Ghosts and Star Trails

Don't be scared. Stars won't fall from the sky and ghosts won't really haunt your neighborhood tonight. But it looks like they might be doing just that in this eerie picture of an eccentric old abandoned house in moonlight. A treat for the eye the image is a trick of stacked multiple exposures, 60 frames exposed for 25 seconds each. While the digital frames were recorded with a camera fixed to a tripod stars traced concentric arcs about the north celestial pole, only a reflection of planet Earth's rotation on its axis. Conveniently marked by bright star Polaris, the pole could be positioned above the peaks of the deserted dwelling. Wrapped in a blanket to stay warm, the photographer's own movements during the exposures were blended into the ghostly apparitions. Of course, the grinning Jack-o-Lantern is there to wish you a safe and Happy Halloween! via NASA http://ift.tt/1PWkQM4

Halloween Asteroid Is Bigger Than Expected, And Also a Giant Dead Comet Skull.

Last week, I wrote about a smallish asteroid that would be passing relatively close to — but still well away from — the Earth on Oct. 31. Hey, that’s today! Yup: It’ll pass us at 17:05 UTC, when it will be at closest approach, about 480,000 km (300,000 miles) away, farther than the Moon.

As I mentioned in that earlier article, astronomers were planning on pinging it with radar pulses from the Goldstone radio telescope, and they also used the Arecibo radio ‘scope in Puerto Rico. Those latter observations have been done, and they produced an animation of the asteroid showing it rotating:

The observations indicate it spins roughly once every five hours. It doesn’t appear to have any moons, as many small rocks do. It’s also bigger than expected, about 600 meters across. That happen; it’s hard to get the size from just optical observations. We measure its brightness and distance, and then its size is inferred from that. But a dark rock can be bigger, and a shiny one smaller, with both looking the same brightness.

TB145 was a bit darker than expected, so it’s actually bigger than first thought. It only reflects about six percent of the light hitting it, which is pretty dark. That indicates it may be the husk of a dead comet, which tend to be darker on average than asteroids. That would also explain the weird orbit I wrote about last week; it's more short-period comet-like than asteroid-like, really.

Also, I want to point out that the animation above isn’t actually a picture as you normally think of it, because the radio telescope was using radar to map the rock. I’ve explained this before:

Mind you, the radar data is a bit weird.  It’s not showing you an actual picture of the asteroid. The vertical axis is showing distance to the asteroid—if there’s a hill you’d see it poke up toward the top, and a crater would be a depression. The horizontal axis, though, is actually the  velocity at which the asteroid is spinning. The faster the rock spins, the more smeared out it is left to right; one that doesn’t spin at all would look like a vertical line. I know, it’s weird, but it’s the way this kind of radar observation works.

Emily Lakdawalla at The Planetary Society has a much more detailed explanation.

And one more thing I can help but notice: Given today’s date, how cool is it that the first frame of the animation makes the asteroid look very much like a skull?

Mwuhahahahaha. Happy Halloween!

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Examining Staff and Board Member Salaries at CASIS

Keith's note: CASIS (The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization chosen by NASA in 2011 to manage the portion of the International Space Station that has been designated as a U.S. National...

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The Witch Head Nebula

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble .... maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. A frighteningly shaped reflection nebula, this cosmic crone is about 800 light-years away though. Its malevolent visage seems to glare toward nearby bright star Rigel in Orion, just off the right edge of this frame. More formally known as IC 2118, the interstellar cloud of dust and gas is nearly 70 light-years across, its dust grains reflecting Rigel's starlight. In this composite portrait, the nebula's color is caused not only by the star's intense bluish light but because the dust grains scatter blue light more efficiently than red. The same physical process causes Earth's daytime sky to appear blue, although the scatterers in planet Earth's atmosphere are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. via NASA http://ift.tt/1WnLsog

Dawn Journal: A Bounty of Data

Dawn has completed another successful campaign to acquire a wealth of data in its exploration of dwarf planet Ceres, providing our clearest and most complete view ever of this world.

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Journey to Space

Members of The Planetary Society staff visit the new "Journey to Space" exhibit at the California Science Center in all its wonder.

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NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for Next Tracking, Data Relay Satellite

NASA has selected United Launch Services LLC of Centennial, Colorado, to provide launch services for the agency’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M (TDRS-M) mission. The mission will launch in October 2017 aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

October 30, 2015
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Potentially Good Budget News For NASA

Budget Deal To Ease Sequester, Boost Discretionary Spending For Two Years, AIP "Congress approved a major bipartisan budget agreement, negotiated with the White House, that increases discretionary spending by $80 billion total in FY 2016 and FY 2017, creating room...

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Close View of Saturn's Moon Enceladus From Oct. 28 Flyby

This unprocessed "raw" image of Saturn's icy, geologically active moon Enceladus was acquired by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during its dramatic Oct. 28, 2015 flyby in which the probe passed about 30 miles (49 kilometers) above the moon's south polar region. via NASA http://ift.tt/1MxNoLy

Guilty Plea in LaRC Computer Security Case

Former NASA Langley employee pleads guilty in federal case, Daily Press "A former NASA Langley Research Center employee pleaded guilty this week to violating a NASA regulation by allowing a foreign national unrestricted access to a company computer. Glenn A....

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UPDATE: Rep. Lamar Smith Ramps Up His Climate Conspiracy

On Monday, I reported on a slimy attack on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas. Smith is Chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and a man with his head firmly in the sand when it comes to global warming — an issue the NOAA studies very carefully.

However, because the NOAA understands that global warming is real, and has said so, they have become the target of Smith’s ire. He has used his power of Congressional subpoena to coerce the head of the NOAA, Kathryn Sullivan, to hand over all data and emails from scientists on their use of global satellite data. This is clearly a fishing expedition; he’s looking for ways to humiliate the agency, and also to tie them up in administrative knots.

In a very harshly worded letter from his co-Committee member Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, she accuses him of overreaching and abusing his power, noting (correctly) that neither he nor his staff is qualified to examine the data.

To me, this stinks of McCarthyism.

But now there’s more news.                                                                                                           

Nature is reporting that the NOAA is refusing to comply with Smith’s outrageous demands, and “has no intention of handing over documents that reveal its internal deliberations.”

YES. This is precisely how it should be, and Smith’s gross overstepping of bounds is proof of that. If the NOAA hands over the documents, then they are acquiescing to political pressure, partisan political pressure, I’ll add, which is completely removed from the scientific process. And given Smith’s clearly anti-science view of global warming, this pressure is antithetical to the scientific process.

I can’t stress enough just how distant from reality Smith is here. His view is literally that the NOAA is purposely doctoring results to make it seem as if the planet is warming. After the NOAA announced it wouldn't kowtow to such nonsense, Smith’s office released this statement:

It was inconvenient for this administration that climate data has clearly showed no warming for the past two decades. The American people have every right to be suspicious when NOAA alters data to get the politically correct results they want and then refuses to reveal how those decisions were made. NOAA needs to come clean about why they altered the data to get the results they needed to advance this administration’s extreme climate change agenda. The agency has yet to identify any legal basis for withholding these documents. The Committee intends to use all tools at its disposal to undertake its Constitutionally-mandated oversight responsibilities.

Holy. Wow. For years I have been stressing that belief in anti-science has very real consequences, and now here we are. The Chair of the House Science Committee is attacking a science agency because of a conspiratorial belief that is utterly wrong.

His claim that the world isn’t warming is simply wrong. The so-called “pause” in warming has been shown not to exist, and it goes well beyond just NOAA data; multiple agencies around the world have data to show this (see, for example, this, and this, and this). We’ve known this for years now, and in fact not only is there no pause, but warming hasn’t even slowed.

As for “altering” data, that’s laughable. Data isn’t some revealed knowledge from scientific instruments; it’s made of measurements and is therefore subject to all sorts of issues that can artificially bias the results. What Smith calls “altering” scientists call “calibrating” or “normalizing” or "removing the bias from". For example, some temperature readings may have been made using different methods, different instruments, and those have to be adjusted to each other to account for the difference. That's precisely what NOAA scientists did in this case.

This is a common, standard, and wholly necessary scientific practice, not some nefarious scheme to cater to the White House’s agenda. Even funnier is that the adjustments made to the data are very small, and do nothing to change the very clear fact that we’re heating up.

The fact that Smith can’t or refuses to understand this very, very basic idea makes me even more upset that he is in charge of Congressional oversight for so many scientific agencies. It’s appalling that it’s come to this.

Oh, and by the way? Those temperature data from the NOAA are already public. Given that this current GOP rails against government waste, this is doubly ironic.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has more about this, as does Roll Call.

Mind you, I am all for accountability and oversight (here’s an excellent example, though not one I bet Smith would approve of). That’s not the issue here. The issue is the overreach of such demands from a Congressional Committee that clearly has no grasp of what it’s asking for, and is therefore grasping at straws.

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Orb-3 Failure Report Released

NASA Review of Orbital ATK Accident Released, NASA "The team determined the proximate cause of the Antares launch vehicle failure was an explosion within the AJ-26 rocket engine and identified three credible technical root causes, any one or combination of...

