Workers Prep For Final NASA Missions At Michoud, WDSU

"Two sets of astronauts will visit NASA's Michoud facility this week, even as the facility's future remains in question. Hundreds of workers have been laid off over the past two years. Lockheed Martin was contracted between 1973 and 2008 to do $10.7 billion in work for the federal government. With federal funding for NASA in question, the 1,426 people who still work there wonder what is next for the agency and for themselves."

Fla. Senator Says Obama 'Restructuring' NASA Plans, WESH

"Florida's senior senator, after talking to the president, said U.S. astronauts could wind up launching in an American-built spacecraft after all. It would mean developing a giant rocket based on space shuttle engines, tanks and boosters to go with a new spacecraft, Billow said, perhaps the very one NASA was designing anyway."

NASA's down-to-earth problem, op ed, Lou Friedman, LA Times

"However the budget proposal is acted on in Congress, it is clear that the nation is not going to go ahead with the Constellation project, which had a primary goal of returning humans to the moon by 2020 -- neither its Ares I rocket, which was to replace the space shuttle in delivering humans into Earth orbit, nor its moon mission. The 2004 Vision for Space Exploration may have been farsighted, but its implementation plan for Constellation was shortsighted: an inadequate goal and inadequate funds to achieve it."

Our Opinion: Saving Constellation is a noble mission, editorial, Tallahassee Democrat

"We salute Florida's temporary U.S. Sen. George LeMieux for working mightily in Washington to stop the de-escalation of America's space programs, most specifically termination of the Constellation Program as submitted in a budget proposal by the president. Mr. LeMieux, offering an amendment to the FAA Reauthorization bill regarding NASA, knows the importance of space missions to Florida. If diminished, hundreds of jobs will be lost along the Space Coast, but the loss of science, research, technology and space travel aspirations will create a negative ripple effect in myriad ways well beyond our state."

Can commercial space win over Congress?, Space Review

"At last week's Senate hearing ULA president and CEO Michael Gass said his company was interested in and capable of serving the human spaceflight market. "The EELV rockets provide the quickest and safest approach for closing the gap following the retirement of the space shuttle," he said. "We will be working with multiple companies that will compete for crew services, and we plan to provide launch services in support of their proposals."

Mitchel: 'You give up space, you lose', The Bay Area Citizen

"[BAHEP President Bob Mitchell] Think about this: It was no coincidence that it took seven months to appoint a NASA administrator because the transition team of Lori Garver and her three people from OMB put this plan together, and at the end of seven months when we were all wondering what the heck is going on, they were busy hatching their plan to take NASA dollars and spend them with entrepreneurs of commercial space."

Keith's note: Hilarious. Hey Bob: please name the "three people from OMB" on the transition team at NASA. Remember - you claim that they are (were) from "OMB".

Quick Recap of Launch Water Day 2:

Innovator Stephen Kennedy Smith: Verticrop. “Large-Scale Vertical Hydroponic Ag System”

Innovator Shahram Javey: Aquacue. “Water: Tapped and Untapped”

Innovator Dr. Marc van Iersel: “Affordable Soil Moisture Sensors”

Innovator Dr. Julien J. Harou: “HydroPlatform”

Astronaut Ron Garan: “Manna Energy Projects in Rwanda” — on his own time, not as an official NASA rep.

Innovator “Speed Dating” Impact Rotations:

Before heading off to the reception and dinner at the Kennedy Space Center Rocket Garden, the amazing Dr. Anil Gupta spoke on “Water, Wisdom and Well Being: Learning from Grassroots.” He told a wonderful story about the need to empty ourselves before we can be filled. Great advice for our innovators as they met with thought leaders in the impact rotations. We realized, after the fact, that he should have been our kick-off speaker to inspire us with humility and the possibilities of the smallest kernal of innovation at the grassroots level. I had the great fortune to sit with him at dinner. Now I can’t wait to travel to India to “walk” with him through the villages and honor the small innovations he finds among the people.

NASA’s Mr. Space Station, Mark Uhran, spoke to us at dinner on the topic of “Water Far and Near.” I’ll post a link as soon as we get his remarks up on theLaunch.org website. I was inspired and awed by his remarks on the importance of water in the universe and why it’s important for NASA to follow the “water of life.”

“Water lies at the very foundation of NASA’s reason for being. The search for life in the universe is a search for water, becase life, at least as we know it, cannot exist without water.” NASA’s Mark Uhran.

Thanks Mark! Wow!

