A Not-So-Simple Truth, Wayne Hale
"February is a month for introspection for me, and the events of 8 years ago have been on my mind. In the Columbia accident investigation report, there are several pages devoted to the use of a computer program called "Crater" which analyzed potential damage to the thermal tiles. The results provided from that computer program indicated that no serious damage had been done to Columbia's tiles and therefore a safe landing would occur. Disaster occurred instead."
NASA Terra Images: Flooding from Tsunami near Sendai, Japan
"NASA's Terra satellite's first view of northeastern Japan in the wake of a devastating earthquake and tsunami reveal extensive flooding along the coast. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) acquired the top image of the Sendai region on March 12, 2011, at 10:30 a.m. The lower image, taken by Terra MODIS on February 26, 2011, is provided as a point of reference."
- DLR Disaster Extent Map: Japan, Sendai Airport - Earthquake/Tsunami
- NOAA Animation: Honshu Tsunami Propagation Across The Pacific Basin
- Image: NOAA Model of Honshu Tsunami Event
- NASA Shows Topography of Tsunami-Damaged Japan City
For over half a century, NASA has inspired people across the world to look to the heavens and wonder what secrets are hidden within the cosmos. Solving those mysteries has long been the domain of lab-coat wearing scientists in government agencies and universities. However, with the advent of the internet, social web, and open source data, it has become possible for anyone to make scientific discoveries about our universe. Find out how you can actively contribute to space exploration and how the collective power of the internet is enabling the future of scientific research.
Keith's note: NASA employees Nick Skytland @skytland, Chris Gerty @gerty, Stephanie Schierholtz @schierholz. VeronicaMcGregor (JPL) @VeronicaMcG , and Doug Ellison (JPL) @doug_ellison (and others) are currently attending SXSW (South by Southwest), an "Annual music, film, and interactive conference and festival held in Austin.". There are several panels and sessions (like this one chaired by Nick Skytland) that deal directly or partially with space exploration. It will be curious to see if any of these NASA folks write travel reports or make blog postings that describe what they saw - and what they learned - or if they will simply post a few scattered Tweets instead. Indeed, NASA's social media experts spend far too much time talking to each other - and less actually interacting with the public and other co-workers which (so I thought) was the whole point to begin with.
One would hope that they'd share what they learned - in some detail - (along with their presentations at SWSX) with the rest of the agency and the public. Curiously, Skytland et al only post their presentations (like the one for today's session) made as NASA employees at opennasa.com - never at NASA.gov. Even though Skytland is travelling as a NASA representative, he uses his personal website address and not NASA's. Many of the sites he discusses are not NASA-sponsored at all. You'd think that a NASA person would be giving a NASA presentation.
Over the past year and a half I have seen Tx/Rx Labs grow from a 300 sqft room to a 4000 sqft lab. By collaborating with each other, Tx/Rx Labs makes innovation accessible to everyone. Whether it be learning new skills, accessing equipment, tapping into another member’s knowledge, Tx/Rx Labs facilitates the path to working on technology. In March, Tx/Rx Labs will be hosting HACK-B-Q, a technology demo series where we will show some of the cool projects we have been working on. Please show your support for the movement by coming out, and telling your friends.
What’s a Hack-B-Q? Think free B-B-Q with the added bonus of getting to share knowledge with TXRX Members who have expertise in exciting DIY technology projects. And that’s just for starters: There are tons of exciting projects in progress and members with expertise in chemistry, electrical engineering, biology, physics, programming, mechanical engineering, and many others, all of whom are interested in sharing that knowledge for the benefit of the community.
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NASA Announces Winners of OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Video Contest
"NASA has announced the winners of the 2010 NASA OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Award. The contest encouraged students to produce short, creative videos about their favorite technology from NASA's Spinoff 2009 Publication. NASA collaborated with Hasbro using the correlation between the popular TRANSFORMERS brand, featuring its leader OPTIMUS PRIME, and spinoffs from NASA technologies created for aeronautics and space missions used here on Earth. The goal was to help students understand how NASA technology 'transforms' into things used daily."
Planetary Science Decadal Survey 2013 - 2022
"The 2013 Decadal Survey will provide an outstanding science program for the next decade building on our strong foundation of success in planetary science. The National Research Council will release the Survey on Monday, March 7, at 5:30 pm Central time. The National Research Council (NRC) conducts studies that provide a science community consensus on key questions posed by NASA and other U.S. Government agencies. The broadest of these studies in NASA's areas of research are decadal surveys. As the name implies, NASA and its partners ask the NRC once each decade to look out ten or more years into the future and prioritize research areas, observations, and notional missions to make those observations."
