NASA Watch

TEDxNASA Live Coverage

2009-11-20T22:56:05Z

- Livestream webcast of the event starting Friday morning at 10 am EST
- Main website
- Agenda/Schedule
- NASA LaRC Internal Email: TEDxNASA: You're Invited!
- TEDxNASA: Where's The Space Stuff?

Keith's update: Joel Levine showed an image (this one) that he said had "not yet been seen publicly" but indeed was seen 4 years ago when ESA released it to the public. I did a simple simple Google search in my seat at the event and found a dozen websites that have it online a few seconds later. I really have to wonder if he is truly up to date on things.

Keith's note: Live blogging below:

11:00 pm I attempted to post some comments over at the TEDxNASA Facebook site only to discover that I am blocked from commenting. How odd: a taxpayer-funded activity about openness and creative thinking - and use of social media - and a taxpayer is blocked from commenting. NASA holds events to discuss new modes of communication yet it simply does not understand the very things it seeks to discuss - and utilize.

6:00 More music. Ending live blogging now. Observations of the overall event next week. Quick summary - certainly interesting but 2/3 of the event had absolutely nothing to do with NASA or space exploration. In one case, a speaker babbled on about pseudoscience. I seriously question whether an event with this content is something that NASA should be paying to do.

5:47 Mitch Albom - wonderful author - "Tuesday's with Morrie" etc. Talking about faith, etc. Standing ovation .... Again, waiting for the space context to emerge.

5:36 More music from Jana Stanfield . Wonderful signed rendition by one of the sign language interpreters. I used to be able to do that (sigh).

5:20 Twp YouTuv =e videos this time: Josh Silver demos adjustable liquid-filled eyeglasses (interesting) and Sixth Sense Projection Technology Demo (apparently filmed before augmented reality apps started to show up on iPhone and Android phones last year.)

5:00 Joel Levine - Mars and Earth - and life outside the Earth. Talking about the two LaRC-built Viking missions to Mars. Land are on mars is comparable to that of Earth. Regions on Mars that are highly magnetized. Is there liquid water on the surface of Mars today? No. I guess he did not hear about the observations of liquid water on the legs of Phoenix.

Levine showed an image (this one) that he said had "not yet been seen publicly" but indeed was seen 4 years ago when ESA released it to the public. I did a simple simple Google search in my seat at the event and found a dozen websites that have it online a few seconds later. I really have to wonder if he is really up to date on things.

Claims that the only way that experts have decided to search for life on Mars is ARES - a robotic airplane. FWIW NASA has declined to fund this more than once - something he declined to mention. He claims, however that "we can rewrite the textbooks with one hour of observations". "We are ready to go we just need money from NASA HQ".

4:46 Another YouTube video: Nandan Nilekani's ideas for India's future. Relevance to space exploration? Other than explaining the factors at work in India, a growing space power (space was never mentioned), this is just another YouTube video used to fill up space in the agenda.

4:25 Sue Morter - this speaker claims that she has expertise in "quantum mechanics and bio energetics" Complaints from employees seem to have forced NASA LaRC to drop the "quantum mechanics" from her TEDxNASA bio.

Oh no, now she wants every one to do some sort of jazzercise thing. Its the Ellen Show.

"I am not a quantum scientist" she says. Hmm ... weird that her website says this. Warning: she is engaging in New Age babble filled with scientific-sounding buzz words so I cannot keep up with her. "Now we can use Kirlian photography to measure ethereal field" she says. "When we release pressure is another wave from another spectra of energies that are referred to as our emotion - they are higher frequencies of energy than our physical body" ..."Thoughts raise our body off of the frequency of 10 cycles that nature has us resonate at."

Yikes, she tosses this New Age psycho babble out at lightning speed. Not a word of this nonsense has any basis in science. She tosses out things such as "1 microvolt" and "2.5 microvolts" to somehow quantify this nonsense as if it were scientific. How NASA could possibly think that she has anything relevant to say in terms of any of the science or technology NASA involves itself in utterly eludes me. Who invited her?