We capped off the evening (and Mark’s talk) with a toast to water — with shot glasses of recycled waste water from NASA trials at the Johnson Space Center. NASA’s Marybeth Edeen brought the water with her from Houston. Marybeth, you ROCKet!

Here’s to WATER — on and OFF the planet!

Crosspost on BethBeck’s blog.

After working on the LAUNCH:Water concept for the past year, we finally kicked it off yesterday — along with our cool new Nike-designed website.

We started the day with Lori Garver, NASA’s Deputy Administrator and LAUNCH Water Host.

Majora Carter: Welcome

Peter Gleick, President and Co-Founder Pacific Institute, “21st Century Water: The Role of Technology and Innovation”

Innovator Mark Tonkin, DTI-r: “Subsurface Vapor Transfer Irrigation”

Innovator Andrew Tinka, UC Berkeley: “Floating Sensor Network”

Innovator Ashok Gadgil, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab: “ElectroChemical Arsenic Remediation”

Innovator Mark Sobsey, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill: “Low Cost Bacterial Water Test”

Lili Anna Peresa, “The Comprehensive Approach of ONE DROP: Water for All, All for Water”

Each of the innovators rotated through focused discussion sessions to help shape their success strategy. I like to call it: Innovator Speed Dating.

So many incredible stories to share. Stay tuned.

Crosspost on BethBeck’s Blog.

Sen. Nelson Floats Alternate Use for NASA Commercial Crew Money, Space News

"As the Senate Commerce Committee begins work on a 2010 NASA authorization bill, science and space subcommittee chairman Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) is questioning whether $6 billion the U.S. space agency is seeking for developing a commercial crew taxis might be better spent on a heavy-lift rocket that could take humans beyond low Earth orbit."

Fla. Senator Says Obama 'Restructuring' NASA Plans, WESH

"A new word is creeping into the conversation: spacecraft -- as in, Billow said, a replacement for the shuttle. Florida's senior senator, after talking to the president, said U.S. astronauts could wind up launching in an American-built spacecraft after all. It would mean developing a giant rocket based on space shuttle engines, tanks and boosters to go with a new spacecraft, Billow said, perhaps the very one NASA was designing anyway."

How to Devise a Stellar Social Media Policy: NASA's Tips, Network World

"NASA has been exploring social media--a territory still foreign to many businesses--for years now. But back in 2007, as more and more employees began using external social media sites, NASA determined that it was time develop a policy--not just to protect the agency, but to protect their employees as well. ... NASA successfully developed and implemented a set of social media guidelines and added them onto the existing communications policy. Check out Holm's tips and tricks to help make your social media policy rollout go smoothly."

Keith's note: So ... there are tips offered on how NASA advises people to develop a social media policy (guidelines) yet the agency itself still has not managed to develop a social media policy. I cannot seem to find that policy online despite the claims made in this article that it has been under development since 2007. One would think that such things are online, right? Given that there is some confusion among people at NASA who are supposed to coordinate such things, wouldn't this disconnect as to the status of these guidelines undermine the value of some of this advice from NASA?

FAA, NASA Vie for Authority Over Commercial Space Safety, WS Journal

"Congress hasn't yet voted on White House proposals to outsource manned space flights to private enterprise, but the concept already is prompting a bureaucratic tussle over which federal agency should be responsible for ensuring the safety of such flights. The Federal Aviation Administration believes it should be the agency in charge, while National Aeronautics and Space Administration believes the flights fall under its jurisdiction. The dispute came into public view Thursday during a hearing of a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation subcommittee. The panel's chairman, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, home to thousands of NASA jobs, indicated that he views the space agency as the final arbiter of astronaut safety."

Moving The Titan 1 to its New Home, NASAhackspace.org

"Asn aging Titan 1 ICBM was moved from its current location at NASA ARC to its new home next to Building 596 on 18 March 2010. This Titan 1 was brought to ARC in 1969 and was used in a variety of tests to study buffeting of launch vehicles during atmospheric ascent. The rocket has been sitting outside since the early 1980s as an exhibit next to the (former) Ames visitor's center."

More information here

Follow progress on Twitter here

Republicans Will Force Vote on Slaughter Rule, Human Events

"Most interesting rumor from the Hill yesterday: Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) who announced his retirement from Congress has been promised the job of NASA administrator in exchange for his vote, and Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), another retiring Democrat, has been promised an appointment as U.S. Ambassador to NATO in exchange for his vote."

Keith's note: White House Press Secretary Gibbs squashed this silly rumor flat.

"Q The Republicans put something out saying that Bart Gordon and John Tanner have been promised cushy government positions in exchange for their votes.

