2017年12月31日 星期日

The Vacancies Act - And NASA Management

How the Trump era is changing the federal bureaucracy, Washington Post

"The clock ran out for hundreds of acting officials in November when a little-known law called the Vacancies Act - designed to spur presidents to staff their government - kicked in, limiting them from making official decisions. The law allows acting officials to serve for up to 300 days, at which point they must yield their authority to the agency head, unless the president has nominated someone to the job. An official action taken in violation of the law could face a legal challenge."

Keith's note: If I understand this correctly, Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot could technically get caught up in this. Rep. Bridenstine's nomination was not carried over by the Senate - so the White House has to resubmit it - and sources report that they intend to do that. In the interim, one could argue that there is no active nomination for someone to head NASA. More than 300 days have passed since Lightfoot's appointment has passed (he assumed the position on 20 January 2017).



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2017年12月29日 星期五

Apollo 17 VIP Site Anaglyph


Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this stereo scene from Taurus-Littrow valley on the Moon! The color anaglyph features a detailed 3D view of Apollo 17's Lunar Rover in the foreground -- behind it lies the Lunar Module and distant lunar hills. Because the world was going to be able to watch the Lunar Module's ascent stage liftoff via the rover's TV camera, this parking place was also known as the VIP Site. In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon, while colleague Ronald Evans orbited overhead. The crew returned with 110 kilograms of rock and soil samples, more than from any of the other lunar landing sites. Cernan and Schmitt are still the last to walk (or drive) on the Moon. via NASA http://ift.tt/2pRX9zr

Under the Midnight Sun


In September 2017, a new iceberg calved from Pine Island Glacier—one of the main outlets where the West Antarctic Ice Sheet flows into the ocean. via NASA http://ift.tt/2EcblGs

ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/28/2017

67 Progress (67P) Undock: 67P undocked from the Service Module (SM) aft port at 7:03 PM CST on Wednesday evening.  The Deorbit burn was completed at 10:10 PM CST.  Spaceflight-induced Hypoxic/ROS Signaling (APEX-05):  The crew harvested thale cress from all 20 Petri plates in which the plants have been growing in the Veggie facility for … Continue reading "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/28/2017"

December 29, 2017 at 12:00AM
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2017年12月28日 星期四

ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/27/2017

67 Progress (67P) Undock: This evening, 67P is scheduled to undock from the Service Module (SM) aft port at 7:03 PM CST. Arthrospira-B (Batch Culture) Assembly: Four Arthrospira experiment containers were removed from the Biolab Incubator to exchange the reservoirs inside the Biolab.  Following the exchange of the reservoirs, the ECs were reinstalled back onto … Continue reading "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/27/2017"

December 28, 2017 at 12:00AM
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Naples at Night


An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of the city lights of Naples and the Campania region of southern Italy. via NASA http://ift.tt/2Dsv57t

Mastcam-Z team blog: Landing sites

2017年12月27日 星期三

Recycling Cassiopeia A


Massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy live spectacular lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear furnaces ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After a few million years, the enriched material is blasted back into interstellar space where star formation can begin anew. The expanding debris cloud known as Cassiopeia A is an example of this final phase of the stellar life cycle. Light from the explosion which created this supernova remnant would have been first seen in planet Earth's sky about 350 years ago, although it took that light about 11,000 years to reach us. This false-color Chandra X-ray Observatory image shows the still hot filaments and knots in the Cassiopeia A remnant. High-energy emission from specific elements has been color coded, silicon in red, sulfur in yellow, calcium in green and iron in purple, to help astronomers explore the recycling of our galaxy's star stuff - Still expanding, the blast wave is seen as the blue outer ring. The sharp X-ray image, spans about 30 light-years at the estimated distance of Cassiopeia A. The bright speck near the center is a neutron star, the incredibly dense, collapsed remains of the massive stellar core. via NASA http://ift.tt/2BGOfpP

Bot-Generated NASA Fake News Word Salad

Jim bridenstine, donald trump's choice to lead nasa back to the moon, has a new take on climate change -- quartz, Hearthstone

"Earliest now (November. one), senator Value Admiral leveled a liberal onslaught: You are categoric, very factious, and as well ultimate, with a legend of quizzical clime body of knowledge, advocating one-sidedness off LGBT Americans, and herself offensive mankind ilk quondam chairman Barack Obama and senator Bathroom McCain. He wasn't conversation astir chairman Donald Announce global warming and climate change pdf. Admiral was conversation astir Donald Trump's pick to first place NASA, typical Jim Bridenstine, a even-youthful 42 yr-ancient with a cherish championing aerospace. A earlier Naval flyer elective in 2012 to symbolize Oklahoma in Relation, Bridenstine prefab his alias as a devoted counsel of right scheme what is global warming pdf file. He streptopelia into dispute upon migration, condition moderate, and federal fastness, and united the Discretion Caucus, a assortment of adult Republicans who fight not good Democrats on the other hand whatever Politician chieftain search two-party center loam."