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IC 1871: Inside the Soul Nebula

This cosmic close-up looks deep inside the Soul Nebula. The dark and brooding dust clouds outlined by bright ridges of glowing gas are cataloged as IC 1871. About 25 light-years across, the telescopic field of view spans only a small part of the much larger Heart and Soul nebulae. At an estimated distance of 6,500 light-years the star-forming complex lies within the Perseus spiral arm of the Milky Way, seen in planet Earth's skies toward the constellation Cassiopeia. An example of triggered star formation, the dense star-forming clouds of IC 1871 are themselves sculpted by the intense winds and radiation of the region's massive young stars. This color image adopts a palette made popular in Hubble images of star-forming regions. via NASA http://ift.tt/1kdERR7

ISS Daily Summary Report – 10/29/15

Post Extravehicular Activity (EVA):  Due to the EVA yesterday, the US crew was scheduled for a half duty day.  This morning, Kelly and Lindgren completed post-EVA health assessments.  Kelly, Yui and Lindgren then participated in an EVA debrief session with ground specialists.  Later, Kelly remated wire harness W0142 to the Node 1 Starboard Gore Panel.  The wire harness was demated to provide an upstream physical inhibit for the EVA installation of W2289 during EVA #32.  Lastly, Lindgren completed a refill of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) feed water tanks and an ullage dump on EMUs 3003 and 3010.   Plant Gravity Sensing 2 (PGS2) Investigation:  Yui retrieved a Seed Paper Kit from a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI), prepared the Seed Papers for 4 Culture Dishes and then returned the culture dishes to the MELFI.  Tomorrow the seeds will be inserted into the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) to start the second of two runs for PGS2.  The PGS2 investigation supports the study of cellular formation of the plant’s gravity sensors and the molecular mechanism for gravity sensing in plants grown in microgravity conditions.   Plasma Kristall-4 (PK-4) Investigation:  Kononenko performed closeout activities for the first run of PK-4, completed today, and prepared the equipment for the next run.  He then replaced the data hard drives with new ones, and then filled the PK-4 Chamber first with cleaning gas and then with Neon gas.  PK-4 is a scientific payload for performing research in the field of ‘Complex Plasmas': low temperature gaseous mixtures composed of ionized gas, neutral gas and micron-sized particles. The micro-particles become highly charged in the plasma and interact strongly with each other which can lead to a self-organized structure of the micro-particles: so-called plasma crystals. Experiments in the facility aim to study Transport Properties, Thermodynamics, Kinetics and Statistical Physics and Non-linear waves and Instabilities in the plasmas.   eValuatIon And monitoring of microBiofiLms insidE the ISS (ViABLE) Experiment:  Kelly touched the palm of his hand to experimental materials located on the top covers of ViABLE bags.  He also blew on experimental materials located on those covers.  This activity is performed approximately every 45 days and the bags are photographed at 6 month intervals.  ViABLE involves the evaluation of microbial biofilm development on metallic and textile space materials located inside and on the cover of Nomex pouches. Microbial biofilms are known for causing damage and contamination on the Mir space station and the ISS.  The potential application of novel methodologies and products to treat space materials may lead to improvements in the environmental quality of confined human habitats in space and on earth.   Habitability:  Today, Kelly documented his recent observations related to human factors and habitability for the Habitability investigation.  Habitability assesses the relationship between crew members and their environment in order to better prepare for future long-duration spaceflights to destinations, such as near earth asteroids and Mars. Observations recorded during 6 month and 1 year missions can help spacecraft designers determine how much habitable volume is required, and whether a mission’s duration impacts how much space crew members need.   Sleep Log:  Kornienko recorded a Sleep Log entry today.  The Sleep ISS-12 experiment monitors ambient light exposure and crew member activity and collects subjective evaluations of sleep and alertness.  The investigation examines the effects of space flight and ambient light exposure on sleep during a year-long mission on the ISS.   Environmental Sampling:  Yui deployed a formaldehyde monitor in the US Lab. It will remain deployed for 2 days.  He also collected air samples in the US Lab and Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Pressurized Module (JPM) using Grab Sample Containers (GSCs).  These samples will be returned to the ground on 43S for post-flight analysis.     Today’s Planned Activities All activities were completed unless otherwise noted. Hematocrit Test Hematocrit  Hardware Stowage Repair of SM Interior Panel 322 by Installing Overlay Panels – Day 1 PLAZMENNIY KRISTALL. Hard Drive Exchange Counter Measure System (CMS) Harmful Contaminant Measurements in SM Periodic Health Status (PHS) Post EVA Evaluation Analysis of SM Atmosphere for Freon Using Freon Leak Analyzer/Detector (ФИТ) PILOT-T. Experiment Ops PGS2-ELT2 – Cable Reconfig Post-EVA crew health status – data transfer PGS2 – Sample Retrieval from MELFI VIZIR. Calibration of СКП-И Hardware PGS2 – Sample Insertion into MELFI PLAZMENNIY KRISTALL. Filling Chamber with Cleaning Gas Columbus video power up for HAM Radio session Pille Dosimeter Reading after USOS EVA WRS – Recycle Tank Fill from EDV HABIT – Experiment Ops US post-EVA Debrief Conference CONTUR-2. P/L Assembly Setup on panel 418 Treatment of SM structural elements and shell areas with Fungistat Re-mate wire harness W0142 WRS – Recycle Tank Fill from EDV Progress 429 (SM Aft) Transfers and IMS Ops CONTUR-2. Experiment Session HAM Radio session from Columbus FMK Deployment Ops CIR Rack – Equipment Setup Grab Sample Container (GSC) Sampling Operations Initiate Condensate Sampling VIABLE – Kit Inspection COSMOCARD. Closeout Ops HMS – Food Frequency Questionnaire On-orbit Hearing Assessment using EARQ EMU Water Refill Evening Work Prep Terminate Condensate Sampling СОЖ Maintenance) RWS Teardown Evening Work Prep IMS Delta File Prep CONTUR-2. De-installation of master arm with adapter from panel 418 PLAZMENNIY KRISTALL. Gas Exchange in the Chamber to Neon VELO Exercise, Day 1 INTERACTION-2. Experiment Ops Start EMU METOX Regeneration CONTENT. Experiment Ops PLAZMENNIY KRISTALL. Hardware De-Installation and Stowage Prepack Crew Discretionary Conference Preparation of Reports for Roscosmos Web Site and Social Media ECON-M. Observations and Photography   Completed Task List Items P/TV Battery Charger Swap Air Quality Monitor Reposition   Ground Activities All activities were completed unless otherwise noted. MT Translation from WS2 to WS4   Three-Day Look Ahead: Friday, 10/30:  EVA Preparation, JEMAL ExHAM install Saturday, 10/31:  Weekly Cleaning, Crew Off Duty Sunday, 11/01:  Crew Off Duty   QUICK ISS Status – Environmental Control Group:                               Component Status Elektron Off Vozdukh Manual [СКВ] 1 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV1”) On [СКВ] 2 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV2”) On Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab Off Carbon […]

October 30, 2015 at 01:01AM
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Mastcam-Z: The Future of Stereo Imaging on Mars

An introduction to the Mastcam-Z stereo imager on the Mars 2020 rover, and brief reporting and reflections on team meetings, science instruments, and the exciting future of The Planetary Society covering the entire lifetime of this instrument, from design to Mars images.

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Crescent Pluto

NASA and the folks on the New Horizons spacecraft team just released a photo of Pluto, and I can say without fear of exaggeration that it is the most stunning shot of the tiny world yet.

Ready?

Are. You. KIDDING. ME?

This shot was taken when New Horizons was just 18,000 km (11,000 miles) from Pluto, just 15 minutes after closest approach. A piece of this image was released back in September, showing a part of the crescent, but after better processing this represents the whole view by the Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera in the instrument playfully called Ralph.

Once I picked my jaw up off my desk, I was able to start poking through the image. First off, make sure you grab the ridiculously huge 8888 x 5000 pixel version of this, because holy yikes.

The Sun was off to the right and far, far behind Pluto in this shot, over five billion kilometers away.

Starting at the lower right of the crescent you can see the relatively smooth Sputnik Planum region, part of the “heart” of Pluto. Going around the crescent to the upper left (west) are higher features, mountains up to 3,500 meters high. They would fit right in with the Colorado Rockies… except these mountains aren’t rock, they’re frozen water ice.

On Earth, an ice mountain this big would collapse under its own weight. But Pluto has lower gravity, and at -230°C water ice is as tough as rock on Earth.

In the big version, you can see the long shadows cast on the frozen landscsape by these and other higher features. It's magnificent.

You can also see Pluto’s extremely thin atmosphere of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide. The striping is real! It’s due to layers of haze, molecules created when ultraviolet light from the Sun reassembles simpler molecules in the air and on the surface.

There are vast amounts of science in this photo, so much to see and learn about this distant place. And you know how excited I am about that.

But just look at it. That’s Pluto.

Our Universe is beyond beautiful. It is an exquisite work of art, one that we can see through science, understand through science, and appreciate through science.

In so many ways, the two are, quite simply, the same thing.

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Spacewalk Selfie

Expedition 45 Commander Scott Kelly took this photograph during a spacewalk on Oct. 28, 2015. Sharing the image on social media, Kelly wrote, "#SpaceWalkSelfie Back on the grid! Great first spacewalk yesterday. Now on to the next one next week. #YearInSpace" via NASA http://ift.tt/1kefVc5

At Mars Workshop, Science and Human Spaceflight Find Common Ground

An update from NASA’s First Human Landing Sites/Exploration Zones on Mars Workshop at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas.

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From the Earth to the Moon… in One Minute

I recently wrote about the huge archive of 8400 photographs from the Apollo Moon missions released on Flickr. Put together by Kipp Teague, it’s a great way to spend some time looking over one of the greatest moments in space exploration history.