MR. GIBBS: And what were those positions?

Q Those positions are NASA administrator and U.S. ambassador to NATO. (Laughter.)

MR. GIBBS: Well, that's --

Q At some point.

MR. GIBBS: I think those are -- I think those jobs are currently filled, but -- and I'm not sure that anybody would think -- certainly the current occupants -- that those are otherwise cushy jobs. So that's just not true."

Parker heads to D.C. to talk up NASA, light rail, Houston Chronicle

"Parker is scheduled to meet with senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Transportation Secretary Roy LaHood, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and members of the local congressional delegation in a two-day blitz. Shortly after she was elected, the administration had invited her to "open dialogue" on certain key issues in Washington, and today's trip marks her first opportunity to take the president up on the offer, Parker said."

Parker to Rally Support for NASA in Washington D.C., Fox Houston

"From a conference room at city hall, Houston Mayor Annise Parker set her sights on Washington D.C. And a recent decision by the Obama administration to cancel funding for a program that could result in nearly 7,000 lost jobs at Johnson Space Center."

- Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Science and Space Subcommittee hearing on Assessing Commercial Space Capabilities, 18 March: Witnesses TBD

- House Science and Technology Cmte Space and Aeronautics Subcmte Hearing: Proposed Changes to NASA's Exploration Program, 24 March: ESMD AA Douglas Cooke and Tom Young testify

- STA Lunch, 26 March: Gary Payton, Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for Space Programs will speak

- An Update on Space Exploration Policy and Programs, 30 March: ESMD Deputy AA Laurie Leshin will speak

Keith's 12 March note: The "Town Hall" concept that the White House originally considered for the President's 15 April trip to Florida has been replaced with something a bit more like the recent health care summit. No word yet as to who will participate other than senior Administration and NASA officials and local and state politicians. You can bet that the White House advance team will pre-screen and hand pick almost everyone in attendance so as to limit the opportunity for random outbursts and YouTube moments. But they can't do much about what happens outside the meeting site.

Keith's 14 Mar update: Still no word as to who will be appearing at the OSTP Space Summit or what will be said. Oh well: there are still several weeks within which OSTP can stall on this. I guess we'll just have to wait for OSTP chief of staff Jim Kohlenberger to get around to telling people what will (or won't) happen at this summit.

If the President is trully enaged in all of this - as OSTP Director John Holden is so fond of saying that he is - and if the President is indeed concerned about the NASA and contractor workforce, then OSTP needs to find a way for him to interact with people - directly - not via a scripted circus with intermediaries and surrogates. In other words, the President needs to do something in a way that resonates with how he got the job in the first place.

As it stands now, the people who are most affected by these OSTP policies are the least involved in this event. That is fundamentally wrong and inconsistent with an Administration that heralded openness and transparency as the hallmarks of their new way of doing business.

There is a Senate hearing on "Assessing Commercial Space Capabilities". So ... maybe this issue will get discussed at that hearing given that the new Obama space policy places great reliance upon the commercial space sector.

Keith's 12 March note: Meanwhile, Stephen Metschan, one of the team of non-rocket scientists behind the DIRECT concept is out trying to organize some sort of rally or protest meeting in/around KSC to coincide with the White House event. Alas, his friends are posting notes on NASA Watch stating that he is not doing this. Well, he is - and I stand by my reporting.

Space Coast Wants Answers From Obama - Local 6 To Ask Your Questions During Space Summit on April 15, WKMG

"When President Obama returns to Florida for a Space Summit next month, the crowd may not be so welcoming. His 2011 budget killed the Constellation project, put a hold on human space flight missions and left the lives of thousands of NASA workers and their families in limbo."

Obama facing uprising over new NASA strategy, Reuters

"It is making for a potentially explosive environment when Obama travels to the Cape Canaveral area on April 15 to host a space conference with top officials and leaders in the field. "What reception will they get? Not good," said Keith Cowing, editor of nasawatch.com, a website that closely monitors the U.S. space agency. "It's a gutsy move. It's Daniel in the Lion's Den."

Keith's note: I have a series of questions to ask NASA Watch readers with regard to Titan 1 ICBMs. I know that thought was given to using Titan 1's to launch a Dynasoar X-20 spacecraft on a suborbital flight, but what could this rocket have placed into Low Earth Orbit had it been used as a launch vehicle?

Here's a hint and a preview here. Actual transport route TBD pending physical clearances, security gates, etc. Your mileage may vary, etc.

Stay tuned for more Titan 1 news this week. What's old can be new ...

