Visualizing the Mission:
John Frassanito & Associates

AIAA Houston Horizons
Fall 2007

John Frassanito, Member AIAA, IDSA

When President Kennedy first declared NASA’s goal of landing on the Moon, he set a standard for United States world leadership in space. As we entered the 21st century, senior NASA managers and policy makers, under Executive direction, began to outline clearly defined goals and a roadmap that could secure our national leadership in space for coming generations. The results of their efforts culminated in the announcement of the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) on January 14, 2004. One of the teams that crafted this policy announcement was headed by JSC’s Space Operations Mission Directorate and included an early contributor to strategic planning of US space endeavors—John Frassanito.

Frassanito’s NASA design and engineering team credits include many of NASA milestones: Skylab, the International Space Station, Lunar inflatable habitats, Reusable Launch Vehicles, Crew Exploration Vehicles, First Lunar Outpost concepts, technical support for Earth to orbit (ETO) transportation, the Space Exploration Initiative, and, now, the Vision for Space Exploration.

His team of architects, engineers, and visualization specialists are now supporting JSC’s Constellation program, including Ares, Orion, and CEV, as well as programs at NASA Headquarters and Goddard’s Science Mission, Vehicle Systems, and Aeronautics Offices.

Frassanito’s first NASA project, as part of the famed Raymond Loewy and William Snaith design team, was to design the interior of Skylab, America’s first space station launched in 1973. He had been recruited by Loewy/ Snaith after completing his industrial design degree at Art Center in Los Angeles in 1968.

A co-founder of Datapoint Corporation in 1969, Frassanito then began his own design firm designing products for companies such as Scott Paper, Texaco, Sani- Fresh, Daniel Industries, General Foods, and EMI Corporation. His computer designs for Datapoint during 1969-1972 marked the start of the personal computing industry. He has been a strategic planning, mission and spacecraft design consultant since 1985 to NASA engineering, scientific and planning teams for the Agency’s future space missions, making those scientific visions come alive for specialists and the general public alike.

For the decision process and eventual announcement of the current exploration program, JF&A worked on various mission designs, the locations and characteristics of Earth, Lunar, and Martian venues, and the articulation of the benefits in terms of the key imperatives of the policy— national security, economics, and science. These three tenants of the policy were inspired in part by Theodore Roosevelt’s concept of a Blue Water Navy—a policy that eventually established the United States as the dominate world presence. JF&A also provided technical support in developing the elements on which to base the VSE mission, particularly for space transportation aspects, rationale and benefits, historical perspective, as well as many other aspects of the policy basis.

The major elements of the mission designs had to be explained in a non-technical, compelling way as well as to be technologically viable. A big part of JF&A’s contribution was via the firm’s Strategic Visualization® process, an integral part of the VSE planning process that, ultimately, provided many of the images and animations used for the worldwide broadcast announcements, NASA and industry websites, and national and international publications.

With this Strategic Visualization ®, JF&A captures the ideas and contributions of individual members of a technical team and converts them to a visual vocabulary that supports the planning process. JF&A condenses volumes of data into powerful images that clearly communicate missions, technologies, and plans to engineers and managers as well as the general public. JF&A’s NASA presentations are used for everything from Congressional briefings, broadcast television, and magazine articles to high-level technical exchanges and publications worldwide.

In the abstract of Strategic Visualization and Space Exploration [1] (from the Workshop on Moon Beyond 2002), Douglas Cooke and John Frassanito explained the role of visualization in the space program:

“NASA teams, such as the NASA Exploration Team (NEXT), utilize advanced computational visualization processes to develop mission designs and architectures for lunar and planetary missions. One such process, STRATEGIC VISUALIZATION®, is a tool used extensively to help mission designers visualize various design alternatives and present them to other participants of their team. The participants, who may include NASA, industry, and the academic community, are distributed within a virtual network. Consequently, computer animation and other digital techniques provide an efficient means to communicate top-level (Continued from page 5) technical information among team members.

