On Thursday, NASA announced its astronaut class for 2017. Only 12 individuals out of 18,300 applicants made the cut. (And you thought your applicant pool was out of control!)

In a process spanning 541 days, NASA has determined how to select the very best of the best. (That for a civilian astronaut with a pay grade of less than $114,578 a year.)

Few organizations will need as extensive an accounting of background and psychological testing as NASA does. But how it conducts its onsite interviews is a lesson for any business wanting to hire the best.

NASA astronaut candidates have very little time to prepare for their in-person interview.

NASA prefers this -- presumably -- so that it gets the honest and raw interviewee, the unpolished, but still talented applicant, the applicant who becomes a co-worker after the "best foot forward" falls by the wayside.

Tip: Next time you bring your candidates in for an interview, shorten the notice window to see who is naturally prepared for the position.

Astronaut candidates arrive at the Johnson Space Center for initial interviews as a group.

They each interview individually, but many activities center around how the new group will work together.

Tip: If you are hiring multiple individuals at a time, bring them in together. See how this new crop of individuals will work together.

Astronaut recruits have a couple of opportunities to socialize with existing astronauts and staff. This gives them the ability to let their hair down (as always happens after a few weeks on the job).

This also allows NASA to determine how the batch of new recruits will get along with the existing organization.

Tip: Culture is key when hiring. Try and incorporate some socializing -- formal or informal -- with the existing team. Better to spot culture problems now, rather than in the future, when it will be costly.

The formal candidate interview is before a board and lasts only an hour. Each candidate is asked to prepare three to five reasons why he or she wants to be an astronaut.

And the interview goes from there, focusing mainly on what makes the applicant the person he or she is, rather than rehashing a written resume.

What is remarkable, at least according to first person accounts of Chris Martin and Sian Proctor, is how friendly and welcoming the process is. And this, for a very important position.

Tip: There is no room for aggressive interviewing. When people are in their most natural state, it shows how they will be on a daily basis.

Its true that much, much more goes into the hiring of an astronaut candidate (each still has two more years of interviewing to come). But you'd do well to follow NASA's in-person interviewing tactics to find your next best candidate.

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Want to Hire the Best? Copy How NASA Narrowed 18300 Applicants Down to 12 - Inc.com

This week, we learned how a $200 adult security blanket perfected a formula most startups struggle with, what it really takes to hire and keep great developers, and the skills required for NASAs futureastronauts class.

These are the stories you loved in leadership for the week of June 5:

Two hundred dollars might seem like a lot to pay for a blanket, but thats what Gravity, the self-described blanket for sleep, stress, and anxiety plansto charge its customers.The product recently raked in over $4.7 million in Kickstarter funding. How?According to BrianScordato, who heads an accelerator for early-stage founders, Gravity successfully got customers excited about an idea nobodys ever heard of. Thats something lots of startups fail at, and this week Scordato shared why.

In todays tech-centric workforce, its more crucial than ever for businesses to hire and retain talented programmers. Yet outside of Silicon Valley, theyre often treated like glorified typists, according to Stack Overflow COO JeffSzczepanski. This week he shared what steps companies can take to improve that state of affairs and make sure the best developers stick around for longer.

Is aliberal arts degree usefulin the modern job market or a waste of money? For three liberal arts graduates, it led to positions at a company that isntknown for hiring art history or English majorsMicrosoft. From developing communications for social chatbots to translating complicated AI concepts into simpler language, heres how those new hiresare using theirhumanities trainingin the tech world.

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From Adult Security Blankets To NASA's New Astronauts: This Week's Top Leadership Stories - Fast Company

HAMPTON

Bill Fredericks knew NASA had a good thing going in a battery-powered drone that could take off and land like a helicopter but fly like an airplane.

Dubbed Greased Lightning, the prototypes test flights were a success, but the space agency had only so much money to spend. Fredericks, a NASA engineer at the time and the drones 35-year-old lead inventor, thought it could do more, especially with hybrid power that might keep it airborne for 24 hours without a charge.

We develop technologies, and whether they work or they dont, you put them on the shelf and move on to the next one, he said.

So Fredericks licensed the technology and branched out on his own, making the switch from NASA researcher to full-time entrepreneur, starting Advanced Aircraft Co. in Hampton.

In an effort to help more people like Fredericks make the leap from the lab to the boardroom, the space agency has developed two new options:

One, the Entrepreneur Opportunity Program, will give NASA researchers a crash course in turning their technology into a business.

The other, the Entrepreneur in Residence program, will essentially embed a businessperson in the space agency who could dust off research otherwise relegated to a shelf and help find a commercial life for it off campus.

Either way, NASA hopes to put its technology to good use.

For Larry Thomsen III, a senior materials research engineer with NASA Langley for 16 years, the entrepreneurial opportunity program was the first time hes had to think about potential profits and costs for what hes making. Thomsen has spent half his years at the agency developing material to shield small satellites, or CubeSats, from atmospheric radiation.

Now hes just months away from sending a prototype into space. Radiation that might have ruined electronics inside a satellite within a couple of months might function for years with his shield, valuable time for missions that can cost up to $2 million in some cases. He said his shield material would cost a fraction of that, up to $30,000.

Thomsen has seen estimates that 500 small satellites are expected to be launched into space between now and 2019 satellites that might want his shield.

The agency has great technologists and researchers, but we dont know a daggone thing about business development, said Richard Antcliff, chief strategist at NASA Langley.

Plus, if MIT and Stanford can spin off a company, why cant NASA? Lets send the incredibly smart people with it, he said.

Those people are going to want customers, Antcliff said. And if the business doesnt work out, theres nothing preventing NASA from re-hiring them.

Outside the military, its a first-of-its-kind effort for a federal lab.

Its a trailblazing initiative, said Christie Funk, the programs coordinator at NASA. We are not only just trying to commercialize technologies, but were trying to commercialize them for the benefit of society.

The state has agreed to contribute $100,000 to the Entrepreneur in Residence programs first year. Virginia Technology Secretary Karen Jackson said that for her department to be involved, she wanted a focus on unmanned vehicle technology that could benefit the outside world.

She said the state also wanted someone who had been inside NASA and successfully started businesses outside of it to be involved. Douglas Juanarena, a graduate of Virginia Tech, fit the part.

He wasnt ready to move back to the Peninsula after 17 years in Blacksburg, so he wont be in residence, but hell be working with someone who will be: Jeff Johnson with the Virginia Tech Center Research Park in Newport News.

Theres a ton of technology inside NASA inside Jefferson Lab that we want to mine, Johnson said.

The two agencies spend $1 billion on research annually.

Juanarena said he would offer advice to help NASA researchers in making the jump across the chasm from the laboratory to the private sector.

He should know. He gave up a research position at NASA Langley to do that with Pressure Systems Inc., the sensor company he started in the 1977 at a time when the agency took a hands-off approach when one of its scientists got the entrepreneurial urge.

Now Juanarena hopes to help others in the agency bridge the gap with a bit of business guidance before they leave, akin to the simple, but probing, questions trademarked by consultant Wendy Kennedy: So what? Who cares? Why you?

