Subject: Guidance for Education and Public Outreach Activities Under Sequestration

As you know, we have taken the first steps in addressing the mandatory spending cuts called for in the Budget Control Act of 2011. The law mandates a series of indiscriminate and significant across-the-board spending reductions totaling $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

As a result, we are forced to implement a number of new cost-saving measures, policies, and reviews in order to minimize impacts to the mission-critical activities of the Agency. We have already provided new guidance regarding conferences, travel, and training that reflect the new fiscal reality in which we find ourselves. Some have asked for more specific guidance at it relates to public outreach and engagement activities. That guidance is provided below.

Effective immediately, all education and public outreach activities should be suspended, pending further review. In terms of scope, this includes all public engagement and outreach events, programs, activities, and products developed and implemented by Headquarters, Mission Directorates, and Centers across the Agency, including all education and public outreach efforts conducted by programs and projects.

The scope comprises activities intended to communicate, connect with, and engage a wide and diverse set of audiences to raise awareness and involvement in NASA, its goals, missions and programs, and to develop an appreciation for, exposure to, and involvement in STEM. Audiences include employees, partners, educators, students, and members of the general public. The scope encompasses, but is not limited to: 

- Programs, events, and workshops. 
- Permanent and traveling exhibits, signage, and other materials. 
- Speeches, presentations, and appearances, with the exception of technical presentations by researchers at scientific and technical symposia. 
- Video and multimedia products in development (and renewal of existing products). 
- Web and social media sites in development (excludes operational sites). 
- External and internal publications, with the exception of Scientific and Technical Information as defined by NPD 2200.1B. 
- Any other activity whose goal is to reach out to external and internal stakeholders and the public concerning NASA, its programs, and activities.

Additional information regarding the waiver and review process will be issued by the Associate Administrators for Communications and Education. The Agency has already made tough choices about conferences and travel. For those activities planned to be held between the date of this memorandum through April 30, 2013, that your organization deems to be Agency mission-critical, the Headquarters Offices of Communications and Education will conduct a waiver process to promptly evaluate those specific efforts. 

For future activities, the Offices of Communications and Education have established a process to assess and determine, in light of the current budget situation, what education and public outreach activities should be determined Agency mission critical and thereby be continued or implemented. We are requesting Mission Directorates and Headquarters organizations submit a summary of activities, including those planned by their respective programs and projects. We are also requesting that Centers submit a summary of Center-sponsored or supported activities. For public outreach activities, these should be submitted to David Weaver, Associate Administrator for Communications, no later than April 15, 2013. For education activities, these should be submitted to Leland Melvin, Associate Administrator for Education, also no later than April 15, 2013. Required summary and waiver documentation is being provided for distribution to Mission Directorates, Centers, programs, and projects through the Communications and Education Coordinating Councils. The Headquarters Office of Communications, working in conjunction with the Office of Education, will review the requested data and will make a timely and appropriate determination regarding what activities will go forward as planned.

This guidance is to be applied to all NASA employees, civil servants, and contractors (working through their contract officers). Leadership in our Centers, Mission Directorates, as well as individual program and project managers are responsible for ensuring that all public engagement activities, including the education and public outreach efforts conducted by programs and projects, are suspended and submitted to the review process. This guidance applies to existing and future efforts at least through the end of FY2013.

As our budgetary situation evolves over the coming months, NASA senior managers will continue to review this guidance and adjust, as appropriate. We appreciate your cooperation during this challenging fiscal period. Any questions on this guidance should be directed to David Weaver, Associate Administrator for Communications, Leland Melvin, Associate Administrator for Education. Dr. Elizabeth Robinson, Chief Financial Officer, or David Radzanowski, Chief of Staff.

Needless to say, this is quite an extraordinary document, having the potential of causing a lot of problems not only for the exemplary people performing Education & Public Outreach with NASA, but also long lasting effects on the future of our country. There is a large population who are inspired not only by NASA missions and science being performed, but by the people who bring that science to them, relating the wonders of the Universe to the public.

A perfect example of this is with the Mars Science Laboratory. Though it’s an absolutely amazing piece of equipment that’s able to help us better understand our planetary neighbor, it become such a huge public success because of the outreach being done. “Seven Minutes of Terror” was absolutely genius in its ability to connect the public to the important reality that this is a project that hundreds or thousands of people have devoted years of their life to creating, developing and building a robot that will hopefully be able to tell us more about a planet than we’ve ever had the ability to do, besides here at home. Adam Steltzner, the EDL (Entry, Decent, Landing) Lead Engineer for Curiosity brought a human connection to the very real fear that something could go wrong with getting MSL to the surface of Mars. The public fell in love with Curiosity, not merely on the amazing things it has the ability to accomplish, but because they’re able to realize that there are real people behind these missions. The hopes and dreams of hundreds of people are attached to science being done by America’s space program, and are also met with fear of malfunctions, unknowns and failures– Something we can all relate to.