Coming Soon: Rocket Hacking, Previous post

Valve problem threatens to delay April shuttle launch, Spaceflgihtnow.com

"Engineers familiar with the system said the valve cannot be directly serviced at the launch pad. If the problem cannot be resolved by indirect methods or development of an acceptable flight rationale, the only option would be to roll Discovery back to the Vehicle Assembly Building, detach it from its external tank, haul it to its processing hangar and remove the OMS pod for repairs or replacement."

Nimbus II and Lunar Orbiter 1 Imagery: A New Look at Earth in 1966, Moonviews

"To date some of the images taken by Nimbus II have been enhanced and mapped into Google Earth. One date in particular was of interest to the LOIRP - 23 August 1966. As the images were enhanced and dropped into Google Earth it became clear that we have imagery that overlapped in time to show the weather on that late August day as evening crept up on Africa and Europe. In New York City, just over the Earth's limb as seen from lunar orbit, the Beatles were preparing to play at Shea Stadium ..."

Keith's note: The "Town Hall" concept that the White House originally considered for the President's 15 April trip to Florida has been replaced with something a bit more like the recent health care summit. No word yet as to who will participate other than senior Administration and NASA officials and local and state politicians. You can bet that the White House advance team will pre-screen and hand pick almost everyone in attendance so as to limit the opportunity for random outbursts and YouTube moments. But they can't do much about what happens outside the meeting site. Word has it that Stephen Metschan, one of the team of non-rocket scientists behind the DIRECT concept is out trying to organize some sort of rally or protest meeting to coincide with the White House event. Stay tuned.

Keith's note: There was a press conference today on Capitol Hill at which a number of members of Congress spoke out in opposition to President Obama's recently announced space policy. For the most part nothing new was said. However, Rep. Gene Green (D-TX-29) made some odd comments.

At [0:53] in this video he says "We have had some discussion on the House floor about English-only in our own country. I do agree that we should have English-only on the moon." Then at 2:57 he says "Every year, we take an astronaut with us and go to middle schools. I have a majority Hispanic district in Houston Texas and east Harris County. And to see those students, middle-school kids, sixth, seventh and eighth-graders, they won't pay attention to me or even Hispanic business folks that go in and talk about what they need to do to be successful. But when you take an astronaut there, whether Hispanic or Anglo and they go in their jumpsuit and they talk about space, they talk about their experiences or their science effort. Those sixth, seventh and eighth-graders, particularly in minority schools, pay attention. I don't want to lose that hope."

First of all, his comment about "English only" on the Moon is just plain silly. Who is he to say who can go to the Moon and what they say when they get there? Secondly, Green is apparently not well versed in how space is explored these days. NASA has prided itself on its international cooperation. The ISS is multi-national and multi-lingual and the very program he seeks to retain, the VSE, openly sought international participation. Lastly, given his overt reference to his large hispanic constituency and education, what sort of message is Green sending to those kids when he says that they won't be allowed to speak the language of their parents and their ancestors on the Moon? I guess Rep. Green never read the Twitter posting by Jose Hernandez from space en Español.

Video clips of comments by: Rep. Olson, Rep. Wolf, Rep. Bishop , Rep. McCaul , Rep. Culberson, Rep. Posey, and Rep. Green

NASA Dives Into Its Past to Retrieve Vintage Satellite Data, Science (subscription)

"Last month, researchers working out of an abandoned McDonald's restaurant on the grounds of NASA Ames Research Center recovered data collected by NASA's Nimbus II satellite on 23 September 1966. The satellite soared over Earth in a polar orbit every 108 minutes, taking pictures of cloud cover and measuring heat radiated from the planet's surface, and creating a photo mosaic of the globe 43 years ago. The resulting image is the oldest and most detailed from NASA's Earth-observing satellites. It's also the latest success story in what researchers call techno-archaeology: pulling data from archaic storage systems. Once forgotten and largely unreadable with modern equipment, old data tapes are providing researchers with new information on changes in the surfaces of Earth and the moon."

"... They cleaned, rebuilt, and reassembled one drive, then designed and built equipment to convert the analog signals into an exact 16-bit digital copy. "It was like dumpster diving for science," says Cowing, co-team leader at LOIRP. In November 2008, the team recovered their first image: a famous picture of an earthrise taken by Lunar Orbiter 1 on 23 August 1966. The team's new high-resolution version was so crisp and clear that it revealed many previously obscured details, such as a fog bank lying along the coast of Chile."

