The Riddler

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UPDATE:  SOLVED by Rob at 12:27 CDT

Bonjour, hola, hallo, ciao, powitanie, ahoj, hello.  I hope everybody has had a good week since we last riddled.

In keeping with my never-ending efforts to amaze, amuse, and fuzzle you, I’m introducing astronomy people into the riddle.  The rules remain the same in that it will be someone with whom you are familiar.  It will be an iconic figure; you won’t have to hold a PhD in astrophysics to know of this person.

Okay then!  Grab your favorite caffeine beverage, and let’s get to riddling:

A lovely night shot, found on PhotoBucket, released to public domain

This person’s life was marked by periods of depression and self-destructive tendencies.

Is it a surprise to anyone that this person completed the 3rd and 4th grades in one school year, and skipped half the 8th grade?

A chemistry major in college, your riddle answer graduated summa cum laude in three years.

The person you’re looking for studied in England, also.

It was there your answer got the reputation of being dangerously clumsy in the laboratory.

Because of this infamous clumsiness, your riddle answer had to be tutored in basic lab procedures.

Your answer despised this lab tutor, and tried to poison him by dipping an apple in noxious chemicals.

This led to Our Hero being sent for regular sessions with a psychiatrist.

Image lifted from the website

After such an auspicious beginning, would you be shocked to learn that this icon’s classmates signed a petition threatening to boycott their classes unless Our Hero was made to sit down and shut up?

Despite these (and other) little squabbles, your person earned their PhD at the age of 23, just two short years after completing their Bachelor’s.

Fresh out of school, Our Hero became quite successful in the field of quantum mechanics;  publishing several highly respected papers.

Heard enough?  Try this last group:

After those notorious troubles while in school, this icon became a professor at two universities… simultaneously.

Although nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize more than once, your answer never received the award.

And finally, Our Hero is most associated with one specific thing which, in an instant, changed all of history.

18th-19th Century woven carpet, Smithsonian

There you go.  Remember, the answer is an individual, so if you mean “Dan Brown” don’t say “The Da Vinci Code” (that’s just for example; of COURSE the answer isn’t “Dan Brown”).  I’m in my usual Saturday spot, waiting for your comments, so come on and keep me company.  You know I shouldn’t be left unsupervised…

I've had this cartoon up before, I think it's hilarious

My Hubble

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As you all know, I am a complete, absolute, and total Hubble fan.  I’m hardly alone in this, either.  The Hubble Space Telescope is one of the most beloved of NASA ventures, although its beginning was rather inauspicious.  Ah, yes; today I’m yapping on about My Hubble.

NASA - Hubble seen from the space shuttle Atlantis after its fourth servicing mission

Launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was already 7 years overdue.  The program had been beset by troubles since its beginning, when it was funded in the 1970′s.  After launch, horror of horrors, its images were blurry.  Hubble’s main mirror had a tiny flaw in grounding, and the entire program looked to be a wash.  In 1993 another NASA mission corrected for the slight error (yes, the Hubble is, in effect, wearing glasses), and Hubble began a 17 year stretch of providing some of the most beautiful, majestic, and important images ever collected.

Excellent diagram of Hubble by Andrew Buck, all rights reserved

The Hubble was designed to be serviced in space, and it has been through five servicing missions.  The last mission, in 2009, made Hubble good to go until at least 2014, when the James Webb Space Telescope is expected to launch.  The Webb is designed to be Hubble’s successor.

Hubble is not the first space telescope, nor is it now the only space telescope, but it is without a doubt the most beloved.  Its image is iconic; school kids draw pictures of Hubble and send them to NASA… and NASA proudly displays the drawings like parents posting them on the refrigerator.  NASA is now collecting messages to Hubble, to be stored with the Hubble archives, and thousands have already written in to tell NASA how Hubble has effected their lives.  As I said, I’m hardly alone in my unwavering love of Hubble.

NASA/ESA - Hubble in orbit

Hubble is in a low Earth orbit, and if conditions are right, you can see Hubble track across the sky every 96 minutes (I think that’s right).  The HubbleSite will show you at all times exactly where Hubble is over the Earth.  I tell you, when I see the glint of light high in the sky that I know is Hubble, I get absolutely goofy; jumping up and down, grabbing my kids (and unlucky passersby), pointing and yelling, “There’s Hubble!  Look!  Go, Hubble!” like I’ve just seen a rock star.