Adam Steltzner — 7 Minutes of Terror

Assuming that the original articles are true and can be corroborated by other sources, this is quite a hard blow to NASA and to the public at large. It could have cascading effects on not only the people who are currently contracted to perform outreach with NASA, but also to future generations who would not be able to become inspired by the engagement that occurs when they’re able to interact with the NASA Experience. I’m afraid that this could kill dreams that were never able to be realized, if this memo is indeed genuine. Will keep you abreast of any new information regarding its validity and responses from the world.

Source articles by Keith Cowing: SpaceRef.com and NASAWatch.com

Secondary Article by Jason Major: UniverseToday.com

Update: Another report from SpaceRef.com has come out quoting David S. Weaver, Associate Administrator of Communications at NASA:

I am providing additional information and instructions regarding the review of public outreach activities under sequestration as outlined in the memorandum from the NASA Chief Financial Officer and Chief of Staff dated March 22, 2013.

First, I am exempting the following activities from immediate suspension:

* Mission announcement media events and products
* Breaking news activities
* Responses to media inquiries

Also, according to AmericaSpace.com, NASA Social events are still slated to continue to be planned and held in the future.

This is definitely a bit of good news added to the original, dire one. I’ll keep you up to date as things unfold.

]]> http://www.knowthecosmos.com/sequestration-nasa-outreach/feed/ 1 http://www.knowthecosmos.com/jwst_at_sxsw/ http://www.knowthecosmos.com/jwst_at_sxsw/#comments Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:38:28 +0000 Scott http://www.knowthecosmos.com/?p=1097 From 8-11 March, 2013 I was down in Austin, TX with a large collaboration focused on providing outreach for the James Webb Space Telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute from Baltimore, Maryland gathered with Microsoft Research, Northrop Grumman, Ball Aerospace, NASA, University of Texas and CosmoQuest in order to provide public outreach at South by Southwest Interactive for the upcoming successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. To solidify its magnitude, a full-scale model of JWST was shipped and assembled between the Long Center for Performing Arts and the Palmer Center in Austin, right off of Riverside. The model reached 4 stories into the sky, covering an area the size of a tennis court, dwarfing anything around it, as you can see to the left.

I experienced so many firsts, least of which being my first time attending South by Southwest. It was my first time in Texas, let alone Austin, and it’s an absolutely gorgeous and fun city to visit. Though I didn’t have much time to explore, working 12+ days for SXSW, we still were able to appreciate many local eateries, including Kerbey Lane Cafe. This was also the first time I physically met my Virtual Star Party Co-Host (and general e-partner-in-crime), Fraser Cain. It was quite amazing how though we’d never met in person, our working together for over a year using the Google+ Hangout platform had made it so we really knew one another. It allowed us to understand each other’s cues and have some fantastic opportunities for outreach, not to mention some extremely successful Hangouts On Air broadcasts while at SXSWi.

It was International Women’s Day on 8 March, so I approached Nicole Gugliucci and Pamela Gay on creating a video where they discuss the amazing women who have inspired them, especially to get into the STEM fields. It went extremely well and received a tremendous amount of support. It can be seen here at the AstrosphereVids YouTube channel. Speaking of YouTube, Tony Darnell and I collaborated on an episode of his fantastic Space Fan News! It’s always fun working with Tony, and when he asked me to speak on the citizen science that’s being done with CosmoQuest, I eagerly agreed. You can see the finished product on his YouTube Channel here. And yes… Tony and I really do have FAR too much fun working together. As you can see here in this lovely picture that got tweeted out.

Oh and I’m not even close to being done with all the great video content that we put out while in Austin. Fraser and I hosted two live Hangouts On Air from SXSWi, including the Virtual Star Party. The first hangout was on Saturday, 9 March, where Pamela, Fraser and I invited Tony Darnell, Albero Conti and Frank Summers from the Space Telescope Science Institute to discuss the incredible science that was being shared at the NASA Experience Tent at South By Southwest. We also had some very special guests, including Sara Hemenway, a teacher from the Austin area, Karyn Traphagen from Science Online and her good friend Camilla Corona, the Solar Dynamics Observatory’s social media maven! It was such a great opportunity to host a Hangout On Air while on location, and it went through phenomenally thanks to having all the right gear, not to mention having a fantastic internet infrastructure provided by NASA, Microsoft and Northrop Grumman.