Now we are listening to new age music and being told how to breath so that "we can move into a safe zone". Sounds a little like a Moody Blues song. OK now the Caribbean happy music. Now everyone has to stand up again and boogie.

Relevance to space exploration? ZERO.

4:19 had a nice chat with the two sign language interpreters. I did that in a previous life. I could tell by the way that they were interpreting the event that there is not a deaf person here. Hard to explain how I could tell - but they both knew instantly what I was talking about.

3:44 36 minute break

3:25 Music by Mike Rayburn - cool guitar stuff. I'd probably listen to it on my iPod in space. Now he's telling jokes with a few toss away lines on creativity. Sort of like "He-Haw" but done with better humor and guitar playing. Now he's playing the theme from "Green Acres".... "Dr. Suess as done by Led Zepplin" ... OK, here's going to be a space exploration tie in somewhere, right? But he really is a good guitar player.

3:14 Chanaia Booker: an artist that uses discarded rubber and turns it into sculpture. She also wears a lot of clothing on her head. I served time as an art major and my brother-in-law manages a modern art museum - so lots of the abstract art she does is interesting - some of it very interesting. But I am waiting for the relevance to space exploration. She just explained her appearance - "every morning I wake up and sculpt myself". OK, now I get it - she is a piece of walking art. Kind of interesting. Still waiting for the space exploration relevance. Relevance to space: Some of it looks organic and alien - so I guess that is the relevance to space exploration.

3:04 another YouTube video: Michael Pritchard makes filthy water drinkable. OK, then why can't we just do this in space? Good for 6,000 liters. Why do we need all that fancy gear on the ISS? Relevance to space: if you are going to live in space or on another world, there is a lot of relevance. But did anyone at this conference make that connection for the attendees? No. Why invite these people or show these videos if you are not going to make their relevance apparent? Lost opportunity.

2:45 Anna McGowan talk about aeronautics and its involvement in much of what NASA does. Offer a peek into the future of aviation. "The World On Demand" -- we need aviation to make this happen - eBay, FEDEX, etc. $87 billion of lost work during traffic congestion every year. 1,400,00,00 cars will be needed by 2030. Just spreading out is not a viable solution. We have air- so much more of it than we have ground. It is not just making planes more agree but making them more efficient. Aspects of "The Jetsons" may be a part of our future. But I think we need something better that will preserve our small towns. How can aviation help preserve these things. Aviation can help feed us. Today we use hub and spoke mode of coordinating flights. We can use more of the three dimensionality of the sky to fly from point to point. The passion to explore and do the impossible is what brings us to work every day. Relevance: 200% she is a rather good speaker. NASA should use her more often.

2:28 Steve Shapiro - sometimes "rocket science" is not rocket science. Expertise is the enemy of creativity. Mostly a bunch of buzz phrases strung together. Relevance to space exploration? I guess so.

2:19 Watching yet another video that is already on YouTube Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation. This one is really worth watching if you are a fan (as I am) of prizes such as those that NASA has been offering. Some times the prizes (motivation) work to incentivize. Other times they can serve to limit people's focus on the prize such that they do not take in all that there is to consider. Also talk about the crowdsourced/wikipedia model, etc and how extrinsic and intrinsic motivators work in the real world. Sadly, the applicability to NASA is minimal at this point because NASA does not operate upon principles that resonate with reality.

2:08 Leland Melvin and Tyler Cole: the first TED talk from space. Steve Craft introducing Leland Melvin who is from LaRC. No live TED talk due to various operational issues. So he recorded a message just before launch. He wanted someone from the next generation - Tyler Cole will narrate.

Melvin: reflecting on experiences that have gotten me to where I am now. This is all possible because of my family - extended family. And then work to find out how to make these dreams become reality. If everyone could see the view form space there'd be no more wars. Columbia Astronaut Dave Brown's father said that his son is not coming back but that the biggest tragedy would be if you and others did not continue to explore.

