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PNP, nanindigang nasa listahan pa rin ng wanted person ang pangalan ni Delfin Lee (MAR112014) – Video

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PNP, nanindigang nasa listahan pa rin ng wanted person ang pangalan ni Delfin Lee (MAR112014)
Nanindigan ang Philippine National Police na kasama pa rin at hindi pa inaalis sa listahan ng wanted person ang pangalang ng Globe-Asiatique president na si ...

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PNP, nanindigang nasa listahan pa rin ng wanted person ang pangalan ni Delfin Lee (MAR112014) - Video

NASA flies high with little oversight

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - In 2011, NASA booked a flight for Ames Research Center Director Simon Pete Worden to fly first class from Washington D.C. to San Francisco. Cost of the one-way ticket: $14,773, versus the $189 average coach fare. Although the trip is reported in NASAs annual travel disclosure, the agency now says the flight never happened.

Worden, meanwhile, says he did take the flight. He explained by email to Scripps News that the trip included substantial foreign travel, and that he was authorized to fly first class for medical reasons. Yet, NASAs annual report accounting for its first and business class premium flights during 2011 includes no reports of foreign travel for Worden that year.

NASA is trying to resolve many of these kinds of disparities as it sorts out what it calls widespread errors in travel disclosures to the General Services Administration of its premium travel, according to Elizabeth Robinson, the space agencys chief financial officer. The errors date back to at least 2009, she said.

Weve identified some cases where there are inaccuracies and we are being very forthright about that and we are addressing those inconsistencies, said NASA communications director David Weaver.

Like many federal agencies, NASA must disclose all upgraded flights yearly. Those tickets often cost thousands of dollars more than coach fares.

NASA neglected to disclose an entire years worth of upgrades in 2012, and faced no repercussions. The agency is in the process of completing that report now.

The problem of lax oversight is not unique to NASA. Dozens of federal agencies regularly ignore requirements to disclose spending on premium fares, according to records recently released for the first time by the GSA. The agencys annual reports on premium travel reflect the ticket upgrades of 75 agencies from fiscal years 2009 to 2013, and indicate that 54 failed to file reports at least once during that period.

Scripps contacted all those agencies and received a mix of responses.

This is really embarrassing to admit thisbut no one here was aware of the provision, said Peg OLaughlin, spokesperson for the U.S. International Trade Commission. We are aware of it now and we plan to fully comply going forward. The National Science Foundation said it recently submitted a missing disclosure for fiscal year 2013 and is working on its report for 2012.

Eight other agencies contacted by Scripps said they would immediately begin disclosing their premium travel records. Eleven agencies disputed GSAs records and said they had filed on time.

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NASA flies high with little oversight

NASA contest offers prizes for citizen asteroid hunters

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NASA is asking citizen scientists to help identify space rocks. NASA/MSFC/MEO/Aaron Kingery

Think you can find Earth-threatening asteroids faster than NASA? Then there is a contest designed just for you: the space agency is calling for citizen scientists to find new and improved ways to track down space rocks. And this isn't just for the good of all mankind - there's $35,000 in prize money.

The "Asteroid Data Hunter" contest starts on March 17 and runs through August. A partnership between NASA and Planetary Resources, Inc., the contest asks participants to create computer algorithms that can identify asteroids that are nearing Earth. They will be using images captured by ground-based telescopes.

"For the past three years, NASA has been learning and advancing the ability to leverage distributed algorithm and coding skills through the NASA Tournament Lab to solve tough problems," said Jason Crusan, NASA Tournament Lab director. "We are now applying our experience with algorithm contests to helping protect the planet from asteroid threats through image analysis."

The contest is part of NASA's Asteroid Grand Challenge, a program designed to find all potentially dangerous asteroids before they have a chance to reach Earth's atmosphere, where they could harm people and property.

"Current asteroid detection initiatives are only tracking one percent of the estimated objects that orbit the sun," Planetary Resources president and chief engineer Chris Lewicki said in the statement. "We are excited to partner with NASA in this contest to help increase the quantity and knowledge about asteroids that are potential threats, human destinations or resource rich."

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NASA contest offers prizes for citizen asteroid hunters

NASA spends millions to fly first and business class with little oversight

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In 2011, NASA booked a flight for Ames Research Center Director Simon Pete Worden to fly first class from Washington D.C. to San Francisco. Cost of the one-way ticket: $14,773, versus the $189 average coach fare. Although the trip is reported in NASAs annual travel disclosure, the agency now says the flight never happened.