If you don’t have a lot of time, then The Planetary Society put together a <tl;dr> version of it: all the Apollo 11 photos combined into one short video:

When I first saw this on my pal Ariel Waldman’s Facebook page, I figured it would just be a rapid-fire compilation of pictures almost too fast to comprehend. But Merc Boyan, Media Producer for the society, made this eminently watchable, timing the music and photos — including some strategic pauses — to create something that, somehow, is more than the linear combination of its parts.

In fact, the photo archive has inspired all sorts of artistic endeavors by people to create interesting — and wildly different — takes on bringing these still images to life.

Vimeo user harrisonicus created a trippy video made from haphazardly collected images from the archive. Well, mostly haphazard; it shows a trip from the Earth to the Moon in chronological order, but using photos from different missions along the way. So you might see a shot of the Earth from Apollo 12 right after one from Apollo 16 (showing the Earth roughly the same size, as if you're the same distance from it, but in wildly different phases). He set it to some video game music, and the result is rather endearing.

Tom Kucy created a more serious and dramatic take by tweaking the photos a bit, animating some, tilt-shifting others, highlighting them as high (literally) art. His video is immersive and enthralling.

I love the dedication and enthusiasm people have for this. Hundreds of millions of people watched the Apollo missions as they happened, and I was one of them, though only a small boy. The effect on me was profound, and clearly, these missions still have a long reach. Given that about 400,000 people worked for a decade to put a dozen men on the Moon and return them safely back to Earth, perhaps this archive and these videos are a metaphor for the project as a whole… and a reminder what we can do when we reach for the stars.

Tip o' the spacesuit visors to Wired for the second two videos.

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Doubts About Crew Health on NASA's #JourneyToMars

NASA's Efforts to Manage Health and Human Performance Risks for Space Exploration, NASA OIG "Although NASA continues to improve its process for identifying and managing health and human performance risks associated with space flight, we believe that given the current...

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Spectacular Martian Dune

When I wrote my review of the movie The Martian, I mentioned how realistic the landscapes were. Much of the literally other-worldly scenery was based on images taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which can resolve objects on the surface of the planet down to about a half meter.

I may have missed it, but in the movie I don’t think they showed any dunes. There was a lot of sand, lots of texturing in it like ripples, but I don’t remember seeing any large-scale dunes.

Too bad. Because Martian dunes are jaw-droppingly beautiful. If you don’t believe me, then take another look at the photo above, and also check it out in super-duper high-res, because wow.

That is what’s called a barchan (pronounced BAR-can) dune; a horseshoe-shaped sandpile. In this HiRISE shot, the wind is coming from the (very slightly upper) right, blowing particles to the left. If something blocks the wind a little bit, like a rock or other outcropping, the sand piles up. The wind then splits, forming a bow wave pattern around the obstacle, and the sand follows suit.

When it gets tall enough, the sand will flow down the back of the slope, creating a sharp peak more-or-less perpendicular to the direction of the wind, so it too follows the bow shape. Irregularities in the dune surface force the wind to flow up and down in waves, creating the ripples in the dune. The inside curve of the dune is in the lee of the wind, so the sand sliding down there creates a much smoother dune surface.

The color is gorgeous, but I’ll note it’s not what your eye would see if you were flying over Mars. The actual image is the combination of a red image (shown as red) and one taken with a blue-green filter (shown in green, since that filter lets through mostly green light). To make the red-green-blue image, the blue color is approximated as a mathematical combination of the green and red image.

However, this image is telling us there’s a lot of red in the dune, most likely due to very fine grain dust. Roughly speaking there are two kinds of grains on Mars: sand, which is millimeter-scale grey volcanic basalt, and dust, which is much finer (like talcum powder) and has a lot of iron oxide in it. Iron oxide is more commonly known as rust, and that’s why Mars has so much red to it.

This dune is part of a much larger dune field, and as the image release points out, the surface under the dune field is just as interesting as the dunes themselves. It looks fractured and has resisted wind erosion, so it must be made of tougher stuff. It’s likely very old bedrock. The red region on the right must be sprinkled with dust, while on the left it’s greyer, meaning less dust. In the larger scale pictures (warning: 200 Mb file!) you can see that this dune sits at the edge of the dune field, upwind (to the right) of most of the dunes. Since that’s also where the grey/red line is in the surface, I’m guessing there’s some surface sloping going on here.

When I see pictures like this, I have to chuckle. Years ago, I used to think Mars wasn’t terribly interesting or pretty. In my defense, all the photos we had were low resolution, so it looked rather dull. But I chalk this up more to a failure of my imagination. Now that we have better tech spying on the planet, it’s obvious just how gorgeous it is. I hope I’ve learned my lesson; now when I look at a photo of some object that doesn’t have a lot of features, I wonder what amazing thing lurks there that we just barely can’t see.

The Universe isn’t actively hiding anything from us. It just is what it is. We have to be motivated to dig deeper, see better, to uncover its truth.

More about Martian dunes:

Federation Scum Is Attacking Mars!
Dune Mars
Saharan Star Dunes
Desktop Project Part 17: Sculpting Martian Dunes
Crash Course Astronomy: Mars

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Tweeting From Space - In 1968

The First (Analog) Tweet From Space - In 1968 "On October 14, 1968, the Apollo 7 crew became the first to broadcast live from space. Count the characters in their message. "Keep those cards and letters coming in, folks!". 44....

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ISS Daily Summary Report – 10/28/15

Extravehicular Activity (EVA) #32:  EVA Crew-1 (EV1) Kelly and EV2 Lindgren egressed the Airlock at 7:03am CDT for EVA #32.  The Phase Elapsed Time was 7 hours and 16 minutes.  Prior to egress, for a short period of time, EV2 bumped the position of the water valve on his suit.  The suit was cleared to proceed after verification that water was not sublimating and the suit operated nominally throughout the EVA.  There will be an additional water recharge and inspection completed on that suit prior to the next EVA.   The planned objectives for the EVA were as follows: Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) Blanket and TTCS Wedge Install Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) Multi-Layered Insulation (MLI) Removal and Skirt Tie-Down Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) Latching End Effector (LEE)-B Lube Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA)-3 / International Docking Adapter (IDA)-3 Cable Route Node 3 (N3) Non-Propulsive Vent (NPV) Install   The crew fully completed the AMS and MBSU tasks.  They completed the high priority LEE Lube tasks for lubing the ball screws and linear bearing tracks.  The lower priority task of lubing the equalization brackets and rollers was not completed.  The crew completed the PMA-3 IDA-3 cable routing and the aft portion of the PMA-3 power cable routing.  The forward portion of the PMA-3 power cable routing and the N3 NPV install were deferred to a future EVA.  The deferred tasks are not an impact to current ISS operations.   Plasma Kristall-4 (PK-4) Operations:  Kononenko provided support for the PK-4 experiment started yesterday by exchanging data hard drives.  Plasma Kristall-4 is a complex European Space Agency (ESA) plasma laboratory installed in the Columbus European Physiology Module (EPM) rack and operated by Russian crewmembers.  PK-4 supports research in the field of Complex Plasmas: low temperature gaseous mixtures composed of ionized gas, neutral gas and micron-sized particles. The micro-particles become highly charged in the plasma and interact strongly with each other, which can lead to a self-organized structure of the micro-particles (i.e., “plasma crystals”).   Reaction Self Test:  Kelly will complete a session today for the Reaction Self Test investigation.  Reaction Self Test helps crewmembers objectively identify when their performance capability is degraded by various fatigue-related conditions that can occur as a result of ISS operations and time in space (e.g., acute and chronic sleep restriction, slam shifts, extravehicular activity (EVA), and residual sedation from sleep medications).   Sleep Log:  Kornienko recorded a Sleep Log entry today.  The Sleep ISS-12 experiment monitors ambient light exposure and crew member activity and collects subjective evaluations of sleep and alertness.  The investigation examines the effects of space flight and ambient light exposure on sleep during a year-long mission on the ISS.   Today’s Planned Activities All activities are on schedule unless otherwise noted. NEIROIMMUNITET. Saliva Test Closing USOS Window Shutters Photo/TV EVA Camera Test ISS  HAM RADIO Power Down EVA CUCU Deactivation EMU Preparation for US EVA SEISMOPROGNOZ. Downlink data from Control and Data Acquisition Module (МКСД) HDD (start) Restoring Makita Battery – Equipment setup, assemble charging setup Comm configuration for EVA PLAZMENNIY KRISTALL. Hard Drive Exchange MOTOCARD. Experiment EMU Prep for EVA Prebreathe in EMU Makita tool battery discharge COSMOCARD. Setup. Starting 24-hr ECG Recording Installation of Makita battery No.1 to charge Brine (urine) transfer from EDV-U to Progress 429 (SM Aft) Rodnik БВ1 tank Repair and Installation of Overlay Panels on SM panel 322 -Search for and Configure Equipment Crew Lock Depress Remove battery No.1 from charge,  Install Makita tool No.2 to charge Soyuz 717 Samsung tablet charge – start NEIROIMMUNITET. Closeout Ops Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) USOS EVA Tasks AMS blanket install Remove battery 2 from charge, Install Makita tool battery No.7 to charge CALCIUM. Experiment Session 11 Progress 429 (SM Aft) Transfers and IMS Ops SM Ventilation System Preventive Maintenance. Group В1 Relocating PBAs for upcoming EVA Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) USOS EVA Tasks USOS EVA PMA3 Cable Routing USOS EVA LEE (SSRMS) Lube SSRMS Motion for LEE Lube Remove battery No.7 from charge, Install Makita tool battery No.8 to charge СОЖ maintenance Soyuz 717 Samsung tablet charging – end USOS EVA PMA3 Cable Routing Tasks Life On The Station Photo and Video Terminate Makita Battery No.8 charge, Configuration Teardown, Battery and Equipment Stowage NPV Installation USOS EVA PMA3 Cable Routing Tasks IMS Delta File Prep INTERACTION-2. Experiment Crew Lock Ingress Closing USOS Window Shutters SEISMOPROGNOZ. Download data from Control and Data Acquisition Module (МКСД) HDD (end) and start backup EVA Glove Photo Setup Crew Lock Pre-Repress Crew Lock Repress USOS Post-EVA Cleanup Return to nominal comm configuration after USOS EVA Hematocrit.  Hardware Setup EVA Camera Reconfig EMU Glove photos downlink Reaction Self-Test (Sleep) [Scheduled just prior to crew sleep]   Completed Task List Items None   Ground Activities All activities are on schedule unless otherwise noted. System commanding in support of EVA   Three-Day Look Ahead: Thursday, 10/29:  1/2 Duty Day, Post EVA Activities, Plant Gravity Sensing 2, VIABLE Training Friday, 10/30:  EVA Preparation, JEMAL ExHAM install Saturday, 10/31:  Weekly Cleaning, Crew Off Duty   QUICK ISS Status – Environmental Control Group:                               Component Status Elektron Off Vozdukh Manual [СКВ] 1 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV1”) On [СКВ] 2 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV2”) Off Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab Off Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 Operate Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab Shutdown Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 Operate Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) Process Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) Standby Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab Off Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 Full Up  

