Temporary NASA Administrator Announced

Posted on by onespaceman2000

Earlier today President Trump announced that Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy will now be performing double duties as he takes on the temporary leadership of NASA. This follows the dropping of Jared Isaacman as the next NASA administrator earlier this year.

This is not good news for NASA given that (1) a permanent leader seems to be farther away now and (2) Secretary Duffy will be busy with two roles, thereby giving only half his attention to NASA. NASA deserves better as it faces big decisions regarding budget cuts. Fortunately, some of the proposed cuts were reversed in the budget bill signed last week.

Is Duffy the right guy at the moment? Some wonder how he even became Secretary of Transportation, with one editorial noting:

…what should be a concern is that Duffy’s resume doesn’t include experience relevant for running an organization as large as the U.S. Department of Transportation, which has with 55,000 employees, or for overseeing the nation’s roads, airfields, rail system and shipping ports.

The editorial goes on to state that Duffy’s main quantification appeared to his “visibility on Fox News.”

Great. We know how well that is going for the Department of Defense.

Is Musk Taking a Chainsaw to SpaceX?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Mostafa Elturkey from Pixabay.

The press is all abuzz about Elon Musk’s latest statements regarding his establishment a new political party called the America Party. Some of the stories also relate to his continued inattention to his companies, particularly Tesla. Fortune magazine quoted one security tech analyst who stated:

Very simply Musk diving deeper into politics and now trying to take on the Beltway establishment is exactly the opposite direction that Tesla investors/shareholders want him to take during this crucial period for the Tesla story.

The same concerns exist with SpaceX, even it if is a private company. Elon Musk has been distracted by politics for too long as his companies take a back seat. His budget-cutting work for President Trump tanked Tesla sales around the world while his recent divorce with the White House caused President Trump to ask whether the government needed to cut off contracts to SpaceX. Throughout, it has been a roller coaster for his customers and investors.

Surprisingly, even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent commented on the board of directors at Tesla and SpaceX during CNN’s State of the Union, noting:

I imagine that those boards of directors did not like this announcement yesterday (Saturday) and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities.

AInvest also ssued this warning over the weekend:

Musk’s political pivot is a gamble with no clear playbook. While his companies’ technological prowess and market dominance provide a cushion, the interplay of regulatory risks, political spending, and third-party uncertainty demands vigilance.

It also doesn’t help that some of President Trump’s friends are now calling for the nationalization of SpaceX. For example, Trump advisor Steve Bannon has already suggested the White House should consider using the Defense Production Act to take control SpaceX. That would be an extremely serious step.

Mr. Musk does seem to have trouble keeping focus on his businesses, so maybe it makes sense for him to hand over more control to other managers while he goes off and plays with politics. He is a man who is no longer driven by Mars the planet but instead by Mars the god or war, in this case political wars.

His many distractions are not good for NASA, the space industry, or SpaceX investors.

Space Stories: Mystery on Saturn, an Interstellar Visitor, and Hunting a Rogue Planet

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Saturn as captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on February 9, 2004 (NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—New Scientist: “Did Something Just Hit Saturn? Astronomers Are Racing to Find Out“

Something may have just hit Saturn – and, if so, an amateur astronomer could hold the key to confirming the event, which would be the first ever recorded on the gas giant. About seven asteroids or comets are estimated to impact Saturn every year, but no such event has ever been caught on camera. Now, NASA employee and amateur astronomer Mario Rana has recorded images that appear to show just that.

—Astronomy.com: “Astronomers Race to Learn More About Third Interstellar Visitor“

Astronomers have spotted an object from outside our solar system bolting toward the Sun at around 150,000 mph (240,000 km/h). The big, frozen ball of ice and dust presents a rare chance to study an object that formed around an alien solar system, and potentially much earlier in the Milky Way’s history. The object named 3I/ATLAS — “3I” because it’s the third interstellar object detected so far, and “ATLAS” in honor of the system of telescopes that revealed it, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. Because the object is also showing tentative signs of cometary activity, it has also been designated C/2025 N1 (ATLAS).