Funny thing is, when I do that, I’m immediately joined by a throng of people looking up in expectant awe.  When I look at those faces, the faces of strangers united for a brief moment, I know the greatest gift Hubble has given to us.  We all stand united, as a species, as never before, in humble awe at the vision of the Cosmos Hubble has given us.

Hubble; it is indeed out of the ordinary, out of this world.

Here’s a link to Hubble’s website.

A Ring Of Black Holes

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Take a look at THIS:

NASA/Chandra Arp 147, a ring of black holes

I’m seriously impressed.  Here’s what NASA says about it:

Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes a new image of a ring — not of jewels — but of black holes. This composite image of Arp 147, a pair of interacting galaxies located about 430 million light years from Earth, shows X-rays from the NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (pink) and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, blue) produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md.

Arp 147 contains the remnant of a spiral galaxy (right) that collided with the elliptical galaxy on the left. This collision has produced an expanding wave of star formation that shows up as a blue ring containing in abundance of massive young stars. These stars race through their evolution in a few million years or less and explode as supernovas, leaving behind neutron stars and black holes.

A fraction of the neutron stars and black holes will have companion stars, and may become bright X-ray sources as they pull in matter from their companions. The nine X-ray sources scattered around the ring in Arp 147 are so bright that they must be black holes, with masses that are likely ten to twenty times that of the Sun.

An X-ray source is also detected in the nucleus of the red galaxy on the left and may be powered by a poorly-fed supermassive black hole. This source is not obvious in the composite image but can easily be seen in the X-ray image. Other objects unrelated to Arp 147 are also visible: a foreground star in the lower left of the image and a background quasar as the pink source above and to the left of the red galaxy.

Infrared observations with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and ultraviolet observations with NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) have allowed estimates of the rate of star formation in the ring. These estimates, combined with the use of models for the evolution of binary stars have allowed the authors to conclude that the most intense star formation may have ended some 15 million years ago, in Earth’s time frame. ??These results were published in the October 1st, 2010 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. The authors were Saul Rappaport and Alan Levine from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, David Pooley from Eureka Scientific and Benjamin Steinhorn, also from MIT.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra’s science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.

More information, including images and other multimedia, can be found at:

http://chandra.harvard.edu

Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/S .Rappaport et al. Optical: NASA/STScI

The Matron Goddess of Hawaii

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We’ve been spending some time talking about dwarf planets, featuring Eris and Pluto, so I thought I’d spare a moment for a truly interesting (but often overlooked) member of the dwarf category; Haumea.  Remember, Sedna is a planetoid, and we have five known dwarf planets in the solar system:  Eris, Ceres, Pluto, Makemake, and Haumea.  Orcus, Quaoar, and 2007 OR(10) are dwarf planet candidates, by the way, sure to eventually be admitted to the club.

NASA/A. Feild - Artist's impression of Haumea and her two tiny moons

136108 Haumea was discovered in 2004 by a CalTech team headed by Mike Brown at the Palomar Observatory.  Haumea is the matron goddess of the island of Hawaii.  Boasting two tiny moons (Hi’iaka and Namaka) and an amazing ellipsoid shape, Haumea will certainly capture your attention.  Add a rotation period of about 3.9 hours and an orbital inclination of 28 degrees, and you see why Haumea gets talked about.

Thought to have formed in a collisional event in the scattered disc, Haumea is giving scientists plenty of food for thought.  For one thing, her collisional group has diffused to the point where scientist say the event must have occurred early in the formation of the solar system, say at least a billion years ago.  The problem is that the surface of Haumea and her family “group” is too bright for that length of time to have elapsed.  It appears as if the group was resurfaced within the last 100 million years.  That’s quite a puzzle, one for which no plausible explanation has been found.

Excellent grouping using NASA images, found on English WikiPedia by Lexicon

Haumea’s ellipsoid shape is a product of her blazing rotational speed -vs- her size.  She is in equilibrium in this shape.  With an average diameter of 1,400 km, she is the third or fourth largest of the dwarf planets and dwarf planet candidates, coming in behind Pluto, Eris, and maybe Makemake (we don’t know for sure yet).

Haumea’s tiny moons are believed to be fragments of Haumea herself, probably remnants of the collision which formed her.