October 29, 2015 at 12:42AM
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Congress Makes Progress on Commercial Space

House and Senate Reach Agreement on Commercial Space Legislation, SpacePolicyOnline "House and Senate negotiators have reached agreement on a compromise version of commercial space legislation that passed the House and Senate earlier this year. Details of the compromise have not...

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Talking About Asteroids on SLOOH

NASA: Two SLS Launches Likely Needed For $3 billion+ ARM, earlier post "At today's Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG) telecon, I asked Lindley Johnson via Webex "Can you show the chart again that has SLS as a launch option for...

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Charles Elachi Retiring As JPL Director

Charles Elachi to retire as JPL Director, NASA "Charles Elachi, the director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 2001, announced today he is retiring at the end of June 2016. He will become professor emeritus at the California Institute of...

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Bolden's Roadmap To Mars (Video)

Charlie Bolden: Advancing the Journey to Mars (Video) "NASA Administrator Charles Bolden spoke about the agency's journey to Mars during remarks to the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC., on Wednesday, October 28, 2015. NASA recently released the report...

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A New Budget Deal and a Best Case NASA Budget for 2016

The promise of a congressional budget deal could free up additional resources for NASA. What would a best case scenario look like, and is it possible within the deal?

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SLS/Orion Gets a Lobbying Organization in Washington

Coalition for Space Exploration takes steps to ensure broad support for deep-space exploration "The Coalition for Space Exploration, an ad-hoc organization of space industry businesses and advocacy groups, today announced it is taking formal steps to provide a single, unified...

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Conan and I Share a Little Oxygen Dihydride

Via Twitter yesterday, I found out I was on another late night talk show and I didn’t even know it!

This is actually pretty funny, and doesn’t need any setup:

I’ll admit I cringed when I heard Conan make the joke, but not as much as I cringed at the last line by  Dean (the chemistry guy). Ouch.

Still, nicely retorted, Conan. And, "greatest scientists in the world"? I blush.

And I had to laugh; seeing my friends David Grinspoon, Michelle Thaller, Dan Durda, Neil Tyson, Bill Nye, and Alex Filippenko in there was pretty cool. Looks like they raided footage from How the Universe Works and Outrageous Acts of Science. Too bad they couldn’t get Hakeem Oluseyi in there, too!

And Conan, Andy: If you see this, contact me. I have a wee bit of experience doing late night… and I can play harmonica, too.

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Colors After the Storms

Damaging heavy rains fell on South Carolina in the southeastern United States at the beginning of October 2015. Much of that water had, by mid-October, flowed into the Atlantic Ocean bringing with it heavy loads of sediment, nutrients, and dissolved organic material. The above VIIRS image shows the runoff as it interacts with ocean currents. via NASA http://ift.tt/1HbbVhG

A Cosmic Halloween Gallery: Things That Go “Boo!” in the Night

For Earthlings, Halloween brings candy, costumes, and spooky decorations. But the Universe can orchestrate some haunting of its own. In 2011, Phil Plait published gallery of the Universe’s scariest photos. The original is reprinted below.

Halloween is coming, and while people are out trick-or-treating or enjoying a costume party, the Universe will continue to go about its business.

The business of DEATH, that is. Black holes will continue to tear apart stars and gorge themselves on the tasty, gooey insides. Galaxies will erupt with high-energy radiation, blasting out killer rays for hundreds of thousands of light years. Giant clouds of gas will collapse, form stars, and promptly have their interiors eaten out from within.

The Universe is scary, and even scarier on Halloween. And I can prove it to you, with a gallery of eerie and spooky images I hand-picked just for you. So turn down the lights, play some creepy space sounds, and enjoy. And if you get a chill down your spine while you peruse the gallery, why, I don't blame you. After all, Halloween is for make-believe ... but what you're seeing is very, very real.

Is this a moaning skull, aflame with Halloween madness?

Actually, it's something far scarier: a gigantic black hole gobbling down matter and spewing out vast amounts of high-energy radiation.

In the heart of the Perseus cluster of galaxies lies the monster Perseus A, a huge galaxy that is blasting out X-rays. In this image by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, the galaxy is between the two "eyes", which are most likely gigantic bubbles of gas expanding away from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy. Those dark regions are each half the size of our own Milky Way galaxy, 100,000 light years across!

A rose, by any other name, would smell ... like rotting corpses. Ewwww.  (And yes, it's a real picture!)

The knee of Orion is marked by the bright star Rigel, and just off to the side is the large glowing Witch Head nebula, which really does look like a classic depiction of a hag's face: open-mouth, scraggly nose, deep eyes, gaping as she looks off to the right. 

This image was taken by astrophotographer Rogelio Andreo, and was a small piece of a vast Orion mosaic he made. It was so incredibly beautiful that I picked it as my No. 1 astronomy picture of 2010. 

What scares a ghost? Something must have frightened this poor guy, since he's running for his ... uh. .. life? Death? Whatever.

This is one of my favorite nebulae in the sky, and if it looks familiar, it should: In a bizarre—and literal—twist of fate, it's actually the picture of the Witch Head Nebula turned sideways! 

I love that you can take an astronomical picture related to Halloween, turn it 90 degrees, and get a different Halloween picture! Turn your head to the left to see the Witch.

If you have a hard time seeing it, the ghost is running to the right; the upswept arc on the right is his arm (the Witch's chin), his head is the bump to the left (the Witch's lip), his other arm is the arc on the left (the Witch's nose), and his ghostly feet dangle below.

Adam Block is a fantastic astrophotographer, using the 0.8 meter Schumann telescope in Arizona to take incredible images. This one shows gas and dust around the very young star V633 Cas, still in the throes of birth. When human babies are born, they scream, and from the looks of this star it is, too. But oits age is estimated as more than 30,000 years, which is a long, long time to wail ...

This is a small part of a much larger and fantastically beautiful image of the region around the nebula vdB1, and I really recommend you take a look. It's breath-taking. 

160,000 light years from home, the Tarantula nebula (how's that for a Halloweeny name?) is a factory cranking out thousands of stars. Some of these stars are so luminous they have heated the gas to millions of degrees, and this expanding hot gas (in blue) has pushed open bubbles in the cooler gas around them (red).

And if that were happening inside of you, I imagine you'd be screaming in fury as well.

Man, that is one ticked off nebula. I'm glad it's so far away.

In 2012, my wife and I hosted a group of science enthusiasts to a vacation at the C Lazy U dude ranch as part of Science Getaways—vacations with extra bonus science added. While out on our biology hike, we saw vast groves of aspen trees, and learned that they reproduce themselves by sending up runners from their rooots—clones, essentially.

One, though, must've suffered an error during the DNA transcription. Unless there's some evolutionary benefit for an aspen tree to have a bleeding eye in its trunk.

And if that's the case, I don't think I wanna know.

This seriously disturbing image is not actually a photo, and it's not actually an astronomical object! It's an image of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland when it was erupting in 2010, made using radar observations. 

But c'mon, look at it! How could I not include it?

Even in space, you can't escape Halloween! I'm not sure what it is on the right that's chasing those two poor, terrified people running away with their arms up in the air, but it must be really scary.

This is SH2-136, a Bok globule, a dark blob of gas that forms stars deep within. Parts of it are lit up by nearby stars, allowing us to witness this act of cosmic trick-or-treatery.

A vast cloud of gas surrounding two huge clusters of stars stares at you, glaring, knowing you should be working and not reading Halloween blogs.

Or is that your conscience speaking? This is actually a star-forming cloud called NGC 2467, as seen by the MPG/ESO telescope in Chile. Each eye is actually a cluster of stars, blowing huge holes in the gas cloud, forming what looks like two colorful eyes burning a hole into your very soul.

I have to note: this object is in the constellation of Puppis, the stern of a cosmic ship. So this really is a stern glare! 

Glowing ominously green and yellow in this picture, the nebula W5—nicknamed (seriously) the Soul Nebula—peers into your soul with its black eye sockets filled with pinprick stars ...