Keith's note: This is what happens when an Indian text generator bot with a poor English module tries to autowrite an article on the next NASA administrator and then autotweets it through a Twitter bot. Or, better yet, this article has been cycled back and forth through an autotranslator bot between one language and another multple times with new translation errors piled on top of previous translation errors - and is then tweeted out by a bot that says it is in the Cayman Islands.



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Will Mike Griffin Be America's Other Space Administrator?

Could the Pentagon's new R&E head take over military space programs?

"We haven't laid flat the final responsibilities there, but what's really exciting about next year is we've got Mike Griffin on board," who touts extensive experience in the space domain, the deputy told reporters Dec. 21. Griffin, a former NASA administrator during the George W. Bush administration, was formally nominated this month. He has yet to have a confirmation hearing but is expected to have one in January with the goal of having him in place by the Feb. 1 creation of the R&E job. As currently constructed, the R&E office is not planned to have a heavy hand in space issues, aside from its broad mandate to help develop new technologies. But Griffin's space experience seems to have captured the interest of Shanahan as the deputy is working through broader changes to the Pentagon."



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Kwanzaa Tholus on Ceres


These images show a subtle feature on dwarf planet Ceres called Kwanzaa Tholus. via NASA http://ift.tt/2Ccnzye

ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/26/2017

Rodent Research 6 (RR-6):  In support of the on-going RR-6 investigation, the crew removed the mice and restocked the rodent habitats with new food bars in addition to cleaning the lids and interiors cages of the habitats. The Rodent Research-6 (RR-6) mission uses mice flown aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and maintained on Earth … Continue reading "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/26/2017"

December 27, 2017 at 12:00AM
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What's Up in Solar System Exploration in 2018

2017年12月26日 星期二

The Horsehead Nebula


One of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky, the Horsehead Nebula in Orion, is part of a large, dark, molecular cloud. Also known as Barnard 33, the unusual shape was first discovered on a photographic plate in the late 1800s. The red glow originates from hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the nearby bright star Sigma Orionis. The darkness of the Horsehead is caused mostly by thick dust, although the lower part of the Horsehead's neck casts a shadow to the left. Streams of gas leaving the nebula are funneled by a strong magnetic field. Bright spots in the Horsehead Nebula's base are young stars just in the process of forming. Light takes about 1,500 years to reach us from the Horsehead Nebula. The featured image was taken with the large 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii, USA. via NASA http://ift.tt/2lcxtbl

ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/25/2017

APEX-05 Operations:  Over the weekend, the crew photographed all of the APEX-05 petri plates, which includes twenty petri plates in the Veggie facility and four spares secured to the Advanced Biology Research Facility (ABRS) photo-grid on the maintenance work area. Today the crew took additional images of the four spare petri plates.  When plants are … Continue reading "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/25/2017"

December 26, 2017 at 12:00AM
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Pretty Pictures of the Cosmos: Snapshots of Chaos

2017年12月25日 星期一

Grand Spiral Galaxy NGC 1232


Galaxies are fascinating not only for what is visible, but for what is invisible. Grand spiral galaxy NGC 1232, captured in detail by one of the Very Large Telescopes, is a good example. The visible is dominated by millions of bright stars and dark dust, caught up in a gravitational swirl of spiral arms revolving about the center. Open clusters containing bright blue stars can be seen sprinkled along these spiral arms, while dark lanes of dense interstellar dust can be seen sprinkled between them. Less visible, but detectable, are billions of dim normal stars and vast tracts of interstellar gas, together wielding such high mass that they dominate the dynamics of the inner galaxy. Leading theories indicate that even greater amounts of matter are invisible, in a form we don't yet know. This pervasive dark matter is postulated, in part, to explain the motions of the visible matter in the outer regions of galaxies. via NASA http://ift.tt/2ps5tWu

