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.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @11:19AM
The man abruptly awoke; he was covered in sweat. Something malevolent was in the air, but he couldn't immediately discern its true identity. Then, the answer came to him: Oppression.
The man had been oppressed. It was well-known that all men had the innate ability to sense when they were being oppressed, much like a sixth sense. But this man's ability to sense oppression was especially potent. The injustice in the air was so strong that it was palpable. The man lept out of his bed and sprinted outdoors; he needed to find The Source.
He rapidly scanned his surroundings and spotted something: A woman walking down the sidewalk. He instantly understood what had happened. The woman had casually walked past the man's house as if she owned the place, thereby disrespecting him and his entire life. She was looking down on him. The man's face twisted into something which was the very incarnation of both terror and fury. He then bravely charged forth.
Slam! Slam! Slam! One by one, the woman's teeth broke. The man's heart was filled with justice, and his body was the vehicle out of which it was dispensed. Next, the woman's eyes caved in, rendering her blind. Furthermore, her nose was smashed to the point where her face was almost flat. And what's more, the man was at the brink of orgasm. He shot everything he had into the woman, violating her immensely. After his orgasm, the man thought of something truly amazing, and so he decided to keep the woman - who was barely breathing - alive.
For the next several days, the woman became a mere toy. No, since all women are merely toys, it might be more correct to say that a man had decided to play with the toy. Her screams continued for days on end before she was enveloped by an impenetrable wall of silence. Justice had been wrought.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @11:28AM (6 children)
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
They seem to have their New Horizons plan together:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Where-to-Watch.php [jhuapl.edu]
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.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Leebert on Thursday December 27 2018, @04:41PM (2 children)
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".
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)
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
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.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @05:46PM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 27 2018, @07:59PM
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.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday December 27 2018, @08:43PM (1 child)
It's not because a Continuing Resolution has not yet been passed, but because the Treasury does not want to cause a "Sovereign Debt Crisis" by failing to pay the interest on the National Debt.
By halting all non-essential services, there's enough money to avoid a default.
The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in the wake of our Civil War. Among other things, it stipulates that:
This was done because the South dominated the Congress before the war. The Union's part in the war was paid for largely by selling Treasury Bonds. After the war, the South rankled against its being taxed to repay those same bonds because its economy was wrecked by the war itself.
This stipulation has always been of _crucial_ significance to the credit-worthiness of Treasury Bonds; were we to default on so much as a penny of interest, because the entire planet's international trade and specifically oil is done with dollars, there would be a Domino Effect that would send the entire planet's economies down in flames.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 31 2018, @10:48PM
What a terrible thing that would be. /sarcasm
Let the fucker burn, the planet's full of idiots and scumbags who deserve nothing.
Oh, what will our Ferengi overlords do if there's no economy!
As if it'll effect anybody who can trade or barter, just for example, there's an entire alternative economy that the Australian Tax Office is endlessly pissed off about not being able to tax: the beer economy.
People will work for goods and items. The only people who will *really* lose out if economies collapse in the west, is those who had the most, the greedy shits at the top who're currently sucking the life out of everything.
Fuck em.