Keith’s note: I was just on Alaraby TV in Qatar talking about the recent discovery of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of super-earth exoplanet K2-18b by the Webb Space Telescope and what this means in terms of Astrobiology and the search for life in the universe. It is fun to not have to talk to jaded American TV. Surprise: People outside of our Americo-centric news bubble are interested in things we don’t seem to care much about. Among many other international networks, I have been on Alaraby, Al Arabiya, Alhurra, and Al Jazeera. Also, since I am being translated into Arabic in real time, it is fun since I used to be a professional American Sign Language interpreter (often on TV) and the translators like that I am good at parsing technical things for translation at a pace that facilitates translation – in real time. Keith’s fun aside, I get the clear impression that NASA has little – if any – interest in making people available to this vast viewing audience. I have asked NASA PAO about this in the past but they always declined to answer. To be certain, the viewership of these Arabic language networks overlaps – but the core audience is somewhere between 200-300 million located in over 150 countries. NASA has an astonishing soft power and branding reach and it rarely takes full advantage of it. This is one example. Baffling. Anyway: here’s the [Audio]

Keith’s note: A week ago the National Space Council User’s Advisory Group held a meeting. They said that they’d get everything online. It has been a week. All that is online is the agenda. It as a link for the presentations. If you go there you will not see any presentations. There is a link for “National Space Council Users’ Advisory Group: Findings and Recommendations” but it points to a page last updated on 30 July 2020. All that was posted is a video by Buzz Aldrin and a raw video of the meeting at the original livestream link. NASA.gov makes no mention of this anywhere. NASA OIIR which oversees all of this inter- and intra-governmental advisory stuff is clueless as well. There is no mention of this or any other meeting. Nor is there any way to contact an identifiable human (like Chirag Parikh) at the official National Space Council webpage. There is a White House link to a short summary of the photo op all of the UAG members met VP Harris – lots of flowery blather but no substance. Oddly I had a link to Thomas Zurbuchen’s presentation – the one that NASA’s crack AV squad screwed up) which was online moments after the meeting ended – last week. You can catch my UAG coverage on Twitter here. It took the Biden Administration and NASA 2 years to actually assemble this UAG panel for a meeting. It is doubtful that they will accomplish anything more than the Trump Administration’s UAG did – other than dog and pony shows with expensive backdrops. I have seen innumerable pointless advisory panels in my 37 years inside of – and watching – NASA. This UAG is probably the most pointless of them all. If the Administration and NASA do not take the whole “user” aspect of space seriously then why should anyone else? Another 4 years wasted. Just saying.

Keith’s note: Hooray – we have a new National Space Council Users Advisory group. You have to wonder why it took so long for the National Space Council, Vice President’s Office, and NASA to come up with a simple panel of space people whose job is mostly to sit on telecons and read a few white papers. We’re already halfway though the first term of the Biden-Harris Administration. These committees move slower than a snail’s pace, become totally bogged down in white papers and endless consent cycles, and in the end they always defer to rubber stamping whatever talking points the White House staff wishes to have endorsed. We still have no idea when the UAG will meet. And when it does get started you can rest assured that it will take the rest of this Administration’s term to produce a report with actions items or something. Four years to make a difference with another UAG – wasted (again). Oh and the picture of the UAG posted online at NASA? (see above) Its the Trump UAG membership on a web page that is more than 2 years old. Here is the official release and list of names – followed by more commentary:

People Unaware and Concerned When It Comes to Space, Finds Landmark Report by Inmarsat, Inmarsat “The world is largely unaware of key activities in space, with Gen-Z twice as likely to associate space with aliens, Star Wars and billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos than older generations, according to the largest representative survey of global consumer attitudes towards space1, unveiled by Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite […]

Keith’s note: ICYMI: the text of Rep. Beyer’s NASA Enhanced Use Leasing Act of 2022 is included at the very end of the just-released omnibus bill, in a separate section for odds and ends (“Division HH – Other Matters”). The relevant text begins on page 2732. The omnibus is on the House floor today and expected to be passed by the Senate and on the President’s desk not later than […]

Keith’s note: According to James Miller at NASA who emailed “NASA Internal Memo: National Space Council UAG Update from Chair, ADM Jim Ellis” to lots of the usual suspects within the DC space wonk choir, the National Space Council (NSpC) and its Users Advisory Group (UAG) are still alive and active (surprise) with all of their Trump-nominated members: “… our UAG executive Committee (ExCom) has continued to meet on a […]

NASA Internal Memo: National Space Council UAG Update from Chair, ADM Jim Ellis, UAG “As you can see from the Transition Summary, activities of the UAG encompassed a broad range of space and space-related activities, bringing together broad representation from associations, manufacturers, educators, national security experts, and policy makers. Some of our efforts were directed at issues in direct support of NSpC activities; others were self-generated and represented original concepts, […]

Keith’s note: Once again we see an exercise in checking the boxes with regard to the making of space policy. A White House-created committee of experts, hand-selected to focus on a desired ad somewhat pre-determiined outcome, goes through the motions of being interested in what people have to say. They only go to friendly locations where dissent or differences in opinion are unlikely – and consensus can be proclaimed by […]

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 […]

Keith’s note: 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.