2017年12月24日 星期日

Fireball in the Arctic


Something very bright suddenly lit up the arctic -- what was it? The original idea was to take a series of aurora images that could be made into a time-lapse video. But when night suddenly turned into day, the astrophotographer quickly realized that he was seeing something even more spectacular. Moving through the sky -- in front of the Big Dipper no less -- was a Geminid meteor so bright it could be called a fireball. The meteor brightened and flashed for several seconds as it went. By a stroke of good fortune, the aurora camera was able to capture the whole track. Taken the night after the Geminids Meteor Shower peaked, the astrophotographer's location was near Lovozero Lake in Murmansk, Russia, just north of the Arctic Circle. via NASA http://ift.tt/2kNYpyw

2017年12月23日 星期六

On Hiatus

Keith's note: Posting on NASAWatch will be minimal until after New Year's. Happy holidays!



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2017年12月22日 星期五

Phaethon s Brood


Based on its well-measured orbit, 3200 Phaethon (sounds like FAY-eh-thon) is recognized as the source of the meteroid stream responsible for the annual Geminid meteor shower. Even though most meteor showers' parents are comets, 3200 Phaethon is a known and closely tracked near-Earth asteroid with a 1.4 year orbital period. Rocky and sun-baked, its perihelion or closest approach to the Sun is well within the orbit of innermost planet Mercury. In this telescopic field of view, the asteroid's rapid motion against faint background stars of the heroic constellation Perseus left a short trail during the two minute total exposure time. The parallel streaks of its meteoric children flashed much more quickly across the scene. The family portrait was recorded near the Geminid meteor shower's very active peak on December 13. That was just before 3200 Phaethon's historic December 16 closest approach to planet Earth. via NASA http://ift.tt/2kZD44i

Space Tesla Arrives At The Cape



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These are a few of our favorite things: Top 2017 planetary stories

Bruce McCandless

Astronaut Bruce McCandless II Dies at 80

"Former NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II, mission specialist on the STS-41B and STS-31 missions, died Dec. 21, 2017, at the age of 80. McCandless is perhaps best remembered as the subject of a famous NASA photograph flying alongside the space shuttle in the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) - the first astronaut to fly untethered from his spacecraft. His time as an astronaut encompassed much more than that mission, including serving as the mission-control communicator for Neil Armstrong's and Buzz Aldrin's moonwalk on the Apollo 11 mission."



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Hubble's Holiday Nebula “Ornament”


The Hubble Space Telescope captured what looks like a colorful holiday ornament in space. It's actually an image of NGC 6326, a planetary nebula with glowing wisps of outpouring gas. via NASA http://ift.tt/2CV8qkg

ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/21/2017

Marrow: Upon wakeup a 53S crewmember collected breath and ambient air samples. With operator assistance, the subject collected blood samples to support the Marrow investigation. The blood samples were processed in the centrifuge and placed in the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI).  The Marrow investigation looks at the effect of microgravity … Continue reading "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/21/2017"

December 22, 2017 at 12:00AM
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Gemini s Meteors


From dark skies above Heilongjiang province in northeastern China, meteors rain down on a wintry landscape in this beautiful composited night scene. The 48 meteors are part of last week's annual Geminid meteor shower. Despite temperatures of -28 degrees C, all were recorded in camera exposures made during the peak hour of the celestial spectacle. They stream away from the shower's radiant high above the horizon near the two bright stars of the zodiacal constellation of the Twins. A very active shower, this year the December 13-14 peak of the Geminids arrived just before the December 16 closest approach of asteroid 3200 Phaethon to planet Earth. Mysterious 3200 Phaethon is the Geminid shower's likely parent body. via NASA http://ift.tt/2BroLAI

2017年12月21日 星期四

Raytheon Is Marketing Its Alien UFO Trackers

The UFO spotter: Navy pilots used Raytheon tech to track a strange UFO, Raytheon

"We might be the system that caught the first evidence of E.T. out there," said Aaron Maestas, director of engineering and chief engineer for Surveillance and Targeting Systems at Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems business. "But I'm not surprised we were able to see it." ... So how best to track an alien spaceship in our skies? "Wide-area search of some form or another," said Cummings. "I would want want at least two sensors, like radar and [electro-optical/infrared], to search the skies...One way to actually verify these and be absolutely certain that this is not an anomaly is to get the same target, behaving the same way on multiple sensors."



