Live from MakerCon — An Interview with Sam Ortega

We spoke to Sam Ortega — the Program Manager of NASA’s Centennial Challenges Program — about the future of the space program and how he sees new technologies playing a vital part in its evolution going forward.

Talking about how the technologies — and tools — of the Maker Movement are appearing inside NASA, he discussed the multiple opportunities available to Makers to get involved in the program, including with NIAC, the “crazy ideas” branch of the agency.

As well as the bigger Centennial Challenges which have prize pots running into the millions of dollars, Sam also talked about the smaller idea-driven challenges, like the Soft Hatch Challenge, that only require a written response and still offer significant reward.