Worden, meanwhile, says he did take the flight. He explained by email to Scripps News that the trip included substantial foreign travel, and that he was authorized to fly first class for medical reasons. Yet, NASAs annual report accounting for its first and business class premium flights during 2011 includes no reports of foreign travel for Worden that year.

NASA is trying to resolve many of these kinds of disparities as it sorts out what it calls widespread errors in travel disclosures to the General Services Administration of its premium travel, according to Elizabeth Robinson, the space agencys chief financial officer. The errors date back to at least 2009, she said.

Weve identified some cases where there are inaccuracies and we are being very forthright about that and we are addressing those inconsistencies, said NASA communications director David Weaver.

Like many federal agencies, NASA must disclose all upgraded flights yearly. Those tickets often cost thousands of dollars more than coach fares.

NASA neglected to disclose an entire years worth of upgrades in 2012, and faced no repercussions. The agency is in the process of completing that report now.

The problem of lax oversight is not unique to NASA. Dozens of federal agencies regularly ignore requirements to disclose spending on premium fares, according to records recently released for the first time by the GSA.

The agencys annual reports on premium travel reflect the ticket upgrades of 75 agencies from fiscal years 2009 to 2013, and indicate that 54 failed to file reports at least once during that period.

Scripps contacted all those agencies and received a mix of responses.

This is really embarrassing to admit thisbut no one here was aware of the provision, said Peg OLaughlin, spokesperson for the U.S. International Trade Commission. We are aware of it now and we plan to fully comply going forward.

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NASA spends millions to fly first and business class with little oversight

NASA's Mars Orbiter sidelined by glitch

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NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) put itself into a precautionary "safe mode" Friday, March 7, but the venerable spacecraft is now on the mend, agency officials say.

MRO switched over to safe mode after unexpectedly swapping from one main computer to another, NASA officials said Tuesday. As a result of the glitch, science operations have been suspended, and the probe is not relaying data from the space agency's two active Mars rovers back to Earth at the moment.

But things should change soon, as MRO's handlers have begun bringing the spacecraft back up to speed, officials said.

"The spacecraft is healthy, in communication and fully powered," MRO project manager Dan Johnston, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "We have stepped up the communication data rate, and we plan to have the spacecraft back to full operations within a few days."

The $720 million Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission launched in August 2005 and arrived at the Red Planet in March 2006. During its eight years in orbit around Mars, the spacecraft has returned more data than all other interplanetary missions, past or present, combined, NASA officials said.

MRO also serves as a vital relay link between NASA's Opportunity rover, which landed in January 2004, and the agency's 1-ton Curiosity rover, which touched down in August 2012. MRO's current issues haven't left the two rovers out in the cold, however; their data continues to come home via Mars Odyssey, a NASA orbiter that has been circling Mars since October 2001.

Spacecraft enter safe mode when they detect an anomalous condition. It's not an uncommon occurrence; MRO, for example, has now entered safe mode five times following unscheduled computer swaps, with the most recent event before Friday's glitch coming in November 2011, officials said.

Friday's computer swap also featured a switch over to a redundant radio transponder on MRO. While the probe can operate just fine with this instrument, engineers are trying to figure out what happened to the out-of-service transponder, and whether or not it can be brought back online, NASA officials said.

Originally published onSpace.com.

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NASA's Mars Orbiter sidelined by glitch

Nasa Offers $35,000 If You Can Help Them Spot Asteroids

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Red Dwarf Star

Artist's depiction of the powerful flare that erupted from the red dwarf star EV Lacertae in 2008.

Unlike Earth, Venus lacks a magnetic field to deflect powerful solar outbursts -- as can be seen in this NASA-created image, a still from the video "Dynamic Earth: Exploring Earth's Climate Engine."

This vertigo-inducing, false-color image from NASA's Cassini mission highlights the storms at Saturn's north pole. The angry eye of a hurricane-like storm appears dark red while the fast-moving hexagonal jet stream framing it is a yellowish green. Low-lying clouds circling inside the hexagonal feature appear as muted orange color. A second, smaller vortex pops out in teal at the lower right of the image. The rings of Saturn appear in vivid blue at the top right.

