OIG Report on Commercial Crew Transportation Services

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NASA OIG Report: NASA's Challenges Certifying and Acquiring Commercial Crew Transportation Services

"NASA is still developing its acquisition strategy and has not settled on the specific mechanisms it will use for procuring commercial crew transportation services. The Commercial Crew Program Planning Office (Commercial Crew Office) plans to present its proposed acquisition strategy to Congress by late summer 2011. Mindful of national policy to limit the use of high-risk contracting vehicles such as noncompetitive and cost- reimbursement contracts, among the options NASA may consider is an acquisition strategy that relies on funded Space Act Agreements, competitive procurements, in particular fixed-price contracts, or a combination of both."

Keith's note: NASA is looking at no longer using Space Act Agreements for this sort of thing (at least that is what they have told OMB/OSTP) and they may soon be falling back on bad habits when it comes to dealing with the private sector. Stay tuned.

Dear NASA: Please Focus on Space Exploration, Not Menus

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Keith's note: A personal note about aerospace companies and corporate giving. Every company who supported the nuclear space event at the Air & Space Museum tonight has a clear, consistent record of giving to meritorious causes. All aerospace companies do. I know many of the people who write the checks and the professional associations that participate. I have worked with these people on educational and outreach projects. Their intentions and generosity, while facilitated by commerce, are honest and true - and if at all possible they'd love to be able to spend much, much more if only the funds were there. Indeed, some of their projects are simply inspired. Often times they fill in the gaps where NASA is lacking in funds or flexibility and push their employers to squeeze out a few more dollars.

But at the end of the day these companies take their guidance and hints - subtle and overt - from NASA civil servants. In the case of this reception, it would not have been possible to do this event if NASA was not in the loop driving the event to begin with and making the arrangements with the Smithsonian. Just look at the invitation - the NASA logo is on it - not the donors. These donors need to be acknowledged up front without any deception - both for the sake of transparency as well as to say thank you.

NASA's Education and Public Outreach efforts in the mission directorates (SMD, ESMD, and SOMD) do some really valuable things that touch many lives and encourage careers. But they also do self-serving, goofy, backslapping, inside the beltway stunts like these parties. If the intent was to promote the role and value of nuclear powered spaceflight then would it not have been better to focus the effort outward at the public and not inward i.e. the space cadet attendees' stomachs? Think of all the pseudoscience, arm waving, and blatant misinformation that is promulgated every time an RTG flies. Why not spend these party funds on enlightening the public and training students with facts?

Corporate giving is good and should be encouraged. It enhances overall social responsibility and offers flexibility that is often needed. But corporate donors follow NASA's lead. As such, NASA needs to think long and hard about how it drops hints and approves the endorsement of projects.

I organized two large events for NASA In 1987 and 1988 and rented the very same space for a big shindig. I have attended countless events and eaten the food for the past 25 years. Guilty. Been there, done that. That said, I have to ask, was this party worth the equivalent of one year of college for someone? That is what it cost. Did it promote the intended issue or just feed people chow next to Skylab?

Tonight I went outside with my wife and watched the ISS soar over our home in Reston, Virginia. It is indeed "one of the brightest objects in the sky" as we promised it would be when I worked on it 20 years ago. An hour later I managed to catch ORS1 as it was launched from NASA Wallops - from the same spot in the street in front our home. We were distracted by a plethora of fireflies sparkling in the cool summer air. I went inside and Twittered a note - with this link to a clip from "The Right Stuff". Watch the whole clip - but focus on 09:10. Fireflies leaping from an ancient people into a sky with astronauts flying above it.

It is things such as this that NASA and its corporate family should be focusing on. Bring the value to everyone, everywhere, and then derive value and support in return from the very same wide audience. Feeding a bunch of Washington, DC insiders and bureaucrats food they shouldn't be eating in the first place is not the way to promote the value of the exploration of space. Just say no.

