Now that the dust from this financial and political fiasco has settled, professionals in many industries are still finding larger budgetary woes unsettling, and many fear the political impasse of October 2013 could be just the beginning.
Most of the major projects and organizations that make use of cryogenics and superconductivity escaped catastrophic long-term effects, as we’ll explore in more detail, but confidence has been shaken at organizations and institutions that were already beleaguered by constant financial insecurity and doubt.
Who Was Affected?
While the government shutdown meant that certain federal agencies experienced furloughs on a large scale, the Department of Energy laboratories were spared immediate shutdown and were able to continue to operate, largely due to funding from private and university sources, which in some cases was substantial enough to keep operations afloat for as long as a month. Superconductor Week reported that only Oak Ridge National Laboratory began to temporarily halt projects, as that lab’s funding was not sufficient to last for the entire shutdown, and that Los Alamos National Laboratory faced impending closure, but was saved at the last minute when the shutdown ended.
While government employees at the national labs continued to work, employees at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the vast majority of NASA employees—97%—were furloughed during the shutdown.
This meant an interruption of cryogenic tests for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These tests are being carried out at three NASA labs—Goddard Space Flight Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Jet Propulsion Lab—according to Dr. Eric Smith, JWST Deputy Program Director and Program Scientist at NASA headquarters. At Marshall, cryogenic testing of the telescope’s backplane was halted, and the lab’s cryo chamber had to be warmed up and then cooled down again once the shutdown had ended, causing a delay in the telescope’s schedule.
“For right now, we’re still saying it’s three weeks on the critical path,” said Smith of the delay’s duration.
For Goddard, the shutdown meant interruption of cryogenic tests on two main telescope instruments. The cryogenic chamber at Goddard was kept chilled through the shutdown, however, with a skeleton crew keeping vigil.
“Progress was stalled during the shutdown,” a government employee who asked to remain anonymous told Cold Facts. “Little technical work was done prior to and just following the furlough days due to shutdown activity.”
At JPL, cryogenic testing of the telescope’s cryocooler continued, since the lab was open and operating. JPL is run by the California Institute of Technology and was therefore not subject to furloughs.
James Fesmire, Senior Principal Investigator and co-founder of the Cryogenics Test Laboratory at NASA Kennedy Space Center, said his lab was closed during the shutdown, but that his team is accustomed to temporary closure of operations, usually due to hurricane preparations or electrical power service maintenance.
“We lost time and progress just like anybody else doing hands-on type experimental work,” Fesmire told Cold Facts in an email. “Shutdown, start-up and getting back in the groove all take time, effort and emotional energy.”
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), an airborne observatory on a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft, was in flight when the shutdown took effect. It was allowed to continue its flight, which concluded early on the morning of October 1, and remained grounded through the rest of the shutdown ordeal. Liquid nitrogen is used in SOFIA’s cavity as the primary cooling source, with some instruments requiring liquid helium cooling. (See the interview in the Spring 2008 issue of Cold Facts for more on SOFIA.)
Private companies, too, were impacted by the government closure. Cold Facts received reports of varying impacts on industry during the uncertain 16-day period. Mark Caviezel, Liquid Propulsion System Test Engineer at Arrowhead Products said a planned trip to Marshall was canceled on account of the shutdown. Arrowhead Products is developing propulsion system components for the NASA Space Launch Systems rocket, and they are testing these components at a flow test lab at Marshall. One particular component will flow more than 2,000 pounds of liquid nitrogen per second in the rocket.
For other companies and institutions, NASA’s temporary shuttering meant a silence from the agency, which held up orders or normal work flow. Scientific Instruments, which provides aerospace liquid level probes, felt the sting when orders from NASA ceased.
Dr. Chris Regier from the Canadian Light Source reported minor inconvenience when he was unable to access some NIST fluid data for liquid nitrogen and helium while the NIST site was down.
Long-Term Impacts
While most organizations affected by the shutdown have resumed operations and do not expect any considerable long-term effects on projects and progress, others are still determining the consequences of the shutdown.
“The US government shutdown caused no substantial negative impact on NIST research related to cryogenics or superconductivity,” Michael H. Kelley, Acting Director, Boulder Laboratory Operations at NIST, told Cold Facts in an email. “There was a slowdown of expected progress in our programs, from which it will take a little time to fully recover.”
The cryogenic testing that was delayed at Marshall was restarted and is now completed, according to Smith. But JWST officials are still evaluating how the shutdown may have delayed the project’s overall schedule and are looking at ways to make that time up. No conclusive evaluation or plan was announced at press time.
The cryogenic tests on the Webb telescope’s instruments that couldn’t be completed at Goddard will be rescheduled and take place along with some previously scheduled tests. Smith said this shifting won’t affect the schedule. “We’re on schedule with our launch and we’re within budget,” he said of the telescope project overall.
The grounding of the air-based observatory SOFIA, on the other hand, meant that principal investigators who rely on SOFIA to make observations were simply out of luck during the shutdown. “We lost of number of scientific flights during this time,” said Nick Veronico, press officer for SOFIA. “We cannot make those up. It’s very much like if you were going to observe from a ground-based observatory, and you had a cloudy night. You have just lost that time.” Veronico said that for some researchers dependent on SOFIA the missed time could have had “catastrophic effects.”
“The government shutdown set some people back years in their research and some of it may just never get done,” he said.
For Fesmire, having a break from projects at NASA Kennedy’s Cryogenic Test Lab gave him time to regain some perspective on what he and his team are doing and where they are going, which turned out to be of some benefit. “I was very pleased to see that on the first day back after the shutdown, everyone on the Cryo Test Lab team was fully engaged in resuming the work on his or her projects,” Fesmire said. “Our people like to work hard and are good at what they do!”
Cold Facts received mixed opinions from professionals in private industry on whether the shutdown would have long-term effects.
“Loss of funding and potential cutbacks will have a tremendous impact on my business going forward,” said a business owner who asked to remain anonymous. “A large number of these projects that lack private funding and don’t have foreseeable public application are at risk.”
“I doubt there will be any [long-term effects], considering that [the shutdown] was relatively short,” said Bill Schwenterly, a consultant and Cold Facts columnist.
Arrowhead’s Caviezel believes, “You can never replace the time that was lost. In this instance, the flow test program was delayed, but will continue.”
What Does the Future Hold?
While government and industry are continuing to determine what impact the shutdown had on schedules, budgets and business, many professionals can’t help but reflect on what such volatility does to the morale of government workers, and to those who would consider a career at NASA, NIST or one of the national labs.
“One of the best features of a government job has been its stability,” said an anonymous government worker. “If we enter an era where government jobs are no longer stable, it will be a challenge to recruit top-rate cryogenicists into government work.”
