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Exploration

Another Stealth #JourneyToMars Telecon at NASA

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
March 11, 2016
Filed under ,
Another Stealth #JourneyToMars Telecon at NASA

NASA FISO Telecon: The Mars Human Landing Sites Study Overview
“The next Future In-Space Operations (FISO) colloquium will be Wednesday, March 16, when we will host Rick Davis and Ben Bussey (both of NASA HQ), who will speak on “The Mars Human Landing Sites Study Overview.”
Keith’s note: As is always the case this NASA-sponsored and supported telecon (NASA’s teleconference network is used) is not mentioned on any NASA calendar, not mentioned on any NASA social media account with #JourneyToMars affixed to it, and appears nowhere at NASA.gov. Yet the topic of this telecon and many others is utterly relevant to the whole Humans to Mars thing NASA promotes 24/7/365. Truth be known, these teleconferences are just a little play thing for Harley Thronson and his pals. They really do not want the unwashed masses listening in. Indeed, their invitations state “The University of Texas-hosted home page for FISO colloquium materials, has over the years been released to social media and as result it has been getting a flood of somewhat anti-social attacks by bots that want to harvest the invitation-only data on it.” Huh? “Invitation-only”? Really? Oh, and the sheer horror of being found on social media must be unbearable to Thronson.
Why can’t all taxpayers have access to these telecons and associated materials? In this case two NASA civil servants will be making presentations that are 100% relevant to what their day jobs are. Yet if I go to the website for this officially NASA-sponsored and supported event, I am specifially blocked from gaining full access. Thronson won’t answer questions about this and the University of Texas openly admits that they specifically block my office and iPhone IPs such that I do not have full access. Could this whole #JourneyToMars thing at NASA get any more dysfunctional?

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

13 responses to “Another Stealth #JourneyToMars Telecon at NASA”

  1. Paul B Niles says:
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    The actual presentation webcasts are here: http://mars.nasa.gov/multim

    • Donald Barker says:
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      Both of your comments here link to the same event.

    • Donald Barker says:
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      And these are from last years Houston event.

    • kcowing says:
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      The presentations for this telecon will be posted on the University of Texas Austin website – but they block access to people they do not like.

      • Michael Spencer says:
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        What is gained by blocking access to those who disagree, Keith? I’m sure you’ve asked this question. And thought about it.

        • fcrary says:
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          The answer would require psychic powers. But some possible reasons can be guessed. A positive interpretation would be the fact that small groups can reach a consensus and get things done faster than a large one. So limiting the size of the group is valuable. A less positive reason is that people may be more honest in private meetings. I’m less likely to stand up and say someone’s pet theory is stupid, if I know he’s in the audience and may be a reviewer of my next proposal. (Well, I might not be, but many would feel that way, and I get occasional remarks that posting to this forum is bad for my career, for exactly this reason.) I significantly less positive reason is a correlary. It is easier to lie to small groups. You can give one justification at one, small meeting, and a completely different one to a different, small audience. Each time tailoring you claims to the specific audience. And, there is always the goal of building a consensus. If you get a third of the people together and reach some agreement, then you have a large block of supporters when everyone meets. But I’m not even sure if the people involved consciously have any of these motives. At some point, these practices become “the way we do things” and what “everyone know” are a “good way to manage a program.”

  2. Todd Austin says:
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    I feel like I’m beating a dead horse with these, but I continue to find it ridiculous that these and other NASA events are not streamed out live (audio and video) to the public.

    There are a number of excellent cloud-based providers of such services. As they are already capturing audio for local speakers, no doubt, all they would need is a camera to feed out video and attach a feed from the presentation computer.

    The cost, amortized over all the events they do, would be minimal. As the funders of their work, I want access to it. There’s no reason I should have to travel to the far corners of the country to receive, or even interact, with what they are doing for public audiences. No reason whatsoever.

    • kcowing says:
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      This is all about Harley Thronson and his penchant for using NASA resources for his own pet projects.

      • ThomasLMatula says:
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        It is sad how the taxpayers who fund NASA are treated.

        As a side note I wonder if this is in violation of various opening meetings laws, both in Texas and federal. Might be a good class action lawsuit for a lawyer 🙂

  3. Shaw_Bob says:
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    They are simply causing themselves problems by attempting to silence those whom they perceive as being critical of their empire-building. In fact, the real elephant missing from the room was the man most likely to decide on the sites of the first manned Mars landings: Elon Musk. He’s building stuff, not simply doing some personal career development.

    • ThomasLMatula says:
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      Actually the real Mastodon in the room is that these scientists will never let Elon Musk go to Mars and break up their little science monopoly. They will get NASA to just claim Planetary Protection must be preserved and prohibit giving him any licenses needed if he objects.

      After all, if they don’t want the unwashed masses at their meetings do you really think it will let them on their planet?

      • Michael Spencer says:
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        It would be interesting speculation to see how that would play out. How would he be stopped?

        • ThomasLMatula says:
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          Under the OST, Registration Convention and Liability Convention Elon Musk and SpaceX must have at least a launch license under current law before anything is launched into space. In order to get it the launch must conform to treaties the U.S. is party to. If NASA’s Planetary Protection Office says no, then it is difficult to see how Elon Musk could get a license.

          Planetary Protection is based on Article IX of the OST.

          “States Parties to the Treaty shall pursue studies of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter and, where necessary, shall adopt appropriate measures for this purpose.”

          If he tries to go overseas SpaceX will need ITAR approval. Again, the State Department will need to make sure his actions are in accordance with international treaties the U.S. is party to.

          He could take it to court, but then it will be his word, and that of his experts, against that of NASA. And I expect NASA will be trusted as the expert 🙂

          Elon Musk’s best hope for going to Mars is to play nice with NASA and hope to be selected as the prime contractor for NASA’s human Mars mission. But until Mars is proved beyond any reasonable doubt to be lifeless don’t expect any private American firms to be allowed on it unless NASA’s Planetary Protection office is in full agreement with their protocols for biosafety.

          So in essence that means the Mars science community has a functional veto over any private Mars missions.