But really it's a vast cloud of gas furiously churning out stars. The winds of subatomic particles and fierce light from those newborn stars carve out cavities in the gas, leaving what look like eye sockets and a nasal bone in a huge green skull.

I have to say ... it looks a lot like the very creepy aliens called “The Silence” from Doctor Who.

This image was taken by astronomer César Cantú, who has dozens of other stunning astronomical photos on his site ... but none quite so creepy. 

At the center of our Milky Way galaxy lurks a massive black hole, which, for the moment, is quiet. The surrounding material barely glows in radio waves, but there, off to the right ... is that the baleful face of a woman, just a half a light year from the monster? Why is she sad? What is she mourning? 

Perhaps she perceives her own fate: being twisted around, the gas making up her visage warped and wrapped as it circles that black hole over thousands of years, eventually, it may be, to take the final plunge into eterity.

OK, I made that name up. It's actually called DR 6, which isn't nearly as much fun, especially at this time of year.

This is an infrared Spitzer Space Telescope image of the gas cloud, which is forming a dozen or so stars inside it. The eyes and mouth are bubbles in the gas blown by the winds of the newborn stars.

So in a way, it really is yelling. But at a distance of 4,000 light years—and across the vacuum of space—there's nothing we can hear. 

Except: BOO! 

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If Global Warming Is a Hoax…

If global warming is a hoax...

… then why was this September globally the hottest September on record by a substantial margin?

… then why were seven of the months in 2015 (so far!) the hottest of those months on record (February the hottest February on record, and so on)?

… then why is 2015 on track to be by far the hottest year on record?

… then why was the last warmest year on record just last year?

… then why are the ten hottest years all since 1998?

… then why are we seeing far more high temperature records broken than lows?

… then why did summertime arctic ice thin by more than 80 percent from 1975 to 2012?

… then why is arctic sea ice volume dropping so fast it’s called a “death spiral”?

… then why is the percentage of older ice in the arctic dropping?

… then why are we losing 450 billion tons of land ice every year?

… then why have we lost 5 trillions tons of land ice just since 2002?

… then why are Earth’s sea levels rising by more than 3 mm per year?

… then why are the oceans getting more acidic?

… then why are the vast majority of glaciers across the planet melting?

… then why do at least 97 percent, and perhaps as high as 99.9 percent of climate scientists say it’s real?

… then why don’t climate change deniers publish papers?

… then why do global warming deniers keep using long-falsified claims?

… then why does every conservative political party in the world except the GOP think it’s real?

… then why has the fossil fuel industry dumped more than $36 million (so far!) into the 2016 elections, with a staggering 93 percent of it going to Republicans?

… then why the hell is our globe warming?

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New Concepts to Explore the Jovian System

Last year, NASA’s managers invited the European Space Agency to propose a small spacecraft to explore the Jovian system. Van Kane describes the recently-posted results of ESA's concept studies for two possible missions.

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ISS Daily Summary Report – 10/27/15

Crew Half-Duty Day:  Today was a reduced duty day for the United States On-orbit Segment (USOS) Crew in advance of tomorrow’s EVA.   Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparations:  The USOS crew members made final preparations by setting up EVA tools, performing a tool audit, and preparing the Equipment Lock, and Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs).  In addition, all three USOS crew reviewed related procedures and briefing packages.  USOS EVA #32 (ISS Upgrades EVA) is scheduled to occur tomorrow with hatch opening taking place at approximately 7:15am CDT.   Plasma Kristall-4 (PK-4) Operations:  Kononenko continued ongoing PK-4 operations by connecting the gas supply flexhose to the Neon gas supply, opening a valve to pressurize it, reporting the pressure, and then disconnecting the flexhose.  An experiment run in PK-4 is planned to start tomorrow.  Plasma Kristall-4 is a complex European Space Agency (ESA) plasma laboratory installed in the Columbus European Physiology Module (EPM) rack and operated by Russian crewmembers.  PK-4 supports research in the field of Complex Plasmas: low temperature gaseous mixtures composed of ionized gas, neutral gas and micron-sized particles. The micro-particles become highly charged in the plasma and interact strongly with each other, which can lead to a self-organized structure of the micro-particles (i.e., “plasma crystals”).   Large Format Motion Picture Camera (IMAX):  Kelly connected the IMAX Codex to a Station Support Computer (SSC) for a downlink of recorded video files.  IMAX filmmakers intend to produce a three dimensional movie called A Perfect Planet, using ISS-based video and images to show how natural and human forces shape planet Earth. The film will also showcase NASA’s exploration efforts and highlight the ISS as a platform for scientific research and a stepping stone to deep space exploration.   Reaction Self-Test:  Kelly completed a session today for the Reaction Self-Test investigation.  Reaction Self-Test helps crewmembers objectively identify when their performance capability is degraded by various fatigue-related conditions that can occur as a result of ISS operations and time in space (e.g., acute and chronic sleep restriction, slam shifts, extravehicular activity (EVA), and residual sedation from sleep medications).   Sleep Log:  Kelly and Kornienko recorded Sleep Log entries today.  The Sleep ISS-12 experiment monitors ambient light exposure and crew member activity and collects subjective evaluations of sleep and alertness.  The investigation examines the effects of space flight and ambient light exposure on sleep during a year-long mission on the ISS.   Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) Status:   Following yesterday’s Fluids Control Pump Assembly (FCPA) change out, today Ground Controllers updated pump parameters and successfully initiated a UPA process cycle.  The process cycle is expected to complete later this evening.   Node 1 Nadir Common Berthing Mechanism (CBM) Checkout:   Yesterday afternoon, Ground Controllers completed a successful checkout of the Node 1 Nadir CBM.  This is a routine checkout performed every 6 months, and also serves as Launch Commit Criteria (LCC) for the planned OA-4 berthing in December.   Today’s Planned Activities All activities were coompleted unless otherwise noted. NEIROIMMUNITET. CORRECTSIA RUEXP – Blood Sample Insertion into MELFI Verification and report of antivirus scan results on Auxiliary Computer System (ВКС) laptops Purging Elektron-VM Liquid Unit (БЖ) after Shutdown Replacement of RS TORU trainer cable 17КС.30Ю8230А-2030 cable Progress 429 (SM Aft) Transfers and IMS Ops JEM Terminal Computer Reboot Hair Sample Cleaning ГЖТ4 (Gas-Liquid Heat Exchanger) ВТ-7 fan screen VIBROLAB. Monitoring hardware activation Inspection and Cleaning of RS2 laptops No.1098 (POC22473J,СМ1РО_1_102), RS3 No.1144 (POC22519J,ФГБ1ПГО_4_426_1, bag 352-20 (00037779R) Demating wire harness W0142 On MCC GO RS1 Laptop Inspection and Cleaning Verification of ИП-1 Flow Sensor Position WRS – Recycle Tank Fill from EDV CARDIOVECTOR. Experiment Ops Relocating PBBs for upcoming EVA EVA Tool Config Final printout of EVA procedures ISS Crew Medical Officer (CMO) Computer Based Training (CBT) ABOUT GAGARIN FROM SPACE. Experiment Ops EVA2 Procedure Review Pille sensors prep for USOS EVA On-orbit hearing assessment using EARQ PLAZMENNIY KRISTALL. Gas Exchange in the Chamber for Neon IMAХ – Connecting to SSC USOS EVA Tool Audit WRS – Recycle Tank Fill from EDV Installation of RSK1 SW Version 1.11 and Checkout of TORU Relocation Simulator Wiping SM surfaces with Fungistat:  panels 128, 130, 131, 135 Water Transfer and Shell Compression of Progress 429 (SM Aft) Rodnik БВ1 tank Equipment Lock Preparation HAM radio session from Columbus IMS Delta File Prep СОЖ Maintenance VIBROLAB. Copy and Downlink Data IMAX – Terminate Battery Charge EVA Procedure Conference IMAX – Terminate Codex 512 GB Drive charge 24-hour ECG Monitoring (termination) 24-hour BP monitoring (terminate) IMAX – power down NEIROIMMUNITET. Stress Test NEIROIMMUNITET. Closeout Ops Reaction Self-Test (Sleep) On MCC GO Compression of Progress 429 (SM Aft) Rodnik Tank БВ1 – Closeout Ops Preparation of Reports for Roscosmos Web Site and Social Media ECON-M. Observation and Photography URAGAN Observations and Photography   Completed Task List Items RMS Laptop Terminal 2 (RLT2) Hard Disk Drive Installation RMS Laptop Terminal 3 (RLT3) Swap   Ground Activities All activities were completed unless otherwise noted. EVA Preparation Commanding Backup and Standby C&C MDM Swap S-Band String 1 Activation   Three-Day Look Ahead: Wednesday, 10/28:  ISS Upgrades EVA Thursday, 10/29:  1/2 Duty Day, Post EVA activities, Plant gravity Sensing 2, VIABLE Training Friday, 10/30: EVA Preparation, JEMAL ExHAM install.   QUICK ISS Status – Environmental Control Group:                               Component Status Elektron Off Vozdukh Manual [СКВ] 1 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV1”) Off [СКВ] 2 – SM Air Conditioner System (“SKV2”) On Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Lab Off Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) Node 3 Operate Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Lab Shutdown Major Constituent Analyzer (MCA) Node 3 Operate Oxygen Generation Assembly (OGA) Process Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) Norm Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Lab Off Trace Contaminant Control System (TCCS) Node 3 Full Up  

October 28, 2015 at 12:53AM
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Bright from the Heart Nebula

What's that inside the Heart Nebula? First, the large emission nebula dubbed IC 1805 looks, in whole, like a human heart. The nebula glows brightly in red light emitted by its most prominent element: hydrogen. The red glow and the larger shape are all created by a small group of stars near the nebula's center. In the center of the Heart Nebula are young stars from the open star cluster Melotte 15 that are eroding away several picturesque dust pillars with their energetic light and winds. The open cluster of stars contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, many dim stars only a fraction of the mass of our Sun, and an absent microquasar that was expelled millions of years ago. The Heart Nebula is located about 7,500 light years away toward the constellation of Cassiopeia. At the top right is the companion Fishhead Nebula. via NASA http://ift.tt/1jNXN9y

NASA Webcasts/Telecons on Wednesday

- NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden will speak at the Center of American Progress at 10 am ET. The event will be live-streamed on NASA TV and on the CAP website - NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot will deliver keynote remarks...

