TYB
and god bless this beautiful Sunday GM.
ahem, Saturday
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
April 12, 2025
Moon Near the Edge
Most of us watch the Moon at night. But the Moon spends nearly as many daylight hours above our horizon, though in bright daytime skies the lunar disk looks pale and can be a little harder to see. Of course in daytime skies the Moon also appears to cycle through its phases, shining by reflected sunlight as it orbits our fair planet. For daytime moonwatchers, the Moon is probably easier to spot when the visible sunlit portion of the lunar disk is large and waxing following first quarter or waning approaching its third quarter phase. And though it might look unusual, a daytime moon is often seen even in urban skies. Captured here in a telephoto snapshot taken on March 12, a waxing daytime Moon is aligned near the edge of a popular observation deck that overlooks New York City's borough of Manahattan.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
NASA Jet Propulsion Lab Parts Ways With Top DEI Officer In Wake of Free Beacon Report
April 11, 2025
NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory has parted ways with its top diversity officer, Neela Rajendra, after the Washington Free Beacon reported that the lab had changed her title in an effort to keep her.
"Neela Rajendra is no longer working at [the Jet Propulsion Laboratory]," lab director Laurie Leshin said in an all-staff email on Thursday.
"We are incredibly grateful for the lasting impact she made to our organization. We wish her the very best."
Leshin added that the newly formed Office of Team Excellence and Employee Success—intended to replace the DEI team Rajendra had led—would be moved to the Office of Human Resources.
The staffing shakeup comes a week after the Free Beacon reported that Rajendra, who has argued that deadlines undermine inclusion, had not been among the 900 workers laid off by the lab in 2024 due to budget cuts.
Even after NASA axed its central diversity office in response to the Trump administration’s executive orders, the jet propulsion lab kept Rajendra on as the head of employee success, scrubbing "diversity" and "inclusion" from her title but keeping many of her duties the same.
The new office, for example, would continue to oversee "affinity groups," according to a March 10 email from the lab, including the Black Excellence Strategic Team, or "B.E.S.T."
News of Rajendra’s continued employment came after a pair of NASA astronauts were stranded for nine months on the International Space Station.
The debacle, which involved a faulty propulsion system, raised questions about whether the agency’s multimillion-dollar DEI budget had translated into safer spaceflight or more competent employees.
In a 2022 presentation, Rajendra criticized SpaceX’s "fast-paced" culture and "failure to promote DEI," linking those traits to the company’s high attrition rate.
Three years later, it was a SpaceX capsule that rescued the stranded astronauts.
The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory did not respond to a request for comment.
https://freebeacon.com/politics/nasa-jet-propulsion-lab-parts-ways-with-top-dei-officer-in-wake-of-free-beacon-report/
https://freebeacon.com/campus/nasas-jet-propulsion-lab-laid-off-900-workers-due-to-budget-cuts-but-hasnt-fired-its-top-dei-officer/
Sols 4507-4508: “Just Keep Driving”
Apr 11, 2025
Earth planning date: Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Our drive from Monday’s plan was mostly successful, putting us ~22 meters down the “road” out of an expected 30 meters.
A steering command halted the drive a little short when we tried to turn-in-place but instead turned into a rock, which also had the effect of making our position too unstable for arm activities.
Oh well! APXS data has been showing the recent terrain as being pretty similar in composition, so the team isn’t complaining about trying again after another drive.
Plus, keeping the arm stowed should give us a little more power to play with in the coming sols (an ongoing struggle this Martian winter).
Recently, my job on Mastcam has been to make sure our science imaging is as concurrent as possible with required rover activities.
This strategy helps save rover awake time, AKA power consumption. Today we did a pretty good job with this, only increasing the total awake time by ~2 minutes even though we planned 52 images!
Our imaging today included a mosaic of the “Devil's Gate” ridge including some nodular bedrock and distant “Torote Bowl,” a mosaic of a close-by vein network named “Moonstone Beach,” and several sandy troughs surrounding the bedrock blocks we see here.
