NASA Strategy for Technology Development

At the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), foresight is a coordinated,
iterative, and continual process for making informed decisions. NASA faces diverse and
relatively unique challenges and opportunities as the leading U.S. agency for aeronautics
development, cutting-edge scientific discovery, and human space exploration. To address these
challenges and leverage opportunities, NASA uses foresight to strategically plan technology
development across four mission directorates: Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, Space
Technology Mission Directorate, Science Mission Directorate, and Human Exploration and
Operations Mission Directorate (recently separated into the new Exploration Systems
Development Mission Directorate and Space Operations Mission Directorate). The mission
directorates leverage a broad community of experts and partners to incorporate technology
foresight into mission and program planning. Through this process NASA realizes tangible
benefits to the agency’s science, technology, and exploration programs.

As an independent office, NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS) provides
strategic advice, supported by independent assessments and rigorous analysis, to inform NASA
senior leadership on key areas to align mission and agency-level activities. OTPS serves as a
trusted authority to inform technology strategy at the agency to enable future missions.
Specifically, OTPS coordinates and uses inputs from a broad community of experts, both internal
and external to NASA, to inform decision making for technology plans, investments, and
partnerships. OTPS develops and maintains the NASA Technology Taxonomy to standardize
communication across the agency’s diverse technology portfolio and the related Strategic
Technology Investment Plan that integrates priorities and informs technology investment.
Through these efforts, OTPS has refined elements of foresight-informed strategic planning that
may be applicable to other technology-driven industries where foresight is essential for
resilience.

This chapter describes the processes of foresight for technology development at NASA and
provides insight into the value the agency derives from these processes. The chapter further
describes the role of OTPS as an independent advisory office that supports NASA’s efforts to
capitalize on foresight and strategic technology planning. We present these examples with
consideration for how organizations in defense, security, and other technology-driven industries
can operationalize foresight in their own strategic technology development.