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Giant von Braun Head Moved at NASA MSFC



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Bridenstine Confirmation Update

Keith's note: With government shut down issues and an evaporating calendar, it is unlikely that Rep. Bridenstine nomination to be NASA Administrator will come up in 2017. Right now the expected support for Rep. Bridenstine remains exactly where it has been for him (and many other Trump nominees) for many months: split along party lines. With Sen. Rubio still in the "no" column if the vote were taken today (and Sen. McCain and Sen. Cochran were well enough to be in town to vote) it is expected that Bridenstine would be confirmed 51 to 49. With a vote that is now most likely to happen in January (or later) in 2018, and the seating of Sen.-Elect Jones (D-AL), the expected vote would be 50/50 with Vice President Pence casting a tie breaking vote.

Of course Bridenstine's nomination from the White House would have to be re-sent for the second session of this Congress. All sources report that the Administration is still firmly behind Bridenstine and that this "re-nomination" as a mater of routine paperwork will happen after the holidays. The knife edge aspect of the expected vote is due to the hyper-partisan state of affairs here in Washington. Under more traditional circumstances Bridenstine would have a larger number of Democratic votes to confirm. Once he is confirmed that bipartisan support should become evident.



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Launch Day!


On Dec. 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 crew leaves the Kennedy Space Center's then-named Manned Spacecraft Operations Building during the mission's prelaunch countdown on the way to their history-making lunar orbiting flight. via NASA http://ift.tt/2zbwlJX

ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/20/2017

Zebrafish Muscle 2: Following the fixation and stowing of experiment units (EUs) from Group A earlier this week, today the crew performed fixation on the EUs from Groups B and C and then stowed them in the refrigerator of the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). The results from Zebrafish Muscle 2 … Continue reading "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/20/2017"

December 21, 2017 at 12:00AM
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Visualize today's solstice with images from Earth-observing satellites

2017年12月20日 星期三

Sign Language: Ready For Use In Space?

Keith's note: Fast forward to 28:45 for an interview with deaf student astronaut Julia Velasquez in ASL who is currently at HI-SEAS Mars analog habitat in Hawaii. In a previous life I worked as a professional Sign Language interpreter so I think this is especially cool. Another language that may one day be used in space? I used to go snorkeling with one of my deaf roommates. We used to have perfectly normal conversations underwater except that they caused us to move our bodies. When I flew on ZeroG parabolic flight I started to sign to myself in an exaggerated fashion. If I was already rotating what I said in sign language affected my rotation. Anyone who has gone SCUBA diving knows that there are a bunch of hand signs you use in certain situations. But they are very limited. How do you communicate in space if your radio is dead? I can imagine that people living in zeroG for prolonged periods will develop their own unique art forms - and there is an obvious overlap between sign language, song, dance, and acrobatics - especially when you remove the downward pull of gravity. Maybe Andy Weir can write a book about that. Just sayin'

Robonaut-2 Says "Hello world" in American Sign Language From the ISS, SpaceRef (2012)

"On 13 March 2012, NASA's Robonaut-2 said "hello world" in American Sign Language (ASL) from the International Space Station. I am told that the idea for this came from my suggestion posted on NASA Watch several months ago (below). How cool."

First International Comparative List of Astronomical Words In Sign Languages

"The first international comparative list of astronomical words in sign languages is now available. As part of this proposal, the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Astronomy for Sign Languages has been translated into English and Spanish and is now available online. This is the result of a long-term project developed by the IAU Commission C1 Education and Development of Astronomy and its WG3 Astronomy for Equity and Inclusion. The new list currently includes 47 words most commonly used in education."



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Downselect: NASA narrows future mission destination to comet 67P or Titan

NASA Invests in Concept Development for Missions to Comet, Saturn Moon Titan

NASA has selected two finalist concepts for a robotic mission planned to launch in the mid-2020s: a comet sample return mission and a drone-like rotorcraft that would explore potential landing sites on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.

