Teledyne to Develop Space-Based Digital Imaging Capability
“Teledyne Technologies Incorporated announced today that its subsidiary, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc., in Huntsville, Ala., was awarded a Cooperative Agreement by NASA to foster the commercial utilization of the International Space Station. Under the agreement, Teledyne Brown will develop the Multi-User System for Earth Sensing (MUSES), an Earth imaging platform, as part of the company’s new commercial space-based digital imaging business. Teledyne expects to provide the first commercial imaging system on board the facility.”
Keith’s 14 Jun note: There is no mention of CASIS or the ISS National Lab in this press release. No mention is made on the CASIS website. No mention is made at the NASA ISS National Lab website either. I thought this was the sort of thing NASA wanted CASIS to be doing? Guess not. It would seem that one does not have to deal with CASIS in order to use the ISS.
Keith’s 15 Jun update: According to Twitter posts provided last night by CASIS employee Justin Kugler (@phalanx) the TBE agreement was done independent of CASIS: “MUSES was created as a National Lab Enabling project. It is not new. TBE registered with CASIS as an implementation partner” and “TBE is an implementation partner and MUSES preceded the transition. And we have been helping them with potential users.”. Kugler added that “NASA is retaining the projects they are funding because of legal requirements.”
This contradicts efforts underway whereby NASA has been seeking to transfer existing ISS utilization agreements (Space Act Agreements, MOUs etc.) from NASA to CASIS. Not everyone wants to transfer their agreement to CASIS, however. Some companies and organizations that have been contacted by NASA have declined to make the switch. In addition, people are currently going to existing ISS utilization offices at NASA field centers to try and negotiate deals for ISS utilization in areas that CASIS is supposed to be covering because they do not want to work through CASIS.
This begs the question: why does CASIS exist if NASA can ignore it when it wants to? Of course the answer is simple: Congress forced NASA to do this – and this is the way NASA set this whole thing up. NASA retains the right to do some things on ISS while CASIS gets the rest – maybe. There are substantial overlaps between their respective purviews as well as some murky areas and neither entity seems to want to cooperate with the other so as to put forth a cohesive ISS Utilization process for the public to see – and (ideally) make the most of.
From all the posts in the other CASIS thread, sounds like the only way to use ISS is to bypass CASIS!
Why did NASA go through all the effort of creating CASIS only to ignore it? Curious.
Exactly! I think we performed better on the Freedom SEIC than CASIS has shown the ability to perform for ISS, and we lost that contract!!
Ignore it? Are you kidding? They fund it, comb it, pet it, fluff it up and teach it tricks and if it poops on the carpet they simply sweep it under the rug. It makes NASA look good, relatively speaking. NASA is very happy with CASIS. It’s a party, a golf outing, a Florida vacation, and a jobs program all in one.
Stone, put out a researcher and PI “All-Call”. If there are a sufficient number of researchers that agree with you, form a consortium of ‘bypassers’ and develop an independent program effort. If you need to go international, do it. You know the turf and know it can be done.
I have never yet had it explained how adding another layer of paperwork made it easier to do things on the station….
It is interesting that NASA officially approved this cooperative agreement for the commercial use of the ISS totally outside of CASIS.
If enough layers are added, the paperwork stack will rise from the ground to a LEO level and we will be able to step up to the ISS orbit altitude.
ISS Utilization volumes split to: 50% CASIS, 50% NASA. Interesting on the TBE Cooperative Agreement.
“NASA is retaining the projects they are funding because of legal requirements.”
Interesting, does that mean that since NASA is funding CASIS….
Really there is no logic in setting up an independent organization that is supposedly competitive to NASA. The whole concept sounds poorly thought out.
CASIS does “BETTER”.
““The game of golf provides a fun way for students to engage in an activity that teaches them fundamental elements of math and physics, a step toward fostering interest in future STEM-related careers,” added CASIS Interim Director Jim Royston.”
After a year, perhaps CASIS is finally cracking the code to ISS utilization. For the kids, days on the golf course, getting golf instruction, learning the physics of ball trajectories, club, ball, and shoe design, not to mention building ping-pong ball launchers and Lego racers will be illuminating. It’s an opportunity to see what country club life is like too. I wonder if they’ll teach them what the dimples on a golf ball do? I wonder if this will replace math and physics classrooms as the new teaching rage?