All in all, and interesting member of our solar system, and well worth a few moments pause for thought.  Besides, she’s sure to show up in a future riddle!

The Beauty Of Dust And Debris

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Planetary rings are flat, disc-shaped rings of dust and other small particles in orbit around a planet.  The most well-known planetary rings are those around Saturn, but Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings.

NASA Voyager 2 - Rings of Uranus

There are three known ways that planetary rings are formed:  First, it is believed to be left-over matter from the original protoplanetary planetary disc which couldn’t coalesce into moons; from the debris of a moon that was destroyed by an impact; or the debris from a moon that was (or is in the process of being) disrupted by the tidal stresses of its parent planet.

NASA/JPL Cornell University - Jupiter's rings

As we know from Saturn’s rings, many contain shepherd moons and tiny moonlets which contribute to the stable composition of the rings.  While rings are believed to be a fairly short-term phenomenon, Saturn’s rings are believed to be quite ancient.

NASA/ESA Hubble - The star of the show, Saturn in natural colors

While Saturn’s rings have been known since the 1600′s, the rings around Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune are modern discoveries.  Scientists will be watching New Horizons on its pass of Pluto for the presence of a ring system.  None of the inner planets are known to have a ring system.  It is believed that the force of the solar wind makes it impossible for a ring system to form that close to the Sun.  While there may have been debris in orbit around the inner planets, the force of the solar wind pushed the particles away.

NASA/JPL Cassini - Saturn ring mosaic... the enlargement on this one is incredible

Saturn’s rings have awed and delighted us for centuries.  The beauty and mystery of the rings have kept us looking up, and because of the rings Saturn is often times described as the most beautiful planet in the solar system.  The rings around Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune have increased our awe of these giants, too.

Studying planetary rings has given us a deeper understanding of the development of our solar system.  However they are formed, they are a wondrous sight.  Mysterious, beautiful, and magnificent; an awesome spectacle that continues to delight.

Jellyfish Nebula In Explosive Color

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NASA/JPL CalTech

This is from NASA, ain’t it great?

This oddly colorful nebula is the supernova remnant IC 443 as seen by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Also known as the Jellyfish Nebula, IC 443 is particularly interesting because it provides a look into how stellar explosions interact with their environment.

Like other living creatures, stars have a life cycle — they are born, mature and eventually die. The manner in which stars die depends on their mass. Stars with mass similar to the sun typically become planetary nebulae at the end of their lives, whereas stars with many times the sun’s mass explode as supernovae. IC 443 is the remains of a star that went supernova between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago. The blast from the supernova sent out shock waves that traveled through space, sweeping up and heating the surrounding gas and dust in the interstellar medium, and creating the supernova remnant seen in this image.

What is unusual about the IC 443 is that its shell-like form has two halves that have different radii, structures and emissions. The larger northeastern shell, seen here as the violet-colored semi-circle on the top left of the supernova remnant, is composed of sheet-like filaments that are emitting light from iron, neon, silicon and oxygen gas atoms, in addition to dust particles, all heated by the blast from the supernova. The smaller southern shell, seen here in a bright cyan color on the bottom half of the image, is constructed of denser clumps and knots primarily emitting light from hydrogen gas and heated dust. These clumps are part of a molecular cloud, which can be seen in this image as the greenish cloud cutting across IC 443 from the northwest to southeast. The color differences seen in this image represent different wavelengths of infrared emission.

The differences in color are also the result of differences in the energies of the shock waves hitting the interstellar medium. The northeastern shell was probably created by a fast shock wave (223,700 miles per hour), whereas the southern shell was probably created by a slow shock wave (67,100 miles per hour).

Pluto Was Named After That Disney Dog, Right?

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I hear that a lot.  Now, I’m not going to climb up on a soap-box here, but let’s get one thing straight; Pluto was NOT named for the Disney character, the Disney character was named after the planet Pluto.

NASA/ESA Hubble, highest current resolution of Pluto

Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh on February 18, 1930, and announced March 13, 1930 (you know this, right?).  Its name was announced May 1, 1930.  Pluto the Pup was “Rover” until May 8, 1931, when the name was used in a cartoon called The Moose Hunt. That was the first time the name “Pluto” appeared for the cartoon animal.  The planet is actually named for the Roman god of the underworld, which also explains the names of its moons.