December 20, 2017
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Hello From Above


Greetings from @Astro_Sabot, otherwise known as Mark Vande Hei, from aboard the International Space Station. via NASA http://ift.tt/2z6xNx8

#AGU17: Spherical harmonics, gravity, and the depth of winds at Jupiter

ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/19/2017

53S Docking:  53 Soyuz launched on Sunday, December 17th, and arrived at the ISS early this morning.  The Soyuz brought Anton Shkaplerov, Scott Tingle, and Norishige Kanai, and docked at 2:39 AM CST with hatch opening at 4:55 AM CST.  This begins the 54-6 stage, and returns the ISS crew to its nominal complement of … Continue reading "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/19/2017"

December 20, 2017 at 12:00AM
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The First Falcon Heavy Awaits Its Sports Car Payload



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2017年12月19日 星期二

The Bluest of Ice


Acquired on November 29 by Operation IceBridge during a flight to Victoria Land, this image shows an iceberg floating in Antarctica's McMurdo Sound. via NASA http://ift.tt/2kjgNz4

ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/18/2017

Lighting Effects: Upon wakeup, the 52S subject provided a daily sleep log entry to track his sleep patterns and wakefulness. This entry supports a two week long sleep shift session that began GMT 340 and ends tomorrow. The Lighting Effects investigation studies the impact of the change from fluorescent light bulbs to solid-state light-emitting diodes … Continue reading "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/18/2017"

December 19, 2017 at 12:00AM
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A closer look at China's audacious Mars sample return plans

2017年12月18日 星期一

The Spiral North Pole of Mars


Why is there a spiral around the North Pole of Mars? Each winter this pole develops a new outer layer about one meter thick composed of carbon dioxide frozen out of the thin Martian atmosphere. This fresh layer is deposited on a water-ice layer that exists year round. Strong winds blow down from above the cap's center and swirl due to the spin of the red planet -- contributing to Planum Boreum's spiral structure. The featured image is a perspective mosaic generated earlier this year from numerous images taken by ESA's Mars Express and elevations extracted from the laser altimeter aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor mission. New missions to Mars planned in the next few years include Insight with plans to drill into Mars, and ExoMars and the Mars 2020 Rover with plans to search for signs of microscopic Martian life -- past and present. via NASA http://ift.tt/2ATjFch

NASA to Name Finalists for Future Solar System Mission

NASA will announce finalist concepts for a future robotic mission to explore the solar system during a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EST Wednesday, Dec. 20.

December 18, 2017
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NASA Awards Contract for Aircraft Operations Support

NASA has awarded the Aircraft Maintenance, Logistics, Integration, Configuration Management and Engineering (ALICE) contract to Yulista Tactical Services, LLC in Huntsville, Alabama.

December 18, 2017
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#AGU17: JunoCam science

Seeing an X-Plane's Sonic Boom


This schlieren image shows an Air Force Test Pilot School T-38 in a transonic state, meaning the aircraft is transitioning from a subsonic speed to supersonic. via NASA http://ift.tt/2kHqUNB

Nominations Process Opens for National Space Council Users’ Advisory Group

Public nominations now are being accepted from U.S. citizens and organizations for potential membership on an advisory group that will represent the perspectives, interests and expertise of industry and other non-federal entities to the National Space Council.

December 18, 2017
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ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/17/2017

53 Soyuz (53S) Launch: 53S launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome this morning with Anton Shkaplerov, Scott Tingle, and Norishige Kanai.  Docking to the Mini Research Module-1 (MRM-1) module is scheduled for 02:42 AM CST on December 19 with hatch opening at ~4:15 AM CST.  SpaceX (SpX)-13 Capture and Berthing: SpX-13 rendezvous and capture were successfully … Continue reading "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/17/2017"

December 18, 2017 at 12:00AM
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2017年12月17日 星期日

The Kepler 90 Planetary System


Do other stars have planetary systems like our own? Yes -- one such system is Kepler-90. Cataloged by the orbiting Kepler satellite, an eighth planet has now been discovered giving Kepler-90 the same number of known planets as our Solar System. Similarities between Kepler-90 and our system include a G-type star comparable to our Sun, rocky planets comparable to our Earth, and large planets comparable in size to Jupiter and Saturn. Differences include that all of the known Kepler-90 planets orbit relatively close in -- closer than Earth's orbit around the Sun -- making them possibly too hot to harbor life. However, observations over longer time periods may discover cooler planets further out. Kepler-90 lies about 2,500 light years away, and at magnitude 14 is visible with a medium-sized telescope toward the constellation of the Dragon (Draco). Exoplanet-finding missions planned for launch in the next decade include TESS, JWST, WFIRST, and PLATO. via NASA http://ift.tt/2k5QcFB

Three New Crew Members on Voyage to International Space Station

Three crew members representing the United States, Russia and Japan are on their way to the International Space Station after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:21 a.m. EST Sunday (1:21 p.m. Baikonur time).