Launch From Wallops Delayed 24 Hours

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NASA Launching Department of Defense Rocket And Satellite From Virginia June 28

"Further information on the mission, including where to view the launch, is available here. The launch will be web cast beginning at 1:30 p.m. on launch day here. Launch status can be followed on Twitter."

Minotaur Rocket Launch from NASA Wallops Re-scheduled for 29 June

"NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia has rescheduled the launch of an United States Air Force Minotaur 1 rocket carrying the ORS-1 satellite for the Department of Defense's Operationally Responsive Space Office. Originally set for June 28, the new launch date is June 29. The launch on June 28 was postponed due to thunderstorms in the area."

1996 Corvette Converted into a 2011 Electric Odyssey

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From Engadget:

A supercharged Chevrolet Corvette may have been all the hotness back in 1996, but times and tastes change and now people are all about the electric boogaloo. Today we get to witness one modern man's transition into this brave new world, a Wayne Bickley from California, who

What is Engineering's Role in Infection Control?

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Clearly, ASHE believes there is a role for healthcare engineers in infection control. But it is also not obvious what that role might be. So, what's the drill at your facility? How does the engineering function contribute to infection-control efforts in your shop? Is it doing enough? Is the contribu

Are Extended Warranties Worth the Cost?

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Consumers are opting for extended warranties for tablets, smartphones, and other easily damaged electronic gadgets. If you've ever dropped one or irreparably damaged one of these devices, you probably got an extended warranty or insurance on the next one. Is the extra cost justified?

The preceding

Are Offshore Wind Farms the Answer?

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Critics of wind farms complain that they are noisy, unsightly, and dangerous to wildlife. So why not move them offshore? A proposed $5 billion network of wind farms off the U.S. East Coast would generate 6 GW of power, the same as 10 coal-fired power plants. Could such a large wind farm quiet the cr

Marathon Span: World's Longest Sea Bridge Opens

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From msnbc.msn.com:

China opened the world's longest bridge over water on Thursday. The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 26.4 miles long, according to Guinness World Records. It links China's eastern port city of Qingdao to Huangdao island. State-run CCTV said the 110-foot-wide bridge cost more

Small Asteroid to Whip Past Earth on June 27, 2011

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Near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD will pass only 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) above the Earth's surface on Monday June 27 at about 9:30 EDT. The asteroid was discovered by the LINEAR near-Earth object discovery team observing from Socorro, New Mexico. This small asteroid, only 5-20 meters in diameter, is in a very Earth-like orbit about the Sun, but an orbital analysis indicates there is no chance it will actually strike Earth on Monday. If a rocky asteroid the size of 2011 MD were to enter Earth's atmosphere, it would be expected to burn up high in the atmosphere and cause no damage to Earth's surface. The accompanying diagram gives a view of the asteroid's trajectory from the general direction of the Sun. This view indicates that 2011 MD will reach its closest Earth approach point in extreme southern latitudes (in fact over the southern Atlantic Ocean). The incoming trajectory leg passes several thousand kilometers outside the geosynchronous ring of satellites and the outgoing leg passes well inside the ring. One would expect an object of this size to come this close to Earth about every 6 years on average. For a brief time, it may be bright enough to be seen even with a modest-sized telescope.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/neo20110624.html

NASA Will Host 150 People for Tweetup at Launch of Jupiter-Bound Mission

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NASA will host a two-day launch Tweetup for 150 of its Twitter followers on Aug. 4-5 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Tweetup is expected to culminate in the launch of the Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft aboard an Atlas V rocket.

The launch window opens at 8:39 a.m. PDT (11:39 a.m. EDT) on Aug. 5. The spacecraft is expected to arrive at Jupiter in 2016. The mission will investigate the gas giant's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere. Juno's color camera will provide close-up images of Jupiter, including the first detailed glimpse of the planet's poles.

The Tweetup will provide @NASA Twitter followers with the opportunity to tour the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex; speak with scientists and engineers from the Juno and other upcoming missions; and, if all goes as scheduled, view the spacecraft launch. The event also will provide participants the opportunity to meet fellow tweeps and members of NASA's social media team.