Thats the essence of it, he said. So youve got this pretty baby, so what?

Will customers want it? If so, how many will buy it? Is it unique or a me-too? Whats the competition? How much is it going to cost to turn a prototype into a minimally viable product?

Some may find out that your baby isnt the prettiest baby out there, he said.

But if it is, the new program may help them go it on their own or find an existing company to shepherd it into existence.

NASA finished the first phase of its in-house program modeled after the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Five teams of researchers, including Fredericks and Thomsen, developing everything from sensors to radiation shields to drones, spent 12 weeks learning about possible customer needs and developing their product. The next six-month phase involves writing business plans, pitching investors and teaming up with other executives to help with specific roles.

Without the entrepreneurial training, Thomsen said he may never have known his technology might have other customers namely in medical fields or nuclear handling.

Unlike Fredericks, hes not giving up his day job quite yet, or perhaps ever. Its too early for that decision. While its been exciting to meet entrepreneurs in the program, he said he still likes the research life.

But he said what hes learned may already help him think about a product in the initial stages.

He said hed ponder: Whats the cost of the research were doing and how could somebody actually use it?

Fredericks found out he would need to raise several million dollars in seed money to make NASAs Greased Lightning a reality. So he pivoted, for the moment, to another drone hes calling Hercules.

He said it would require 90 percent less startup money. It would cost customers at least $60,000 for a base model more than twice as much as existing battery-powered, multi-rotor drones on the market.

But, he said his customers likely in the agriculture or mapping industries could survey a larger area, with less staff, because Hercules can fly longer: 3 hours with a full tank of gas, or two hours if its carrying something weighing 4 pounds.

In two years, Fredericks said he hopes to get back to making Greased Lightning, a vehicle that might whip along a line at 80 mph detecting anomalies along the way and slowing to a hover to inspect it more closely, all without a human being in sight. Its a feat that might appeal to the Defense Department or utilities that need to inspect lengthy power lines, railroad and pipelines. Eventually, he hopes to build a model large enough to carry four people.

For now, though, hes just hoping for a steady stream of revenue.

Then Ill be able to breathe a little easier, he said.

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NASA aims to get its technology off the shelf, out of the agency and into the marketplace - Virginian-Pilot

NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot discusses the agency's 2018 budget proposal before the House space subcommittee June 8. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

WASHINGTON House members criticized a NASA budget proposal for fiscal year 2018 that would cancel several Earth science projects and close the agencys education office.

In back-to-back hearings June 8 by the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee and the commerce, justice and science (CJS) subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, members expressed general support for the agencys $19.1 billion proposed budget.

However, members of both parties opposed the proposal to defund the Office of Education, which received $100 million in the fiscal year 2017 appropriations bill. The office would receive $37.3 million in 2018 to close out its operations.

Im concerned about, in your budget, your cuts to the Office of Education, said Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), a former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee who is now a member of the CJS subcommittee. I cant understand why you would want to cut that.

NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot, the sole witness at both hearings, said the decision was the outcome of an assessment on how the agency could do its outreach activities more efficiently. We felt we could balance them better, he said of the various NASA education activities, including those in its mission directorates. We felt like, in the balance of things, we could do this more effectively, in a different way.

However, Rogers and other members criticized the cuts to programs such as Space Grant, Experimental Project To Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) and Minority University Research and Education Program, which are all part of the Office of Education. Members expressed concern about how the cuts would affect programs in their home states.

Rep. Evan Jenkins (R-W.V.), a member of the CJS subcommittee, pressed Lightfoot in particular on the fate of EPSCoR, which supports research infrastructure in underserved regions of the country. When Lightfoot said EPSCoR would not be funded in the proposal, Jenkins responded, I will be going to bat because I believe that EPSCoR has been very effective.

This budget request zeroes out funding for three long-standing programs within NASAs Office of Education, said Rep. Jos Serrano (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the CJS subcommittee. I hope we can work together, in a bipartisan manner, to preserve these programs that so greatly benefit the American people.

Serrano and other Democrats on both committees also criticized the planned cuts to NASAs Earth science program, including the termination of five projects. I do want to make sure that the Earth sciences mission is also protected, said Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), ranking member of the space subcommittee.

At both hearings, Lightfoot said that NASA used a three-tier process to determine what Earth science projects to cut. We said what is in the decadal [survey], what gives us the best science value for the return for what were doing and how they are performing, he said at the space subcommittee hearing.

We still have 20 operating missions, we still have an airborne science campaign, were spending $1.7 billion on Earth science and have a pretty good portfolio that allows us to understand whats happening, he said at the CJS subcommittee hearing.

Most Republican members of both committees supported the Earth science cuts. The budget promotes a much better balance among NASAs many scientific endeavors, especially for planetary science, and starts to reverse the significant growth in Earth science, said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science Committee.

An exception, though, was Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), a member of the space subcommittee, who opposed NASAs plans to cancel the Radiation Budget Instrument being built by Harris Corp. in his district. I would like to work with you, and my colleagues, to make sure that we dont discard investments that weve already made in these next-generation technologies, he told Lightfoot.

Much larger, and often more controversial, programs like the Space Launch System, Orion spacecraft and commercial crew programs received far less scrutiny at the hearings. Lightfoot reiterated the rationale behind the decision announced in May to not place a crew on the first SLS/Orion mission, and the reasons for delaying that mission to some time in 2019.

The fiscal year 2018 NASA budget shows that Congress and the administration both support a consistent, focused space program, Smith said. The requested levels for those key human spaceflight programs, he said, are realistic and reasonable, providing an increased level of stability and continuity of purpose.

Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), chairman of the CJS subcommittee, noted in his opening statement that he had worked in the past to fully fund SLS and Orion. Later, he asked Lightfoot if he was confident in the current schedule for SLS and Orion. When Lightfoot said he was, Culberson offered a one-word response: Terrific.

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House members criticize proposed NASA education and Earth science cuts - SpaceNews

At least a dozen NASA employees have been caught watching porn at the office since 2015 by the agencys Inspector General (IG), including several with images of children in sexual situations, according to documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundations Investigative Group.

The government employees resigned or retired to avoid termination in some cases, IG reports show. The probes were often initiated after investigators noticed search terms used on NASAs network that suggested child exploitation. The reports were received through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

A NASA intern faced four months in prison after downloading child porn on the agencys network, TheDCNF previously reported. (EXCLUSIVE: Feds Wouldnt Prosecute NASA Intern Caught Downloading Kiddie Porn)

Another employee retired after getting caught with thousands of images of young girls in provocative poses two of which were pornographic. Officials at NASA knew about his sexual attraction to underage girls, but granted him a security clearance anyway. (EXCLUSIVE: Known Perv With Emotional Problems Got NASA Security Clearance, Then Caught With Child Porn)

Below are examples of additional NASA employees and contractors who viewed porn during work hours, or discussed child exploitation over the agencys network.

