NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Dec 13, 2023

Deep Field: The Heart Nebula

What excites the Heart Nebula? First, the large emission nebula on the left, catalogued as IC 1805, looks somewhat like a human heart. The nebula glows brightly in red light emitted by its most prominent element, hydrogen, but this long-exposure image was also blended with light emitted by silicon (yellow) and oxygen (blue). In the center of the Heart Nebula are young stars from the open star cluster Melotte 15 that are eroding away several picturesque dust pillars with their atom-exciting energetic light and winds. The Heart Nebula is located about 7,500 light years away toward the constellation of Cassiopeia. At the bottom right of the Heart Nebula is the companion Fishhead Nebula. This wide and deep image clearly shows, though, that glowing gas surrounds the Heart Nebula in all directions.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?

Engineers Working to Resolve Issue With Voyager 1 Computer

December 12, 2023

Engineers are working to resolve an issue with one of Voyager 1’s three onboard computers, called the flight data system (FDS). The spacecraft is receiving and executing commands sent from Earth; however, the FDS is not communicating properly with one of the probe’s subsystems, called the telecommunications unit (TMU). As a result, no science or engineering data is being sent back to Earth.

Among other things, the FDS is designed to collect data from the science instruments as well as engineering data about the health and status of the spacecraft. It then combines that information into a single data “package” to be sent back to Earth by the TMU. The data is in the form of ones and zeros, or binary code. Varying combinations of the two numbers are the basis of all computer language.

Recently, the TMU began transmitting a repeating pattern of ones and zeros as if it were “stuck.” After ruling out other possibilities, the Voyager team determined that the source of the issue is the FDS. This past weekend the team tried to restart the FDS and return it to the state it was in before the issue began, but the spacecraft still isn’t returning useable data.

It could take several weeks for engineers to develop a new plan to remedy the issue. Launched in 1977, the spacecraft and its twin, Voyager 2, are the two longest-operating spacecraft in history. Finding solutions to challenges the probes encounter often entails consulting original, decades-old documents written by engineers who didn’t anticipate the issues that are arising today. As a result, it takes time for the team to understand how a new command will affect the spacecraft’s operations in order to avoid unintended consequences.

In addition, commands from mission controllers on Earth take 22.5 hours to reach Voyager 1, which is exploring the outer regions of our solar system more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth. That means the engineering team has to wait 45 hours to get a response from Voyager 1 and determine whether a command had the intended outcome.

https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2023/12/12/engineers-working-to-resolve-issue-with-voyager-1-computer/

2024 Leadership Changes to Include NASA Stennis Director’s Retirement

DEC 11, 2023

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Monday that after more than 30 years of service, the agency’s Stennis Space Center Director Richard Gilbrech will retire on Saturday, Jan. 13.

Stennis Deputy Director John Bailey will serve as acting center director after Gilbrech’s departure, and a permanent successor will be identified following a search and competition.

Nelson also announced Chief of Staff Susie Perez Quinn will transition to a senior advisor role at the end of the year, and Bale Dalton will succeed her beginning Monday, Jan. 1.

“Please join me in welcoming new leadership across NASA, who will continue leading our agency to unparalleled success,” said Nelson. “I’m thankful for Rick’s, Susie’s, and Bale’s leadership and wish Rick all the best in his new adventure.”

Gilbrech has served as center director at Stennis for more than a decade and in leadership and engineering roles at NASA since 1991. He has led teams at Stennis in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and NASA Headquarters in Washington, focusing on propulsion test technology, the space shuttle, and the X-33 in various roles, including as associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and deputy center director at both Stennis and Langley.

Most recently, Gilbrech has been instrumental in the growth of commercial partnerships at Stennis, leveraging the center’s unique capabilities and expertise as America’s largest rocket propulsion test site.

Quinn has served as chief of staff since 2021, working with Nelson and senior staff to shape the strategic direction of the agency, while overseeing and articulating various policies and programs, with a focus climate change.

In addition to his experience at NASA as deputy chief of staff, Dalton is a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserves. He received his bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Naval Academy, Master of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School.

“With new transitions and the end of the calendar year approaching, it’s a time to pause and reflect on all that NASA has achieved this year. We’re living through the golden era of space exploration, and it’s because of our world-class workforce that we continue to lead the world in air and space – and I can’t wait to see what’s to come,” added Nelson.

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/2024-leadership-changes-to-include-nasa-stennis-directors-retirement/

>>20068217

Here I am! exit stage left

Chris Miller - Former Secretary of Defense on Toppling the Taliban | SRS #88 Part 1

Premiered Dec 11, 2023

Chris Miller is the former Secretary of Defense with a 27 year career in the United States Army. Throughout his career, he oversaw multiple special operations organizations, culminating with his command of the 2nd Battalion, 5th SFG(A).