2:00 Loretta Hildago Whitesides - we start out our life on this planet connected to everyone and everything. At 12 years old I decided that space was how I could help my planet. I use space to expand what people think is possible. Space is the ultimate blank slate. The ultimate opportunity for us to design what we want our civilization to be. We have not even visited the nearest stars - we are like babies on a galactic scale. Soon we will spread out across star systems. I want to help create a civilization that every one of us would be proud to spread across the universe. it will take more than rocket equations and mechanics. It will require many people. My favorite part - when we are out in the universe will be to be like little children again. Relevance to space: perfect.

1:53 John St. Augustine - making everyone stand up after lunch and clap hands to wake up. July 20, 1969. He was 10 year sold. Sitting at a baseball game. Went to his father's poker game. 3:15 pm on the radio - said a human had landed on the Moon. Then they went back to the baseball game. I keep looking up at the sky thinking "people on the Moon?" Plays video of Apollo 11 first steps on the Moon (not the newly restored video). My life was changed in a moment - we had done something as a species - 3 step process - think about it, talk about it, then do it. We create moments - and then moments recreate us. Relevance to space exploration: substantial.

1:44 Sam Horn and "serendestiny". Talking about hunches. Serendestiny = our best future. Talked about hunches as somehow conveying information. Relevance to NASA? The same as relevance of hunches to everything else. No mention of space.

1:35 Music with Jana Stanfield "If I were Brave"

1:22 During lunch I watched some mini-robots play soccer. I even kicked a ball around with one of them. Waiting for the afternoon session to start and wondering what sort of information LaRC collected about the attendees i.e. age, vocation, gender, interests, etc. No such information was asked of me and apparently lots of tickets were simply handed out to local folks. Its hard to fully understand the value of such an event if you do not know who was at the event.

*** Dennis Hong relevance to space exploration: tremendous. Other than mentioning JPL interest the focus of the presentation was on robots playing soccer. He could have shown robots on other worlds, working on Earth. This guy was oozing with interesting stuff. Hong should have been given an hour to speak including the time allotted to the first three speakers and the annoying jazz guys.

12:00 How do we do this research? We adopt the motto "There is no criticism - only refinement" and "work Smart, and then work hard" and "Do Not Forget to Have Fun".

11:55 Dennis Hong - DARWIN Robot. Walks like a human. Went from having external computing - to a totally autonomous robots that looks around to find a ball and then play soccer.

11:45 Dennis Hong - robot designer with NSF funding. Has worked at NASA JPL as well. STriDER - three-legged robot - inspired by nature. Show clips from "War of the Worlds". Demonstrated RoMeLo robot and IMPASS robots. CLIMBeR robot - says that NASA JPL people told him that interesting stuff is near cliffs. Shows video of robot climbing a highly inclined surface. MARS: 6 legged robot - even showed it typing at a computer. Then showed an amoeba robot - whole skin motion. RAPHAeL - a robotic hand end effector that uses compressed air for actuators - not motors. First prototype cost $200. HyDRAS robot - snake like robot that can climb structures.

11:40 Watching a video: Marc Koska: 1.3m reasons to re-invent the syringe Relevance to space exploration: zero.

11:33 Pat Rawlings: Finally, someone who knows space exploration. He's an artist that works with engineers. Engineers want the technical details to be right - he is an artist so he wants people to see the "art". Talking about telling stories in his art. Looked for a light source to use for night time landing of Mars Pathfinder. Also try to tell a back story -in once case- an astronaut with a Mars rover to show the interaction of human and robotic exploration. Showed a picture of a NEO mission where an astronaut is attached to cables on an asteroid while spaceships float by. Too bad he only had 6 minutes.

I thrive with limitations to work within. Visual literacy is important to day to explain complicated topics to a short attention span audience.