Juno is the second of four space missions launching this year, making 2011 one of the busiest ever in planetary exploration. Aquarius was launched June 10 to study ocean salinity; Grail will launch Sept. 8 to study the moon's gravity field; and the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity rover will head to the Red Planet no earlier than Nov. 25.

Tweetup registration opens at noon PDT (3 p.m. EDT) on Friday, June 24, and closes at noon PDT (3 p.m. EDT) on Monday, June 27. NASA will randomly select 150 participants from online registrations. For more information about the Tweetup and registration, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/connect/tweetup/tweetup_jpl_08-04-2011.html .

For information about connecting and collaborating with NASA, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/connect .

Juno's principal investigator is Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the mission.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/news/juno20110624.html

JPL-Developed Clean Energy Technology Moves Forward

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A team of scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in partnership with the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, developed a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell technology for future Department of Defense and commercial applications. Recently, USC and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which manages JPL for NASA, awarded a license to SFC Energy, Inc., the U.S. affiliate of SFC Energy AG. The non-exclusive license for the technology will facilitate the expansion of the company's methanol fuel cell products into the U.S. market.

This novel fuel cell technology uses liquid methanol as a fuel to produce electrical energy, and does not require any fuel processing. Pure water and carbon dioxide are the only byproducts of the fuel cell, and no pollutants are emitted. Direct Methanol Fuel Cells offer several advantages over other current fuel cell systems, especially with regard to simplicity of design and higher energy density. Current systems rely on hydrogen gas, a substance that is more difficult to transport and store.

"JPL invented the Direct Methanol Fuel Cell concept and also made significant contributions to all the facets of the technology. These contributions include: development of advanced catalyst materials, high-performance fuel cell membrane electrode assemblies, compact fuel cell stacks, and system designs," said JPL Power Technology Program Manager Rao Surampudi. He explained that USC worked with JPL in the development and advancement of this technology for defense and commercial applications.

Over the years, those applications have expanded from the original defense applications to include such uses as battery chargers for consumer electronics, electric vehicles, stand-alone power systems, and uninterrupted/emergency power supplies.

"We are looking forward to working closely with the fuel cell industry to further develop this technology to meet future market needs," said Erik Brandon, current Electrochemical Technologies group supervisor at JPL.

From 1989 to 1998, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded JPL and USC to develop direct methanol fuel cells for future defense applications. Inventors on the JPL team include Surampudi, Sri. R. Narayanan, Harvey Frank, Thomas Valdez, Andrew Kindler, Eugene Vamos and Gerald Halpert. The USC inventor team includes G.K. Surya Prakash, Marshall Smart and Nobel Laureate George Olah.

More information is available at: http://www.ott.caltech.edu/

"This fuel cell may well become the power source of choice for energy-efficient, non-polluting military and consumer applications," said Gerald Halpert, former Electrochemical Technologies group supervisor at JPL.

The Caltech and NASA technology transfer programs are designed to help U.S. companies improve their competitive positions in the global economy by transferring JPL technology into the marketplace.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/methanol20110526.html

Hear that? It’s the Singularity coming.

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The idea of a pending technological Singularity is under attack again with a number of prominent futurists arguing against the possibility—the most prominent being Charlie Stross and his astonishingly unconvincing article, "Three arguments against the singularity." While it’s not my intention to write a comprehensive rebuttal at this time, I would like to bring something to everyone’s attention: The early rumblings of the coming Singularity are becoming increasingly evident and obvious.

Make no mistake. It's coming.

As I’ve discussed on this blog before, there are nearly as many definitions of the Singularity as there are individuals who are willing to talk about it. The whole concept is very much a sounding board for our various hopes and fears about radical technologies and where they may bring our species and our civilization. It’s important to note, however, that at best the Singularity describes a social event horizon beyond which it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to predict the impact of the advent of recursively self-improving greater-than-human artificial intelligence.