I don’t want to get fussy here, but while I’m on the subject of Pluto, it wasn’t demoted to a dwarf planet because of its size.  It was assigned the status because it hadn’t cleared its orbital path.  The three criteria which must be met for an object to be categorized as a “planet” are:

  1. The object must be in orbit around the Sun.
  2. The object must be massive enough to be a sphere by its own gravitational force. More specifically, its own gravity should pull it into a shape of hydrostatic equilibrium. 
  3. It must have cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.

Pluto is certainly in orbit around the Sun; it has a fascinating orbit, and it’s definitely round.  The problem was that there was too much clutter, or debris, within its orbital path.  The thinking is that a planet would have accreted all the bits and pieces.  Of course, we may be watching the process of accretion with Pluto, which we’ll only know over time.

Of course, there’s a HUGE argument about that whole “clearing the orbital path” issue, considering how many asteroids are in Jupiter’s orbit… and Saturn’s orbit…

NASA/ESA Hubble, the Pluto system

Something else that’s cool about Pluto is that it could actually be a binary system with Charon, with Nix and Hydra it’s only moons.  I’m hoping to see some studies relating to that as New Horizons approaches.

One urban legend about Pluto that is absolutely true is that a small portion of Clyde Tombaugh’s ashes are aboard the New Horizons spaceship.

Now, everybody repeat after me:  Pluto was NOT named after the dog, the dog was named after Pluto.  Pluto was NOT named after the dog, the dog was named after Pluto.  Pluto was NOT…

LAUNCH: We know WHY. Do you?

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Sausalito

Last week, we held our West Coast LAUNCHpad Salon with the LAUNCH team to talk lessons learned from two successful events, LAUNCH:Water and LAUNCH:Health; and start planning LAUNCH:Energy. The Cazneau Group, one of our implementation partners, hosted the Salon at their offices in Sausalito, California. Great conversation, great setting, great food. But best of all, great common goal — to bring about positive change to our home planet, one innovation at a time.

LAUNCH: Accelerating Innovation for a Sustainable Future.

LAUNCH teamLAUNCH teamLAUNCH team

NASA, USAID, Department of State, and NIKE joined together to form LAUNCH in an effort to identify, showcase and support innovative approaches to sustainability challenges. We’d been working on the LAUNCH concept for six months or so before having a program mature enough to bring in partners in December of 2009. In 2010, we successfully hosted two forums at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Now we look ahead to”what next” — as in LAUNCH:Energy.

During our two days together, the LAUNCH team sifted through what makes our LAUNCH brand unique. We’re still working through the process, but what really resonated with me was the concept of LAUNCH as a Fellowship of Innovators. We joked about the ONE RING to RULE them ALL….and who got to wear it, but in essence, that’s what LAUNCH is. We’re an ever-expanding fellowship of cutting-edge thinkers — though not at all in a Sauron kind of way, for all you Lord of the Rings fans.

Each of the LAUNCH team founders is an innovator in his/her field of expertise. We came together to create an innovative program called LAUNCH, which selects ten innovators to interact with 30+ LAUNCH Councilmembers, who are thought leaders in their fields. Together, we’ve become a Fellowship to help propel promising innovations forward to make a difference addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Pretty cool, huh?

After returning to the office, a colleague shared with me a TED presentation by Simon Sinek: “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.” Well worth watching!

Simon says (wink) that others “don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it.” He talks about why the Wright Brothers were successful. They were driven by a cause, they wanted to “change the course of the world.” And they did! Just like we want to accomplish with LAUNCH — to accelerate innovation for a sustainable future…and change the course of the world.

Wright Brothers Glider

In his TED presentation, Simon Sinek also talks about the Law of Diffusion of Innovations, where 2.5% are Innovators, 13.5% are Early Adopters, and 34% are in the Early Majority. He claims that Innovators and Early Adaptors are comfortable making gut decisions driven by what they believe about the world vs. what product is available for their use. The Early Majority won’t try something until someone else tries it first.

Law of Diffusion of Innovation

With LAUNCH, we’re in the business of accelerating innovation. We operate right in the middle of the 2.5% zone on the curve. We look for innovations (and their innovators) to nurture, refine, and then showcase to Early Adopters (the LAUNCH Council). We started inside Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle and built out. We know WHY we created LAUNCH. Then we figured out HOW to implement the concept, and WHAT the product is.