December 17, 2017
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2017年12月16日 星期六

The Einstein Cross Gravitational Lens


Most galaxies have a single nucleus -- does this galaxy have four? The strange answer leads astronomers to conclude that the nucleus of the surrounding galaxy is not even visible in this image. The central cloverleaf is rather light emitted from a background quasar. The gravitational field of the visible foreground galaxy breaks light from this distant quasar into four distinct images. The quasar must be properly aligned behind the center of a massive galaxy for a mirage like this to be evident. The general effect is known as gravitational lensing, and this specific case is known as the Einstein Cross. Stranger still, the images of the Einstein Cross vary in relative brightness, enhanced occasionally by the additional gravitational microlensing effect of specific stars in the foreground galaxy. via NASA http://ift.tt/2j8dLNf

Apply Now To Be On The National Space Council Users' Advisory Group

"NASA announces an invitation for public nominations of U.S. citizens to serve as potential members of the National Space Council Users' Advisory Group (UAG). The UAG is a new Federal advisory committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) being established pursuant to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 1991 (Pub. L. 101611, Section 121) and Executive Order 13803, Section 6 (''Reviving the National Space Council'') signed by the President on June 30, 2017. The UAG is purely advisory and will ensure that the interests of industry and other non- Federal entities are adequately represented in the deliberations of the National Space Council. NASA is sponsoring the UAG on behalf of the National Space Council, an Executive Branch interagency coordinating committee chaired by the Vice President, which is tasked with advising and assisting the President on national space policy and strategy. Members of the UAG will serve either as ''Representatives'' (representing industry, other non-Federal entities, and other recognizable groups of persons involved in aeronautical and space activities), or as ''Special Government Employees'' (individual subject matter experts or consultants)."



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Bigelow Aerospace Had a Secret DoD UFO Study Contract

Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program, New York Times

"Contracts obtained by The Times show a congressional appropriation of just under $22 million beginning in late 2008 through 2011. The money was used for management of the program, research and assessments of the threat posed by the objects. The funding went to Mr. Bigelow's company, Bigelow Aerospace, which hired subcontractors and solicited research for the program. Under Mr. Bigelow's direction, the company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena. Researchers also studied people who said they had experienced physical effects from encounters with the objects and examined them for any physiological changes. In addition, researchers spoke to military service members who had reported sightings of strange aircraft."



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Thinking Of Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Thinking Of Sir Arthur C. Clarke On His 100th Birthday

"Today would have been Sir Arthur C. Clarke's 100th birthday. Arthur C. Clarke has had more influence on me as a writer than just about anyone else has - and it started at a very early age. ... In the early 1990s I was a NASA employee and served as Payload Accommodations Manager for the 2.5 meter Centrifuge Facility that we planned to attach to Space Station Freedom (you call it ISS now). Eventually it was dropped by the program. At every possible opportunity I would sneak in gag charts showing the crew of Discovery from the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" inside the "25 meter centrifuge" and then say "oops, wrong chart"."



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Apollo 1 Memorial To Be Placed at Arlington National Cemetery

Keith's note: Last week President Trump signed the H.R.2810 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 into law. Included in this legislation is a provision that calls for a memorial to the crew of Apollo 1 at Arlington National Cemetery:

"SEC. 1087. CONSTRUCTION OF MEMORIAL TO THE CREW OF THE APOLLO I LAUNCH TEST ACCIDENT AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY.
Subject to applicable requirements of section 2409(b)(2)(E) of title 38, United States Code, the Secretary of the Army, in consultation with the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Commission of Fine Arts, and the Advisory Committee on Arlington National Cemetery, shall authorize the construction, at an appropriate place in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, of a memorial marker honoring the three members of the crew of the Apollo I who died during a launch rehearsal test on January 27, 1967, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The memorial may not be constructed in a location that is otherwise suitable as an interment site."

An effort to get this memorial established has been underway for a number of years here in the Washington, DC aerospace community led by primarily folks at the Aerospace Industries Association with the assistance of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. Exactly what the memorial will look like or where it will be placed has not been decided but the preference of the space community in Washington is to put the Apollo 1 memorial next to the memorials for the crews of Columbia and Challenger with a marker of a similar size and design. There will likely be a public fundraising effort for this memorial. Details to follow.