Keith's note: Yesterday I made note of a broken website - NASA Buzzroom's video page. One feature of this site is to grab videos posted on YouTube - automatically - and post them on a nasa.gov webpage and add a comment feature. Nice idea - it lets people see what others think about NASA. One small problem - humans are not in the loop at NASA. At one point I found a video that had been on nasa.gov for weeks that depicted a bloody lynching and featured a non-stop stream of profanity. NASA eventually got around to deleting it - once I complained (Google cached version).
I complained about lots of other videos that simply had no reason whatsoever to be on a taxpayer-funded space agency website. Eventually, once someone at NASA saw these videos mentioned by me, they were removed. This process seems to be working backwards. I find these videos simply by looking at the video page. NASA deletes them - but only when I make public note of their location. The NASA folks seem to be utterly incapable of making a decision as to what is in appropriate on their own - or identifying inappropriate videos that have been on their site for weeks (or longer). Nor are they able to fix the problem inherent in this website's design in the first place. Given the way they set up this site, it would seem that no one in SOMD's crack Internet squad ever tested this website before putting it online.
To compound things, they simply take videos off of their webpage because one person (me) complains. That's not right. As such, they clearly don't have any established guidelines for removal of videos either.
Right now a clip from the notoriously horrid Howard the Duck from the 1980s is gracing a nasa.gov page. It is harmless but pointless when it comes to space exploration. The NASA SOMD Internet guys will eventually delete it (this is the video on YouTube). But they will only delete it because I complained. FAIL.
Curiously, while NASA told me - officially - that the NASA lawyers had told them - that they could not link to this rather popular video "NASA - The Frontier Is Everywhere" that went viral a month or so ago, this NASA Buzzroom website links to it. So ... there is a bright side to the way this page works. Too bad the people who run this site do not take its design or upkeep seriously.
Pseudoscience and Profane Videos Featured Online at NASA.gov, earlier post
Keith's update: Beth Beck from SOMD sent me this in response to an inquiry as to how content is approve for posting on NASA Buzzroom. She is responsible for this page at NASA.gov. The full exchange is below. In a nutshell whoever is responsible for this website is incompetent and should be relieved of this responsibility. You see, this is the sort of material that the current process allows to be posted and approved:
Beth Beck: "Regarding the Buzzroom content collection process: The website automatically pulls content through social media aggregation tools under the following conditions:
* Directly originated from the official accounts: @nasa, @Lori_Garver, @StationCDRKelly, @Astro_Flow, @Astro_Cady, @Astro_Ron or @ShuttleCDRKelly (tweeters at the top box)
* Containing one of the words: nasa, nasatweetup, nasaed or nasatech.
The existing filtering system provides some limited filtering of incoming data that meets these criteria. Filtering is intended to remove r out tweets that are profane or have letters that aren't in the English alphabet.
There is no posting of info other than tweeting from the top box on the front page. NASA personnel review the content of the site, pull down content that is offensive, and update the filters as we see a problem. We had been in the process of considering other solutions involving a potential moderation interface and a popup box to explain the Buzzroom process, and will continue to review potential improvements. This is a collection site to gather the conversation in one place, not a place for creating new official NASA content which would require editorial review. We don't have editors who review twitter accounts, at this time, though that could change as time goes by."
My response: "The website that you are responsible for allowed a video to be posted on a nasa.gov web page that feature a graphic of an African American male with a noose around his neck with blood dripping down - and obtained substantial profanity and racial slurs. Your team then let it sit there for weeks until I complained - and then did not take it down for hours after you were informed. The original page was posted here.
A cached version of that page is here - a screen grab is here
Your response is incomplete and farcical to say the least since the process you describe allows such objectionable material to be posted and reviewed and approved. That means that this video was APPROVED for posting by your process. How on God's Earth could such a video EVER be approved? Whoever is responsible for this website is incompetent and should be relieved of this responsibility. That appears to be you."
NASA's Glory Satellite Fails To Reach Orbit
"NASA's Glory mission launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California Friday at 5:09:45 a.m. EST failed to reach orbit. Telemetry indicated the fairing, the protective shell atop the Taurus XL rocket, did not separate as expected about three minutes after launch."