On Sunday, immediately after we broke the Guinness World Record for the largest outdoor astronomy lesson, replacing the old record of 458 with 526, Fraser and I hosted our Virtual Star Party live from in front of the full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope! We were able to connect to Google+ through my LTE Hotspot, used my MS Studio webcam and tripod, plus three of our laptops in order to host the hangout, bringing telescopes from across the U.S. live in our broadcast! Tony, Karyn and Camilla joined us again, as well as Pamela and Alberto stopping to say hi. Our amazing astronomers, David Dickinson, Gary Gonnella and Louis Mamakos, shared their views of the Cosmos live in the Hangout On Air as well. Thanks to everyone who stopped by, joined our hangouts and were able to watch, comment and share all that we were doing at SXSWi. It was such a phenomenal success. We couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you!

Astrophysicists have been aware of “ropes” that are observed when a coronal mass ejection occurs, but never quite knew their significance, and whether or not  they’re a precursor of a CME or a part that forms with it. Well, that is until now. Back in July of 2012, SDO observed an event happening on the limb (visible edge) of the sun, which ended up being a CME at a very nice angle. With this extremely fortunate vantage point, astronomers were able to break down the data to see what happened on the surface of the sun leading up to the CME in very high detail.

Left: Flux Rope visible during CME | Right: Processed image highlighting structure and shape of Flux Ropes | Image Source: NASA SDO

Since the Solar Dynamics Observatory is able to collect data at many different wavelengths or energy levels, it’s able to collect  a wide variety of information about the Sun. The hotter the area is, the higher the energy level that the light is being emitted from. This bit of information is crucial to know just how hot that particular area of the sun is, while also learning the geometric shape and activity of these Flux Ropes as a CME is occurring.

It’s absolutely amazing on just how much we have to learn about our star, let alone the stars across our galaxy. Perhaps if we gain an even better understanding of Sol, we’ll be able to expand our knowledge of the many other stars that we have on our list to observe and understand.

TL:DR
+ Adding carbon dioxide to Mars’s atmosphere won’t warm it more than it already is.
+ There’s more to keeping an atmosphere than what it’s made up of.
+ Charged particles from the sun (Solar Wind) will irradiate and strip a planet of gas from its atmosphere.
+ Earth is protected from this Solar Wind due to active geology which generates a magnetic field.
+ Mars’s geology is not active, so no magnetic field is generated to protect its atmosphere from being stripped away.

Getting colder…
The article focuses how Mars is very cold, compared to Earth, and that in order to make our reddish neighbor more “Earth-Like”, its temperature would need to increase by some unknown method. The idea suggested is of adding fluorocarbons to the atmosphere in order to absorb more of the sun’s rays in an attempt to create a greenhouse effect.

Though it’s very true that Mars is much colder than Earth and that the greenhouse effect is an effective method of warming up a planet (see Venus), there’s a bit of an issue of focusing just on this. The reason why we, and Venus, have a greenhouse effect is that the Sun’s photons go through our atmosphere, which heat the ground, which then emits infrared (black body) radiation back up. Greenhouse gasses (Water vapor, CO2, Methane, Nitrous Oxide and Ozone) then absorb this infrared radiation (heat) and then re-emitted, heating the upper atmosphere and the Earth again.

Mars’s atmosphere is already ~95% Carbon Dioxide, meaning there really isn’t much room for more greenhouse gasses to influence the temperature of the surface of Mars in order to soften the soil, etc. Another big issue is that the amount of matter in the atmosphere is about 0.6% that of Earth’s, so there are fewer molecules for this infrared radiation to even come in contact with, let alone heat back up. So why is there so little atmosphere on Mars?

A different wind blowing away the atmosphere

Artist’s concept: Disappearance of the ancient magnetic field may have triggered the loss of the Martian atmosphere. Credit: NASA.

There’s a very important reason why Mars has so very little atmosphere right now, and has very little to do with its composition. The Sun releases a stream of charged particles (mostly electrons and protons) out into space all the time. They bombard anything that comes into its path, which means that if there’s nothing there to protect it, it’s getting blasted hard. We’re quite fortunate here on Earth because of one fantastic thing keeping our atmosphere safe, our magnetic field. You see, under the surface of the Earth, many intense activities are happening which generate an invisible (to human eyes) field which protects our entire planet. Friction is causing a magnetic field to generate around our pale blue dot in the cosmos, so that when this solar wind is pointed at our direction, it’s absorbed by it instead of passing right on through. Have you ever seen the Aurora Borealis or Aurora Australis? That’s watching the stream of particles slam into the magnetic field and channel down to the magnetic north and south poles of Earth.