11:24 (Professor) Brenda Barrow: "The Math Lady from Outer Space". OK, so she is dressed goofy in tin foil with a blinking red light on her forehead and talks like one of the Coneheads on Saturday Night Live. I'm an adult but kids apparently like her since she continues to win awards from the White House. Think of a female version of Bill Nye The Science Guy with ADD.

OK, now she is taking off her disguise - sort of. And she's singing country western math songs. I am not certain this is her target audience.

*** Nancy Vogl: my estimate of his talk's relevance to space exploration: none. Too bad - there could have been a discussion about workforce issues, reaching new sectors of society, STEM education for minorities, the changing face of education etc. Not a hint.

11:09 Nancy Vogl: "What if the whole human race have nothing to do with the color of race but love instead. I lived in a town divided by colors. Not unusual to hear racial slurs, the n-word, etc." Now talking about interracial marriage issues in 1966, Supreme Court, etc. "I decided that I would break the cycle of racism."

11:01 Music time. Esoteric jazz - the sort of thing public radio plays on Sunday afternoons. Ouch, this trumpet is screeching loud enough to be painful - bordering on annoying.

It has been an hour and I am waiting for someone to get into the vastness and potential of space exploration. This event, thus far, is more akin to something that the National Endowment for the Arts would be sponsoring. That would be just fine if I saw some looming relevance to what the sponsoring Federal agency (NASA) does. But I do not. I am waiting for someone to start connecting these presentations to space exploration. So far, no one has made any attempt to do so. How is the audience supposed to take what they see and hear and correlate it to NASA, space, etc?

*** Jill Bolte Taylor: my estimate of his talk's relevance to space exploration: peripheral. Interesting - even inspirational description of the step by step process of through a stroke but no suggestion (or mention in any way) about how this relates to space.

10:54 Jill Bolte Taylor video "Jill Bolte Taylor How it feels to have a stroke" She holds up a real human brain with a spinal cord hanging down. That's the second speaker to pull out a spinal cord and talk about brain damage. Interesting chat about what happens when part of your brain shuts down and your body stops working properly. "How many brain scientists have the chance to examine their brain from the inside out?" Talking about hallucinations that accompanied her brain as it died. She recovered. Took 8 years to completely recover. Talking about "life force power of the universe", "nirvana", etc.

*** Gregg Fraley: my estimate of his talk's relevance to space exploration: peripheral. Interesting idea about ways to make yourself creative - this applies to lots of things - but no suggestion (or mention in any way) about how this relates to space.

10:39 Gregg Fraley: Imagine that you are a 1930's era reporter. Imagine the smell of your notebook. Having a notebook is a behavior that can make people more effective. When you have one with you all the time yo will write things done and you will analyze them and incorporate them.

10:37 Gregg Fraley: Imagine Batman's tool belt. You have to practice with them. You can tell difference between people who do brainstorming once a week and those who do it once a year.

10:36 Gregg Fraley: Avoid comparing. Imagine an old foot long wooden ruler. Now break it in half and put the parts in your back pocket. Now dance. I am a crappy guitarist. Self expression in everything you do. If you stop telling yourself that you can't and throw away that yardstick of comparison.

10:32 Gregg Fraley: imagine a pair of rose colored glasses. Make some in front of your face with hands. Imagine rose colored glasses of deferred judgement. Imagine doing this as a life choice. The more I notice things the more I criticize them. When you defer judgement you open up doors of responsibility- see ideas in a new light. Guess what- ideas come to you. This is an amazing thing when it comes to teenagers.

10:23 Gregg Fraley: Talk about creative effectiveness. Imagine your coat of creativity - what you wear when you get up in the morning. Put that jacket on - everyone, go through the motion of putting that creative coat on. The way you get those ideas when you need them is to program yourself to get those ideas. Say that I chose to be more creative. Now I want you to form a heart in your hands and spray paint it gold. You need to create links between what you do in life and what you hear desires. If you do not then you need to go for a long walk in listen. If you do not like what you are doing then do sometihng else. Now put that heart in your packet and tap tap it to remind yourself to do what your hear desires.