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2017年12月15日 星期五

A Wintry Shower


Four Geminids flash through northern skies in this wintry night skyscape. The bright fireball and 3 fainter meteors were captured in a single 10 second exposure, near the peak of December's Geminid meteor shower. Reflecting the fireball's greenish light, a partially frozen Lake Edith in Alberta Canada's Jasper National Park lies in the foreground, with the Canadian Rocky Mountains ranging along the northern horizon. Of course, the glacial lake is cold even in summer. But photographer Jack Fusco reports that he experienced -9 degree C temperatures that night while enjoying one of the most active meteor showers he's ever seen. via NASA http://ift.tt/2CyewHQ

Waiting For The NASA Science Word Police

CDC gets list of forbidden words: fetus, transgender, diversity, Washington Post

"The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation's top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases - including "fetus" and "transgender" - in any official documents being prepared for next year's budget. Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based" and "science-based." In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of "science-based" or "evidence-based," the suggested phrase is "CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes," the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered."

Keith's note: What science-related words might be banned at NASA? "Science-based" or "evidence-based" seem to be natural ones since CDC can't use them. "Climate change" is also a no-brainer since NASA studies a planet called Earth and NOAA and EPA have already had some guidance on that. With regard to Astrobiology "origin and evolution of life" might be a ripe target too. On the other hand, maybe we'll get lucky and NASA will be forced to stop saying "notional" on every powerpoint slide they show and say "we're just guessing" instead.



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New Research Launches to Space Station Aboard SpaceX Resupply Mission


The two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Dragon will bring supplies, equipment and new science experiments for technology research to the orbiting laboratory. via NASA http://ift.tt/2BfDjA6

NASA Sends New Research to Space Station Aboard SpaceX Resupply Mission

An experiment in space manufacturing and an enhanced study of solar energy are among the research currently heading to the International Space Station following Friday’s launch of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at 10:36 a.m. EST.

December 15, 2017
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NASA Still Has No Clear Idea How To Use the International Space Station

Keith's note: After spending decades and tens of billions of dollars NASA still cannot implement a strategic plan for the use of the ISS or explain how it plans to transition from the ISS to future facilities. If NASA cannot get it right in low Earth orbit, how can they expect to build even more complex facilities near the Moon or at Mars?

Did NASA Deliver The ISS Transition Plan To Congress Required By Law? Update: No, earlier post

"In other words the [ISS Transition Plan Congress requires - by law] is late, has not been delivered, NASA does not know when it will be delivered. NASA is not going to tell anyone when it has been delivered and people will have to go ask Congress where the report is - whenever NASA gets around to delivering it."

A Midterm Assessment of Implementation of the Decadal Survey on Life and Physical Sciences Research at NASA, NAS

"... In assessing the progress of implementation of the decadal survey portfolio, the committee found difficulty in navigating the research tracking within various parts of the Agency that report on research alignments with the decadal recommendations. While overall programmatic attention to space life and physical sciences was readily apparent in the many presentations from NASA to the committee, a cumulative alignment or mapping of agency research projects to specific decadal survey recommendations proved problematic."

"... It is essential that NASA as quickly as possible develop a International Space Station-post-2024 strategy. This development factors strongly in the overall exploration strategy, space life and physical sciences research priorities, and resource allocation in terms of crew time, cargo delivery, and funding. This post-2024 strategy should address clear cost allocation among the various research activities and partners."

"... The committee has seen that microgravity research is included in the SBIR and STTR topic areas. However, NASA does not track the SBIR or STTR projects against the decadal survey priorities, and therefore neither NSBRI, SBIR, nor STTR research results entered into any attempts to map inputs to specific decadal survey recommendations."

"... The committee was further briefed on approximately 2,000 ground-based studies reported through the SLPSRA Task Book database: nearly 200 studies reported by CASIS; a large, yet undetermined, amount of funding for intramural directed intramural research projects; and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of ground- and space-based studies sponsored by NASA's international partners. Through individual queries to representatives of SBIR/STTR, the committee also learned of potentially hundreds of relevant SBIR/STTR research projects. Unfortunately, no mechanism currently exists, particularly in the Task Book, to summarize this vast body of research in a manner that allows mapping to specific priorities."

"... This allocation of resources can lead to allocation difficulties, because the various entities having different, and sometimes competing, priorities negotiate for resources. As in the case for Space Biology, shown in Figure 2.9, while both CASIS and NASA may start off with similar fundamental science needs, the NASA needs for flight medicine to enable humans to go to Mars can pull research in a very different direction than the CASIS need to produce medicinal results relevant back on Earth. Sometimes research can synergistically serve both needs; however, this creative tension between legitimate end goals does not always result in commonality of science needs or resource utilization."