NASA Contractor Had 13,000 Pornographic Pictures On His Government Computer

Investigators discovered approximately 333 photographs of what appears to be adult pornography on a NASA contractors government-issued computer, a November 2016 IG report said. Additional probing revealed another 13,000 pornographic images.

There was one photograph that appeared to depict a nude female minor at the beach, the report said. The age for nude females in 55 more photos couldnt be determined.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported that none of the 56 photographs depicted known victims of sexual exploitation of children, the report said.The employee ultimately resigned.

NASA Contractor Calls His Porn Art

A contracted employee working for the space agency downloaded more than 1,000 images of adult pornography or sexually explicit material on his NASA computer, which he viewed during work hours, a November 2015 IG report said.

Many of the files were located in a folder created by the user, on the users profile Desktop folder, indicating that they were accessible and in plain-view when the computer Desktop was visible, the report continued.

The employee admitted to looking at photographic images of nude women while at work and during work hours, but he did not understand that the material he was viewing was considered pornography, the IG report said. The employee said he considered it art.

The contractor, SAIC, took appropriate and immediate action, and the individual was no longer a SAIC employee, but its unclear if he was fired.

NASA Employee Searched For NSFW Terms, Indicated Child Exploitation

Investigators discovered a contracted NASA employee was visiting websites with domain names that appear to contain pornography and search terms commonly associated with the sexual exploitation of children, a July 2015 IG report said.

The search terms include: Male Ejaculation Boys, Boy Premature Ejaculation, Tiny Teen Deep Throat, the report continued.

Investigators found the employee did not view any child pornography. He ultimately had his NASA network access revoked nearly one year after his searches were discovered though its unclear how he could work without it.

The time frame mentioned above relates to conducting the investigation to include digital analysis of all media, NASA IG Executive Officer Renee Juhans told TheDCNF.

NASA Employee Pretends To Be A Child While Having Sex With Other Men

A NASA employee and another individual discussed what appeared to be associated with the sexual exploitation and abuse of minors over email, a March 2015 IG report said.

Four individuals in total, including the NASA employee, discussed their sexual desires toward children in emails and chats on NASAs network. The NASA official participated in role-playing as children while engaging in sexual intercourse with other adult males, the report said.

Investigators, however, found no nude photos of children.The official would have been fired had he not taken action that was redacted from the report.

A spokesman for NASA did not respond to TheDCNFs requests for comment.

Follow Ethan on Twitter. Send tips to [emailprotected].

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [emailprotected].

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NASA Pervs Called Their Porn 'Art,' Enjoyed Role-Playing As Children - The Daily Caller

NASA chose 12 new astronauts Wednesday from its biggest pool of applicants ever, selecting seven men and five women who could one day fly aboard the nation's next generation of spacecraft. (June 8) AP

In this photo obtained from NASA, the 2017 NASA astronaut candidates stop to take a group photo while getting fitted for flight suits at Ellington Field near NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on June 7, 2017.(Photo: HO, AFP/Getty Images)

Talk about the right stuff.

NASA on Wednesday named a dozen new astronauts seven men and five women selected from a record pool of more than 18,000applicants, more than double the previous high of 8,000.

You are the 12 who made it through, you have joined the elites, you are the best of us, Vice President Mike Pence said during a ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston."You carry on your shoulders the hopes and dreams of the American people."

NASA's diverse Class of 2017 includes six military officers, two of them doctors. It includesa marine biologist involved in Antarctic expeditions, a geologist who has worked with NASAs Mars Curiosity rover, and a SpaceX engineer who might ride a rocket and capsule he helped design.

We do things because they are hard, and then we crush it, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Raja Chari, a 39-year-old test pilot from Iowa, when asked about the opportunity to fly a spaceship.

The group ranges in age from 29 to 42 andhails from 10 states. Each member holds an advanced degree.

Families and VIP guests cheered as the astronaut candidates, as they will be called until completing a two-year training program, walked onto a stage wearing blue NASA flight suits.

Chari was joined by Kayla Barron, 29; Zena Cardman, 29;Matthew Dominick, 35; Bob Hines, 42; Warren "Woody" Hoburg, 31;Dr. Jonny Kim, 33; Robb Kulin, 33; Jasmin Moghbeli, 33; Loral OHara, 34; Dr. Francisco"Frank" Rubio, 41; and Jessica Watkins, 29.

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The future astronauts might perform science research aboard the International Space Station, flying to the orbiting laboratory in Boeing Starliner or SpaceX Dragon capsules launching from Cape Canaveral, or in Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

They could be assigned to the first exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit since the last Apollo moon landing in 1972.

The 2017 astronaut class is NASAs 22nd, nearly 60 years after the 1959 introduction of the Mercury Seven amid a space race with the Soviet Union.

To apply, applicants had to be a U.S. citizen, have a degree in a science, technology, engineering or mathfield and at least three years of related experience, or at least 1,000 hours piloting jet aircraft.

Starting last year, selection teams winnowed the field of18,353applicants to 120 and then 50 finalists.

The astronauts-in-training will report to Houston in August to begin studying space station systems, learning Russian and flying T-38 jets.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 orjdean@floridatoday.com. And follow on Twitter at@flatoday_jdeanand on Facebook atfacebook.com/jamesdeanspace.

SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket on a mission to the International Space Station and landed the first stage at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station shortly after on Saturday, June 3, 2017.

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SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch included a 13,500-pound satellite that's close to the size of a double-decker bus. USA TODAY

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SpaceX launched a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload from Kennedy Space Center Monday morning and successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket.

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An Atlas V rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday, April 18, 2017 with a Cygnus spacecraft for the International Space Station.

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In a historic first for the company and the industry, SpaceX launched and landed a "flight proven," or refurbished, Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center.

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A Delta IV rocket carrying the military's WGS-9 satellite blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday, March 18, 2017.

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SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Kennedy Space Center with the EchoStar 23 communications satellite on Thursday, March 16, 2017.

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully blasted off from Kennedy Space Center's historic pad 39A on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. The first stage returned for a successful landing in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

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An Atlas V rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with the SBIRS missile detection satellite on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.

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SpaceX launches Falcon 9 from KSC, lands at Cape

SpaceX launches satellite size of a double-decker bus

SpaceX launches Falcon 9 from KSC, nails landing

Atlas V rocket blasts off on mission with Cygnus spacecraft

SpaceX launches, lands 'flight proven' Falcon 9

Delta IV rocket launches from Cape Canaveral

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Kennedy Space Center

Falcon 9 blasts off from KSC, lands at Cape

Atlas V rocket blasts off with missile detection satellite

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NASA had a record pool of 18000 applicants to be an astronaut. These 12 made it. - USA TODAY

On February 6th, 1971, Alan Shepherd, pulled out a 6-iron, lined up his approach, and let flyan occurrence that wouldn't be worth noting if weren't for the fact that it HAPPENED ON THE GOD DAMN MOON. 46 years later, Shepherd's (literal) moon shot remains the only instance of a human playing golf anywhere other than earth, but as NASA's Martian explorations intensify, it's time to set our sights on the dry, windswept links of Red Planet CC.

