Yes, a NASA lasso! Because given NASA's budget these days, the most advanced technology they can afford–is rope!

Worth a watch for a laugh, because if you can't laugh, life can be miserable.

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“It seems like something out of science fiction.” An opening line like that causes many science writers to cringe: trite, overused, and lazy. Nonetheless, it seems applicable to the announcement in NASA’s fiscal year 2014 budget request earlier this month of a new “asteroid imitative” that includes the concept of moving a small near Earth asteroid into cislunar space. Could a space agency that today doesn’t have the ability to place human beings in orbit really shift the orbit of a celestial body and send a crew to it—ideally by 2021, no less? It seems like something out of science fiction, many people concluded.

Now, NASA had to convince its various stakeholders, in particular Congress, that such a mission is not a flight of fancy but rather a feasible mission that can further the administration’s long-term human spaceflight goals, as well as perhaps support other priorities, like planetary defense. Given that NASA itself has not determined if such a mission is feasible, the agency faces an uphill struggle to show that what they’re proposing is fact, not fiction.

There are so many pieces that have to come together at the right times – such as development of the solar electric propulsion spacecraft, identification of a suitable asteroid, completion of Orion and the SLS, and timely funding by Congress – that the rank-and-file and key stakeholders have to be “all-in” with complete commitment to this initiative for it to have any chance to succeed. I'm concerned that the “afterthought” feeling is not an isolated incident.

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All in all, however, the White House and NASA may be exacerbating the challenge of winning support from Congress and other stakeholders. Some officials are using imprecise terminology, there is confusion over the relationship of this mission to protecting Earth from asteroids as well as why about humans are needed to bring back a sample of an asteroid when NASA already is building a robotic probe (OSIRIS-REx) to do that (not to mention that Japan already has done so and is planning a second mission), and the budget is murky in the short term and lacks credibility for the long term.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chair of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said it seemed to him that the mission was “an afterthought” when the original mission did not win support. NASA and the White House will have their hands full trying to dispel that characterization, but Gerstenmaier's presentations may be a step in the right direction.

To put it mildly, we have a lot of challenges before us to make this initiative a success. If the simple things such as consistency in terminology are proving to be difficult, I am very concerned about the harder things to come.

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There has never been anything like the Saturn V, the launch vehicle that powered the United States past the Soviet Union to a series of manned lunar landings in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The rocket redefined “massive,” standing 363 feet (110 meters) in height and producing a ludicrous 7.68 million pounds (34 meganewtons) of thrust from the five monstrous, kerosene-gulping Rocketdyne F-1rocket engines that made up its first stage.

At the time, the F-1 was the largest and most powerful liquid-fueled engine ever constructed; even today, its design remains unmatched. The power generated by five of these engines was best conceptualized by author David Woods in his book How Apollo Flew to the Moon—“[T]he power output of the Saturn first stage was 60 gigawatts. This happens to be very similar to the peak electricity demand of the United Kingdom.”

Despite the stunning success of the Saturn V, NASA's direction shifted after Project Apollo's conclusion; the Space Transport System—the Space Shuttle and its associated hardware—was instead designed with wildly different engines. For thirty years, NASA's astronaut corps rode into orbit aboard Space Shuttles powered by RS-25 liquid hydrogen-powered engines and solid-propellant boosters. With the Shuttle's discontinuation, NASA is currently hitching space rides with the Russians.

But there's a chance that in the near future, a giant rocket powered by updated F-1 engines might once again thunder into the sky. And it's due in no small part to a group of young and talented NASA engineers in Huntsville, Alabama, who wanted to learn from the past by taking priceless museum relics apart… and setting them on fire.

These are the leading paragraphs in a fascinating story about how colleagues at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL are using techniques that our predecessors 50 years ago would have deemed as magic, to bring to life again the engines that powered humans to the moon.

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I would call it, for the moment, “The Part Of America Kansas City Hangs With” because that's what this map is saying. It's a new, intriguing way to see our country. This one was built by tracking dollar bill circulation. There've been similar maps built from phone call data. The idea here is to show America not as 50 states, but as regions where people do stuff together. In other words, a “Whom Do You Hang With?” map.

This is a fascinating look at where our dollars circulate and how there are both hard and soft borders that are often distinct from state borders. It's a mash-up of two topics that have my attention currently – economics and information science.

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NASA’s second annual International Space Apps Challenge will take place April 20 and April 21 in more than 75 cities around the world. The technology development event seeks to bring tech-savvy developers and citizens together to solve challenges here on Earth by creating innovative software, data visualization tools and mobile app solutions for more than 50 challenges identified by event organizers.

This is built upon the Open Government initiate within NASA, and uses a different approach than the standard solicitation and contract method of engaging with the best and brightest in industry. If the 2012 event is any indication, the 2013 event ought to be a smashing success.