Earlier posts on ISS and CASIS



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George Abbey: Let's Go Back To The Moon

Former NASA Flight Director Says A Return To The Moon Is Necessary Before Heading To Mars

"But what about plans for a return to the moon? ""First, you go to the moon before you go to Mars," George W.S. Abbey, a former director of NASA's Johnson Space Center said in an interview with the International Business Times. Abbey, is currently the Baker Botts Senior Fellow in Space Policy at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. Abbey was named director of flight operations in 1976 and helped develop strategies for future moon and Mars missions. Speaking to International Business Times, Abbey said international cooperation is a key to future missions and a return to the moon is necessary before NASA can get to Mars."



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Geminids of the North


Earth's annual Geminid meteor shower did not disappoint as our fair planet plowed through dust from active asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Captured in this northern hemisphere nightscape, the meteors stream away from the shower's radiant in Gemini. To create the image, 37 individual frames recording meteor streaks were taken over period of 8.5 hours during the night of December 12/13. In the final composite they were selected and registered against the starry sky above a radio telescope dish of MUSER, a solar-dedicated radio telescope array at astronomically-named Mingantu Station in Inner Mongolia, China, about 400 kilometers from Beijing. Sirius, alpha star of Canis Major, shines brightly just above the radio dish and the Milky Way stretches toward the zenith. Yellowish Betelgeuse is a standout in Orion to the right of the northen Milky Way. The shower's radiant is at top left, high above the horizon near Castor and Pollux the twin stars of Gemini. The radiant effect is due to perspective as the parallel meteor tracks appear to converge in the distance. Gemini's meteors enter Earth's atmosphere traveling at about 22 kilometers per second. via NASA http://ift.tt/2BkhPVp

2017年12月14日 星期四

Congress rejects graduate student tax

Artificial Intelligence, NASA Data Used to Discover Eighth Planet Circling Distant Star

Our solar system now is tied for most number of planets around a single star, with the recent discovery of an eighth planet circling Kepler-90, a Sun-like star 2,545 light years from Earth. The planet was discovered in data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope.

December 14, 2017
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Listening For The Pilots of 'Oumuamua

Breakthrough Listen Releases Initial Results and Data from Observations of 'Oumuamua

"Breakthrough Listen - the initiative to find signs of intelligent life in the universe - is reporting preliminary results and making initial data available from its observations of the "interstellar visitor" 'Oumuamua. No evidence of artificial signals emanating from the object so far detected by the Green Bank Telescope, but monitoring and analysis continue. Initial data are available for public inspection in the Breakthrough Listen archive."



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Soyuz Carrying Expedition 53 Crew Lands in Kazakhstan


The Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 53 Commander Randy Bresnik of NASA and Flight Engineers Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) and Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian space agency Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017. via NASA http://ift.tt/2ytt3kN

ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/13/2017

51 Soyuz (51S) Undock and Landing Preparations:  The crew completed packing the cargo for return on 51S.  Randy Bresnik handed over command of the ISS to Alexander Misurkin. Following the Change of Command, the new Commander’s Soyuz crew became prime for emergencies.  Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy, and Paolo Nespoli will undock from the ISS at 11:13 … Continue reading "ISS Daily Summary Report – 12/13/2017"

December 14, 2017 at 12:00AM
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NASA Astronaut Bresnik and Crewmates Return to Earth From Space Station

Three crew members who have been living and working aboard the International Space Station returned to Earth on Thursday, landing in Kazakhstan after opening a new chapter in the scientific capability of humanity’s premier microgravity laboratory.

December 14, 2017
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2017年12月13日 星期三

National Space Council 101 Overview By Scott Pace

Pace Outlines Trump Administration's Approach to Space Development and Law, Space Policy Online

"The United States should seek to ensure that its space activities reflect "our values and not just our technologies," Pace urged. "We should seek to ensure that our space activities reflect those values: democracy, liberty, free enterprise, and respect for domestic and international law in a peaceful international order." To influence the development and utilization of space, the United States needs to "create attractive projects and frameworks in which other nations choose to align themselves and their space activities with us, as opposed to others." Pace praised the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which just turned 50 years old, saying there is "no doubt" that U.S. national interests are served by conducting space activities within that international legal framework. Conversely, he lambasted the 1979 Moon Agreement as "contrary to American interests." It declares the Moon to be the common heritage of mankind with all nations sharing equitably in benefits derived from its resources.



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