To that end (and, you know, science's too), on Thursday morning NASA unveiled their 2020 Mars Rover, a 6-wheeled research behemoth intergalactic golf machine, replete with on-course GPS, shot-tracker technology (on the premium model), and a mobile laboratory that can hold a couple sets of clubs when you're not using it to collect rare protein samples that might hold the key to extraterrestrial life.

Oh, and as if that's not enough, the Mars Rover conceptNASA says this bad boy will look A LOT different by the time it hits the first tee/Marsalso comes with an emergency life support system, which is sure to come in handy when that three putt on 18 looses the inevitable, golf-induced aneurism you've been holding back for years.

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NASA's Mars Rover concept looks like the ultimate extraterrestrial golf cart - GolfDigest.com

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NASA hasselected 12 men and women as their newest class of astronaut recruits. Among them are a man and woman with ties to Hampton Roads!

The 12 candidates were chosen from a pool of 18,300+ applicants, which is more than double the previous record of 8,000 set in 1978.

The 2017 NASA Astronaut Class: (from left) Zena Cardman, Jasmin Moghbeli, Jonny Kim, Frank Rubio, Matthew Dominick, Warren Hoburg, Robb Kulin, Kayla Barron, Bob Hines, Raja Chari, Loral O' Hara and Jessica Watkins. Photo Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz

Zena Cardman

One of the chosen candidates is Zena Cardman, 29, a native of Williamsburg and graduate of Bruton High School who is currently National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow working on her doctorate at The Pennsylvania State University. Cardman has completed both a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and a Master of Science degree in Marine Sciences at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. NASA says her research has focused on microorganisms in subsurface environments, ranging from caves to deep sea sediments. Her field experience includes multiple Antarctic expeditions, work aboard research vessels as both scientist and crew, and NASA analog missions in British Columbia, Idaho and Hawaii.

Matthew Dominick

Matthew Dominick, 35, is another one of the chosen candidates with ties to Hampton Roads. Dominick is a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy and although he is a Colorado native, he was stationed at Naval Air Station Oceana for some time as part of Strike Fighter Squadron 106 and Strike Fighter Squadron 143. He has graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and has logged more than 1,600 hours of flight time in 28 aircraft, 400 carrier-arrested landings, and flown 61 combat missions. He has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of San Diego and a Master of Science degree in Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School.Dominick is currently a part of Strike Fighter Squadron 115, forward stationed in Atsugi, Japan. He was at sea on the USS Ronald Reagan when he learned of his selection as an Astronaut Candidate.

Cardman, Dominick and the 10 other Astronaut Candidates will report for duty in August to begin their training.

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Two 2017 NASA Astronaut Candidates have ties to Hampton Roads - wtkr.com

NASA's prolific Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission has returned a treasure trove of observations about asteroids, comets and other celestial objects within Earth's cosmic neighborhood.

Since 2013, when NASA reactivatedits WISE observatory a the NEOWISE mission, the infrared space telescope has discovered 114 previously unknown objects, 97 of them in the last year alone, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). That lab oversees the mission from Pasadena, California. The mission has characterized about 693 objects in all, many of them previously known, so far. [In Images: Potentially Dangerous Asteroids]

"NEOWISE is not only discovering previously uncharted asteroids and comets, but it is [also] providing excellent data on many of those already in our catalog," NEOWISE principal investigator Amy Mainzer of JPLsaid in a statement. "It is also proving to be an invaluable tool in the refining and perfecting of techniques for near-Earth object discovery and characterization by a space-based infrared observatory."

This animation shows the progress of NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer, or NEOWISE, mission during its first three years. The mission began with the WISE space telescope's reactivation in December 2013.

An animation of NEOWISE data collected since 2013 shows the mission's progress. In the graphic, comets appear as yellow squares and asteroids are marked as gray dots. Green dots represent asteroids and comets that approach within 1.3 astronomical units of the sun. One astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and sun, about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers).

The NEOWISE mission began its life as NASA'sWide-field Infrared Survey Explorer(WISE), an infrared space telescope that launched in 2009. That mission ended in 2011, and the observatory was placed in hibernation.

But in September 2013, NASA reactivated WISE to begin the NEOWISE mission, a project specifically aimed at helping scientists seek out and identify potentially hazardous asteroids and comets.

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him@tariqjmalikandGoogle+. Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookandGoogle+. Original article onSpace.com.

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NASA's Asteroid-Hunting NEOWISE Discovers Trove of 114 Objects (Video) - Space.com

A constant barrage of half-truths has left many Americans confused about the potential consequences of continued carbon emissions, despite the science being unequivocal, says Ellen Stofan. Photograph: Saul Loeb/Getty Images

Americans are under siege from disinformation designed to confuse the public about the threat of climate change, Nasas former chief scientist has said.

Speaking to the Guardian, Ellen Stofan, who left the US space agency in December, said that a constant barrage of half-truths had left many Americans oblivious to the potentially dire consequences of continued carbon emissions, despite the science being unequivocal.

We are under siege by fake information thats being put forward by people who have a profit motive, she said, citing oil and coal companies as culprits. Fake news is so harmful because once people take on a concept its very hard to dislodge it.

During the past six months, the US science community has woken up to this threat, according to Stofan, and responded by ratcheting up efforts to communicate with the public at the grassroots level as well as in the mainstream press.

The harder part is this active disinformation campaign, she said before her appearance at Cheltenham Science Festival this week. Im always wondering if these people honestly believe the nonsense they put forward. When they say It could be volcanoes or the climate always changes to obfuscate and to confuse people, it frankly makes me angry.

Stofan added that while fake news is frequently characterised as a problem in the right-leaning media, she saw evidence of an erosion of peoples ability to scrutinise information across the political spectrum. All of us have a responsibility, she said. Theres this attitude of I read it on the internet therefore it must be true.

Stofan resigned from her post at the top of Nasa in December, before the US election results. It wasnt anything to do with it, but Im glad Im not there now, she said.

However, she welcomed the continued commitment to Nasas Mars program in the most recent budget and was relieved that cuts to the agencys Earth observation program, which contributes to climate and environment monitoring, were relatively small, at $167m (the total Earth science budget is now $1.754bn).

Throughout her career, Stofan has highlighted the role of planetary science in understanding the Earths environment and said it provided some of the most inarguable proof that atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to a warmer climate. She draws parallels between carbon emissions on Earth and the runaway greenhouse effect on Venus, a planet which once had oceans but is now a toxic inferno with surface temperatures approaching 500C.

The Earth is not destined for such an extreme scenario even if all the CO2 were burned its oceans would not boil off completely but Venus demonstrates the dramatic changes that can unfold when the fine balance of planets atmosphere is tipped.

We wont go all the way to Venus, but the consequences of putting more and more CO2 into the atmosphere are really dire, she said. There are models that suggest if we burn off all our fossil fuels, the Earth would become uninhabitable for humans.