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It looks to me as if the proper role of NASA and the Air Force (Navy too if they’ll get in on it) is X programs; focus on good technology development. When it comes time for industry to build new craft we’ll have proved out the concepts and can go to production. That’s how we developed the best Air Force in the world. Develop the technology, let the aerospace companies build the spacecraft, and operating companies will fly them.

This sounds similar to the “destinations versus capabilities” argument still echoing through the halls of Congress and NASA. The biggest challenge for moving forward in a capabilities-driven direction is the political and infrastructure inertia resisting such a move. Clearly, success in such a shift requires more than a half-hearted attempt through a budget rollout.

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As I've said before, it's a tremendous honor sharing this experience with four other extremely high caliber NASA colleagues. We make a tremendous team. On top of being in a class with Naval and Marine officers, at times I sit in amazement and count how blessed I am.

Here's to another amazing scholastic year to come!

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15. Fifteen years ago last week, I started work for NASA. At the time, we were transitioning human spaceflight into construction of the International Space Station. My assignment at the time was as lead Rendezvous officer in Mission Control for Shuttle mission STS-88 in which we rendezvoused later that year 15 years ago with the FGB launched by Russia, and delivered Node 1. Over the subsequent 15 years, human spaceflight was dominated by the construction of the ISS, and saw the retirement of the Space Shuttle. Now, without a domestic human launch capability, we're attempting to grow a commercial one.

How times have changed.

25. Today marks twenty-five years that I first started work in the space business, fresh out of graduate school. At the time, I started work for a NASA contractor in a division that supported trajectory design and operations for the Shuttle. I started my career in software development before eventually transitioning to operations. At the time I was hired, NASA and its contractors were rapidly ramping up for resuming missions following the Challenger accident in 1986. I came on board a few months before flights resumed with Shuttle mission STS-26, and formed part of a cadre that grew within a few years to 800 NASA civil servants and contractors supporting trajectory design and operations for the Shuttle. That same division today supports trajectory work for the International Space Station, Orion, and commercial crew vehicles (bet you didn't know the latter) with a team of about a hundred, both due to reduced demand as well as technological advances.

How times have changed.

50. Next week marks my 50th birthday. It goes without saying: how times have changed.

Here's to another 15, 25, and 50 years!

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]]> http://leadingspace.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/152550/feed/ 0 rikerjoe Posted with Blogsy http://leadingspace.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/the-blogs-i-follow-2013-edition/ http://leadingspace.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/the-blogs-i-follow-2013-edition/#comments Sun, 13 Jan 2013 04:41:17 +0000 rikerjoe https://leadingspace.wordpress.com/?p=1209 Continue reading →]]> To kick off 2013, I decided to compile and share with you a list of the blogs I follow regularly. As I mentioned in a previous post, I use Mr. Reader for iPad as my RSS reader. The blogs I follow are organized into nine different categories. Because of that, being a space professional, I decided to have a little fun and associate one of the “traditional” planets with each of the categories. (In my solar system, there are still nine planets, not because I insist that Pluto is a planet, but because I had nine categories!)

Onward to the list….

Mercury – Business Entrepreneurs

For a number of years, I've been fascinated by business entrepreneurs, consuming their writings as I grappled with my own entrepreneurial desires. My first introduction to business writing and entrepreneurial thinking was through the classic Collins/Porras HBR article, “Building Your Company's Vision.” Since that time, I have found HBR to be a steady source of fresh ideas. Through social media I became acquainted with the writings of Ben Horowitz and Scott Weiss, who provide insights from the “C-suite” as practicing entrepreneurs.

Ben's Blog – http://bhorowitz.com

HBR – http://blogs.hbr.org

Scott Weiss – http://scott.a16z.com

Venus – College Sports

The planet of love is associated fittingly with a topic I love. I'm a college football junkie and big Texas Longhorns fan. To keep abreast of all the happenings in the Longhorn world, I follow “Barking Carnival” and “Burnt Orange Nation”. I also read a couple of smartly-written sites that explore college football through analytics. These are excellent sites if you're looking for a level of technical analysis that goes beyond what is available on the standard sports sites.

Barking Carnival – http://www.barkingcarnival.com

Burnt Orange Nation – http://www.burntorangenation.com

Football Study Hall – http://www.footballstudyhall.com

Smart Football – http://smartfootball.com

Earth – Current Events

I think it fitting that the Current Events category gets the designation, “Earth.” First, I get nearly all my news through social media. (Don't you?) To augment the immediacy of the social media stream, I also follow a couple of blogs for some smart, insightful commentary on current events. Because of the extreme polarization of most online sources, finding balanced commentary can be a challenge. Jerry Pournelle does drift a bit towards Libertarianism, but at least he's not too extreme. Sadly, this list is shorter than it ought to be.