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Selecting Landing Sites For NASA's Journey To Nowhere

First NASA Landing Site/Exploration Zone Workshop for Human Missions to the Surface of Mars "NASA's first Landing Sites/Exploration Zones Workshop for Human Missions to the Surface of Mars will be held Oct. 27-30 at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in...

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More NASA History Destroyed in Alabama

Someone in Alabama Sold a Priceless Lunar Rover for Scrap Metal, Motherboard "According to documents acquired by Motherboard as part of a Freedom of Information Act request, a priceless lunar rover prototype designed for the Apollo missions was sold to...

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Indonesia Fires Seen From a Million Miles Away

Normally, I think pictures of Earth from space are among the most beautiful of all astronomical photos. Our home is gorgeous, especially when seen from afar.

But Monday, NASA tweeted a picture of our world whose ugliness made me literally gasp when I understood what I was seeing.

The photo above is from the Earth-observing DSCOVR satellite, which sits 1.5 million km (almost a million miles) over our planet, taking full-disk images every hour, which are then put online for the public to view. That shot was taken on Oct. 25 at 05:37 UTC. NASA put the picture on Twitter to point out the three tropical low systems developing in the Indian Ocean. Which is great, and very cool. But what caught my eye was the huge grayish hazy patch over Indonesia, over to the right a bit.

It took me a moment to figure it out, but then it hit me: That’s smoke from the Indonesian peat bog fires that are raging out of control right now. Fires in these peatlands have been going off and on for years, but 2015 is on track to be the second largest on record (after 1997). There have been nearly 100,000 active fires recorded there in this year alone.

These fires are dumping vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide and methane. According to GlobalFireData.org, the fires this year have tripled Indonesia’s CO₂ output, emitting as much as the entire country of Japan did in 2013.

On Monday, President Obama met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, and they talked about these fires.* Indonesia is the fifth largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, and these fires aren’t helping. Worse, many of these fires are set purposefully to clear for agriculture, but the El Niño has worsened them significantly.

The total amount emitted from these fires just this year is well over a gigaton, a billion tons, of CO₂. Globally, humans put out about 40 gigatons of CO₂ per year, so this is a staggering amount.

As your eyes can show you. These fires can literally be seen from a million miles away.

*Correction, Oct. 27, 2015: This post originally misspelled Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s last name.

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Where Should Humans Land on Mars? Workshop to Discuss Possibilities

This week in Houston, Texas, scientists are gathering to discuss where humans should first land and explore on the surface of Mars.

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A Snowball’s Chance in Paris

Hot on the heels of finding out the Chair of the House Science Committee is amplifying his climate science denial to 11 comes the news that his counterpart in the Senate, James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), has a dial that goes to 12.

Inhofe, you see, may travel to Paris in December specifically so that he can disrupt progress at an international climate conference.

Inhofe, you may remember (to your brain’s infinite regret) is the climate-change-denyingist of all climate change deniers. The apex (or nadir, really) of his career came in March 2015 when he — and it makes my synapses ache even to write this — brought a snowball on the floor of the Senate, claiming that it disproved global warming.

Yes, seriously.

This idea is ridiculous (the Earth’s axis is still tipped, folks, so we still have winter), but par for the course for the man who literally wrote the book on denying reality. He’ll do or say anything to downplay or reject anything to do with global warming.

You may be shocked to learn that oil and gas companies donated nearly half a million dollars to his campaigns from 2011 – 2016.

The Paris conference in question is part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, an important group consisting of 195 countries that have signed on to reduce  “‘dangerous’ human interference with the climate system”. President Obama is hoping to get a multi-country climate deal put into place at the Paris summit. My own expectations of this are low, since these summits haven’t had a huge success rate.

But I think it’s better to try to have these meetings and be honest about the situation. Having Inhofe there won’t help, unless he’s planning on wearing a big red nose and shoes.

The Hill quotes him as saying:

I don’t know if I’ll repeat what I’ve done several times before, which is to go over and be the bad guy, the one-man truth squad, and tell the truth, that they’re going to be lied to by the Obama administration.

What could possibly go wrong with someone like him at the summit? Except, of course, making the Unites States look even more foolish on a global stage.

It’s too bad Inhofe doesn’t listen to some of his other party members in Congress, like Carlos Curbelo (R-Florida), who wants the GOP to focus more on climate change and work on incentives for alternative energy sources, and Kelly Ayotte (R-New Hampshire), who signed on with Obama and the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which targets power plants to reduce carbon emission. I may quibble with both of these folks on specifics, but at least they’re facing the right way. Their heads are out of the sand, and that’s a breath of fresh air from the GOP on this issue.

Tip o’ the snow cone to Allan Margolin.

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Scott Kelly Prepares For a Spacewalk

Expedition 45 Commander Scott Kelly tries on his spacesuit for a fit check inside the U.S. Quest airlock of the International Space Station. Kelly and Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren will venture outside the station for a pair of spacewalks on Wednesday, Oct. 28 and Friday, Nov. 6. via NASA http://ift.tt/1P2HJfa

ISS Daily Summary Report – 10/26/15

NanoRack Cubesat Deployer 6 (NRCSD#6) Removal: Today Yui has removed NRCSD#6 from the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Airlock Slide Table and has stowed it.  He also reinstalled the Lamp Housing Assembly (LHA) inside the Airlock.  (The LHA had been removed prior to safing the NRCSD Deployer #6, which contains two unlaunched cubesats.)  The Slide Table was then retracted back into the Airlock and the inner hatch was closed.   Plasma Kristall-4 (PK-4) Operations:  Kononenko continued PK-4 preparations begun over the weekend by connecting the gas supply flexhose to the Argon gas supply and then opening a valve to pressurize it.  An experiment run in PK-4 is planned to start tomorrow.  Plasma Kristall-4 is a complex European Space Agency (ESA) plasma laboratory installed in the Columbus European Physiology Module (EPM) rack and operated by Russian crewmembers.  PK-4 supports research in the field of Complex Plasmas: low temperature gaseous mixtures composed of ionized gas, neutral gas and micron-sized particles. The micro-particles become highly charged in the plasma and interact strongly with each other, which can lead to a self-organized structure of the micro-particles (i.e., “plasma crystals”).   Microbiome:  Lindgren and Yui completed survey questionnaires and performed body sampling on Saturday as part of their Flight Day 90 session of the Microbiome investigation. Microbiome investigates the impact of space travel on both the human immune system and an individual’s microbiome (the collection of microbes that live in and on the human body at any given time).   Fine Motor Skills:  Kelly and Kornienko completed sessions of the Fine Motor Skills experiment today.  During the experiment they performed a series of interactive tasks on a touchscreen tablet. This investigation is the first fine motor skills study to measure long-term microgravity exposure, different phases of microgravity adaptation, and sensorimotor recovery after returning to Earth gravity. The goal of Fine Motor Skills investigation is to identify trends or variations in fine motor performance in microgravity over the duration of a year-long space mission; how fine motor performance on orbit compares with that of a closely matched participant on Earth; and how performance changes before and after gravitational transitions, such as during early flight adaptation and after return to Earth.   Journals:  Kelly completed a Journals entry yesterday and made another one today. The Journals investigation obtains information on behavioral and human issues that are relevant to the design of equipment and procedures used during astronauts during extended-duration missions. Study results provide information used in preparation for future missions to low-Earth orbit and beyond.   Sleep Log:  Kelly and Kornienko recorded Sleep Log entries on Saturday and Sunday and Kornienko made another entry today.  The Sleep ISS-12 experiment monitors ambient light exposure and crew member activity and collects subjective evaluations of sleep and alertness.  The investigation examines the effects of space flight and ambient light exposure on sleep during a year-long mission on the ISS.   Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Preparations:  The crew continued with preparations for the ISS Upgrades EVA.  Kelly and Yui participated in pre-EVA periodic health assessments.  Kelly then continued to configure tools to support the EVA.  Lindgren and Kelly used Dynamic Onboard Ubiquitous Graphics (DOUG) Software to review the translation paths.  Yui and Lindgren also performed a checkout of the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER) System.  The ISS Upgrades EVA is scheduled to occur Wednesday, October 28th with hatch opening taking place at approximately 7:10am CDT.     Fluids Control and Pump Assembly (FCPA) Removal and Replacement (R&R):  Last Tuesday, the Urine Processing Assembly (UPA) faulted during a reprocess cycle.  Subsequent troubleshooting indicated an error code associated with the FCPA.  Today, Lindgren performed an R&R of the FCPA.  Afterwards, Ground Controllers successfully checked out the FCPA valves.  A UPA process run is planned for tomorrow.   Today’s Planned Activities All activities were completed unless otherwise noted. MORZE. Measuring Bioimpedance Using SPRUT-2 CORRECTSIA. Logging Liquid and Food (Medication) Intake Pre-EVA Crew Health Status MORZE. Psycho-physiological Evaluation: Tsentrovka, SENSOR Tests Fine Motor Skills – Subject PLAZMENNIY KRISTALL. Big Picture JEMAL- Window Cleanup ТК 717 IRIDIUM Phone Charging – Setup, Start Charging JEMAL – Slide Table extension MORZE. Psycho-physiological Evaluation: SUPOS Test CUBESAT – hardware stow Pre-EVA Crew Health Status – CMO Periodic Health Evaluation before EVA – Subject Soyuz 717 IRIDIUM Phone Charging Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) Fluids Control and Pump Assembly (FCPA) Remove and Replace MORZE. Psycho-physiological Evaluation: Cattell’s Test FINEMOTR – Experiment Ops PLAZMENNIY KRISTALL. Connecting hardware and reporting chamber pressure DAN. Experiment Soyuz 718 IRIDIUM Phone Charging – Initiate Charge DAN. Photography During the Experiment Soyuz 718 IRIDIUM Phone Charging СОЖ Maintenance Reconnecting SM KURS-P cables to DC1 -Y port Antenna Feeder JEMAL-  Hardware Setup JEMAL- Hardware Checkout JEMAL – Slide Table Retraction Auxiliary Laptop Computer System Virus Definition File Update Exercise Data Downlink via OCA WRS Water Sample Analysis HMS – Health Maintenance System (HMS) Profile of Mood States (POMS) Questionnaire JRNL – Journal Entry DOUG Software Review Progress 429 (SM Aft) Transfers and IMS Ops CORRECTSIA. Logging Liquid and Food (Medication) Intake On Board Training (OBT) ISS Crew Medical Officer (CMO) Computer Based Training (CBT) SAFER Checkout MORZE. Psycho-physiological Evaluation: Strelau Test CONTUR-2. P/L Assembly Setup on panel 418 EVA Tool Prep CONTUR-2. Experiment Session Ops Replacement of CQMK battery in Crew Quarters MORZE. Closeout Ops NEIROIMMUNITET. CORRECTSIA. Experiment setup ARED Flywheel Cylinder Evacuation TOCA Data Recording TOCA Waste Water Bag (WWB) Changeout 24-hour ECG Monitoring Compound Specific Analyzer-Combustion (CSA-CP) Checkout Part 2 Evening Work Prep WHC Cue Card Print Evening Work Prep 24-hour Blood Pressure Monitor In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Airlock Lamp Housing Assembly (LHA) Recovery IMS Delta File Prep Air Removal from УБО and Water Transfer from EDV 1198 EDV Fill from Progress #429 (Propulsion Compartment) БВ2 Water Tank P/TV of Life on ISS (during УБО activities) CONTUR-2. De-installation of master arm with adapter from panel 418 CORRECTSIA. Logging Liquid and Food (Medication) Intake NEIROIMMUNITET. Saliva Test NEIROIMMUNITET. Preparation. Starting 24-hr ECG Recording Preparing for Antivirus scan on Auxiliary Computer Laptops Preparation of Reports for Roscosmos Web […]