ChemCam is planning a LIBS raster on a vertical vein in our workspace named “Jackrabbit Flat,” and a distant RMI mosaic of “Condor Peak” (a butte to the north we’re losing view of).
Our drive will happen in the 1400 hour on the first sol, hopefully landing us successfully 53 meters further into this new valley on our way to the boxwork structures to the west!
Post-drive, we’re including a test of a “Post Traverse Autonav Terrain Observation” AKA PoTATO - an easy drop-in activity for ground analysis of a rover-built navigation map of our new terrain. Plus we get to say PoTATO a lot.
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4507-4508-just-keep-driving/
Musk: Trump’s proposed NASA funding cuts ‘troubling’
4/11/25 3:58 PM ET
Tech billionaire and White House adviser Elon Musk called the Trump administration’s reported plans to drastically reduce NASA funding “troubling” in a Friday social media post.
“I am very much in favor of science, but unfortunately cannot participate in NASA budget discussions, due to SpaceX being a major contractor to NASA,” Musk wrote on X, the social networking platform he owns through his xAI company.
Musk is the CEO of rocket manufacturer SpaceX, so while the Department of Government Efficiency that he leads at the White House has looked for ways to cut federal spending, he hasn’t directly been involved in discussions about programs where he may have a conflict of interest, including NASA.
Musk’s social media post came in response to an Ars Technica editor who wrote, “If you care about science at NASA, this is royally sucks,” with a link to the tech news site’s recent article about proposed space research cuts.
A draft budget plan from the administration calls for NASA’s budget to be slashed 20 percent across the board, according to Ars Technica.
The site reported: “According to the ‘passback’ documents given to NASA officials on Thursday, the space agency’s science programs would receive nearly a 50 percent cut in funding.
After the agency received $7.5 billion for science in fiscal-year 2025, the Trump administration has proposed a science topline budget of just $3.9 billion for the coming fiscal year.”
Musk has been a dominant force inside the White House since Trump’s return to office in January.
He was a top campaign donor to Trump’s 2024 campaign and publicly endorsed him in the final stretch of the election.
But Musk also has been a near-constant source of speculation about when he would depart the White House. His adviser appointment only allows him to remain in the role for a limited time.
In recent days, Musk engaged in a public spat with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro.
Musk attended Trump’s Cabinet meeting Thursday, but the president appeared to downplay his administrative role.
“Elon has done a fantastic job. Look, he’s sitting here, and I don’t care. I don’t need Elon for anything other than I happen to like him,” Trump told reporters.
The Hill has reached out to NASA and the White House for comment.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5245162-elon-musk-opposes-nasa-funding-cuts/
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1910709496382439504
NASA-Developed Tools at Marshall Support Operations to Space Station
Apr 11, 2025
Two new automation tools developed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are geared toward improving operations for flight controllers working with the International Space Station from the Huntsville Operations Support Center.
The tools, called AutoDump and Permanently Missing Intervals Checker, will free the flight control team to focus on situational awareness, anomaly response, and real-time coordination.
The space station experiences routine loss-of-signal periods based on communication coverage as the space station orbits the Earth.
When signal is lost, an onboard buffer records data that could not be downlinked during that period.
Following acquisition of signal, flight controllers previously had to send a command to downlink, or “dump,” the stored data.
The AutoDump tool streamlines a repetitive data downlinking command from flight controllers by detecting a routine loss-of-signal, and then autonomously sending the command to downlink data stored in the onboard buffer when the signal is acquired again.
Once the data has been downlinked, the tool will automatically make an entry in the console log to confirm the downlink took place.
“Reliably and quickly sending these dump commands is important to ensure that space station payload developers can operate from the most current data,” said Michael Zekoff, manager of Space Systems Operations at Marshall.
"As a direct result of this tool, we have eliminated the need to manually perform routine data dump commands by as much as 40% for normal operations."
AutoDump was successfully deployed on Feb. 4 in support of the orbiting laboratory.