Chaos Manor – http://www.jerrypournelle.com/jerrypournelle.c/chaosmanor/

Evening Edition – http://evening-edition.com

Mars – Economics

OK, it's totally by accident that this category lands on Mars. (I'm waiting for the “Economists go to Mars” joke – go ahead.) Six months ago, economics was not a category in my reading list. Yet because of the “Economics for Defense Managers” class I took last quarter in my Executive MBA program, I gained insights into economic thinking that I never got through that introductory macroeconomics class I took as an undergraduate a long time ago. I think my favorable recent experience in economics is in part due to the benefit of “life experiences” showing the value of economic thinking, and in part due to a fantastic professor (thanks, David Henderson). I'm even toying with writing a blog piece on microeconomic issues in human spaceflight. My reading list here is small, but growing.

EconLog – http://econlog.econlib.org

The Economist: Economic Issues – http://www.economist.com/topics/economics

Economists Do It With Models – http://www.economistsdoitwithmodels.com

Jupiter – Leadership

I connected with each of the leaders below through social media years ago, and continue to follow their writings to improve my own leadership capabilities. Most of these have been on my list for several years, with a few recent additions and subtractions.

Kate Nasser – http://katenasser.com

Managing For Performance – http://managingforperformance.com

Mario Vittone – http://mariovittone.com

More Than a Minute – http://morethanaminute.com

Next Level Blog – http://eblingroup.com/blog

Random Acts of Leadership – http://randomactsofleadership.wordpress.com

You're Not the Boss of Me – http://gwynteatro.wordpress.com

Saturn – Math & Science

The mathematician/scientist inside of me gets care and feeding through the next collection of blogs. This is a small but active list that requires some deep thinking. I found a new blog last week, “Roots of Unity”, and look forward to seeing how it evolves.

Gödel’s Lost Letter and P=NP – http://rjlipton.wordpress.com

Roots of Unity – http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/roots-of-unity/

ScienceDaily: Top Science News – http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/top_news/top_science/

The Economist: Science and Technology – http://www.economist.com/science-technology

Uranus – Photography

My main creative pursuit is photography. I like these blogs for insights and tips geared toward the budding amateur photographer. I also enjoy seeing beautiful works in the examples they provide, which inspire me to improve my own photography.

Light Stalking – http://www.lightstalking.com

Photography by Kent Weakley – http://kentweakley.com/blog/

PhotoNaturalist – http://photonaturalist.net

The Discerning Photographer – http://thediscerningphotographer.com

Younes Bounhar – http://younesbounhar.com/blog/

Neptune – Space

I would be remiss as a space professional if I didn't have a collection of space-related blogs. Two of Jeff Foust's offerings made my list (“Space Politics” and “The Space Review”), because Jeff provides a factual, impartial view into happenings in space exploration. (The same cannot be said for many of the commenters on his blogs, sadly.) I noticed that after I compiled the list, there are no official NASA blogs on it. Is this an opportunity missed, or a blind spot?

Mary Lynne Dittmar – http://www.marylynnedittmar.com

NASA Watch – http://nasawatch.com

Selenian Boondocks – http://selenianboondocks.com

Space Politics – http://www.spacepolitics.com

SpacePolicyOnline – http://www.spacepolicyonline.com

The Once and Future Moon – http://blogs.airspacemag.com/moon/

The Space Review – http://www.thespacereview.com

Universe Today – http://www.universetoday.com

Vintage Space – http://amyshirateitel.com/vintagespace/

Pluto – Technology

Orbiting in the Kuiper Belt is the collection of technology blogs I follow. Most of these are current event-oriented, and several provide thoughtful commentary on topics relating to Apple products (because I own a bunch) as well as technology in general.

AppCraver – http://www.appcraver.com

Cool Tools – http://kk.org/cooltools/

Daring Fireball – http://daringfireball.net

I, Cringely – http://www.cringely.com

IDV User Experience – http://uxblog.idvsolutions.com

Infinite Loop – http://arstechnica.com/apple/

io9 – http://io9.com

iPhoneLife: Apps – http://www.iphonelife.com/category/all

Lifehacker – http://lifehacker.com

Macenstein – http://macenstein.com/

MacFixIt – http://reviews.cnet.com/8300-13727_7-.html

MacOSXHints – http://hints.macworld.com

TidBITS – http://tidbits.com

Now that I have a snapshot at the beginning of 2013 of the blogs I read, I'll be interested to see how this list continues to evolve during the year. If you have some favorites you like to read, let me hear from you.

 

Text © 2013 Joe Williams. All rights reserved.
All images courtesy of NASA.

 

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