In response to a thoughtful comment from Tim846 from last time, I’d like to steer the discussion of open technology towards how to create not only transparency but also stimulate participation in open technologies led by an Open NASA.

Before I get into a specific roadmap, a couple prerequisites need to be installed for successful open participation to happen:

• First and foremost, breakdown perceptual barriers. Help people to see that their participation is possible, valid, and valuable, be it at a university, a small business, or in a garage. Instill the Carmackian philosophy of “ITERATE!” that has made rapid development of software so successful and is used in hardware development at Armadillo. Like my high school Science Seminar mentor Mr. Ron Le May always says–”Do anything, do it wrong, do it better. Repeat.” Thinking about a problem and justifying why it’s too hard to do for two months doesn’t get you nearly as far as trying something rough, learning from it, and iterating for two days.
• Manage projects. Have open project managers (someone at NASA and/or a capable non-NASA participant) that know the field and are committed to engaging outside participation. They will help ensure participation happens and happens effectively.
• Benefit Americans first, keep the investors happy. While some open projects could greatly benefit from worldwide participation, NASA is funded by American taxpayers and the fruits of that funding should therefor benefit Americans first where applicable. This will guarantee that an Open NASA is sustainable, as its investors will feel and see their money going to productive use for their own benefit. It also creates opportunities for congresspeople in non-Florida/Alabama/Texas/California/Maryland states to benefit their constituencies and want to support Open NASA. As a result, it may be necessary to restrict participation of some projects to only American entities. While not fool-proof, a simple verification form and log-in system could help to limit and allow access to the right audiences where necessary.
• Use the Internet as the primary medium for participation. Although this prerequisite may seem obvious, in comparison with conferences, academic journals, grant opportunities, industrial partnerships, privately recruited efforts, and other forms of participation with NASA, the Internet has the largest and broadest potential audience to reach people who can help drive innovation and technology development and its cost per participant is thus much lower. The Internet can also stimulate additional innovation through mutation (“let’s try this instead”, or “I misunderstood and something else happened”), differentiation (“they already did that, but let’s try it a different way”), and competition (“we can so do this first”, or “we can totally do this cheaper”).

These things said, here is a candidate participation roadmap we have been considering for Aerogel.org. For reference, we are currently most of the way through 1 and partway through 2, 3, and 4 on that project. Thus as apparent from our experience, the roadmap is serial-ish, but all steps could (and maybe should) be approached with a degree of simultaneity. Each step is design to widen the target audience by creating a stronger foundation upon which harder-to-involve participants can become involved.

1. Empower. Create transparent reference content first. Provide people with as much information as possible about the underlying science, the technology of interest, how it works, what’s been done, what’s happening now, and where problems and challenges lie . Those with the interest and resources now have the information to start getting involved.
2. Invite. Utilize social media and online collaborative tools to create a community of researchers/experimenters interested in a given topic. Combine this experience with the original tutorial/reference media to create a live reference and collaboration platform. Facilitate rapid dissemination of results, discussion of problems, and questions with RSS, user profiles, forums, and live feeds. Minimize work being reproduced and understanding being rederived. Seed the effort with top experts and existing or related researchers in the area through targeted invitations but make open to all.
3. Reduce. As in the do-it-yourself (DIY) community, create a space on the platform to encourage and communicate how to create, simplify, and/or access the basic tools necessary to do the research.
4. Recruit. Use the state Space Grant Consortia to outreach to schools and industry in each technology space to help increase awareness of what technology opportunities are available for open participation. Direct them to the appropriate online media.
5. Breakdown. Open project managers could break big problems down into little problems that many people could solve, or proportionally direct/sign-up participants to work on the same problems where more bandwidth is needed (“you four clean up the garage, you two clean up the kitchen, everyone else find and something else to clean”).
6. Incentivize. Open project managers could set goals and reward those who attain them first or best. Create coveted titles and awards. Use prizes to leverage costs. Small things could go far. Think micro X Prizes or Centennial Challenges. Even better–create prizes that are the tools needed to do the next level of the work (“prize for achieving highly aligned growth at 20 cents/square centimeter is a thermal evaporator with which you can scale your results!”). Create opportunities for participants to become involved with larger institutions based on merit. Offer merit-based scholarships and/or grants to promising researchers.
7. Solidify. When good results are obtained, differentiate them from speculation and conversation the same way the academic community does–publish. Match projects with good open journals and provide participants with the knowledge and tools to be able to transition their results to open academic publications. Open project managers could then monitor, compile, prominently display, and make easily accessible important results to advance work.

What do you think?