MAIN ARTICLE: On diversity, NASA lags behind
Page 2: This Week In Space: The Late Great Planet Earth
Poll Results: Yesterday's poll was the weekly tracking poll and it was a unique finish.
Star Trek: In the News. Is Star Trek A Religion?
Yesterday's Comments: "I Gotta Confess I come here for the pretty eye candy. And I keep the tab open for hours at a time." - Pluto
Today's Poll: Should President Obama, Congress and NASA finally fund COTS-D?
WORKPLACE DIVERSITY IN SPACE:
Last year I wrote a diary (see "Should Obama send an African-American to the Moon?", 'Americans in Space', Dec 01, 2008) about the diversity of supporters witnessed between the two campaigns of Senator John McCain and then Senator Barack Obama. To say there was a difference between the support viewed at campaign stops is putting it mildly. Stunningly different was closer to the reality.
In the poll I asked should President Obama push diversity for the planned lunar trips or should it be decided by meritocracy.
29% Yes, start sending Americans to the moon - Only send the BEST people do not worry about diversity.
15% Yes, start sending Americans to the moon (minority and women on the trip)
With Charles Bolden, the first African-American to potentially head NASA, diversity is starting at the top.
On diversity, NASA lags behind
"WASHINGTON -- In a year of firsts, the nomination of an African-American to lead NASA hasn't grabbed national front-page headlines used for a black president moving into the White House, or for the selection of a Hispanic justice for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Yet, if former astronaut Charles Bolden is confirmed as the next NASA administrator, he will take over an agency still struggling to match the racial diversity found in the nation's population, much less the federal work force in general.
Part of the reason is because minorities are underrepresented in the science- and math-related professions from which NASA draws, said space policy expert Howard McCurdy.
But that doesn't excuse NASA, he said.
"The federal government has viewed itself as having a special responsibility to be a model employer, to go beyond what the occupational distribution allows," said McCurdy, a public affairs professor at American University in Washington, D.C.
"I don't sense that NASA moves much beyond what the occupational categories provide them. They are much more comfortable with technical challenges than with social ones."
When it comes to racial parity, NASA falls short in all but one ethnic group, Asian-Americans. At Kennedy Space Center, the situation is a little different.
Blacks, who make up 12.8 percent of the U.S. population, represent 11.3 percent of NASA's employees. They make up 17.9 percent of the federal work force. At KSC, blacks make up 7.6 percent of the work force, compared with 10 percent of Brevard County's population.
Hispanics represent 5.9 percent of all NASA employees, although they make up 7.9 percent of the federal labor force and 15.1 percent of the nation's population. Ten percent of KSC's work force is made up of Hispanics, compared with 6.9 percent of Brevard's population.
Asian-Americans, who make up 4.6 percent of the national population, represent 6.3 percent of NASA's work force. That's nearly double the 3.4 percent they represent of all government employees. At KSC, 4.2 percent of the work force is made up of Asian-Americans, compared with 2.1 percent of Brevard's population."
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PAGE 2:
Some great links this week by NellaSelim. Check it out.
This Week In Space: The Late Great Planet Earth
"First, I am an agnostic. Lol. So don't get any ideas that I am trying to pull a fast one here by mentioning the title of Hal Lindsey's Revelation inspired novel. Only that the events of last week has me concerned that Earth's Doomsday clock maybe moving closer to midnight. Nuclear proliferation is alive and well as North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan are proving this fact and no international authority exist that can effectively deal with these nations. The US certainly has been hamstrung in its abilities to address the issue thanks to George W. Bush. Some discouraging environmental news has also emerged which is the focus of Darksyde's front-page post this morning.
Also, I received information that two space focused panels proposed for Netroots Nation have been rejected which I find particular irksome since there is a strong space component here at Daily Kos. So, I ask for the support of my fellow Kossacks to address this concern and help put space on the agenda at Netroots. Many of us believe that government and commercial space activities are important part of our nation's economy and future."
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POLL RESULTS:
Yesterday's Saturday in Space - Weekly Tracking Poll on space funding had the highest vote for the high end choice of "more than 4%". Over half of those DKOS members, who participated in the poll, wanted to see a massive shift in priority spending. For myself, polls on how much should the federal government fund for space has always been about how people view the future. The higher the funding the more optimistic for the future.
Rimjob posted this link in the Overnight News Digest (OND) the other day, it didn't show up in my searches and is an interesting article.
Is Star Trek A Religion?
