Keith’s update: A month ago, on 2 May 2024, NASA Ames posted “Researchers Develop ‘Founding Document’ on Synthetic Cell Development“ which says “In a paper published recently in ACS Synthetic Biology, researchers outline the potential opportunities that synthetic cell development could unlock and what challenges lie ahead in this groundbreaking research. They also present a roadmap to inspire and guide innovation in this intriguing field.” When it was originally published at NASA.gov it had a link to “Building Synthetic Cells─From the Technology Infrastructure to Cellular Entities” (ACS Synth. Biol. 2024, 13, 4, 974–997 Publication Date: March 26, 2024) which, it would seem, was the ‘Founding Document’ that NASA wanted everyone to know about. Cool stuff. Thanks for the heads up NASA. But wait: the article that NASA points to is behind a pay wall. It is rather odd for NASA PAO to overtly promote this article as a ‘Founding Document’ – one that is apparently important (to NASA) – but then lets this important thing sit behind a paywall offsite. So I sent an email to NASA a month ago. They said they’d fix it. They then fixed it. Now the link is simply gone from the NASA.gov article and no hint is offered as to where it is or how to read it. A month later and there is still no link to the article or link to the text that is this ‘Founding Document’ By now NASA should be aware of various OSTP/OMB policies with regard to making taxpayer-funded research available. NASA has gotten better at this but apparently not everyone got that memo. So, will you please post the ‘Founding Document’ NASA – or make it openly available at its source?
(more…)Keith’s note: I guess its nice that NASA’s Astrobiology program officially emails info about job openings – in Norway. It might be a little more appropriate to start sending out info on job openings – in the U.S. – for all the people being laid off at NASA JPL and NASA Goddard. Meanwhile at the official NASA Astrobiology website the top story is about a undergraduate fellowship with a due date of 2 February 2024 – almost 2 weeks ago. Why bother being accurate. Just sayin’
(more…)Keith’s note: Take the time to read the Astrobotic press release (below). While it is sad that Peregrine won’t land on the Moon it is very important that everyone – including NASA – takes note of the unrivaled transparency and promptness of updates that Astrobotic has provided. They’ve set a new standard that all responsible users of space should follow. Ad Astra.
(more…)Keith’s note: according to a new GAO report “Cybersecurity: Federal Agencies Made Progress, but Need to Fully Implement Incident Response Requirements“: “The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration should ensure that the agency fully implements all event logging requirements as directed by OMB guidance. (Recommendation 17)” … “In written comments, reprinted in appendix XI, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration concurred with our recommendation and stated that it plans to address our recommendation by, among other things, creating a comprehensive plan to address all event logging requirements under a recently established Cybersecurity Improvement Portfolio. It also noted certain challenges it faces, such as data integration into the agency’s uniquely designed systems and resource constraints.” [Note: NASA’s response is on pages 63-64]. Previous NASA IT posts
(more…)Keith’s note: This is a revised version of the original website that was first posted – from Antarctica – in 1996. As far as Dale Andersen (who is in Antarctica now doing Astrobiology research) and I know we ran one of the first – if not the first website updated FROM someone onsite in Antarctica. You might find out 1996 take on things interesting … Dale wrote: “We have radio telephones that allow us to contact McMurdo via several repeaters which have been placed in Taylor Valley. With this phone line we can send data via computer (e-mail, access the web etc.) at about 4800 baud. The signal is first sent to McMurdo, and is then forwarded by the servers there to Black Island (thirty miles to the west of McMurdo), and then uplinked by satellite back to the states where it enters into the Internet and ends up at Keith’s house in Virginia.“ and I said “When images have been placed on the remote FTP server, I use FTP to retrieve the images (usually from my home). I then manipulate the images into thumbnail and webpage – optimized versions with Adobe PhotoShop 4.0, link them to a webpage using World Wide Web Weaver 1.1, and then mount them on the Reston Communications webserver. My webserver is a Radius 81/110 Mac clone, with 40 Mb of RAM, running Webstar 2.0, connected to the Internet via a dedicated 128 kbps ISDN connection.” In other words this was sporty at the time but still rudimentary. Here are the pics. Oh yes – they got to hang out with Sir Edmund Hillary there.
