Holiday Fun from NASA

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Fireplace video for home entertainment. (NASA)

If you are looking for a unique way to celebrate the holidays, consider using this NASA-provided fireplace video to warm your heart. You can gain access to it here.

Yes, NASA has a sense of humor.

It is also a nice pitch for the Artemis missions.

Enjoy.

Pic of the Week: Thanksgiving on the ISS

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Expedition 72 astronauts on the ISS celebrating Thanksgiving. (NASA)

This week’s image shows the four US astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) showing their Thanksgiving meal to all of us (contained in the white plastic bags). The astronauts pictured (clockwise from bottom left) are Nick Hague, Suni Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Don Pettit. You also watch a video where they share their holiday messages.

ISS Successfully Resupplied by Russian Mission

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Russia’s MS-19 Mission approaching the ISS yesterday. (NASA)

The International Space Station (ISS) had another visitor on Saturday morning – this time a Russian Soyuz capsule bringing about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to the station as part of its Progress MS-29 mission (Progress 90 mission to NASA).

The Russian News Agency provided a list of items delivered to the ISS and also noted that the resupply mission also included Christmas gifts for the crew.

Here are the items delivered:

…869 kg of refueling propellant, 420 liters of potable water and 43 kg of pressurized nitrogen, and also 1,155 kg of material and equipment in the dry cargo hold, in particular, for experiments dubbed Vampire (growing crystals in an electric vacuum furnace), BTN-Neutron-2 (studying the neutron spectrum) and 3D Print (3D printing of polymer materials).

It nice that the Russians took the time to assist Santa with his gift giving.

Of course, the U.S. Department of Defense’s North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) will be tracking the actions of Santa here on Earth this year, so be sure to visit the site closer to Christmas next month.

Upcoming Space Policy Conflicts?

Posted on by onespaceman2000

Will Elon Musk have the freedom to muck around at NASA and with space policy in general? It all depends whether VP-elect J.D. Vance is willing to step aside from what could be seen as a duplicative space policy role, as noted in The Conversation:

Vice-president-elect J.D. Vance will chair the National Space Council, which develops policy on civil, commercial, international and national security. Many of the first Trump administration’s space policy successes can be traced to the council. Given the influence Musk seems likely to have in the new administration, the National Space Council could be seen as duplicating or being in conflict with the objectives of SpaceX’s founder…So could the council become a casualty of these drives? If it survives, its future potential depends on who is named as the executive secretary, a position that has significant power.

The National Space Council, which is under the White House, has a web page stating that while the Council was established in 1989, it was dormant from 1993-2017. Hence, it was the last Trump administration that brought it back to life.

Is Trump willing to let it lay dormant again so that Mr. Musk can have even greater say in steering taxpayer funds into his pockets? We’ll see what happens, as Mr. Trump often quips.

NASA’s Management Challenges

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The crew of NASA’s upcoming Artemis II mission. (NASA)

With NASA now facing a new administration in Washington, it is worth looking at where the agency is at the moment and what may need some attention. The 2024 Report on NASA’s Top Management and Performance Challenges, released by the NASA Office of the Inspector General (OIG), is a good place to start.

Here are a few of the challenges facing NASA at the moment:

  • Improving the Management of Major Programs and Projects
    • Changing requirements, significant technical issues, increased costs, and schedule delays continue to impact the sustainability of major programs and projects.
    • Cost increases and schedule delays often create cascading effects across NASA’s portfolio of projects.
    • Without complete, credible, timely, and transparent cost and schedule commitments for the Agency’s major projects, it is difficult for NASA, Congress, and stakeholders to make informed decisions about the prioritization of efforts and the Agency’s long-term funding needs.

  • Partnering with Commercial Industry
    • The transition to commercial space systems will require significant long-term financial investments by NASA and private companies as well as growing demand for non-NASA customers to ensure long-term economic viability.
    • Commercial partners are competitors in an emerging industry, developing modern space transportation capabilities and associated operations that have never been available.
    • The challenge to commercial partnerships comes in balancing the speed of development, flexibility, and adherence to timelines against the safety and reliability of new technology.

  • Enabling Mission Critical Capabilities and Support Services
    • NASA faces challenges with its mission critical capabilities including attracting and retaining a highly skilled and diverse workforce and managing outdated infrastructure and facilities needed for science, aeronautics, and exploration missions.
    • NASA’s decentralized information technology management structure and lack of strategic leadership negatively affect the Agency’s ability to protect and fully utilize computer systems and data vital to its mission.
    • NASA’s contract management practices have consistently led to increased costs and overly generous award fees.

This is quite a list, and the report goes into great detail on all of them. Of course, this is not SSA or the IRS with a pretty standard day-to-day mission, and where future expectations of the agency are easily foreseeable. As the auditors note, NASA is dealing with high-risk, complex issues requiring highly skilled workers who have to maintain many current programs around the solar system while also assisting a newly emerging private space industry here in the United States (which is pinching its staff). Moreover, looking back at the beginning of the universe as well as searching for sources of life in the universe today are big missions. We are asking a lot of NASA. This is rocket science and much, much more.

Kudos to NASA for what it has done over the years while maintaining a highly-motivated workforce.

In addition, since I expect Elon Musk will try to claim that he came up with these issues on his own, I thought it was worth highlighting this report now. NASA knows it has a lot to do and it is working to solve these matters each and every day.