*** Paul Aravich: my estimate of his talk's relevance to space exploration: peripheral - at best. More social and political opinion than anything else.

10:22 Paul Aravich -Rant against sad state of mental health treatment. Now holding up a human spinal cord."What's up with the armpit - is it just a hairy smelly place? How do nerves get to your hand? How did Michaelangelo create Art? through his armpit."

10:19 Paul Aravich - The universe between our ears. We know more about parallel issues than what goes on inside our heads. Holding up a human skull. I encourage people to go into neuroscience. Rocket science is for wimps.

This guy is talking very, very fast. I am impressed with the sign language interpreter (I used to do that for a living in another life). Skull he is holding up is from someone who died from traumatic brain injury. 50% more suicides than homicides but no one is talking about it.

10:12 Watching video on what TED is.

10:04 Sam Horn: we are so glad that you have paused out of your busy schedule to be here- and combine the best of art and science. Our goal is to be the most thought provoking conference you have ever been too. Range from a 3 legged robot, an ISS astronaut. and a young musical prodigy. Want you to write down things in your program - "ink it as you think it". The premise of TED is "we can change to world through conversation."

10:02 Lesa Roe: Yoda said "there is no try - just do. Let's do it.

9:58 I finally got an answer back from LaRC on the costs of the event - why it took them sol long to do so is baffling. One thing that was left off, however, was all of the civil service time that was charged to this event. Note from Steve Craft late last night:

This is a funding breakdown for the TEDxNASA event:

- Speakers were provided commercial airfare and 2 nights hotel but they were not paid any type of fee - $10,200
- Ferguson Center facility rental - 2 days, 1 day for rehearsal and 1 day for event (includes technical support and union labor) - $11,400
- National Institute of Aerospace fully burdened labor - $17,000 This includes: graphic and web design support, video production and editing, logistics support, and project coordination

- Total NASA funding provided: $38,600

This was funded with an internal account (CMO)
I think you will find that similar events cost anywhere from $50K to $80K

9:52 Crowd looks very diverse - a healthy mixture of young and not so young. Rather low on the NASA geek scale.

9:24 Arrived and set up with my table and Internet connection. WiFi is intermittent - glad I have my EVDO as back up. Venue is nice. Staff all have matching TEDx NASA polo shirts, music is what you often hear in a Starbucks. Looks like NASA TV is not covering this. Strange - why is it that they have 4 channels - ah, so they can broadcast things like this. Oh well. That's why I am featuring it on NASA Watch.

NASA STS-129 Tweetup Success

2009-11-20T22:54:11Z

NASA Hosts STS-129 Launch Tweetup, SpaceRef Canada

"With a golden flash, space shuttle Atlantis punched through the first cloud hanging between the pad and her destination in Earth orbit.

"Climb that hill, baby!" shouted Gene Mikula (@genejm29), a technical writer from New Jersey, as he watched the plume of steam spread underneath Atlantis' engines."

Please post comments on Spaceref Canada. Your NASA Watch account will work throughout the SpaceRef Network for commenting.

Will Someone Please Wake Up ARC PAO?

2009-11-20T18:03:19Z

The Wet Side of the Moon, Opinion, NY Times

"From the perspective of human space exploration, that water is the most important scientific discovery since the '60s. We can drink it, grow food with it and breathe it -- by separating the oxygen from the hydrogen through a process called electrolysis. These elements can even be used to fuel rocket engines. (Discovering water on Mars was not quite as significant because the major hurdle to establishing permanent settlements there is the eight-month journey.)"

Keith's note: Hmm, a young Ames employee, Wil Marshall, manages to get on the editorial page of the New York Times with a forward looking article about the human settlement of the Moon - a view encouraged by ARC's LCROSS mission findings. But does ARC PAO make any mention? Of course not.