Simon Sinek: Why

Once you strip away the Innovator selection and presentation prep, the Council selection and event logistics, the Accelerator follow-up post forum, what’s left is the LAUNCH Fellowship of Innovators. We’re creating space at the far left of the Diffusion of Innovation curve where we can live and play. It’s the place where we believe we can make biggest impact on the future of this world. That’s WHY!

Innovators: We want YOU!

Innovators, we want YOU!

Crosspost on Beth Beck’s Blog and  GovLoop.com

A Path Forward

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Eight years ago, I was awakened one Saturday morning to a phone call from a good friend.

“Did you hear what happened?  Are you watching the news?”

Groggy from having just woken up, I had little idea what I was about to see, as I trudged into my living room to turn on the television.  I was least prepared.  The late breaking news headline on CNN hit me, quite literally, like a ton of bricks: Space Shuttle Columbia had broken up over the skies of the southern United States as she came hurtling back to Earth with her crew of seven.

Lost.

A lifelong “space nerd,” I’d dreamed of the day I would be able to say that I worked for NASA, and even more so of the day I could break free of gravity’s bonds.  After a couple of NASA internships over the previous two years, I had acquired a taste for what it was like to be a part of the NASA community – a tight knit group of people who collectively recognized and appreciated the value of space exploration, many of whom, like me, grew up staring at the heavens at night, eyeing the moon as an eventual travel destination.

That morning, I sat in absolute disbelief as I watched the news unfold, while file footage provided graphic evidence of the disaster that took place over the skies of Texas.  My thoughts immediately turned to not just the immediate family and friends of those who perished onboard Columbia, but to all of those who belonged to the NASA family…to my NASA family.  Tears flowed as I saw images of the flight control team reacting to what they knew was the absolute worst possible scenario, a bad day amplified by a magnitude of infinity.  Without even personally knowing those onboard, I felt a deep sorrow for their loss, for those close to them, and for NASA.

The Apollo 1 fire was well before my time, and almost my parents’.   And though it took place during my lifetime, I was hardly a toddler with little cognitive ability to remember the Challenger disaster in 1986. And now with Columbia’s demise, we were once again faced with the stark realities of the dangers of human spaceflight and forced to weigh the benefits versus those very risks. Uncertainty loomed, and in the midst, I couldn’t help but wonder what this would mean for the future of our national human spaceflight program.

As pledges of sympathy and support poured in from all over in the subsequent days, President Bush delivered an address vowing that human spaceflight in the US would continue, just as it had after both the Apollo 1 and Challenger accidents.  And almost one year later, he announced his Vision for Space Exploration, setting forth legislation that would send us back to the Moon and onto Mars.  This promise ignited hope and inspiration in those of us who spent their youths dreaming of “slipping the surly bonds of Earth” and setting foot on extraterrestrial soil, while honoring the legacy of those who’ve made space exploration possible.

Since the inception of the US human spaceflight program, countless individuals have devoted their livelihoods to further the cause for exploration, to test the limits of mankind’s knowledge and experience, and to expand the boundaries of our terrestrial existence. We have been, are, and forever will remain an agency of people who believe in space exploration.  We are a collective group of passionate, dedicated workers who are inspired by the contributions of spaceflight to humanity.  We are men and women who were awed by Sputnik, by Neil Armstrong’s first steps, by the first joint Russian-American venture in space, by the Space Shuttle’s maiden voyage, by the building of the International Space Station, piece by piece, before our eyes and who are still inspired on a daily basis by the feats we help accomplish.  We are an agency motivated by man’s innate desire to achieve the impossible, “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

We believe in our hearts with the greatest conviction that the greatest accomplishments in human spaceflight are still ahead of us; and yet we recognize that we must honor the legacy left by our space-faring forefathers and our colleagues who’ve given their lives in the name of exploration. Our every decision, our every action is motivated by the events of our past and our hope for the future. Let us not forget the magnitude of their contributions or the extent of their devotion.

Eight years after the announcement of the Vision for Space Exploration, we sit at a pivotal juncture, one that will determine the course of the future of our nation’s human spaceflight program.  As we wait for our new Congress to set a fiscal year budget, my thoughts turn to all those who’ve dedicated and given their lives in the pursuit of humanity’s innate desire to explore.