The quest to find habitable zones beyond the Earth has been a major motivation throughout Stofans scientific career and she said that the answer to the question of the existence of extraterrestrial life-forms suddenly seems within reach.

Missions to capture water coming from the plumes of Europa and Enceladus, could yield the first indications. The search is requiring scientists to be imaginative and open-minded about what alien life might look like it might involve complex molecules, but be DNA-free, for instance.

The uncertainty over what hypothetical alien life would even look like means that any initial discovery could be ambiguous and a source of scientific dispute, Stofan predicts. It would be great if when we found life it was easy and we image a droplet of liquid and something goes swimming across it, no ones going to disagree with that, she said.

A more realistic scenario is that it would take decades for confirmation, and this reasoning is why Stofan is a strong advocate of a manned Mars mission, arguing that a robotic rover would not be capable of reliably confirming the existence of life, past or present, that might be lurking beneath the surface.

Human explorers could operate drills designed to extract soil samples from far deeper than the few inches achieved by Nasas Curiosity rover, or the two metres limit anticipated for Esas upcoming ExoMars mission, and could perform more sophisticated scientific analysis. She predicts humans could orbit the red planet within 20 years and reach the surface in 30.

I still feel that to settle the question and to have agreement its going to have a lot of samples and a lot of analysis and to me that means humans, she said.

However, she dismissed the idea, popularised by Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, that mankind should be preparing to colonise other planets to avoid self-annihilation. I dont see a mass transfer of humanity to Mars, ever, she said, adding that she had been concerned recently when a teacher told her that her pupils thought the climate doesnt matter as well all go and live on Mars.

Job one is to keep this planet habitable. Id hate us to lose focus on that, she said.

See the rest here:

Americans 'under siege' from climate disinformation former Nasa chief scientist - The Guardian

NASA announced 12 new astronauts for its 2017 class on Wednesday, June 7. NASA

The 2017 NASA Astronaut Class: (from left) Zena Cardman, Jasmin Moghbeli, Jonny Kim, Frank Rubio, Matthew Dominick, Warren Hoburg, Robb Kulin, Kayla Barron, Bob Hines, Raji Chari, Loral O'Hara and Jessica Watkins.(Photo: NASA/Robert Markowitz)

Talk about the right stuff.

NASA on Wednesday named a dozen new astronauts seven men and five women selected from a record pool of more than 18,000applicants, more than double the previous high of 8,000.

You are the 12 who made it through, you have joined the elites, you are the best of us, Vice President Mike Pence said during a ceremony at Johnson Space Center in Houston."You carry on your shoulders the hopes and dreams of the American people."

The diverse Class of 2017, ranging in age from 29 to 42, includes six military officers, two of them doctors. It includesa biologist involved in Antarctic expeditions, a geologist who has worked with NASAs Mars Curiosity rover, and a SpaceX engineer who might ride a capsule he helped design.

We do things because they are hard, and then we crush it, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Raja Chari, a 39-year-old test pilot from Iowa, when asked how he felt about the chance to fly a spaceship.

[SpaceX bets the house to become satellite internet provider]

[SpaceX to launch Air Force's X-37B mini-shuttle]

Families and VIP guests cheered as the astronaut candidates, as they will be called until completing a two-year training program, walked onto a stage wearing NASA-issued blue flight suits.

Chari was joined by Kayla Barron, 29; Zena Cardman, 29;Matthew Dominick, 35; Bob Hines, 42; Warren "Woody" Hoburg, 31;Dr. Jonny Kim, 33; Robb Kulin, 33; Jasmin Moghbeli, 33; Loral OHara, 34; Dr. Frank Rubio, 41; and Jessica Watkins, 29.

The future astronauts might perform science research aboard the International Space Station, flying to the orbiting laboratory in Boeing Starliner or SpaceX Dragon capsules launching from Cape Canaveral, or possibly in Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

They could be assigned to the first exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit since the last Apollo moon shot in 1972.

NASA in the early 2020s hopes to start launching crews from Kennedy Space Center in Orion capsules lifted by the Saturn V-class Space Launch System rocket. Astronauts will work in the area around the moon as a proving ground for eventual Mars missions.

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That would be a dream come true for Moghbeli, who in sixth grade wrote a book report about the first woman in space, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova in 1963.

Moghbeli, from Baldwin, New York,said her experience as a Marine Corps major and helicopter test pilot had taught her to work outside her comfort zone, "pushed me to the point of failure, and taught me to get back up and to keep trying and to keep pressing."

Houston native O'Hara's second grade class grew tomatoesfrom seeds that flew on the space shuttle.

"Those early experiences really hooked me and are a big part of what ignited the dream to be an astronaut," she said. "Alot of our class shares that curiosity and excitement for exploring the world and going farther than anyone has gone before."

The 2017 astronaut class is NASAs 22nd, nearly 60 years after the 1959 introduction of the Mercury Seven amid a space race with the Soviet Union.

To apply, applicants had to be a U.S. citizen, have a degree in a science, technology, engineering or mathfield and at least three years of related experience, or at least 1,000 hours piloting jet aircraft.

Starting last year, selection teams winnowed the field of18,353 applicants to 120 and then 50 finalists.

Last month Dominick, aNaval aviator sailing in the western Pacific Ocean aboard the USS Ronald Reagan struggled to get a call through to NASA, but finally learned he'd been offered the job.

"It was awesome," he said. "I couldnt even get yes out. I had goosebumps."

The new crop of astronauts are joining NASA as it continues a bumpy transition following the shuttle programs retirement in 2011.

Six years later, the United States still needs Russia to get people to and from orbit. That reliance is expected to end next year when commercial crew systems being designed by Boeing and SpaceX start flying.

The first test flight of the SLS and Orion, without a crew, has slipped from 2017 to 2019.

The Trump administration had hoped for an exciting exploration mission during the current four-yearterm, but has not yet signaled any major shiftsin strategy or nominated a new leader for NASA.

Pence on Wednesday confirmed he would lead a revived National Space Council, which will attempt to better coordinate NASA, military and commercial space programs.

The U.S. will usher in a new era of space exploration that will benefit every facet of our national life, said Pence.

The new astronauts-in-training will report to Houston to begin studying space station systems, learning Russian and flying T-38 jets.

Kulin, a former commercial fisherman in Alaska who now leads SpaceX's Launch Chief Engineering Group in California,could one day earn a flight assignment to the ISS on the company's Dragon spacecraft.

"Hopefully one day Ill actually fly on a vehicle that has components I designed," he said. "Its been an incredible ride all around."

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. And follow on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean and on Facebook at facebook.com/jamesdeanspace.

SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket on a mission to the International Space Station and landed the first stage at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station shortly after on Saturday, June 3, 2017.

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SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch included a 13,500-pound satellite that's close to the size of a double-decker bus. USA TODAY

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SpaceX launched a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload from Kennedy Space Center Monday morning and successfully landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket.

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An Atlas V rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday, April 18, 2017 with a Cygnus spacecraft for the International Space Station.