This Hubble photo is of a small portion of a large star-birthing region in the Carina Nebula. Towers of cool hydrogen laced with dust rise from the wall of the nebula.

This computer simulation shows gas from a tidally shredded star falling into a black hole. Some of the gas also is being ejected at high speed into space.

This image of Asia and Australia at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012.

In this composite image, visible-light observations by NASAs Hubble Space Telescope are combined with infrared data from the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona to assemble a dramatic view of the well-known Ring Nebula.

A delicate ribbon of gas floats eerily in our galaxy. A contrail from an alien spaceship? A jet from a black-hole? Actually this image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is a thin section of a supernova remnant caused by a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope caught Jupiter's moon Ganymede playing a game of "peek-a-boo." In this crisp image, Ganymede is shown just before it ducks behind the giant planet.

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Nasa Offers $35,000 If You Can Help Them Spot Asteroids

NASA tries long-distance repair of Mars orbiter

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NASA scientists are working to bring the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been orbiting the Red Planet for eight years, back online after the spacecraft suffered a glitch Sunday.

The orbiter put itself into safe mode and swapped from its main computer to a backup, NASA said.

"The spacecraft is healthy, in communication and fully powered," said Dan Johnston, NASA's project manager for the orbiter. "We have stepped up the communication data rate, and we plan to have the spacecraft back to full operations within a few days."

Computerworld - NASA scientists are working to bring the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been orbiting the Red Planet for eight years, back online after the spacecraft suffered a glitch Sunday.

The orbiter put itself into safe mode and swapped from its main computer to a backup, NASA said.

"The spacecraft is healthy, in communication and fully powered," said Dan Johnston, NASA's project manager for the orbiter. "We have stepped up the communication data rate, and we plan to have the spacecraft back to full operations within a few days."

The orbiter is one of several NASA robotic machines that is studying the Red Planet. The spacecraft has been working in conjunction with the Mars rovers Curiosity and Opportunity, and another orbiter, the Odyssey.

In addition to studying Mars, the Reconnaissance orbiter relays data and images from Curiosity and Opportunity back to Earth, and relays commands from Earth to the rovers.

Sunday's glitch has kept NASA from receiving nformation about the movements of the two rovers. Scientists also have been unable to send new commands to the rovers.

This isn't the first time the orbiter has put itself into safe mode. NASA reported that this has happened four other times in the spacecraft's eight years in the Mars orbit. The last time it happened was in November 2011.

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NASA tries long-distance repair of Mars orbiter

NASA Offers Cash Prizes for Help Hunting Dangerous Asteroids

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Citizen scientists take note: You can help save the planet from threatening space rocks,and win some prize money to boot.

NASA and asteroid-mining company Planetary Resources have teamed up to launch a contest series called "Asteroid Data Hunter," which asks the public to develop algorithms that can help identify space rocks in Earth's neck of the cosmic woods. The contest series, which is managed by the NASA Tournament Lab, kicks off March 17 and runs through August, with a total of $35,000 in awards available, NASA officials said.

"Protecting the planet from the threat of asteroid impact means first knowing where they are," Jenn Gustetic, NASA Prizes and Challenges Program executive, said in a statement. "By opening up the search for asteroids, we are harnessing the potential of innovators and makers and citizen scientists everywhere to help solve this global challenge."

Asteroid Data Hunter asks participants to find new and improved ways to spot space rocks in images captured by ground-based telescopes. Winning solutions must minimize the number of false positives, increase detection sensitivity and run on all computer systems, officials said.

The contest series is the first one that contributes to NASA's Asteroid Grand Challenge, a sweeping effort announced last year that focuses on finding all potentially dangerous space rocks and figuring out how to prevent them from harming people here on Earth.

Asteroid Basics: A Space Rock Quiz

Asteroids are fascinating for lots of reasons. They contain a variety of valuable resources and slam into our planet on a regular basis, occasionally snuffing out most of Earth's lifeforms. How much do you know about space rocks?

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Asteroid Basics: A Space Rock Quiz

Asteroids are fascinating for lots of reasons. They contain a variety of valuable resources and slam into our planet on a regular basis, occasionally snuffing out most of Earth's lifeforms. How much do you know about space rocks?

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NASA Offers Cash Prizes for Help Hunting Dangerous Asteroids


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