The other tool, known as the Permanently Missing Intervals Checker, is another automated process coming online that will improve team efficiency.
Permanently missing intervals are gaps in the data stream where data can be lost due to a variety of reasons, including network fluctuations.
The missing intervals are generally short but are documented so the scientific community and other users have confirmation that the missing data is unable to be recovered.
“The process of checking for and documenting permanently missing intervals is challenging and incredibly time-consuming to make sure we capture all the payload impacts,” said Nathan Walkenhorst, a NASA contractor with Bailey Collaborative Solutions who serves as a flight controller specialist.
The checker will allow NASA to quickly gather and assess payload impacts, reduce disruptions to operations, and allow researchers to get better returns on their science investigations.
It is expected to be deployed later this year.
In addition to Walkenhorst, Zekoff also credited Ramon Pedoto, a software architect, and Tyrell Jemison, a NASA contractor and data management coordinator with Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc, for their work in developing the automation tools.
The development of the tools also requires coordination between flight control and software teams at Marshall, followed by extensive testing in both simulated and flight environments, including spacecraft operations, communications coverage, onboard anomalies, and other unexpected conditions.
“The team solicited broad review to ensure that the tool would integrate correctly with other station systems,” Zekoff said.
“Automated tools are evaluated carefully to prevent unintended commanding or other consequences.
Analysis of the tools included thorough characterization of the impacts, risk mitigation strategies, and approval by stakeholders across the International Space Station program.”
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/marshall/nasa-developed-tools-at-marshall-support-operations-to-station/
Crew Works on Spacesuits, Studies How Space Affects Breathing, Blood System
April 11, 2025
Spacesuit checks and breath and blood circulation studies wrapped up the week for the Expedition 72 crew aboard the International Space Station.
Meanwhile, three new crewmates are getting used to life in space while another trio is preparing to return to Earth.
NASA Flight Engineers Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers worked throughout Friday inside the Quest airlock installing display and control modules on a pair of spacesuits.
The liquid crystal electronics gear features controllers and displays the operational status of the spacesuit.
Next, NASA Flight Engineers Jonny Kim and Don Pettit reviewed procedures to ensure the spacesuits are ready to wear and the necessary suit hardware is installed.
Kim has been in space less than a week having arrived aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft on April 8 with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky.
The trio has been getting used to life in weightlessness, learning how to operate space station systems, and rapidly getting to work on standard maintenance and research tasks.
Kim spent a portion of Friday installing orbital plumbing gear and transferring fluids in the Tranquility module.
Ryzhikov and Zubritsky were back together at the end of the week working on two different space biology experiments.
The pair first explored how microgravity affects their breathing rate. Next, the two cosmonauts wore sensors on their forehead, fingers, and toes measuring how their blood circulates in space.
Pettit is turning his attention to his upcoming departure with station Commander Alexey Ovchinin and Flight Engineer Ivan Vagner who have been aboard the station since Sept. 11, 2024.
Pettit is gradually handing over his responsibilities to his new crewmates and spent a few moments on Friday training them how to use the advanced resistive exercise device.
Ovchinin and Vagner practiced on a computer the techniques they will use when they into Earth’s atmosphere inside the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft.
The threesome will undock aboard the Soyuz from the Rassvet module and land in Kazakhstan on April 19 ending the Expedition 72 mission.
Pettit had spent the first part of Friday studying how water, liquid salt, and olive oil droplets transition from a frozen state to a liquid state in microgravity for a student experiment.
He then scanned JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi’s neck, shoulder, and leg veins using the Ultrasound 2 device to understand how his body is adapting to space.
Ovchinin and Vagner also partnered with Roscosmos Flight Engineer Kirill Peskov and tested the lower body negative pressure suit that may pull body fluids toward the feet and prevent space-caused head and eye pressure.
The specialized suit may also help crews quickly readjust to Earth’s gravity after living in space for months or years at a time.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/04/11/crew-works-on-spacesuits-studies-how-space-affects-breathing-blood-system/