“Furthermore, once the team has developed a sound mission design, STRATEGIC VISUALIZATION ® is used to communicate that concept to the general public. This is a vital step that Dr. Wernher von Braun used to enhance public support for space exploration. … when Collier’s (Magazine) presented the American public with a bold and feasible vision of excursions to Moon and other planets. Today, STRATEGIC VISUALIZATION® is used extensively both in the mission design process within the technical community, and to communicate the value of space exploration to the general public. Movies and digital images have been generated and shown on nationally broadcast television and the Internet, as well as in magazines and digital media.”

Since the ‘04 exploration plan announcement, John Frassanito & Associates, Inc. has continued to support the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) at a number of levels including the Administrator’s rollout of the Exploration Systems Architecture (ESAS), the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the CEV/Constellation program, and other program elements. The firm archives and updates a library of current architectures in 3D formats that it provides to its NASA clients as part of its services so, when a new component or mission is under development, the project team has the tools at hand to help do the job.

JF&A’s work in Strategic Visualization for the space program has been recognized in major public exhibitions including the Art Institute of Chicago and, currently, The Intrepid Aircraft Carrier Air, Sea, and Space Museum in New York City, as well as in general public and technical journals such as Popular Science Magazine, Aviation Week, Space News, Men’s Magazine, and in the book Space Architecture, The Work of John Frassanito & Associates for NASA by John Zukowsky.

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Visualizing the Vision
Space Times Sept./Oct. 2006

Turning engineering and policy concepts into a compelling, visual story is a critical part of transforming vision into reality. Dramatic, technically accurate images can help audiences imagine how the various pieces of a space exploration architecture will come together years down the road, making the whole concept more real and more supportable. But engineers and scientists need high-quality visual materials, too, particularly when the act of creating these images helps technical experts refine their designs. John Frassanito & Associates has been in the forefront of this effort, and along the way has already created iconic images that have already become synonymous with the Vision for Space Exploration.
by Keitha Nystro

When President Kennedy first declared NASA’s goal of landing on the Moon, he set a standard for United States world leadership in space. As we entered the 21st century, senior NASA managers and policy makers, under Executive direction, began to outline clearly defined goals and a roadmap that could secure our national leadership in space for coming generations. The results of their efforts culminated in President Bush’s announcement of the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) on January 14, 2004.

One of the teams that crafted this policy announcement was headed by the Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) and included an early contributor to strategic planning of US space endeavors – John Frassanito. Frassanito’s NASA design and engineering team credits include Skylab, the International Space Station, Lunar inflatable habitats, Reusable Launch Vehicles, Crew Exploration Vehicles, First Lunar Outpost, technical support for Earth to orbit (ETO) transportation, the Space Exploration Initiative, and, now, the Vision for Space Exploration.

This policy announcement was, in part, one-of the outcomes of the Columbia accident. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAlB) found that NASA had no clear, defining mission to focus the agency’s activities. Without a defined mission, no one knew how long the Space Shuttle would fly. Without a known service life for the Shuttle, it was difficult to determine what investment strategies the nation should make with respect to our space program.

The CAIB finding prompted the White House to establish the VSE, which used multiple teams working independently on the policy formation process. John Frassanito & Associates (JF&A) worked on one team for four months, supporting this formation process.

JF&A worked on various mission designs, the locations and characteristics of Earth, Lunar, and Martian venues, and the articulation of the benefits in terms of the key imperatives of the policy – national security, economics, and science. These three tenants of the policy were inspired in part by Theodore Roosevelt’s concept of a Blue Water Navy – a policy that eventually established the United States as the dominate world presence. JF&A also provided technical support in developing the elements on which to base the VSE mission, particularly for space transportation aspects, rationale and benefits, historical perspective, as well as many other aspects of the policy basis.

In addition to being technologically viable, the major elements of the mission designs had to be explained in a non-technical, compelling way. The locations and characteristics of various venues, the international partner participation, and the benefits to the nation all had to be incorporated within a policy framework.

A big part of JF&A’s contribution was via the firm’s Strategic Visualization® process, an integral part of the VSE planning process that, ultimately, provided many of the images and animations that the President used for his announcement. These visuals were broadcast on television around the world, posted on the NASA and industry websites, and reprinted in national and international publications.

