A Chattanooga company, American Bicycle Group, helped create the landing gear for an unmanned Mars rover that explored the red planet a few years ago.
That's just one example given Tuesday of a Chattanooga area venture that has done business with NASA. About 150 business people showed up at a day-long conference at UTC to learn about opportunities with NASA, and especially with the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Dr. Paul McConnaughey, associate director-technical at Marshall, said Chattanooga is in the heart of the Tennessee Valley Corridor, which provides science and technology links stretching between Alabama and Virginia.
He said NASA is empowering businesses to take over space efforts around the Earth while the federal agency focuses more on the moon and manned Mars exploration.
"There's a good opportunity for folks in the Tennessee Valley Corridor to get involved," McConnaughey said.
U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., said he has worked to bridge the gap between Chattanooga and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and he'd like to do something similar with NASA.
"NASA's on the move again," he said, citing the manned Mars mission.
Fleischmann said his job on the House Appropriations Committee is to help the space agency garner the needed funds and make sure East Tennessee businesses, including small companies, have the chance to participate.
Charles Wood, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce's vice president for economic development, said there's a lot of expertise to connect with NASA.
He mentioned, for example, the 3-D manufacturing companies in the region.
"There's a good bit of opportunity," Wood said.
Among the factors which have stopped area companies in the past is the perception that working with a large government agency isn't easy, he said. The conference helped companies gain a better understanding of doing so, Wood said.
Evan Robinson of Clarksville, Tenn., said his company, The Legion Group, is looking at what it would take to do business with NASA. His venture, which provides furniture and seating, isn't a technology firm, but "everybody at NASA has got to sit somewhere."
Jeff Howard, a vice president at support services company MTS of Huntsville, said he already does business with NASA and would like to do more.
Eventually, the company is looking at working with the U.S. Department of Energy as well, he said.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told CNBC last month that the agency is on the right trajectory to get humans to Mars in the 2030s.
Bolden said a mission to Mars is "critically important." Mars "is similar to Earth, we think, and its history will help us understand our own planet better," he said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.