The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Has Launched

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Telescope aboard a SpaceX rocket transiting the sun during launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida earlier today. (NASA/John Kraus)

Earlier today, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was successfully launched from Florida’ Kennedy Space Center. It is now on a journey toward the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, or L2, about 1 million miles from Earth where it will start its mission.

The Roman Space Telescope will have a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble’s, which it can use to view billions of galaxies as well as answer questions about exoplanets, dark energy, dark matter, and more.

Nicky Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, stated:

Roman will be a discovery machine that will bring us closer than ever before to answering humanity’s most profound questions about our cosmic history…With its large field of view and fast survey speeds, Roman will usher us into a new era of discovery and make the invisible visible, setting the foundation for humanity’s search for life beyond our solar system.

Not a bad mission for a repurposed spy satellite donated to NASA back in 2012. I wonder if the National Reconnaissance Office has any other old satellites or spacecraft lying around that it might want to put to use discovering more about the universe.

It’s a promising way to turn swords into plowshares.

In Case You Missed It/Podcast: The Second Monster in Aliens

Posted on by onespaceman2000

A few months back, NPR’s Planet Money podcast had a terrific episode titled, “The Real Horror of ‘Alien’ and How It Explains Why We’re Not Paid Enough.”

In the episode, we learn more about Weyland-Yutani, the company in the 1979 film Alien that employed the crew on the space tug Nostromo. You may remember that this crew eventually became little more than a meal and incubator for more monsters.

Maybe there was another monster on the ship as well. Maybe it was even a bigger monster, because it had already inflected the entire Earth economy. Something called monopsony, which is basically when all of the workers become the quasi-slaves of a few corporations. Unread contracts and absent labor unions became the basis for much abuse on and off the spaceships.

It’s a fun episode that allows you to see the film from the perspective of an economist as well as an everyday worker.

You can also hear from Fede Álvarez, who directed and co-wrote a subsequent film Alien: Romulus. It will probably be no surprise that Weyland-Yutani doesn’t become a better place to work.

Science fiction is often a mirror on society, even if we don’t see our reflection right away. Think about all of those drug commercials on television where everyone is dancing, yet the announcer keeps telling you about the horrible side-effects and possibility of death. Sometimes you just need to close your eyes and listen. The mirror can work even without your eyes.

Establishment of a US Space Academy

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: memory-alpha.fandom.com.

According to a new executive order signed earlier today (not the Lake Ontario one – that was yesterday), the White House is establishing a US Space Academy.

The executive order, titled Establishing the United States Space Academy, states:

Space is a critical domain for American national security, economic growth, scientific discovery, and technological innovation. American superiority in space depends on the strength, skill, and character of those who explore, secure, and build the industries critical to it. To continue to lead the world in space exploration and technology, while securing and defending our national interests in space, the Nation must prepare the next generation of astronauts, scientists, engineers, operators, entrepreneurs, civil servants, and warfighters and ensure that they are capable of advancing American interests in space. Achieving this goal requires us to recruit, train, and retain America’s best and brightest from across the Nation.

Did you notice that little military plug “warfighters”? Just like Star Trek’s Starfleet Academy, we need to make room for the Klingons.

This is the same president who gave us the US Space Force, so the militarization of space continues. At least the astronauts and scientists are named before the warfighters.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman will serve as Chair of the Presidential Commission on the US Space Academy. The location of the academy itself was not provided, but we should be hearing more about all of the plans shortly.

As with the military academies, it is likely that foreign students will be allowed at some point. For example, the Naval Academy is allowed to enroll up to 60 foreign students. So it would seem Betazoids are a possibility.

Stay tuned.

Pic of the Week: Galactic Gems

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): A collection of 16 galactic images from Chandra and other telescopes. Each galactic image contains X-ray data from Chandra combined with data from telescopes such as NASA’s Webb, Hubble, IXPE, Swift, and NuSTAR, and others both in space and on the ground. (NASA/CXC/SAO)

This week’s images of 16 galaxies are from a variety of NASA telescopes. The galaxies are generally sorted into three types – spiral, elliptical, and irregular. For example, the Milky Way galaxy is a spiral galaxy, whereas Centaurus A (Cen A above) is a giant elliptical galaxy and NGC 1569 (also above) is a compact dwarf irregular galaxy.

Please go to this NASA link to see all of these galaxies in their full glory.

Chinese Spying: The Moon Race Just Got Ugly

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Vicki Hamilton from Pixabay.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has reported that the Chinese have been hacking into US government agencies since as early as 2018. One of the targets of the Chinese hacker group, known as QTFY, was NASA.

A DOJ press release from earlier today, titled Justice Department and FBI Seize Platforms Operated and Used by China State-Sponsored Hackers to Target U.S. Critical Infrastructure, stated:

Among the victims of QTFY computer intrusion activity are the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Federal Reserve, Department of Energy, Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Senate.

At this time, the nature of what was taken from NASA and other government agencies was not provided. However, given the importance of the Artemis mission for both national and commercial purposes, it is not hard to believe that Artemis information was part of the hack.

It may be to NASA’s advantage that it has been operating by the seat of its pants for more than a year now. There was no Artemis strategy to steal. In addition, much of NASA’s work is in the hands of the private sector, so that extra layer of protection may have helped.

It is worth noting that many federal agencies were spending last year fighting off internal hackers from the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which did great damage across the federal government.

The Chinese efforts have been detected and ended. I am not sure you can say the same thing about DOGE.

Update: NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has reported that the Chinese hackers were unable to access NASA data.