) standards for spaceflight. Eight years later, he joined the Johnson team as a civil servant.

CIF Project
Wagner has led the Ultra-Low Power Wireless Sensing Technology Center Innovation Fund (CIF) project from the start and has recently completed its third year of development. This project explores ways to seamlessly integrate wireless sensing into a crewed environment, focusing on guaranteeing ultra-long sensor lifetimes without sacrificing sensor mobility. 

In early development stages, Wagner’s team realized that frequent battery replacement or recharge requirements would fundamentally limit the uptake of wireless-sensing technologies. This presented a problem for technology integrated into systems and for crews who would need to set aside time to manually replace them. His team needed to construct something that made the crew’s lives easier.

There is a system on the International Space Station called RFID (radio-frequency identification) Enhanced Autonomous Logistics Management, or REALM, which has the capability to track movement of tagged inventory and display results. RFID tracking requires no batteries and uses minimal energy, effectively communicating information using unique IDs. The system takes its power from interrogators plugged into the vehicle.

Wagner’s team began investigating how they could leverage this technology’s asymmetric power requirements to extend wireless sensor battery performance, effectively giving IoT-style wireless sensors radios they can use “for free“ by leveraging the vehicle power supply to drive all wireless data exchangees. At the time, there was great interest in sampling the aggregation of carbon dioxide bubbles in microgravity. The team figured this would be a natural complement to their project, deciding to integrate a commerical, off-the-shelf non-dispersive infrared carbon dioxide sensor into the RFID-enabled wireless sensing platform they had developed. They were able to calculate how often they would acquire, store, and transmit data from the sensor while continuing dialogue with the RFID readers — demonstrating battery lifetimes well in excess of a decade using even small coin cells.

Artemis Tech
The Ultra-Low Power Wireless Sensing Technology connects low-data-rate wireless sensors, pulling data across autonomously. For crew on the space station and for future missions, data measurements will be hands off, allowing more time for critical operations. RFID inventory management will be used in the Artemis program and continues to be a cost-effective option to enable human space exploration.

Intern Advice
“Always be working on the best version of your idea,“ Wagner says. “Open it up to feedback and criticism as early as possible. Be open. Be more focused on getting the best version of your idea than being right at your first stab.”