In Part One of three part series, we cover Miller's background spanning his impressive career. Miller breaks down one of his most important tasks–toppling the Taliban government and supporting the local resistance initiatives. This is an inside look at United States' strategy in the Global War on Terror.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RUlpi3gA-c

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33squmS_lQ8

Part 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-1DsZUlFW0

Hair samples from JFK, 2 other presidents headed to deep space

12/12/23 4:17 PM ET

The hair samples of three U.S. presidents are set to launch into deep space later this month.

The Houston Chronicle reported that hair samples from presidents John F. Kennedy, Dwight D. Eisenhower and George Washington will be aboard a flight headed for deep space before the end of the year on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. The mission will be organized by Celestis, a company that specializes in sending cremated remains and DNA samples to outer space.

“It is absolutely feasible, from a scientific point, that future researchers can find this flight capsule and study what’s in it,” Colby Youngblood, president of Celestis, told the Chronicle. “We feel it’s an honorable tribute to those three presidents to put them on this first historic mission.”

Celestis said in a press release earlier this year that including DNA samples of the late presidents could help people way in the future learn more about U.S. history.

“Off-world DNA storage allows the human genome to be preserved for thousands of years in space without degradation,” the company stated. “This means it is possible it could be discovered later, like a cosmic “time capsule.” This could allow future generations to learn more about the U.S. forefathers millennia into the future.”

Celestis has sent DNA and cremated remains into space before. It advertises itself as helping families “commemorate the lives of their departed loved ones” through memorial spaceflights starting at nearly $3,000.

The DNA samples of the three late presidents will be on Celestis’s Enterprise Flight, which is named in honor of the television series “Star Trek.” It will also be carrying the ashes of the series creator Gene Roddenberry, his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry and a DNA sample of their son.

“We’re very pleased to be fulfilling, with this mission, a promise I made to Majel Barrett Roddenberry in 1997 that one day we would fly her and husband Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry together on a deep space memorial spaceflight,” Celestis co-founder and CEO Charles M. Chafer said in a statement last year.

According to the website, the mission will “launch more than 150 flight capsules containing cremated remains (ashes), DNA samples, and messages of greetings from clients worldwide on an endless journey in interplanetary space.”

The flight was expected to take off in the early morning of Dec. 24, but the CEO of United Launch Alliance said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that it may launch at a later date.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/4356550-hair-samples-from-jfk-2-other-presidents-headed-to-deep-space/

UAP disclosure bill revised; two key provisions stripped

Updated: DEC 12, 2023 / 01:29 PM CST

Two key provisions were deleted from the Department of Defense spending bill regarding the requirement to make any information on UAPs public.

Some lawmakers have been pushing for more transparency around unidentified aerial phenomena and have taken a step toward that goal by including in the annual defense funding bill a provision requiring disclosure of classified records relating to UAPs but not before stripping out key portions of the measure.

As for the UAP measure, whistleblower David Grusch called it a “mixed bag of success.” He credited senators for keeping in a provision that fences off money for illegal special access programs but overall says the watered-down version presented last week doesn’t do enough.

One of the nixed provisions would have created an advisory panel whose members are chosen by the president. This group would have been tasked with sorting through which records would be disclosed.

Another aspect of the bill would give the government full possession of all recovered “non-human technology” currently kept by private entities like defense contractors.

Now, the legislation includes a list of exemptions for disclosing records on UAPs, including ones if the documents could threaten national defense, compromise national intelligence or federal agents or threaten sources and methods of intel gathering.

The UAP measure in the defense bill, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., would disclose records on “technologies of unknown origin and non-human intelligence.”

Rounds said it’s clear now to Congress that it’s not just one branch or area within the government that it has to retrieve material and information from. Therefore, one of this bill’s greatest accomplishments would be establishing a separate location where these records will be kept and transferred.

The bill passed through the Senate with “flying colors,” but Rounds said the House still has some work to do to get it where it needs to be.

The South Dakota representative said he hopes Congress will be able to provide additional information to the American public on this topic without damaging U.S. national security.

However, Schumer says the bill doesn’t go nearly as far as he intended. The senator blames House Republicans for fighting against his efforts for more transparency.

“This model’s been a terrific success for decades,” Schumer said. “It should be used again with UAPs, but once again, House Republicans are ready to kill this bipartisan provision.”

NewsNation sources said the two provisions were taken out after influence from the House Intelligence Committee.

Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett had proposed a provision for the bill that would require the FAA to forward reports from commercial airline pilots who claim they spot an anomaly or UFO. However, Schumer and Rounds had to tell him it wasn’t even considered for the UAP bill because the intelligence community didn’t like it.

To Burchett, it’s about broader transparency from other government agencies such as the Pentagon.

“It’s about greed. It’s about power. It’s about control,” Burchett said. “All those things that run Washington D.C., and it’s obvious that some of my colleagues have been compromised.”

He continued, “They’re studying something over there with our money.”

https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-disclosure-bill-revised/