So what does that have to do with Mars? Well, I really hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Mars is geologically dead. There’s no active plate tectonics on the red planet, meaning there’s no friction under the surface to generate a magnetic field. Without this magnetic field, the atmosphere that was on Mars, is no longer there resulting with the solar wind literally blowing its atmosphere out into space. The first time I realized this, it made me appreciate the earthquakes I have to deal with here in Los Angeles. Our geology is active, which means we’re extremely fortunate to live on a planet which has this magnetism protecting it from the violence being ejected from the sun.

Hope this helps shed some insight on how important geology is when it comes to having an atmosphere. Next time you see a photo of a volcano or feel a rumble of an earthquake, take it as a reminder that we also have an “invisible shield” which is also generated with these to protect us from the Sun’s radiation.

Have a great Science Sunday!

The article in question can be found here.

Image Source: NASA – http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/maven_20080915.html

#ScienceSunday   #SciSun    #ScienceEveryday   #AstronomyFTW

I’ve found myself in an amazing situation where I have the opportunity to reach out and share my passions to an audience, actively engaging with people in an attempt to plant seeds of wonder into their imagination so that they can push forward their horizon of understanding the universe around us.

Changing your world, as daunting of a mission as that can be, starts with choosing what you will think about. Sparks of curiosity are what allows the flames of passion to ignite inside you, leaving you with the tremendous responsibility of keeping that fire lit or allowing it to be snuffed out in a world full of distractions, a barrage of negative stimuli, and the banalities of daily life. Making the choice to do remarkable things is what allows you to wake up each day, eager to do something significant in your world, hoping to make it just a little bit better.

The risk of failure is necessary in this, which is where many people stop. Failing is not only necessary, but it must be welcomed and accepted by anybody deciding to push forward to do remarkable deeds. This risk of failure is a constant source of terror for the vast majority of us, but it is not the place to stop. It’s the place to reflect on the amazing things that you are able to do while also becoming aware of the fact that there are a multitude of remarkable people with whom you can collaborate with, if you take the time to choose wisely. Don’t let the risk of failure be the place where you stop trying to do remarkable things, let it be the place where you acknowledge that you can struggle and you can stumble, but you can get back up.

To know the cosmos is to know yourself

The theme of my site, is one of becoming an active participant in the cosmos. The cosmos is not outside of us, the cosmos is all around us, and we are in it. We are its citizens, we are the parts of the cosmos trying to understand ourself. Though the Universe is immensely enormous, it’s far too easy to come to the conclusion that we are insignificant creatures living on a tiny rock around an average star, revolving around a galaxy that will collide with another in ~4 billion years. However, using that perspective is one that allows us to consider that though we are tiny beings on a tiny rock orbiting an average star, we’ve been able to discover so much about this universe we live in, especially in the last 100 years. Our thirst for knowledge has not been sated, and there is deluge waiting for us if we decide to step out and learn.

Thanks again, Amy for bringing a smily to my face when I’ve been on the cusp of being overwhelmed. Thank you all for your continued support of me and the various projects I’m involved with. Also, thank you all again for being such fantastic human beings, working together to find ways of making this planet a better one while we look up into the heavens to better understand our place in it.

#BeRemarkable

Amy Gabriel

Amy Gabriel is a blogger, poet, columnist, mother, wife, wordsmith extraordinaire, not to mention an outright wonderful person.

She can be found here:

• Website
• Google+
• Facebook
• Twitter

Tony went around to many of the booths, poster presentations and exhibitors to speak with those at this conference to hear about the new and exciting things happening in the fields of astronomy and space science. I was more than thrilled to agree when he asked me for an interview to discuss my poster on the Virtual Star Parties.

It’s not very often you get to get paid to do things you love, especially when it involves talking with amazing people from across the world and getting all of the public curious and excited about the very thing that sparks your passion. This is what’s happened with me and the Virtual Star Party. I presented research on how a Virtual Star Party is different from a traditional star party, along with some viewership data and information based on geographic regional reach from our broadcasts as well. I got to talk with some amazing professional astronomers and students from across the world who were as excited as I was that we’re finding new and improved way of getting the public involved with space science and astronomy.

Thank you Tony for taking the time to interview me, as well as having Pamela, Nicole, Thad and I jump into your Hangout On Air while at AAS221. (Link will be provided later when it’s published).

Tony Darnell is an Astronomy Software Technologist at the Space Telescope Science Institute. He is extremely active on social media including Google+, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, finding ways to engage the public about astronomy and space sciences.

Website: http://www.deepastronomy.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/tdarnell

Social Network: Twitter || Facebook || Google+  || Space Fans on Google+