So, it’s more of a question than an answer. And in my own attempt to answer this quandary, I have personally gravitated towards the I.J. Good camp in which the Singularity is characterized as an intelligence explosion. In 1965 Good wrote,

Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an 'intelligence explosion,' and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make.

This perspective and phrasing sits well with me, mostly because I already see signs of this pending intelligence explosion happening all around us. It’s becoming glaringly obvious that humanity is offloading all of it’s capacities, albeit in a distributed way, to its technological artifacts. Eventually, these artifacts will supersede our capacities in every way imaginable, including the acquisition of new ones altogether.

A common misnomer about the Singularity and the idea of greater-than-human AI is that it will involve a conscious, self-reflective, and even morally accountable agent. This has led some people to believe that it will have deep and profound thoughts, quote Satre, and resultantly act in a quasi-human manner. This will not be the case. We are not talking about artificial consciousness or even human-like cognition. Rather, we are talking about super-expert systems that are capable of executing tasks that exceed human capacities. It will stem from a multiplicity of systems that are individually singular in purpose, or at the very least, very limited in terms of functional scope. And in virtually all cases, these systems won't reflect on the consequences of their actions unless they are programmed to do so.

But just because they're highly specialized doesn’t mean they won’t be insanely powerful. These systems will have access to a myriad of resources around them, including the internet, factories, replicators, socially engineered humans, robots that they can control remotely, and much more; this technological outreach will serve as their arms and legs.

Consequently, the great fear of the Singularity stems from the realization that these machine intelligences, which will have processing capacities a significant order of magnitude beyond that of humans, will be able to achieve their pre-programmed goals without difficulty–even if we try to intervene and stop them. This is what has led to the fear of poorly programmed SAI or “malevolent” SAI. If our instructions to these super-expert systems are poorly articulated or under-developed, these machines could pull the old 'earth-into-paperclips' routine.

For those skeptics who don’t see this coming, I implore them to look around. We are beginning to see the opening salvo of the intelligence explosion. We are already creating systems that exceed our capacities and it's a trend that is quickly accelerating. This is a process that started a few decades ago with the advent of computers and other calculating machines, but it’s been in the last little while that we’ve been witness to more profound innovations. Humanity chuckled in collective nervousness back in 1997 when chess grandmaster Garry Kasparaov was defeated by Deep Blue. From that moment on we knew the writing was on the wall, but we’ve since chosen to deny the implications; call it proof-of-concept, if you will, that a Singularity is coming.

More recently, we have developed a machine that can defeat the finest Jeopardy players, and now there’s a AI/robotic system that can play billiards at a high level. You see where this is going, right? We are systematically creating individual systems that will eventually and collectively exceed all human capacities. This can only be described as an intelligence explosion. While we are a far ways off from creating a unified system that can defeat us well-rounded and highly multi-disciplinal humans across all fields, it’s not unrealistic to suggest that such a day is coming.

But that’s beside the point. What’s of concern here is the advent of the super-expert system that works beyond human comprehension and control—the one that takes things a bit too far and with catastrophic results.

Or with good results.

Or with something that we can't even begin to imagine.

We don’t know, but we can be pretty darned sure it’ll be disruptive—if not paradigmatic in scope. This is why it’s called the Singularity. The skeptics and the critics can clench their hands in a fist and stamp their feet all they want about it, but that’s where we find ourselves.

We humans are already lagging behind many of our systems in terms of comprehension, especially in mathematics. Our artifacts will increasingly do things for reasons that we can’t really understand. We’ll just have to stand back and watch, incredulous as to the how and why. And accompanying this will come the (likely) involuntary relinquishment of control.

So, we can nit-pick all we want about definitions, fantasize about creating a god from the machine, or poke fun at the rapture of the nerds.

Or we can start to take this potential more seriously and have a mature and fully engaged discussion on the matter.

So what’s it going to be?