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In a historic first for the company and the industry, SpaceX launched and landed a "flight proven," or refurbished, Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center.

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A Delta IV rocket carrying the military's WGS-9 satellite blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday, March 18, 2017.

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SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Kennedy Space Center with the EchoStar 23 communications satellite on Thursday, March 16, 2017.

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully blasted off from Kennedy Space Center's historic pad 39A on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. The first stage returned for a successful landing in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

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An Atlas V rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with the SBIRS missile detection satellite on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.

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SpaceX launches Falcon 9 from KSC, lands at Cape

SpaceX launches satellite size of a double-decker bus

SpaceX launches Falcon 9 from KSC, nails landing

Atlas V rocket blasts off on mission with Cygnus spacecraft

SpaceX launches, lands 'flight proven' Falcon 9

Delta IV rocket launches from Cape Canaveral

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Kennedy Space Center

Falcon 9 blasts off from KSC, lands at Cape

Atlas V rocket blasts off with missile detection satellite

Read or Share this story: http://on.flatoday.com/2s5boRx

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NASA introduces new astronauts - Florida Today

Today, NASA is announcing to the world its newest class of astronauts at the space agencys Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. This is the new group of people who could potentially fly on brand-new vehicles into lower Earth orbit or into deep space one day. Around a dozen lucky and incredibly talented humans will join the ranks of the astronaut corps this afternoon, which currently boasts 44 people who are eligible for flight assignments.

The newest class was handpicked from more than 18,300 hopefuls who applied between December 2015 and February 2016 the highest amount of submissions NASA has ever received during an open call. Before this, around 8,000 was the record for most submissions in 1978. To be picked, people have to meet a certain set of criteria such as having a bachelors degree in a STEM field or experience flying jet aircraft and then go through rounds of interviews. So todays new astronauts have gone through a lot to get to this point.

More than 18,300 hopefuls applied between December 2015 and February 2016

And this latest class may have the chance to ride on some entirely novel spacecraft that are currently in development. As of now, the only ride astronauts have is the Russian Soyuz rocket, which ferries people to and from the International Space Station. But both SpaceX and Boeing are working on vehicles the Dragon and CST-100 Starliner, respectively that will be able to take astronauts to the ISS; those are slated to start flying as early as 2018. Plus, NASA is also developing the Orion crew capsule, designed to carry people into deep space when launched on top of a new rocket called the Space Launch System; that vehicle is slated to start carrying people in the 2020s. After two years of training, the new astronaut class could be assigned to any of these new spacecraft.

Todays announcement gets underway at 2PM ET, and its shaping up to be a dynamic show. Vice President Mike Pence will even be in attendance in Houston. So check back here this afternoon to see who made the cut.

View original post here:

Watch NASA announce its newest class of astronauts this afternoon - The Verge

PASADENA, CAIn the latest troubling update from the multi-year survey mission, scientists at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory received another set of depressing photos from the martian surface taken by the Morbid Curiosity Rover, sources at the agency confirmed Wednesday.

The Morbid Curiosity Rover, an all-black, semi-autonomous robot launched from Cape Canaveral in 2013, was intended to provide a range of geological and environmental data about the red planet. However, after years of pretentiously dreary and self-pitying uplinks from the vehicle, scientists say they now dread even having to look at each new message it transmits the 33.9 million miles back to Earth.

The latest images from Morbid Curiosity are more of what weve come to expect at this pointphotos of the night sky framed to block out any stars, sullen self-portraits taken against a backdrop of carbon dioxide ice, and lots and lots of dust, said senior engineer Eshan Shah, adding that, despite having a full-color onboard camera, every image the rover has sent back so far has been in stark black and white. When we designed the mission, we thought Morbid Curiosity might help uncover some of the planets mysteries. Of course, that was before we began receiving 6-terabyte data dumps of just the word bleak repeated hundreds of billions of times.

Frankly, its testing the patience of everyone on this project, Shah added.

A series of dreary images that NASA recently received from the Morbid Curiosity Rover.

NASA sources said they noticed early on that there seemed to be something wrong with Morbid Curiosity when the rover showed little interest in engaging in any of its programmed research activities, preferring instead to maneuver aimlessly around the surface with its primary camera fixed toward the ground.

The research team had initially hoped that the rover, which reportedly wears studded leather cuffs on each of its axles, was simply going through a phase. However, scientists said that during its years on Mars, Morbid Curiosity has only sunk deeper into a petulant, exasperating rut, sticking to its own lonely corner of the northern hemisphere as far away from other rovers as possible.

Most days, it takes several hours of back-and-forth just to coax it out of the crater its rolled into before we can get a basic barometric reading, said engineer Miranda Pollack, adding that the rover typically abandons its assigned tasks at the first sign of adversity, often breaking off to trace pictures of coffins in the martian soil with its excavator tool. Weve tried motivating it to take more of an interest in its surroundings, but it always comes back with some excuse about how its out of energy, even though we can clearly see its radioisotope power source is working just fine.

I think in its entire three years on the planet its only moved about 600 meters, Pollack added.

On several occasions, Morbid Curiositys depressive behavior has caused NASA to worry about its well-being and safety. In one instance, the rover reportedly cut off all contact with mission control and refused to respond to commands for weeks despite telemetric data indicating that it was still receiving researchers transmissions. When the rover finally reestablished contact, it did so by sending back disturbing photos of crosshatch scars it had made on its robotic arm using its own laser cutting module.

Although NASA staff theorize the incident was likely a plea for attention, researchers say Morbid Curiositys repeated vague threats to harm itself have made them even warier of working with the rover.

A couple months ago it sent us a massive file titled despair, and honestly, Ive just been avoiding opening it, said assistant director Alicia Herritz, adding that researchers have also taken to ignoring Morbid Curiositys hourly temperature readings, which regularly report the rover to be at absolute zero, even though the surrounding martian atmosphere is 220 degrees Celsius warmer. I actually felt kind of relieved when it looked like it had suffered a terminal malfunction last fall, but it turned out it had just gotten the purple lace choker on its mast camera stuck on a rock outcrop. I mean, is it really going to keep acting like this for the rest of its 15-year operational lifespan?

At press time, the Morbid Curiosity rover was reportedly ignoring operators frantic pleas to back away from the 16,000-foot cliff of the Valles Marineris canyon.

Here is the original post:

NASA Receives More Depressing Photos Of Mars' Surface From Morbid Curiosity Rover - The Onion (satire)

NASA showed off a prototype of a new Mars rover, reminiscent of a vehicle from Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy.

Posting the announcement on Facebook, NASA's Kennedy Space Center described it as a "fierce new Mars rover concept vehicle," adding that the rover could be used to help explore Mars.

The rover, which was designed by SeaDek and Parker Brothers Concepts, is similar in size and features to the Tumbler that Batman, played by Christian Bale, uses in the movies.

NASA TAKES AIM AT ASTEROID VALUABLE ENOUGH TO CRASH WORLD ECONOMY

Below is a video of the rover:

In an interview with CBS News, Shanon Parker said parts of the concept were "just for design," adding it was "for it to look cool." Shanon, who designed it with his brother Marc, added, "Other things that I thought, you know, this is kind of important to have.