Education Satellites Hitch Ride on Glory Mission
"P-PODs are aluminum containers measuring about 5 inches square by about 16 inches long. One P-POD will carry three CubeSats as an auxiliary payload aboard a Taurus XL on NASA's Glory mission."
NASA Creates Glory Satellite Mishap Investigation Board
"NASA's previous launch attempt of an Earth science spacecraft, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory onboard a Taurus XL on Feb. 24, 2009, also failed to reach orbit when the fairing did not separate. NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory Mishap Investigation Board reviewed launch data and the fairing separation system design, and developed a corrective action plan. The plan was implemented by Taurus XL manufacturer Orbital Sciences Corporation. In October 2010, NASA's Flight Planning Board confirmed the successful closure of the corrective actions."
NASA Releases Orbiting Carbon Observatory Accident Summary, 17 July 2009
"NASA's OCO satellite to study atmospheric carbon dioxide launched aboard a Taurus XL rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Feb. 24 at 4:55 a.m. EST, but it failed to reach orbit. The Mishap Investigation Board ... verified that the Taurus launch vehicle fairing failed to separate upon command."
NASA Astronaut Garrett Reisman Leaves Agency
"Reisman, who holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering, joined NASA in 1998. Before flying in space, he served in multiple technical roles including work supporting robotics and the advanced vehicles branch of the Astronaut Office."
Astronaut Garrett Reisman Joins SpaceX
"Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is proud to announce that NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman is joining the company as a senior engineer working on astronaut safety and mission assurance. Dr. Reisman will join former NASA astronaut Ken Bowersox's team in preparing SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to carry astronauts."
Concept to Implementation in as Little as Six Months
"The National Laboratory Office sponsored some payloads that went into orbit in as little as 6 months, but that is not the norm at this time. A developer is already in the assembly process on their end for the payload, rather than in the development stage of their idea. An amazing turnaround like this is for known re-flight science, not for new payloads being assembled. What we are trying to do with National Lab is to use the processes and manage the integration in such a way that we can bring things in later than the normal flow. This is contingent on the National Laboratory model of the commercial or government agency having their funding and development ready to bring to the table. If they are waiting for anticipated funds to move forward with development, this significantly delays the progress."
Keith's note: Nice words but actions, as they say, speak louder. NASA's Space Station team (Mark Uhran et al) have had 20 years to figure this out and yet it still takes years, ponderous paperwork, and large piles of money to get virtually any payload onto the ISS. If Uhran's team really wants to be a "National Laboratory" in more ways than just name, then they need to do vastly better in this regard. Already (see below), things that could have been led by NASA in the past decade or so via on-orbit research had surged ahead on the ground because the agency has dragged its feet and is incapable and/or unwilling to try and find a way to make this amazing facility useful within the time frames that industry and academia work IN THE REAL WORLD.
Alas, the ISS National LAB CAN simply seeks to replicate all of NASA's current bad habits, adds a new name and logo and calls it "new". It is not "new" by any stretch of the imagination and NASA is only doing this because Congress got frustrated and ordered them to do so - in law.
Nanoracks are indeed cool and are in synch with the experimental mindset resident within many business and universities these days. If NASA is really paying attention and not just treating these Nanorack-class payloads as a novelty, they could serve to transform the ponderous process NASA uses to put payloads on the ISS. If, that is, NASA really wants this to happen and is not just doing this to pay lip service to a trendy concept. Right now, by the author's own admission these fast integration times are "not the norm at this time."
It needs to be the norm - for all payloads.
Using the ISS: Once Again NASA Has Been Left in the Dust, ealier post
"With the research results presented in these two papers, it would seem that structural information for biological molecules can now be obtained from vanishingly small biological samples - so called "nanocrystals" using a hard X-ray laser - on Earth - no space station required. So much for the official story NASA has told for 20 years that the ISS is crucial for such work."
Keith's note: This is a much longer version of the previously released video - with music. If at all possible watch this at 720p resolution. As the payload slowly rotates you will see Discovery's vapor trail at the Earth's limb. The payload (with camera) swings to the west (where the sun is) and then swings back to the east, past Discovery's vapor trail, around to the west again and then continues to rotate to the east toward the fading vapor trail.