As we step into a difficult transition period, one wrought with anticipation, nail-biting, nerves, disappointment, and frustration, let us not dwell on the opinions and assessments of others, but rather move forward with hope and inspiration drawn from the legends of spaceflight past.

As we decide on the feasibility of plans for the nation’s space program, let us remember that our forefathers, in the face of adversity, accomplished seemingly impossible tasks.

And, this week, as we commemorate the lives of our colleagues whom we have lost, let us remember that their ultimate sacrifice must not be in vain, that we must accept our constraints, our limitations, and from that, build plans of sustaining a robust human spaceflight program, capable of inspiring generations to come.

LAUNCH: NASA Advisory Council Education and Public Outreach Committee Presentation

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The NASA Advisory Council provides perspective, advice, and counsel to NASA leadership on areas of importance to the agency. The Council has nine committees, one of which is the Education and Public Outreach Committee. During their meetings, they receive updates on NASA programs and activities. The names in italics below were in attendance for the LAUNCH presentation this week. Now you can see it too.

NASA Advisory Council Education and Public Outreach Committee members:

Vote: Etsy Space Craft Contest

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We do really cool things at NASA. One of them is a creative Space Craft Contest with Etsy, the place for homemade coolness.
You can take part by voting for your favorite 3D and 2D entries.

NASA/Etsy Space Craft ContestThe public voting period opened on Friday, November 12 and will run through Friday, November 19. You will have to register to vote, but the registration is painless.To encourage you to go look for yourself, here are a few interesting selections you can vote for. The assortment and creativity is astounding (and quite amusing…see Shuttle hat at the bottom).
Moon Rocket
Barn Rocket Sunbeam
Beadwork Sculpture Rocket Ship
Planet/Wheelthrown Stoneware Textured Sphere
Mars Odyssey inspired pendant in sterling and 18k gold plate
Space Shuttle Dress
Shuttle Beaded Necklace
Original International ROBOT drawing illustration pen and ink Robots From Outer Space With UFO Robot invation
Zeggee's Pops Spacesuit - Awesome Metal Space Framed Print by A.Bamber
Titan Trout 1 Alternative SpaceCraft
Dive Up for NASA by Tiffany Michelle Bohrer
Take Me To Your Leader Robot
Space Shuttle Fleece Hat
Etsy received over a thousand entries. Each is made by hand with tender loving care. Take time to review the entries and send the winner to one of the last Space Shuttle missions.

Time’s running out. You have until Friday to vote for your favorite Space Craft!


Crosspost on Beth Beck’s Blog.

Ralph Hall’s NASA Reality Check for the 112th Congress

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House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Oversight Plan for the 112th Congress

"The Committee will continue to provide oversight of NASA's human spaceflight program as it undergoes a period of uncertainty and transition following various Administration proposals. Specific attention will be paid to the feasibility of NASA's plans and priorities relative to their resources and requirements."

House members may come see Discovery launch, Florida Today

"[Rep. Ralph] Hall, one of NASA's most vocal supporters in Congress, said the committee would have to work together to support the agency amid tight budgeting that will force cuts throughout the government. "My goal is to keep our position in space, keep our leadership in space and keep our national and international partners," Hall said. "I'm not urging anybody to go to Mars right now or back to the moon, or any place when people can't go to the grocery store. The economy has to be good. But we've got to continue to work toward it and plan for it."

House Appropriators Pull Out The Knives

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House Appropriations Committee Introduces CR Containing Largest Spending Cuts in History (With detailed chart)

"The House Appropriations Committee today introduced a Continuing Resolution (H.R. 1) to fund the federal government for the last seven months of the fiscal year while cutting spending by over $100 billion from the President's fiscal year 2011 request. This CR legislation represents the largest single discretionary spending reduction in the history of Congress. ...

"NASA Budget reduction compared to FY 2010 enacted: $303.0 million. Compared to FY 2011 Request: $578.7 million."

ATK (Apparently) Does Not Need NASA Money For Liberty [Update]

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ATK moving forward with Liberty rocket, Salt Lake Tribune

"Regardless of whether the government agrees to help fund Alliant Techsystems' rocket that would take astronauts to the International Space Station, the Utah company intends to move forward with its project because it believes there will be no shortage of commercial customers. ATK and a partner on Tuesday unveiled the two-stage Liberty rocket that they want NASA to use as the next launch vehicle for the U.S. space program. And they are hoping the space agency will see fit to award it at least a portion of a $200 million pool of money set aside for promising projects."