The concept vehicle is 28 feet long, 14 feet wide and 11 feet tall and is made of aluminum ad carbon-fiber. Weighing in at 5,000 pounds, the vehicle could split itself in two pieces, with one dedicated for a laboratory and the other for scouting purposes.

Though the design is not slated to go into production to traverse the red planet, it will be on display at the Space Center until July 4 in an effort to educate visitors about the planet.

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NASA's new Mars rover looks like a Batman vehicle - Fox News

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NASA is right to pay homage to the living for the first time - New Scientist

NASA's Parker Solar Probe, set to launch in 2018, will be humanity's first effort to "touch the Sun," revolutionizing our understanding of the Sun's corona, the solar wind, and the greater heliosphere.

An artist's conception of the Parker Solar Probe taking leave of Earth. JHU / APL

NASA has announced that they are retitling the Solar Probe Plus, humanity's first mission to the outer layers of the Sun, the Parker Solar Probe. The new name honors astrophysicist Eugene Parker, whose years' of work in the field known as "space weather" have helped us understand the interactions between stars and their orbiting bodies.

In the latter half of the 1950s, a young professor teaching astronomy and physics at the University of Chicago's Enrico Fermi Institute, Eugene Parker, published an article in the Astrophysical Journal entitled "Dynamics of the interplanetary gas and magnetic fields." The paper introduced the idea of a wind emanating from the Sun, a concept so controversial that two reviewers rejected the paper. In the end, it was only published because Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the journal's science editor at the time (and no stranger himself to rejection for revolutionary thinking), overruled the reviewers' decisions.

Much of Parker's work at the time focused on the Sun's radiation and its potential effects on the planets. In his 1958 paper, Parker hypothesized that there was a constant stream of high-energy particles and radiation escaping from the surface of the Sun, an idea that ran contrary to the accepted view of the time that this space contained only a vacuum. But it was controversial only for a little while in 1962 Mariner 2 confirmed the existence of the solar wind.

This illustration shows the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft approaching the Sun. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

While observations proved the solar wind existed, they weren't able to fully answer how or why the Sun's tenuous outer atmosphere, or corona, should sear at a temperature of millions of degrees. The Sun's visible surface, after all, is only several thousand degrees, so something must be heating the matter farther from the Sun, but scientists have long debated what that process could be. The Parker Solar Probe will address that fundamental question, completing seven flybys of Venus between 2018 and 2024 to slowly spiral into orbits that take it within 3.9 million miles (9 solar radii) of the Sun.

At its closest approach, the spacecraft will hurtle around the Sun at 430,000 mph (200 kilometers per second) at a distance nearly ten times closer to the Sun than Mercury (on average), and seven times closer than any spacecraft has ever come before. The probe will perform its scientific investigations in a region of intense heat and radiation, and its instruments must thereby be protected by a 4.5-inch thick carbon-composite heat shield, able to withstand temperatures of up to 2,500F.

The mission's main goal is to trace heat and energy flow through the corona and explore what causes charged particles to accelerate away from the surface of the Sun. To that end, the instrument aboard the Parker Solar probe will study every aspect of the Sun from its magnetic and electric fields to the solar wind.

Together, these instruments will help unlock the answers to the Sun's most puzzling questions all the while helping to protect a society that is becoming increasingly dependent on satellites and other technology vulnerable to the threats of space weather.

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NASA's Parker Solar Probe to Touch the Sun - SkyandTelescope.com

Casey Dreier June6,2017

Not all is well with the future of Mars exploration

NASAs robotic Mars Exploration Program is on a troubling path of declineand decisions must be made now in order to stop it.

This is the conclusion my colleague Jason Callahan and I reached as we prepared a new report for The Planetary Society: Mars in Retrograde: A Pathway to Restoring NASAs Mars Exploration Program (pdf). I urge you to download it and read it yourself.

Since its formation in the year 2000, the Mars Exploration Program has systematically worked to understand the Red Planet through robotic missions of exploration. It realized a revolution in humanitys knowledge of Mars, and methodically worked toward the top goal of Mars sciencesample return to Eartha goal which could advance our search for life and reveal untold secrets into Mars ancient past.

The robotic program also provided precious information to support human exploration, collecting radiation measurements, landing data, resource characterization, and surface mapping for future missions.

But we found a fundamental contradiction in NASAs extant Mars plans: there is not much of a program within the Mars Exploration Program.

Currently, NASA has a single mission developmentthe Mars 2020 rover (InSight, which launches in 2018, is part of the Discovery program). There have been no new mission starts for Mars since 2013, one of the longest droughts in recent history.

But the existing Mars missions are aging and wont last forever. A new orbiter is badly needed to relay high-speed communications with ground missions and to provide high resolution mapping of the surface to support landing attempts by NASA and others (not to mention provide important science). Yet the latest budget release for 2018 contained no new start for this critical mission.

Our report makes three recommendations for NASA:

NASA should immediately commit to a Mars telecommunications and high-resolution imaging orbiter to replace rapidly aging assets currently at Mars.

NASA should begin formulation of a sample retrieval rover and Mars Ascent Vehicle mission to continue the overall Mars Sample Return campaign.

NASA should formulate a follow-on strategy to the Robotic Mars Exploration Strategy, 2007-2016 document.

We also provide straightforward budget analysis for three potential robotic Mars programs going forward: (1) Mars sample return in the 2020s, (2) sample return in the 2030s, and (3) an infrastructure-only program that indefinitely delays sample return and only provides a replacement a data relay communications orbiter. By analyzing the three options and comparing them to the current funding projections we conclude that NASA is currently pursuing option #3infrastructure only. This is a significant change in priority for the Mars program at NASA and substantially different than the past two decades of NASA policy.

We must be honest about whats happening: NASA claims it's on a Journey to Mars, yet it cannot immediately invest in even the most basic infrastructure at the Red Planet, much less commit to achieving the top scientific goals for a program it has spent the last twenty years building from the ground-up.

We are at a key decision point. Congress, the new Administration, and NASA must make a conscious choice about the future of the robotic Mars program. We must start a new orbiter mission now or risk missing the 2022 launch window. We must start working on a way to return the samples that will be prepared by the 2020 rover or allow them to waste away on the surface of Mars. We must ensure that human exploration missions have the data needed to safely land and produce resources to sustain our astronauts.

The Planetary Society will work to support Mars exploration. The report is the first step.

Become a member of The Planetary Society and together we will create the future of space exploration.

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Excerpt from:

Announcing a New Paper on NASA's Mars Exploration Program - The Planetary Society (blog)

NASAs next major space observatory is meant to tackle some of the biggest questions in astronomy when it launches in 2025including what exoplanets look like and how dark energy is driving the Universes expansion. But the projects cost is rising quickly, and NASA managers are struggling to keep its budget in check.