Educational Balloon Provides Space Shuttle Launch Images and Video From Over 110,000 feet
"Last week a balloon with a student-oriented payload shot high resolution photos and video from an altitude of over 110,000 feet of Space Shuttle Discovery as it climbed into space.These images and video were released today as part of a mission report provided by Quest for Stars representative Bobby Russell at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) at the University of Central Florida."
2011 Next-Gen Suborbital Researchers Conference a Hit, 2012 Follow-up Conference Planned
Image: PR Newswire press release regarding SwRI/XCOR suborbital flight announcement as seen in Times Square in New York City. Larger image.
"The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is pleased to announce that the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) held in Orlando, Florida, this week set records for the number of presentations, sponsors and attendees. The annual conference brings the research and education communities together with suborbital vehicle providers and government funding agencies to explore the exciting new era of suborbital spaceflight. CSF is a proud co-sponsor of the event, which was attended by about 350 people."
GAO Report: NASA: Assessment of Selected Large-Scale Projects
"GAO assessed 21 NASA projects with a combined life-cycle cost that exceeds $68 billion. Of those 21 projects, 16 had entered the implementation phase where cost and schedule baselines were established. Development costs for the 16 projects had an average growth of $94 million--or 14.6 percent--and schedules grew by an average of 8 months. The total increase in development costs for these projects was $1.5 billion. GAO found that 5 of the 16 projects were responsible for the overwhelming majority of this increase. The issue of cost growth is more significant than the 14.6 percent average would indicate because it does not capture the cost growth that occurred before several projects reported baselines in response to a statutory requirement in 2005."
NASA OIG: Audit of NASA's Facilities Maintenance
"Many of NASA's facilities are in degraded condition and its maintenance backlog continues to grow each year. NASA's deferred maintenance estimate for all its facilities increased from $1.90 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2005 to $2.55 billion in FY 2010. Continued deferral of facility maintenance could result in unsafe working conditions and higher annual maintenance costs. From FY 2005 through FY 2009, deferred maintenance as a percentage of current replacement value increased, indicating that NASA's facilities were deteriorating. Although the overall deferred maintenance estimate in FY 2010 increased by approximately $6 million, deferred maintenance as a percentage of current replacement value decreased, indicating a slight improvement in the condition of NASA's facilities. This occurred due to NASA's efforts to replace or refurbish aged facilities."
Discarding Shuttle: The Hidden Cost, Paul Spudis, Air & Space
"On February 15, 2011 a symposium entitled "U.S. Human Spaceflight: Continuity and Stability" was held at Rice University's James A. Baker Institute of Public Policy. Organized by George Abbey, the resident space expert at the Baker Institute, one might have suspected that it would be Shuttle-centric and indeed, it was. Many pertinent points relevant to the current discussion about NASA's human space program and its future (or lack thereof) came out of the presentations at this symposium."
NASA OIG: NASA's Use of Recovery Act Funding for the James Webb Space Telescope Project
"Following multiple schedule delays and substantial cost growth, in 2009 the JWST Project received $75 million in Recovery Act funding intended to sustain the Project's workforce at a consistent level and maintain the baseline schedule for key development activities. We found that in using these funds, the JWST Project adequately addressed the requirements of the Recovery Act and related OMB guidance and delivered measureable outcomes consistent with Agency program and project plans and the goals of the Act. Specifically, we found that the $75 million in Recovery Act funds enabled 454 jobs to be retained on the JWST Project in the fourth quarter of FY 2009 and 149 jobs in the first quarter of FY 2010."
Life in meteorites? Study stirs debate, MSNBC
"Many scientists have examined thousands of meteorites in detail over the past 50 years without finding any evidence of fossil life," David Morrison, senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute at Ames Research Center, told me in an e-mail. "Further, we know a great deal about the conditions on the parent objects of the meteorites, which (not counting the few meteorites from the moon and Mars) were rather small, not at all like planets. "I would therefore invoke Carl Sagan's famous advice that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. At a bare minimum this would require publication in a prestigious peer-refereed scientific journal -- which this is not. Cyanobacteria on a small airless world sounds like a joke. Perhaps the publication came out too soon; more appropriate would have been on April 1," Morrison said."
NASA Scientist Sees Signs of Life in Meteorites, New York Times
"The buzz is building over a paper by Richard Hoover, an award-winning astrobiologist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, concluding that filaments and other features found in the interior of three specimens of a rare class of meteorite appear to be fossils of a life form strongly resembling cyanobacteria. Chemical analysis, Hoover argues, shows no evidence that the fossils are of organisms that infiltrated the meteorites after they arrived on Earth."
