Big science on the ISS
What science experiment is so large that it will get its own Shuttle flight in July 2010? At nearly 15,000 lbs, that would be the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, flying on STS-134/ULF6.
Archive for 'collaboration'
Could the “Deep Space” option be a gateway?
The NASA community – civil servants, contractors, and politicians alike – is holding its breath while we await the final report from the Augustine Commission and the decision of President Obama on what exactly he wants NASA to do. Out of the several options the Human Space Flight Plans Committee is considering, one that has garnered particular interest from the press and some industry circles is the so-called “Deep Space” option.
The basic idea is to forgo the energy-intensive, and, thus, expensive, landing operations on the Moon in favor of manned flights to near-Earth asteroids, the Lagrange Points, and, possibly, Mars’ moons. We would still be able to develop the technology for long-duration travel, but put off the expense of actually landing and returning significant numbers of people until the political will is there.
Truly International
A few colleagues of mine and I ventured to Japan (Tsukuba (pro. skoo-ba)) recently in support of the upcoming STS-129/ULF3 flight. On tap was a discussion of a particular EVA that involves some JAXA hardware with one ULF3 crew member undergoing JAXA training at the same time. As a part of the training cadre for ULF3, it was my responsibility to follow Robert L. Satcher around and observe and participate (albeit in a limited fashion) in his JAXA hardware training. While observing his training, I came to realize how truly international space really is. From my many travels to Canada and this one trip to Japan, I’ve really gotten a sense of how space really ties a wide variety of people together; and it tends not to matter if you’re talking about manned spaceflight or not. Space, in general, unites the nerds of the world together.
This does, however, raise some good questions that I think should be thought about and discussed. Firstly, any look toward the future, I believe, should start with a healthy, objective look at our past. In the past, space flight has been a very competitive venture. It was all about which country could do what first in spaceflight. The Russians put the first person in space, the U.S. put the first person in orbit…and the list of firsts, highest, fastest, and longest is spread around from country to country for both manned and unmanned operations. The point here, however, is that few, if any, of these accomplishments are due to international cooperation. Fast forward to today and the beginning of the age of international space. We have the ISS, while be funded mostly by the U.S., the partner agencies have provided numerous and very valuable assets the program. From training to actual hardware and science experiments, the international community has really come together to support this effort. Of course, when more than one country decides to do something, there’s politics that come into play, but for the most part, the various agencies involved have been able to coexist and have really learned to work well together. The question I pose is this; “How important does international cooperation becomes the further out into the cosmos we as a species reach?“ My own personal answer to this is what I think would be the majorities of the answers, and that’s a resounding “Very“, and I think that it will start with Mars.
What does gossip and open innovation have in common?
I am like most people, I think, when it comes to taking in information. I hear new bits of information–via newspapers, journals, blogs, AP iPhone app, tweet, etc…–which generates a “ping” (that is the sound of the information banging around in my head and then being filed). Then I hear another bit of information and tie a virtual string to the new and old information. This sounds like a “pong.” Sometimes I am cognitively aware as to why my mind connected the bits together and other times I am not.
Over the past several months, my mind has tied the words “gossip” and “open innovation.” I recently deciphered why my mind made the ties. The ties could be as weak a spider’s web or as strong as a sailor’s knotted ladder. As a reader, you make your own call. First, I will take you down my mind path then I will reveal what I discovered as the common thread.
How would you utilize the ISS?
We’ve got a pretty interesting collection of folks here, so I thought I’d throw this question out to ya’ll.
What do you think we could or should be doing with the International Space Station that we’re not already doing or isn’t planned? Say that Congress comes up with an extension for the ISS past 2020. What would you do with it?
Launch Scrubbed, but Go to Post
So an hour ago, I showed up at the ISS Mission Evaluation Room to watch the shuttle launch. Last night, a friend of mine was asking me if I was going to get up at 6 AM to watch the launch. I wasn’t that enthusiastic about doing it, but realized that I had to option to go into my console in the MER and not only watch it on a nice big flat screen but I could also hear the other voice loops beyond PAO and CAPCOM if I watched it in the MER and used my headset.
Online social networking: The glue that binds people together at NASA
Did you know archeologists excavating burial sites dated 4000 BC discovered that people used tree sap to glue broken pottery? And did you know that the Greeks invented several recipes for adhesives that included things like egg whites, blood, bones, milk, cheese, and grains. I discovered this historic information while developing a presentation on glue and social networking. Today, NASA uses heavy duty adhesives for the Shuttle fuel tank and tiles.
Asked by a friend of mine, Tim Young, of Socialcast, if I was interested in presenting (May 2009) at a new conference called Glue Con, on social networking and using the NASAsphere study as an example, I said “of course.” Since data analysis is boring alone, I wanted to craft a good story and weave in the study results. Before writing my presentation, I researched glue–where it came from and how it works—out of curiosity mostly. During my readings, I discovered that glue is similar to human behavior in social networking.
Open Innovation in Government
President Obama on his second day in office issued a Presidential Memorandum on openness in government. This is a bold vision of creating a more effective, open government. The approach outlined in the memo is guided by the core values of transparency, participation and collaboration.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Global Development Commons convened a panel on Tuesday in Washington DC about Open Innovation in Government. Fortunately, the Global Development Commons streamed it live via www.ustream.com and you can see it archived here.
NASAsphere Pilot Findings Released
A while ago (May 2008), I posted NASA Employees Test the Social Water that I was leading a social networking pilot for NASA. Well, after several more months, the report is cleared by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and ready to be discussed in an open forum.
Many NASAsphere participants also participate on OpenNASA, so I figured this is a great place to post the release notice. The success of the pilot was a group effort and a great experience for me. I am grateful to those people who support open communication and communication technologies in NASA. While I can no longer say that I am a contractor for NASA, I can say I am still a friend of NASA and desire to help in anyway possible. One way for me to contribute to the success of NASA, is to share the findings and experiences from the NASAsphere pilot with you. In my opinion, they are meaningful to the organization and to the supporting cast of employees and contractors.
