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ARCHIVE
Month: February 2012
Canada Commits to the ISS but Budget Preview Looks Bad

Canada Commits to the International Space Station Beyond 2015, SpaceRef Canada “The government announced today that Canada intends to renew its commitment to the International Space Station(ISS) beyond 2015. Minister of Industry Christian Paradis made the announcement in Quebec City where the ISS Heads of Agency meeting is currently taking place. The news was expected but it took some time for Canada to commit, making it the last of the […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 29, 2012
Another Pointless EPO Junket

LAUNCH: Innovating the Way We Create, Beth Beck “The amazing LAUNCH core team is gathering in San Francisco to host a brainstorming session with thought leaders in the field of “sustainable waste” — creating less and creating more value from existing and future waste. We call this brainstorming session, LAUNCH: Big Think.” Keith’s note: NASA HEOMD’s EPO lead, Beth Beck is off on yet another fun trip – one whose […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 29, 2012
Let's Double NASA's Budget

Neil deGrasse Tyson to Jon Stewart: “Your Earth is spinning the wrong direction.”, io9 “Last night, Jon Stewart had astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on The Daily Show to talk about the his new book, Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier. It’s a great interview, but the highlight of the conversation definitely came towards the end of the exchange, when Tyson made his case for increasing space funding, causing Stewart to […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 29, 2012
Confusion About Future NASA Landers on Mars

Proposed Mars Mission Has New Name “A proposed Discovery mission concept led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to investigate the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets by studying the deep interior of Mars now has a new name, InSight.” JPL’s InSight: Ignoring The Real Costs – and its MPL Heritage, earlier post “The highly successful Mars Phoenix is (logically) mentioned as a way to claim cost savings. But […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 28, 2012
CASIS Webinar Today: Learn What They Are – and Are Not Doing

Jeanne Becker, Director, Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Space News “CASIS will ultimately act as a networking service between space scientists, payload integration specialists and, in some cases, investors. It will also be a financial analyst of sorts, evaluating candidate science projects for those with the potential to generate profitable spinoff products. The first CASIS solicitation for ISS-bound research is due toward the end of the fledgling […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 28, 2012
Kepler Has Identified 2,300 Extrasolar Planet Candidates

Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler, III: Analysis of the First 16 Months of Data “New transiting planet candidates are identified in sixteen months (May 2009 – September 2010) of data from the Kepler spacecraft. Nearly five thousand periodic transit-like signals are vetted against astrophysical and instrumental false positives yielding 1,091 viable new planet candidates, bringing the total count up to over 2,300. Improved vetting metrics are employed, contributing to higher […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 27, 2012
Stealth ISS Heads of Agency Meeting

Quebec City to Host Space Agency Leaders This Week, SpaceRef Canada “Starting today Quebec City is hosting approximately 80 delegates for the International Space Agency Heads of Agency meeting. Attending will be representatives from NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) along with the hosts the Canadian Space Agency.” Marc’s note: The Canadian Space Agency plans to issue […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 27, 2012
Angry Martians Meet To Plot Their Revenge

Scientists See Red on NASA Cuts of Mars Missions, AP “To scientists, the message from the White House seems simple: Bye-bye, Mars. On Monday, upset Mars researchers are meeting with NASA officials to figure out how to reboot the program beyond the 2013 mission. If Obama’s budget sails through as outlined, “in essence, it is the end of the Mars program,” said Phil Christensen, a Mars researcher at Arizona State […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 27, 2012
Save Webb, Cut Mars – Then Save Mars, Cut Outer Planets

Mars, Europa missions battle for scarce NASA funding, SpaceflightNow “NASA’s statements about resuming Mars missions later this decade irked some scientists promoting voyages to the outer planets, who said that if the flagship Mars rover was canceled, the decadal survey explicitly prioritized a Europa mission over other, less-ambitious Mars projects. A mission to closely observe Europa has been on scientists’ wish list for more than a decade.” NASA Raids Outer […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 26, 2012
NASA Made a Commercial Crew Video That It Is Afraid to Endorse (Update)

Keith’s 25 Feb note: Looks like NASA has adopted the adventure movie promo production approach – loud music that tells you to pay attention, quick edits, all for the new video Commercial Crew Program video “Taking America To New Heights”. This video only appears on the official NASA KSC YouTube channel. No mention is made anywhere else at NASA. Who is the intended audience for this? The public? Congress? Media? […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 25, 2012