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) has grown in scope and complexity since it was proposed nearly a decade ago, and its price has swollen from US$1.6billion in 2010 to the current estimate of $3.2billion ($2.4billion in 2010 dollars). That has raised concern at NASA, which in April commissioned a review by independent aero-space experts. Their report is due in the next few months.

Above all, the agency wants to keep WFIRST from followingthe path of the James Webb Space Telescope(JWST), a successor to the Hubble telescope that is scheduled to launch in 2018. That projects cost spiralled from $1billion in the early 2000s to $8.8billionand nearly exhausted NASAs astrophysics budget.

The WFIRST review is meant to stave off that kind of meltdown. This is a good time to take a look at the scale and scope of the mission, says Jon Morse, a former head of NASAs astrophysics division who is now chief executive of the BoldlyGo Institute, a non-profit space-exploration organization in New York City. Nobody wants this thing to double in cost.

WFIRST was the top-ranked big space missionin the 2010 decadal survey in astronomy and astrophysics, a list created by researchers to prioritize projects for the next ten years. Then theNational Reconnaissance Office gave NASA a 2.4-metre mirrorreplacing WFIRSTs planned 1.5-metre mirrorand the space agency started dreaming big. The larger mirror allowed NASA to add a corona-graph, an instrument that studies exoplanets by blocking light from the stars they orbit.

And NASA made other design changes to go along with the big mirror. It also began to consider adding a starshade, a free-floating umbrella-like spacecraft that would fly alongside WFIRST and block enough light for the telescope to spy Earth-sized planets.

WFIRSTs heart is a gigantic camera with 18detectors, each capable of capturing a 16-mega-pixel shotgiving it a field of view 200times Hubbles. When you have this enormous field of view you can address scientific problems that really are not practical with missions like Hubble or Webb, says Jeffrey Kruk, the WFIRST project scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Those include a survey to measure how the structure of the Universe evolved over time, which will shed light on the nature of dark energy. WFIRSTs data should complement the observations of several other dark-energy explorers set to come online in the early 2020s, such as the European Space Agencys Euclid probe, says Rachel Mandelbaum, an astrophysicist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

WFIRSTs exoplanet studies will include hunting indirectly for planets in the bulge of stars at the centre of the Milky Way, and imaging others directly using the coronagraph. The coronagraph is meant to demonstrate technologies for future missions, but should also be able to photograph Neptune-sized planets. We really hope and expect to do revolutionary exoplanet science, says Jeremy Kasdin, a technologist and engineer at Princeton University in New Jersey who leads the coronagraph team.

But there is only so much money to put towards all these goals. Last August, a review of NASAs progress towards its 2010 decadal priorities singled out WFIRST as at risk of ballooning costs. The review cited the cost of the coronagraphwhich a different panel estimated at around $350 millionand design changes that added another $550million.

The new study will help NASA evaluate how to preserve as much of WFIRSTs scientific capability as possible while remaining within budget, says John Gagosian, the missions programme executive at NASA headquarters in Washington DC. But he sees no reasonable scenario in which the current mission scope and requirements (including the coronagraph) can be implemented for $3.2billion or less.

One potential cut would be to eliminate the coronagraph or to pare back its capabilities. Another would be to trim the number of detectors on the wide-field camera, or the amount of time dedicated to the dark-energy survey.

Whether such belt-tightening is enough to keep WFIRST under $3.2 billion is unclear. A way to save money year-to-year would be to stretch the projects lifespan, says Krukbut that increases the total cost. And launching it later than 2025 would cut back on the missions chance to overlap with the JWST and find rare celestial objects that that telescope could then study in detail.

The next major milestone for WFIRST will come after the review panel submits its recommendations. Late this year or early next, programme managers will decide what they may need to strip off the spacecraft to keep the project alive.

This article is reproduced with permission and wasfirst publishedon June 6, 2017.

Original post:

NASA's Dark-Energy Probe Faces Cost Crisis - Scientific American

The only thing better than lighting a fire in space is lighting a fire in space againand again! On Sunday, June 4th, the pyromaniacal hooligans at NASA successfully performed their third Spacecraft Fire Experiment (SAFFIRE) inside an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft. Lighting up in spacewhich sounds wildly irresponsiblewill actually help scientists prepare astronauts for deep space missions should something go awry.

SAFFIRE-III is a follow-up to NASAs SAFFIRE I and II, which were completed in June and November of 2016, respectively. The plan for this iteration of the experiment was pretty simple: Cygnus would depart the International Space Station and burn up inside the vessel for about 20 minutes. NASA is currently downlinking the results, which are sure to be glorious.

Besides getting the chance to light a fire in space, which is objectively awesome, SAFFIRE can help NASA scientists understand how fire spreads in microgravity and prepare safety measures accordingly. Fire is especially dangerous during orbital missions because astronauts are typically enclosed in pretty tight quarters and ventilation fans onboard can feed a fire the air it needs to move in any direction.

As the first chance to actually study a realistically scaled fire, the SAFFIRE experiments have provided valuable insight into fire behavior inside a confined low-gravity environment, David Urban, SAFFIRE principal investigator, said in a statement.

This will be the last SAFFIRE mission for some time. According to NASA, the next class of the experiment will fly in 2019.

SAFFIRE IV-VI will extend the research by including larger, more energetic fires and by testing post-fire cleanup systems, Urban explained.

Heres to many more bonfires in the final frontier.

[NASA]

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NASA Lit a Fire in Space Again Because at This Point Sure Why Not - Gizmodo

As part of a test of a new system for studying auroras and Earths ionosphere, NASA plans to release artificial blue-green and red clouds off the East Coast in the early morning hours of Sunday, June 11.

The clouds will be produced by canisters of vapor tracers released into Earths upper atmosphere by a small suborbital rocket launched from Wallops Flight Facility on the coast of Virginia.

Composed of lithium, barium, and tri-methyl aluminum, which make other elements glow by reacting with them, the tracers will give scientists the chance to observe the flows of both neutral and ionized particles. They do not pose any hazard to humans.

Tracking the glow will enable scientists to follow the movement of particles in the ionosphere, which will provide data about the movements of upper atmosphere air currents.

The vapor tracers will be released between 96 and 124 miles (154 and 200 km) above Earths surface. Interactions between barium, strontium, and cupric-oxide will produce the clouds once the vapor tracers are released.

Initially scheduled for May 31, the release of the clouds has been postponed multiple times due to both weather conditions and the presence of boats in the location where the payload will fall back to Earth.

According to NASA, the colorful clouds could be visible between New York and North Carolina and in a westerly direction to Charlottesville, Virginia.

Viewers will be able to see the clouds around 4:30 AM. Those north of the launch site will see them low in the southeastern sky while those south of the launch should look low in the northeastern sky.

The clouds will appear directly to the east of viewers in Charlottesville and Richmond, Virginia.

NASA plans to broadcast the event on its Ustream feed.

Laurel Kornfeld is a freelance writer and amateur astronomer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science in astronomy from Swinburne Universitys Astronomy Online program.

Link:

NASA will release artificial clouds on East Coast this Sunday - The Space Reporter