October 27, 2015 at 12:57AM
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A Piece of Cosmic Debris Will Hit Earth on Nov. 13... But a) We're Safe, and 2) It's One of Ours

[Before I even start, I know some people get very nervous about stories like this. Let me assure you, were safe. Read on, and don’t panic!]

For one of the very few times in history, humans have spotted a piece of cosmic debris on an impact course with Earth before it enters our atmosphere and burns up.

The object, temporarily called WT1190F, will enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up on Nov. 13 around 06:20 UTC (01:20 Eastern US time) near Sri Lanka. And it almost certainly will disintegrate harmlessly in our air; it’s too small and light to reach the ground. We've seen objects coming in from space that have hit us before — specifically the tiny asteroids 2008 TC3 and 2014 AA — but this time astronomers are pretty sure it’s not an asteroid at all, but actually a rocket booster or fuel tank from a previous launch!^*

WT1190F was discovered on Oct. 3, 2015, just a few weeks ago, by astronomer Rose Matheny in data taken by the Catalina Sky Survey. It’s very unusual. For one thing it’s very faint, and therefore quite small, and for another it’s in orbit around the Earth! Right away this makes it overwhelmingly unlikely to be an actual asteroid; an asteroid on an impact trajectory with Earth will almost always be coming from deep space.

It orbits the Earth on an extremely elliptical path, which is also typical for used-up rocket motors. It orbits once every three weeks or so, getting as far away as about 650,000 km (more than 1.5 times as far as the Moon). Again, this is far more like a rocket booster than a natural asteroid. Given that orbit, it may very well be from a recent Moon mission.

According to the European Space Agency’s Near-Earth Asteroid group, it was also seen in Catalina data from 2013, allowing a pretty good orbit determination (the longer you observe an object, the better you can figure out its orbit). Over time, the orbits of objects can change due to a number of factors, including (seriously) pressure from sunlight. By measuring this effect, astronomers have calculated that WT1190F has an incredibly low density, about 10 percent that of water. No known asteroid has a density this low, but it makes perfect sense if it’s a hollow object like a booster or fuel tank, probably just a couple of meters across.

This is why we can be confident it’ll burn up harmlessly. Its low density and small size means it’ll slow very rapidly once it contacts Earth’s atmosphere, creating a lot of heat that should break it up and vaporize it. I’ll be careful and say that some pieces may survive re-entry and hit the Earth’s surface, but they’re likely to be very small.

Note that the impact is expected to occur about 100 km off the southern tip of Sri Lanka over the Indian Ocean (since the Earth’s surface is 3/4 water, most impacts occur over the ocean). That prediction may be off by 10 – 20 km or so (atmospheric drag makes pinpoint precision impossible with such objects re-entering), but still, it seems very likely that any pieces that manage to survive will fall into the water.

It’ll be very faint right up until it burns up, far fainter than a human eye can see (if you’re an astronomer who wants to try your hand at observing it, the ephemerides are online by Bill Gray of Project Pluto; also note the ESA NEO Coordination Centre will be putting together an observing campaign, so head over there and take a look at their site). Once it enters Earth’s atmosphere though it’ll rapidly heat up, glow, and should put on quite a show for people in the area. I hope we get good photos and video! If you live in Sri Lanka and catch it, please contact me!

If you are in that area, you’ll need clear skies above you and to the south to see it. When it happens, it’ll be moving  faster than a satellite would across the sky, but slower than a typical meteor, and may actually look like it’s shedding sparks as bits and pieces of it melt off and blow away.

To be clear, I’m not at all worried about this, and in fact I’m quite excited we may get a chance to see it! It’s very rare to find an object before it impacts, and in the previous two cases they were discovered only about a single day before they burned up.

This time we have a few weeks, so hopefully there will be more observations of it. That’s important: An object under the influence of non-gravitational forces (like sunlight pressure) can have a difficult orbit to predict, so the more observations of it we have, the better we’ll understand just how these forces work on small objects.

This will also be a nice shakedown of the systems in place that alert us to any more dangerous incoming objects. Testing those out under safe circumstances like these strikes me as a pretty good idea, too.

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NASA Administrator to Discuss Agency’s Journey to Mars at Center for American Progress

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will speak about the agency’s accomplishments of the last six years and how they are advancing NASA’s journey to Mars at event hosted by the Center for American Progress in Washington from 10 to 11 a.m. EDT, Wednesday, Oct. 28.

October 27, 2015
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Charon and the Small Moons of Pluto

What do the moons of Pluto look like? Before a decade ago, only the largest moon Charon was known, but never imaged. As the robotic New Horizons spacecraft was prepared and launched, other moons were identified on Hubble images but remained only specks of light. Finally, this past summer, New Horizons swept right past Pluto, photographed Pluto and Charon in detail, and took the best images of Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra that it could. The featured image composite shows the results -- each moon is seen to have a distinct shape, while underlying complexity is only hinted. Even though not satisfyingly resolved, these images are likely to be the best available to humanity for some time. This is because the moons are too small and distant for contemporary Earth-based telescopes to resolve, and no new missions to the Pluto system are planned. via NASA http://ift.tt/1Rx1n1X

NASA Is In The China Hot Seat Again - Twice

Culberson Will "Vigorously Enforce" Restrictions on NASA-China Relationship, SpacePolicyOnline "Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) said today that NASA did not fully inform Congress about the recent State Department-led meeting in Beijing on bilateral U.S.-China civil space cooperation as required by law....

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Making More Orions

Lockheed Martin Moves into Full-Scale Assembly and Test of NASA's Orion Spacecraft "Lockheed Martin and NASA have completed the majority of Orion's Critical Design Review (CDR) which means the spacecraft's design is mature enough to move into full-scale fabrication, assembly,...

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Human spaceflight

How many people have been to space? That all depends on your definition of space. The Earth's atmosphere doesn't have a fixed boundary. It just gets thinner and thinner. The closest to an international standard we have is an altitude of 100 km. This suspiciously round number is close to the Karman Line - a place where the speed needed for a craft to be controllable by aerodynamic forces equals the orbital speed. It is a cut-off between aeronautics and astronautics.

As is often the case, the United States chooses a different definition to the rest of the world. The US prefers to use 50 miles (~80km). The practical difference from using the lower altitude is that six US Air Force pilots are then included as astronauts. I stick to 100km as it has some kind of physical justification.