Keith's update: ARC finally linked to this from their home page - 24 hours after it went online ...

NOMAD Now Limits Email Forwarding

2009-11-20T17:54:55Z

NOMAD Outreach: Impacts of E-mail Services and Forwarding Policy - NITR 2800-2

"What Is Happening: Last year to improve information security, NASA put in place a stringent review process to limit automatic e-mail forwarding to only accounts ending in .gov and .mil. NASA Information Technology Requirement (NITR) 2800-2 establishes policy and requirements regarding e-mail services and e-mail forwarding for unclassified information systems. The requirements of the NITR apply to all e-mail services connecting to NASA Information Technology systems or NASA networks."

Sam Durrance, Joins the CSF Suborbital Researchers Group

2009-11-20T16:33:29Z

Former Shuttle Astronaut-Astronomer, Sam Durrance, Joins the CSF Suborbital Researchers Group

"Former NASA astronaut Samuel T. Durrance, a PhD astronomer and veteran of two Space Shuttle missions, has been selected as the latest addition to the Commercial Spaceflight Federation's Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG). "We are very happy to have Sam aboard SARG to contribute his expertise as a two-time NASA payload specialist on the Space Shuttle," said Dr. S. Alan Stern, Chairman of SARG and a space scientist who previously served as head of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. "Sam also broadens our educator and astronomy experience base, and we are looking forward to his many contributions to the growth of the suborbital research and education markets."

Suborbital Researchers Meeting in Washington, DC

2009-11-19T16:16:11Z

Keith's 15 Nov. note: The Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG) of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation is meeting in Washington, DC today. Follow on Twitter at @Suborbi_Science and at #SARG. Among the topics discussed - the addition of former astronaut Sam Durrance to the SARG and interest in a reality TV show focusing on suborbital payload specialists as they train for certification.

Street Theater Outside NASA HQ at 11 am

2009-11-19T13:36:27Z

PETA Calls On Space Agency to Ground Cruel and Wasteful Tests and Use 21st Century Research Methods Instead, PeTA

"Wearing monkey masks while locked inside small cages and holding signs that read, "No Tax $ for Animal Abuse," and "Stop Radiation Tests on Monkeys," six PETA members will lead a protest outside the headquarters of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)"

When: Thursday, November 19, 11 a.m.
Where: Outside NASA headquarters, 300 E St. S.W. (at the intersection of E Street S.W. and Third Street S.W.), Washington"

More Infighting Among The Faithful

2009-11-19T12:40:59Z

Keith's 15 Nov. note: Apparently the Space Frontier Foundation plans to create their own version of "March Storm" - a visit by pro-space advocates to lobby on Capitol Hill. "March Storm" has been conducted for a number of years by another organization, Prospace. Well, Prospace is not too happy about Space Fronter Foundation's usurping of their turf and has fired back with a press release. To be quite honest, I have detected little if any substantive impact on Congress by either group in the past few years. (Sigh) Yet another intramural spat between the true believers - one that will no doubt consume more energy than either group will ever actually spend focusing on Congress - or interacting with the real world outside the little bubble these groups all seem to live within.

Keith's update: Oh wait, now there will be a Prospace March Storm in 2010 after all. The Space Exploration Allaince is planning their own Legislative Blitz in February as well. Let's see if these groups come up with any new reasons to support space exploration other than the tired old reasons they have been using for more than a decade you know "NASA needs more money because space exploration is important" and/or "Let the private sector do it because NASA can't."

Today's Video: HiRISE Images 18 November 2009

2009-11-19T03:05:50Z

Features musical contribution from Gorkha. Captioned and spotlight images from HiRISE, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Highly explosive. See http://uahirise.org for more.

