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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday December 27 2018, @11:16AM   Printer-friendly
from the no-pay-no-play dept.

Submitted via IRC for takyon

Latest shutdown to curtail NASA activities - SpaceNews.com

A partial government shutdown that started Dec. 22 will once again force NASA to halt most of its non-essential activities and could hinder coverage of spaceflight events planned for the end of the year.

NASA is among the agencies whose funding lapsed at midnight Eastern time Dec. 22 when a continuing resolution (CR) that had been funding them expired. NASA is funded by the commerce, justice and science appropriations bill, one of seven yet to be passed by Congress. Five other bills, including for the Defense Department, have been passed, and those agencies are not affected by the shutdown.

[...] NASA updated its shutdown plan Dec. 18. That plan is similar to the one it followed in its January shutdown, where the agency continues critical activities related to International Space Station and other spacecraft operations, any critical spaceflight hardware processing and general protection of life and property. All other activities will be suspended for the duration of the shutdown.

[...] An extended shutdown could jeopardize the agency's ability to publicize some upcoming events, including the flyby of the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, also known as Ultima Thule, by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. The spacecraft will make its closest approach to the distant body just after midnight Eastern Jan. 1, and NASA had planned to provide extensive coverage of the event on NASA TV and on the web.

However, NASA's current shutdown plan, like previous ones, notes that, in the event of a shutdown, "Citizens will not have televised access to NASA operations and programming or access to the NASA Web site." During the January shutdown, NASA interrupted NASA TV programming and stopped updating its website and social media.

The flyby itself, though, will not be affected by the shutdown should it continue through the rest of the year. The spacecraft is operated from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland, which will also host events for the flyby. Michael Buckley, an APL spokesman, said Dec. 20 that those events will proceed even if the government shutdown continues. Without NASA TV or its website, he said, "we'd likely use APL's web and social media resources" to cover the flyby.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @11:28AM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @11:28AM (#778965)

    "Citizens will not have televised access to NASA operations and programming or access to the NASA Web site."

    What money are they saving by shutting down the website? And anyway, it is still up: https://www.nasa.gov/ [nasa.gov]

    So is SEWP: https://www.sewp.nasa.gov/ [nasa.gov]

    I think the administrations of these departments should be able to plan ahead for these shutdowns too. There will almost certainly be another one next year about the debt ceiling. So budget some money now...

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday December 27 2018, @02:37PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday December 27 2018, @02:37PM (#778999) Journal

    They seem to have their New Horizons plan together:

    http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Where-to-Watch.php [jhuapl.edu]

    Should the federal government shutdown continue through New Horizons' Ultima Thule flyby – and NASA TV, nasa.gov and other agency digital and social channels remain offline – the New Horizons mission will provide coverage of live mission activities on this website and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory YouTube channel.

    It might just be that nasa.gov is accessible but not being updated.

    The "live" stream of the Jan. 1 flyby is not going to be too exciting since the craft will be completely focused on gathering data and won't transmit until later. I'm guessing we'll start to see the first images as soon as Jan. 3, or as late as Jan. 6. The govt. shutdown is not likely to end before Jan. 3.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Leebert on Thursday December 27 2018, @04:41PM (2 children)

    by Leebert (3511) on Thursday December 27 2018, @04:41PM (#779024)

    What money are they saving by shutting down the website? And anyway, it is still up:

    Actually, we got some 11th hour instructions from the NASA CIO to not implement the planned shutdown of public web sites. I can't give specifics on what was in that e-mail or exactly who it was directed to because I have a crappy memory (and I obviously am not allowed to access my e-mail during the shutdown), but the general gist of it was "never mind on that whole blocking public web sites plan".

    I think the administrations of these departments should be able to plan ahead for these shutdowns too.

    IME, it's definitely treated with more seriousness in planning these days. I have half joked that some of our Ansible playbooks should have a government shutdown flag.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @08:29PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @08:29PM (#779099)

      They are probably not updating it even if the site is up. During the Pluto encounter, NASA/JPL posted raw photos daily in the days leading up to the closest approach. We probably won't get that for Thule and will just have to wait.

      It affects me because I got a running bet on the "no light curve" mystery. Make your own betting pool at your office:

      1. Coincidental "pole" alignment with probe
      2. Lots of moons
      3. Debris cloud/ring
      4. Really slow or no rotation period
      5. Highly uniform color/shape
      6. Space aliens
      7. Something else

      #6 is popular. Don't ask why, just "short" their bet.

      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday December 27 2018, @08:44PM

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday December 27 2018, @08:44PM (#779106) Journal

        There was talk of it possibly having a small moon [soylentnews.org] from occultation results. Maybe it will have a moon larger than the two asteroids that have been visited in recent months.

        If it is two-lobed object or two separate objects orbiting each other, maybe there is lingering debris.

        Humanity will have really made it if we revisit/colonize/mine this insignificant space debris. Maybe in 2219.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @05:46PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @05:46PM (#779056)
    The purpose isn't to save money, but to hurt the American public for political purposes. Not the first time... http://naturalresources.house.gov/oversight/shutdown [house.gov]
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @07:59PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @07:59PM (#779086)

      Trump's backers REALLY wanted the pork from that wall project. Just imagine the cost overruns they would have been able to get away with.