NASA first used JF&A’s Strategic Visualization® process for exploration planning and management support in 1989 during “The 90-Day Study on Human Exploration of the Moon and Mars.” The JF&A staff worked with the different engineering teams on a conceptual exploration plan, capturing their ideas in sketches, then posting them on a “planning wall.” Each team could see what the other teams were doing and how their ideas fit with their own team’s work. Notes, annotations, and yellow “stickies” registered comments and problems; changes were made on the sketches, and then reposted on the wall. Some resulting concepts of that Study (http:// history.nasa.gov/90_day_study.pdf) laid a foundation for the planning going into and coming out of the Vision for Space Exploration

With Strategic Visualization®, JF&A captures the ideas and contributions of individual members of a working group and converts them to a visual vocabulary that supports the planning process. JF&A condenses volumes of data into powerful images that clearly communicate missions, technologies, and plans to engineers and managers as well as the general public. Now the “planning wall” is behind the firewall of NASA’s websites, and JF&A’s NASA presentations are used for everything from Congressional briefings, broadcast television, and magazine articles to high-level technical exchanges and publications worldwide.

“Strategic Visualization and Space Exploration,” a paper by NASA’s Douglas Cooke and John Frassanito, noted the historical role of visuals in space exploration:

NASA teams, such as the NASA Exploration Team (NEXT), utilize[d] advanced computational visualization processes to develop mission designs and architectures for lunar and planetary missions. One such process, STRATEGIC VISUALIZATION®, is a tool used extensively to help mission designers visualize various design alternatives and present them to other participants of their team. The participants, who may include NASA, industry, and the academic community, are distributed within a virtual network. Consequently, computer animation and other digital techniques provide an efficient means to communicate top-level technical information among team members.

Furthermore, once the team has developed a sound mission design, STRATEGIC VISUALIZATION is used to communicate that concept to the general public. This is a vital step that Dr. Wernher von Braun used to enhance public support for space exploration. In 1952, for example, Chestly Bonestell and others working under the direction of Dr. von Braun, created the Collier’s Magazine series of eight articles known as ‘the Collier’s space program.’ Unlike previous works of science fiction, These articles were based on rigorous science and technology. Virtually every aspect of space flight was considered: astronaut training, space stations, lunar expeditions and missions to Mars. Space exploration was greatly advanced as a national priority when Collier’s presented the American public with a bold and feasible vision of excursions to Moon and other planets.

Since the President’s 2004 announcement, Frassanito has continued to support the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) at a number of levels including the Administrator’s rollout of the Exploration Systems Architecture (ESAS), the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Crew Exploration Vehicle project, the Constellation program, and other program elements. The firm archives and updates a library of current architectures in 3D formats that it provides to its NASA clients as part of its services so, when a new component or mission is under development, the project team has the tools at hand to help do the job.

John Frassanito is a New York-born industrial designer who trained at Art Center in Los Angeles and, after graduation in 1968, worked as part of the famed Raymond Loewy and William Snaith design team on the interior concepts for Skylab, America’s first space station launched in 1973. A co-founder of Datapoint Corporation in 1969, Frassanito later began his own design firm designing products for companies such as Scott Paper, Texaco, Sani-Fresh, Daniel Industries, General Foods, and EMI Corporation. Since 1985 he has been a strategic planning, mission and spacecraft design consultant to NASA engineering, scientific and planning teams for the Agency’s future space missions, making those scientific visions come alive for specialists and the general public alike.

JF&A’s work in Strategic Visualization for the space program has been recognized in major public exhibitions including the Art Institute of Chicago and, currently, The Intrepid Aircraft Carrier Air, Sea, and Space Museum in New York City, as well as in general public and technical journals such as Popular Science Magazine, Aviation Week, Space News, Men’s Magazine, and in the book Space Architecture, The Work of John Frassanito & Associates for NASA by John Zukowsky.

Keitha Nystrom is a Houston-based writer with a focus on harsh environment technology and operations for offshore, subsea, and space industry trade publications.

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