NASA Scientist Claims Evidence of Alien Life on Meteorite, Fox
"Other scientists tell FoxNews.com the implications of this research are shocking, describing the findings variously as profound, very important and extraordinary. But Dr. David Marais, an astrobiologist with NASA's AMES Research Center, says he's very cautious about jumping onto the bandwagon. These kinds of claims have been made before, he noted -- and found to be false. "It's an extraordinary claim, and thus I'll need extraordinary evidence," Marais said."
Keith's note: Richard Hoover is a NASA employee - and has received NASA funds to do astrobiology research. Hoover cites several NASA employees and NASA facilities used in support of this research. Yet NASA has been silent thus far about the claims Hoover makes in this latest paper - claims he makes overtly using his "NASA" affiliation. Did Hoover fill out NASA Form 1676 or get internal review or permission at NASA MSFC to publish this paper?
Given the way that NASA SMD stumbled and mishandled recent stories related to Arsenic-based life forms and "habitable planets" found by Kepler, it will be curious to see if SMD and/or the NASA Astrobiology Institute say anything at all. Not doing so now will allow media speculation (and misinformation) to run rampant by default - thus leading to the inevitable big public mea culpa down the road. The question remains: Does NASA support Hoover's research? If so, then is there a proposal he submitted to NASA to obtain funding - and why is NASA silent? If not, then why is this research being done with a NASA affiliation using NASA facilities - and (again) why is NASA silent?
There is another thing that has me a little confused. This NASA MSFC web page from 2007 lists Hoover as having a Bachelor's degree and working in the Astrobiology Laboratory as a "scientist". Yet this NASA MSFC web page from 2005 (two years earlier) refers to him as "Dr. Richard Hoover". Which is it? Usually one gets their B.Sc. degree before their Ph.D. - not the other way around. In his paper Hoover refers to himself as "Richard B. Hoover, Ph.D. NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL". I cannot seem to find an online CV for Hoover that lists where he got his Ph.D. This 1992 NASA press release only says that he "graduated with honors from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Ark., in 1964 with a bachelor of science degree in physics and mathematics." He was hired by NASA in 1966. Its always possible to get a Ph.D. later in life but it would seem a little odd that NASA MSFC would put someone in charge of their astrobiology work and fund them if they only had a Bachelors degree - in Physics and Mathematics.
Lawmakers Question Choices in NASA Budget Request, Space News
"But despite the bleak fiscal forecast, Wolf and other House lawmakers questioned NASA's decision to request less funding than recommended in the authorization bill for the new heavy-lift launch vehicle and space capsule that the law says should be operational by 2016. "Your request has certainly sacrificed progress on the development of the Space Launch System and Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle," Wolf said, referring to the $2.8 billion NASA requested for the efforts next year, $1.2 billion less than the roughly $4 billion authorized in the law. "The levels provided in your budget for these activities virtually guarantee that NASA won't have core launch and crew capabilities in place by 2016."
Lawmakers questions NASA's budget proposal, The Hill
"[Rep. Ralph] Hall was joined in his criticism by ranking member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), who said she was disappointed by the president's budget request. "I had thought that the Administration agreed with the compromise that was enacted into law, but I am afraid that I do not see it reflected in the proposed NASA budget request," Johnson said, telling Bolden he needs to work with lawmakers, "not simply tell us what you can't do." "The most constructive approach for all of us here is to consider the budget request that you will present today as the beginning of the discussion, not the end."
NASA chief defends space budget in Congress, Space.com
"Bolden argued that the 2012 budget request does follow the guidance of the bill. "I get your message loud and clear and so does the president," Bolden said. "I think the budget does, in fact. reflect following your guidance."
Keith's note: Right now a featured video on NASA Buzzroom is "Bowling For Soup US Tour". (original on YouTube). Is this appropriate? No mention of outer space. So ... what do you do? If you go to NASA Buzzroom, and scroll to the bottom of the page you will see this notice: "This site collects community content about NASA. We invite you to join the conversation! If you find something you don't think belongs, please let us know! Page Last Updated: March 6th, 2011; Page Editor: JESS3; NASA Official: Beth Beck" One small problem: they do not provide a link or an email address. So ... how does one "let them know"?