(more…)Strangely @KathyLueders talks again and again how these #ISS missions are "our nation's missions" and emphasizes the need for #NASA to inform the public – and then a moment later she says that @NASA is cutting back on live mission updates due to the cost. Huh? pic.twitter.com/ibg9y8zM7g — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) February 4, 2022
Sometimes it seems that everyone on Earth is wearing a NASA T-shirt, Washington Post “Go to any college campus, Ulrich said, and there are “kids there with NASA shirts on. You see it on the subway. You see it on the street. It’s just proliferating.” It sure is. Last year, Ulrich said, the agency received 11,000 merchandising requests from companies that wanted to use the logo on some sort of […]
Media Accreditation Open for Minotaur I Rocket Launch June 15 from NASA Wallops “Media must apply for accreditation by 4 p.m. Friday, May 28, by sending a request to Keith Koehler at …” Keith’s note: Yesterday I stumbled across a media advisory for media accreditation from NASA Wallops for a launch via someone’s Facebook page. It is posted by NASA here: Media Accreditation Open for Minotaur I Rocket Launch June […]
Modernizing Science Websites, Thomas Zurbuchen “More so than ever, our Science Mission Directorate (SMD) websites are the front-door to our worldwide community of enthusiasts and learners. Upon an in-depth analysis of our web presence, I believe it is time for us to elevate the way we communicate and enhance the breadth of our audiences using a focused approach on great content, and best-in-class optimization techniques. As will all of our […]
Keith’s note: By now you must be bored with my daily critique of how NASA organizes and presents itself to the public, policy makers, news media, and the rest of the world – especially when it comes to education. (see Fixing Education And Outreach At NASA. Part 1: STEM Engagement Office) To virtually everyone, everywhere, NASA.gov online resources are how people learn what NASA does – and where they go […]
Keith’s note: When you think of NASA you think of science. That is because NASA wants you to think that. And since there is a lot of science at NASA, this is rather easy to do. Indeed, many times the people or organizations tasked with getting the science out via education and outreach at NASA are not very good at doing so. But the science is so compelling that it […]
#FlashbackFriday For online journalists, bloggers, etc. who think you are having a hard time covering @NASA This is what I had to go through back in 2000 just to get #NASA press credentials. House Science Committee Chair & the NASA OIG got involved. https://t.co/8oPpZUxESM pic.twitter.com/A0YbfujPUA — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) March 5, 2021 Keith’s note: From my 24 July 1999 NASA PAO media accreditation request: “NASA Watch is read regularly (during […]
Keith’s note: Websites are a thing that people have been doing for a quarter of a century. Despite all of the fancy graphics and tricks there are some basic things a good website should do. NASA has lots of websites – more than any other government agency. The agency’s Internet reach is truly global. But it gets this global reach in spite of itself. Its web presence is a jumbled […]
Well I just sit here in my basement and point out these obvious flaws and easy fixes month after month and yet no one at @NASA even bothers to fix them. In the real world this upgrade would have been done last year. — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) September 4, 2020 Keith’s note: A year and a half ago Jim Bridenstine directed NASA to fix its online services. he told the […]
OIG: NASA’s Policy and Practices Regarding the Use of Non-Agency Information Technology Devices “NASA is not adequately securing its networks from unauthorized access by IT devices. Although OCIO has deployed technologies to monitor unauthorized IT device connections, it has not fully implemented controls to remove or block these devices from accessing NASA’s networks and systems. The initial December 2019 target date for NASA to complete installation of these controls has […]
NASA Internal Memo: Website Modernization and Enhanced Security Protocols 15 May 2019 (PDF) “Currently there are an estimated 3,000 public-facing NASA Web sites, yet the top 10 sites receive 80 percent of all Web traffic. Additionally, some NASA partners operate Web sites on our behalf outside of the Agency, creating redundancy and accumulating unnecessary costs. Not only does this duplication of information cause confusion, each Wen site provides potential access […]
Hey @NASAHarvest did you know that @NASASTEM is promoting a @NASA event on growing plants in space? Did @Space_Station know about this? Doubtful. #NASA doesn't leverage its many Twitter accounts very effectively despite the whole #NASAatHome thing during #COVID19 #SpaceBiology https://t.co/mxyOvy7sdQ — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) April 27, 2020 Interesting that @DouglasLoverro the AA for @NASA HEOMD is tweeting this 27 April 2020 posting on ISS research by NASA – before […]
NASA Internal Memo: NASA’s Authorized Internal and External Collaboration Tools, NASA CIO “The NASA CIO has worked for the past several years to establish a consistent and modern set of tools to support both internal and external collaboration. While there is still work to do to support some of the more complex use-cases, such as sharing sensitive data with foreign partners, many others are met through Agency approved collaboration tools. […]
Keith’s 7 October update: Today NASA JPL issued a press release “NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds an Ancient Oasis on Mars” It includes the text: “For more about NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover mission, visit: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/ https://nasa.gov/msl“ JPL has the release posted here with the same text and imagery as is used by NASA HQ’s version here. But if you go to https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/ and dig a little bit to “news and events” […]