The article’s mention that the kids are Title 1 seems unnecessary. They are simply kids, no need to discuss their lunches, bring up their impoverishness or brand them – it makes the activity sound too goodie-two-shoes and robin hood-ish; it’s almost insulting. They are simply kids in need of an education, just like everybody else.
If the program works, even on just one student, it may be worth it. It could then be extended to other schools, granted we may wind up with an entire generation of STEM skilled adults that have an odd fixation for golf and obsessions with trajectory calculations as they play 18 holes.
If highly successful, the Space Station STEM could be extended further, to train those on the Hill about golf, er space, I mean physics and math, and in the Nation in general. And even if the math doesn’t soak in and the real relevancy of management of the ISS and priority to utilize the ISS is long forgotten, at least we’ll have a country filled with computationally blessed, avid golf players. All definitely BETTER, yes?
Education is not the key to success for CASIS. Its a nice to have. NASA has legions of people doing education, many using ISS as the basis. Its ancillary to the idea of the National Lab. No points on golf in space. This was just low hanging fruit.
I know what you mean SkyKing – nice to have vs. need to have. Rich nations and people can afford the “nice to have”. Poor nations and people do the “need to have”. Which are we today? Which will be be soon?
As for fruits, I saw a low-hung fruit once. Just because it was hung low didn’t mean I grabbed for it.
Nice moments of thought Mike and you’re probably right about the CASIS part too. 50% of the manifesting and use of the ISS is under CASIS control and 50% is under NASA control.
NASA use is all about “How can we use the ISS to futher our own NASA operational efforts and missions, to LEO and BEO, to further programs the fed has funded us to do? About inventing programs to create jobs and make work.” The proletariat and petit bourgeoisie cheer such stuff on, clamouring for the collateral action. Congress eats it up for the votes from the masses, irrespective as to whether the outcome is a loss or a gain.
CASIS use is all about “How can we use the ISS to satisfy our reporting requirements, get in to the middle of the mix of space players like academia, K-12 education, space vendors and implementation partners, the administration, congress, and the DC bureaucracy, buddy up with everyone, take control and pile science on to the ISS.” There’s “rush” that those in-charge get to run a grant-activity, the feds get the money and gift it to the non-profit who then in turn can pick their favorites, that is, go-through-a-selection process.
All involved are frighteningly oblivious to finance and the economy and how the ISS and NASA might relate to the economic condition of the Nation. Don’t get me wrong, everyone knows we are in rough economic times. But the long standing culture and mindset is that NASA and the space are Golden, hence exempt from the mundane realities of budget and fiscal reality. The Tragedy of the Commons applies here, be first to grab the fed money pot, irrespective of whatever else is harmed. U.S. Performance Mediocrity is “in” in 2012, which matches U.S. academic rankings (25th of 30 in Math, 21st of 30 in Science, 15th of 30 in Literacy.)
If you examine the performance of Congress, and even sharp groups like GAO and OMB, it’s amazing, comical (tragic) how they approach budget decisions. Grab a dozen of their reports and see for yourself. These groups excel in cost analysis and budget adjustment and re-adjustment. Even adjustment until an effort is utterly choked blue and bled to death. (Humor, you wish. NPOESS is a great example.) These groups can spend a 1000 hours analyzing the cost of a screw, never asking WTF the value the screw will provide. What they are horrid at is any type of rigorous benefit analysis. They’re so bad at that side of the effort, they either make stuff up or just skip or avoid that half of the analysis entirely. Hysterically, when GAO was asked a few years ago about the absence of a benefit side analysis, their response was – Oh that’s a political analysis and decision.
Conversations tend to follow lines like: “We need to go to Mars!” Really? How much will that cost? “Oh I don’t know, about $268 Billion for 1 crewed round trip.” That’s a lot, is there any way we can cut those costs? “Yes, we’ll figure out a way. We’ll cut the crew size, limit meals, go faster, and only stay a day.” Ok, we’ll analyze your costs for a year and make sure you are not inflating them or making them up. Oh, by the way, why do we need to go to Mars, anyway? “Don’t ask me that, we just need to go.” Is there a benefit to being on Mars? “Of course! I’ll tell you the benefits when we get back.” Be advised, if you overrun severely you’ll run in to a Nunn McCurdy breach. “Really? Will that be bad?” No. We let you have 10 breaches before we do anything. The worse is that we’ll simply cancel your Mars program at the last minute. Beware though, make sure you track your costs and don’t lose a nickel or you may go to jail. On the other hand if you spend $268B to do something with no result, that’s just fine and you may get an award and be a hero.