Anti-Space Tourism Defeatism From ESA Alumni

2009-11-19T02:31:59Z

Space Tourism is a Hoax, editorial, Fredrick Engstrom and Heinz Pfeffer, Space News

"Some proponents of suborbital spaceflight will say that their device prepares for orbital space tourism. From the above it should be clear that doing a hop into space, suborbitally, is not a precursor to orbital flight and has nothing to do with reaching orbital speed and then decelerating to return to Earth. To conclude, commercially balanced space tourism is neither for today, nor tomorrow, nor the day after tomorrow."

Keith's note: It is quite clear that ESA's Launcher Office is very good at breeding arrogant, anti-commercial space defeatists.

Shields Up! NewSpace Is Under Attack

2009-11-19T01:06:38Z

NewSpace Is Under Attack, Space Frontier Foundation

"NewSpace is under attack; and, we urgently need your help to fight back! Two weeks ago former astronaut and associate administrator, Scott "Doc" Horowitz, apparently taking a page from Dan Brown's DECEPTION POINT, seemed to find a hidden political conspiracy by "a few people in the administration who want to kill Ares I and put all the money in commercial". It's entirely a coincidence that Horowitz used to work for ATK, maker of the Ares solid rocket motors. Last week, when Time magazine declared Ares "The Best Invention of the Year," we seized the offered hook to strike back and do a little truth-saying, congratulating NASA on its propaganda triumph, adding to our earlier insistence that Ares needs a death panel."

One-Off Rockets, earlier post
More Infighting Among The Faithful, earlier post

Everyone Is Blogging From Space

2009-11-18T23:50:23Z

Russian Cosmonaut's Blog Much Funnier Than NASA, Wired

"It's not just NASA that's hip to the social media game anymore. Now, the Russian space agency Roscosmos has one of its own blogging from the International Space Station."

Orbital log Maksim Suraev's blog, Russia Today

"In the photo I'm holding the latest gadget developed by our military. The device works in two modes. One allows eavesdropping on our colleagues in the American segment. You can get into the FCB (Functional Cargo Block - ed.) and record all their conversations. Also, the device can be used for martial arts training - to be prepared for an alien attack on the Russian segment of the ISS."

Moon Water = Gold

2009-11-18T23:49:28Z

Water on the Moon!, opinion, WS Journal

"But for scientists, the real money shot is the data pouring in from that impact. True, it was a risk. Yet the cost of the mission - $79 million - was a tiny price to pay for billions that might be shaved off the space program if the experiment succeeded. The gamble has paid off in spades. Sensors have detected 24 gallons of water from the 60-foot crater created by the LCROSS experiment. On the moon, ice is worth more than gold."

SaveSpace.us Claims 500K Letters Sent to the White House

2009-11-18T23:22:55Z

Keith's note: In a video posted at SaveSpace.us Space Florida President Frank DiBello claims that he visited the White House 2 weeks and they asked "what they could do with all the letters" that they received. DiBello says that they claimed to have received 500,000 letters and that "this has had a devastating impact in Washington that has been recognized". A Twitter posting also makes the 500,000 letter claim. Gee, with all the arm waving they have done, one would think that there'd be a little more fanfare for this accomplishment.

TEDxNASA Attendance is a Work Activity at LaRC

2009-11-18T21:21:10Z

NASA LaRC Internal Email: TEDxNASA: You're Invited!

"As a reminder, the TEDxNASA event is considered a work activity. Civil servants may charge up to 8 hours to their usual WBS to attend. Contract employees must obtain their supervisor's approval. Additional information on how to volunteer or register to attend the event is provided below. But you must act quickly - sign-up ends Thursday night."

Keith's note: I have yet to hear back from LaRC PAO on my fourth simple request as to how much this event will cost and how much NASA is paying. Meanwhile they keep moving the ticket deadline back. This morning they twittered "Last day to register for TEDxNASA!" Now LaRC management says that tomorrow night is the deadline. I guess they are trying to fill some empty seats.

But wait, another Tweet by the organizers a moment ago says "Tickets now available until tomorrow at noon! ". Hmm .. Tomorrow "night" is different than "tomorrow at noon". More confusion.