Keith's 10 Feb note: Of course U.S. taxpayers have already made a huge down payment on Ares-1 development. I wonder how ATK gets to use the Ares 1 modified transporter, launch pad, VAB, etc - also modified with lots of tax dollars. That won't cost ATK money? Isn't the use of these designs and facilities using NASA money?

Keith's 11 Feb 12:42 pm update: According to ATK's George Torres, who called and left me a voicemail statement: "The ATK spokesperson spoke out of line. What we're really about is to meet goal of CCDev to acclerate commerical program and to try and mature the program and working on the integrate these two systems as part of the deveopment. CCDev funding would acclerate this by 2 years." He said that he'd sent me a statement by email at some point.

Keith's 11 Feb 2:14 pm update: Here is ATK's statement: "These comments were inaccurate and from someone who didn't have full insight into the business model as presented for the CCDev2 acquisition. Specifically, our proposal is focused on the goals of CCDev-2, which are to "further advance commercial Crew Transportation System (CTS) concepts and mature the design and development of elements of the system such as launch vehicles and spacecraft." Overall, it really responds to the main goal of the procurement, which is to "accelerate the development of commercial crew systems." If we do win a CCDev-2 contract we can accelerate our first flight two years from 2015 to 2013. With the payload capabilities of Liberty and its low price, we believe it will be a strong competitor for CCDev-2. As for use of KSC facilities, we are responding to NASA's request on how we would utilize KSC facilities (just like other potential contractors) on a leased basis."

First Orion Shipped From Michoud to Denver

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Lockheed Martin Ships Out First Orion Spacecraft

"The Lockheed Martin Orion team shipped out the first Orion crew module spacecraft structure today from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La. The spacecraft is headed to Lockheed Martin's Denver, Colo. facilities where it will undergo a series of rigorous tests to confirm Orion's ability to safely fly astronauts through all the harsh environments of deep space exploration missions."

NASA OIG: Major Challenges Facing NASA

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NASA OIG Testimony: Major Challenges Facing NASA in 2011

"At the present time, NASA finds itself in a state of significant uncertainty, particularly with respect to its human space program. The final Space Shuttle flights are scheduled for later this fiscal year and construction of the International Space Station is essentially complete; however, the Agency has not achieved significant momentum on space exploration directives contained in 2010 authorizing legislation because of funding and technical questions.

The most immediate challenge facing NASA's leadership is to manage the Agency's portfolio of space and science missions amid the continuing lack of clarity caused by conflicting legislative directives in the Authorization Act and a holdover provision in NASA's fiscal year (FY) 2010 appropriations law. The latter provision prevents NASA from terminating any aspect of the Constellation Program or from initiating any new program."

Moon Rock Thief Doesn’t Seem To Be Sorry

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From the U to NASA, prison and back again, Daily Utah Chornicle

Convicted moon rock thief Thad Roberts: "(We) came out with a 600-pound safe, (estimated by the government to be worth $7 million to $21 million) sawed it open in a hotel room and sorted all the moon rocks, which included a meteorite from Mars," Roberts said. "I definitely knew at this point that I had the best rock collection in the world." Within a week, rumors spread, inevitably revealing Roberts' and the women's guilt. This resulted in an eight-year sentence for him, and only house arrest for the two women because he took the "leadership position" in the crime."

Keith's note: So Thad - you aren't at all sorry that you stole and damaged these invaluable research specimens? The author of this article doesn't seem to be interested in this obvious aspect of the story - indeed she writes: "In such a short time, Roberts has lived an unimaginable life, but he is continuing to complete his goals and hopes to see success in his future."

NASA Budget to be Announced Next Monday

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NASA LogoNASA Announces Plan To Win The Future With Fiscal Year 2012 Budget, NASA

"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will brief reporters about the agency's fiscal year 2012 budget at 2 p.m. EST on Monday, Feb. 14. The news conference will take place in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, located at 300 E St. S.W., in Washington.

Chief Financial Officer Elizabeth Robinson will join Bolden. The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's web site. Questions will be taken from news media representatives at headquarters and NASA field centers."