Using a 100 km definition of space, there have been 545 astronauts so far but expect that to increase by December 2015 when the next Soyuz goes up to the ISS. These split into 331 from the US (NASA), 120 Russians, 10 Chinese, 9 space tourists, and 75 from a range of other countries.

For my recent book, I collated data on all 545 astronauts and made visualisations of various aspects. On the website, I've created a human spaceflight timeline which lets you see when every mission was along with key moments.



There are a few things that become obvious when it is presented like this. The first is how we've increased the duration of spaceflights over the years. You can see how short the Shuttle missions were (roughly 8-12 days long) compared to those on space stations such as Mir or the ISS. It is also easy to see the pauses in the human spaceflight programmes of the Soviets and the Americans following the disasters of Soyuz 11, Challenger, and Columbia.

I've also created a graph of astronaut data, a map of astronaut birthplaces, a page which shows who is in space and who was in space (just change the date in the URL), and a breakdown of astronaut stats and records. - taken from Astronomy Blog (http://ift.tt/1g8FhhM)

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NASA Seeks Student Experiments for Edge-of-Space Balloon Flight

NASA is accepting applications from graduate and undergraduate university students to fly their science and technology experiments to the edge of space on a scientific balloon mission.

October 26, 2015
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Pluto’s Tiny Dumbbell Moon and a New Target for New Horizons

A new image from the New Horizons spacecraft finally completes the entire Pluto family portrait, showing Pluto’s smallest (known) moon, Kerberos.

And surprise! It’s double-lobed!

That’s actually only mildly surprising; a lot of small asteroids and comets are not single, lumpy objects, but are instead shaped like bowling pins (or dumbbells, or dog bones). Something like 10 – 15 percent of all near-Earth asteroids are double-lobed (we have decent statistics on that particular group because they get close enough that we can measure their shape using radar).

These objects probably form from slow speed collisions between two small objects; they graze each other, slow, then merge to form a single, if stretched out, object. New studies of the comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko show it almost certainly got its rubber ducky shape the same way.

The current thinking is that Pluto’s moons formed after a huge collision splashed vast amounts of material into space, which then coalesced into the moons we see now. Most went into Charon, but the leftover debris formed the smaller ones. In that case, slower speed collisions between objects forming from that material would have been pretty easy, so in fact it seems 50/50 that one of those smaller moons would be double-lobed. Looks like we got lucky.

Kerberos has another surprise, too: It’s smaller and brighter than expected. Previous Hubble observations indicated it was probably big due to its influence on the moons, and therefore dark. Instead, it’s small and shiny. The whole thing is about 12 km end to end, with lobes eight and five kilometers across (making it roughly three times bigger than the comet 67P). It’s likely covered in water ice, like the other Pluto moons, which is why it’s reflective. Why this contradicts the previous Hubble observations is a mystery.

The picture at the top has been heavily processed and enlarged to bring out details; each pixel is about 120 meters across, about the size of an American football stadium.

What’s funny to me is that this moon is named after Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the underworld (the actual name “Cerberus” was already used for an asteroid, hence the odd spelling for Pluto’s moon). In reality, Kerberos only has two heads! So much for ancient myths.

But we’re not quite done yet.

New Horizons passed Pluto on July 15, 2015, still moving at about 14 km/sec relative to the icy world. So it’s still going! And astronomers aren’t ones to waste opportunities: Beyond Pluto lies the Kuiper Belt, a flattish donut-shaped region with millions of small, icy bodies. We’ve found over a thousand of them, but never seen one up close. Why not see if any are near New Horizons’ path?

Using Hubble, last year astronomers found a potential target for the probe. 2014 MU69 was chosen. It lies well over 1.5 billion km past Pluto, and its size is unclear (it depends on how dark it is; if its darker it’s bigger, shinier and it’s smaller) but probably in the 30 km range.

The cool news: On Thursday engineers on Earth commanded New Horizons to fire up its engines to swing its trajectory to pass MU69! AmericaSpace has details; it’ll take a total of four such burns to point New Horizons the right way.

I’ll note that this is the farthest course correction ever made from Earth. The probe is currently just over five billion kilometers from Earth. Wow.

New Horizons will pass MU69 in January 2019 — yes, over three years from now. Space is pretty big, and 1.5 billion km is a long, long way. But still, we’re threading the needle: The hope is to pass less than about 12,000 km from MU69, close enough to get decent details on its surface (and see if it has any small moons itself). If they pull it off, it will be the most distant close encounter in history.

If they are allowed to pull it off, I’ll add. This part of the mission hasn’t been approved by NASA yet. The New Horizons team will send a proposal to NASA for funding it in early 2016, and should know later that year if it’s approved. I know it’s weird to start the maneuvers before you know if you can actually do the mission, but in this case orbital mechanics overrules NASA bureaucracy; they had to do the burn now, or else they wouldn’t have enough fuel to do it later.

I suspect NASA will approve the follow-up. The Pluto encounter was huge news; people loved it, and the science from it was and continues to be amazing. The additional expense of taking a peek at MU69 is small compared to that, and the payoff potentially big. Seeing a Kuiper Belt object up close would be a huge bonanza for astronomers. These icy chunks are leftover from the formation of the solar system, and likely preserve a lot of information from that time, over 4.5 billion years ago. Chance like this don’t come often. I think we’ll take it.

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Space Station Crew Celebrates 15 Years of Human Space Exploration in Low-Earth Orbit

All six members of the Expedition 45 crew aboard the International Space Station will participate in a news conference at 10 a.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 2 to mark the start of continuous work by humans aboard the space-based laboratory 15 years ago. The 30-minute news conference will air live on NASA Television and agency’s website.

October 26, 2015
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A Tale of Two Hemispheres

Enceladus is a world divided. To the north, the terrain is covered in impact craters, much like other icy moons. via NASA http://ift.tt/1P0XcfT

GOP Congressperson Goes on a Climate Science Fishing Expedition

Congressperson Lamar Smith (R-Texas) is a flat-out 100% global warming denier. He has made that very clear, writing embarrassingly wrong op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, and engaging in Orwellian claims about climate science and politics. It’s clear he’s not a huge fan of politically-independent science in general; for example he wants to gut peer-review in the National Science Foundation’s choices on what research to fund (instead, only allowing those that are politically approved).

The current crop of GOP Congresspeople is maniacally fixated on stopping any science that doesn’t march along with their ideology, and will do almost anything to stop it.

That’s why I am not at all surprised that Smith — who is the Chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, mind you — would go on a fishing expedition. He subpoenaed Kathryn Sullivan, the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, asking for a sweeping amount of information, including all documents and communications from NOAA employees about how they use global temperature datasets, including satellite data, and more.

This subpoena smells a lot more like politically motivated strong-arm tactics than an actual attempt at oversight. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) thinks so, too, which is why she sent a scathing letter to Smith, accusing him of using his power as Chair to “harass and second guess our nation’s preeminent research scientists,” and that he’s creating a “baseless conflict.”

She further questions the ability of him or his staff to properly analyze the data he’s asking the NOAA for, saying, “There’s certainly not enough scientific expertise on your staff or on the Member rolls to reanalyze the scientific data you have been provided.”

Ouch. She’s right. It’s clear that Smith doesn’t understand, willfully or otherwise, even the most basic ideas about global warming; he still claims global temperatures haven’t risen since 1998, for example, sticking to a “pause” in warming that we know, and have known for some time, doesn’t exist.

It sounds far more like Smith is doing whatever he can to unearth anything global warming deniers can use to sow more doubt. It reminds me strongly of “Climategate”, when climate scientists’ emails were stolen, then taken hugely out of context by deniers to make it sounds like they were up to nefarious purposes. That whole thing wound up being total baloney, and the scientists involved were completely exonerated of wrongdoing. Multiple times.

Smith’s abuse of power can be seen in other ways, too. Recently, a scientist named Jagadish Shukla penned a letter to the White House asking that fossil fuel companies be investigated under antiracketeering laws for funding disinformation campaigns about global warming (a campaign we know they did and have continued to do).

Smith’s response? He has called for an investigation into a nonprofit energy research group headed by Shukla. Seriously. Huh.

I’m sure it’s a coincidence that oil and gas companies have given well over $600k in donations to Smith’s election campaigns over the years.

This sort of political threatening is appalling, and harkens back to the days of Joseph McCarthy.

And, to be honest, I personally think it’s worse than that. We have an entire faction of Congress that rejects science and wants to substitute it with its own version. This idea has been tried. In the 20^th century, the Soviet Union embraced the crackpot biological ideas of Trofim Lysenko, who rejected the idea of evolution by natural selection. They and other countries based their agricultural system on this pseudoscience, and the results were devastating. Lysenkoism led in part to worsening the Great Chinese Famine, where 30 million people died.

The parallels here are striking. We have an overwhelming consensus of climatologists all over the world agreeing that the planet is warming up and that humans are at fault, while a small but powerful group of politicians, ideologically motivated, are working to suppress that science and replace it with nonsense. The consequences are not minor and relegated to some distant, fuzzy future; they are now and they are global.  

I am not a single issue voter, not by a long shot. But science isn’t a single issue. Its implications cover global warming, health care (especially women's health care), space exploration, personal privacy, technology, immigration (for example, the engineering of building a border wall), job creation, and much, much more. All of these are major issues in the upcoming election.

Your vote counts. These politicians thrive on apathy, and their biggest fear is a population that actually turns up to vote. We cannot allow these few zealots to continue this attack on science and reality. It’s long past time we showed them the door.

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