—Universe Today: “Old Hubble Space Telescope Photos Unlock the Secret of a Rogue Planet“

Astronomers have achieved a first in exoplanet hunting by using the Hubble Space Telescope images to investigate a mysterious event that could reveal the existence of a “rogue planet” drifting through space without a host star. The discovery centers on a brief astronomical phenomenon with the catchy name OGLE-2023-BLG-0524, detected in May 2023 by ground-based telescopes. The event lasted just eight hours and was caused by gravitational microlensing, an effect predicted by Einstein where a massive object acts like a magnifying glass in space, briefly brightening the light from a more distant object as it passes in front.

Television: Star Trek’s Strange New Worlds Returns

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Paramount+

Season three of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds returns on July 17. It is the only remaining Star Trek series on television, so fans will not want to miss it. Fortunately, the series will be around for a little while now that it’s been approved for a total of six seasons, which should give the series plenty of time to wrap up the Captain Pike storyline.

So what is the plot of season three? Here is what Paramount+ is sharing:

In Season 3, when we reconnect with the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, still under the command of Captain Pike, they face the conclusion of Season 2’s harrowing encounter with the Gorn. But new life and civilizations await, including a villain that will test our characters’ grit and resolve. An exciting twist on classic Star Trek, Season 3 takes characters both new and beloved to new heights, and dives into thrilling adventures of faith, duty, romance, comedy, and mystery, with varying genres never before seen on any other Star Trek.

You can see the season three trailers here and here. While I did not observe any singing, it still appears that this season will have plenty of fun twists as well.

I am also looking forward to the upcoming Star Trek: Starfleet Academy television series starring Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti, among many others. It is expected to premiere next year, thereby keeping the franchise alive and well with a whole new storyline.

So far, I have more faith in Star Trek‘s longevity on television than that of the Star Wars‘ television series. Of course, Star Trek already has a 10 year lead, but it has also been more consistent with the quality of its shows. This may be in part because it started on television, unlike Star Wars, so it did not need to reinvent itself. Whatever its secret, I hope it continues.

Study Findings: Carbonate Formation and Fluctuating Habitability on Mars

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Mars as captured by NASA Mars Global Surveyor MOC wide angle cameras. (NASA/JPL/MSSS)

Nature abstract of the study findings:

The cause of Mars’s loss of surface habitability is unclear, with isotopic data suggesting a ‘missing sink’ of carbonate. Past climates with surface and shallow-subsurface liquid water are recorded by Mars’s sedimentary rocks, including strata in the approximately 4-km-thick record at Gale Crater. Those waters were intermittent, spatially patchy and discontinuous, and continued remarkably late in Mars’s history—attributes that can be understood if, as on Earth, sedimentary-rock formation sequestered carbon dioxide as abundant carbonate (recently confirmed in situ at Gale). Here we show that a negative feedback among solar luminosity, liquid water and carbonate formation can explain the existence of intermittent Martian oases. In our model, increasing solar luminosity promoted the stability of liquid water, which in turn formed carbonate, reduced the partial pressure of atmospheric carbon dioxide and limited liquid water. Chaotic orbital forcing modulated wet–dry cycles. The negative feedback restricted liquid water to oases and Mars self-regulated as a desert planet. We model snowmelt as the water source, but the feedback can also work with groundwater as the water source. Model output suggests that Gale faithfully records the expected primary episodes of liquid water stability in the surface and near-surface environment. Eventually, atmospheric thickness approaches water’s triple point, curtailing the sustained stability of liquid water and thus habitability in the surface environment. We assume that the carbonate content found at Gale is representative, and as a result we present a testable idea rather than definitive evidence.

Citation: Kite, E.S., Tutolo, B.M., Turner, M.L. et al. Carbonate formation and fluctuating habitability on Mars. Nature 643, 60–66 (2025).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09161-1

Study-related stories:

University of Chicago – “Was Mars Doomed to be a Desert? Study Proposes New Explanation”

Science Alert – “NASA Discovery Could Explain Why We’ve Never Found Life on Mars”

The Register – “Mars Was Once a Desert with Intermittent Oases, Curiosity Data Suggests”