"Star Trek has long been described as a cult phenomenon...but is it an actual cult? Some anthropologists think so. Following the example of anthropologist Margaret Mead, they lived among the natives and studied their rituals-that is, they went to Star Trek conventions and fan clubs. Here's what they found.
Their conclusions? Writes cultural anthropologist Michael Jindra in the journal Sociology of Religion:
When I undertook this research, my first intention was to focus on how ST [Star Trek] draws a picture of the future that is attractive to many Americans. But early on I realized I was dealing with something much bigger and more complex than I had anticipated...it had features that paralleled a religious-type movement: an origin myth, a set of beliefs, an organization, and some of the most active and creative members to be found anywhere...Religion often points us to another world; ST does the same.
Even Futurama floated the concept of a "Church of Trek" in the episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before." (Trek Priest: "And Scotty beamed them to the Klingon ship where they would be no Tribble at all." Congregation: "All power to the engines.")
Still a nonbeliever? Let's consider this point-by-point:"
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YESTERDAY'S COMMENTS:
"This part of the article told me all I needed
"Mining will fundamentally change the Moon's atmosphere"
There is no Lunar atmosphere of anything more than negligible outgassing.
IF, and it's a huge if, we could find a way to convert the lunar surface, devoid of life, to enough energy to fuel the entire planet, and do so in a cost-effective way, while it wouldn't end war, it would go a long way to making the lives of everyone better and peace a more concrete option.
Star Trek had some of the worst sci-fi science I've seen in awhile. I know I'm the only one, but while it was better than a couple of the worst ST movies, it was about what I expected. All fiction, little science" - qazplm
"We're very close, as a matter of fact. Again, I invite you to take a look at the Polywell technology, and do keep in mind that the success these guys have had has been accomplished with mere peanuts in the way of funding. It works, it's just that the demonstration models are too small to be economical, as the power output increases at a geometric rate with the device's radius.
If we were spending even 1/20th of what we're spending on stupid bullshit like windmills and solar panels to develop actually economical sources of power like this, I have no doubt that we could use this as the sole source of power for our civilization in 15 or 20 years. Unlike with the fuck-tarded "green" nonsense, this technology has a vast physical potential.
But leave it up to the US Congress to spend hundreds of billions on the "practical" goal of running a modern society on hopelessly low-density sources of power like wind and solar, while they balk at more than a few pennies for "unrealistic" fusion technologies that have been demonstrated to work, and could clearly provide more energy than we'd know what to do with." - TylerFromNE
"The Vulcan capital Why is it that artists create these extraordinary scenes of "other world" cities, dramatic and beautiful architecture, but it's always ONLY in the movies. Why can't we build it and live in it for real? - I've always wondered about that. We live and work in big ugly boxes, in dirty congested cities, and everybody thinks it's normal. Why do we waste most of our resources on making weapons and war, and money and things nobody needs, rather than bettering our planet and exploring the universe?
I'm sorry, I know this isn't your topic, but when I see these pictures, I can't help but think about how humankind thinks it is so "superior" to all other creatures on Earth (uh the image of God? What a joke). In reality, the human monkey hasn't developed the wisdom and compassion part of the brain to overcome the reptilian part and we are headed for the fate of the Neanderthals.
So.. we bide our time in this orange corner of cyberspace, in a sort of hellish limbo, waiting and hoping for some major change in the human conscious. I don't see it coming. I sometimes wonder where the next "superior" species on Earth will evolve from after we are gone. Insects maybe? Birds?" - Anna M
"There is no comparision The Father of the US Tokamak program says the Tokamak wont work, Dr Robert Hirsch. Fmr Dir US Atomic Energy Commission.
The Tokamak means the DT fuel cycle, and the attendant thermal cycle and hardware. The shock absorbers (plasma dont wanna go in no perfect circle), the lithium, and if the Tritium production is a few % off the whole thing is unworkable.
Now on the Polywell side we find that the alphas exit thru 8 funny cusps, after no more than 1000 circuits of the machine, that means that 8.68 MeV isnt hitting that magnets, creating sputtering, instead the 8.68 MeV is being very convenient and showing up at 8 collection spots.
Yeah no thermal cycle for Polywell, no water, no steam, turbines, pumps, back up thermal systems etc.
1000MW PB-11 Polywell, 8 magnets 1.5m radius, vacuum chamber 4-5m, in a 10 meter square concrete building.
Polywell has hit a way higher plasma density level than any Tokamak design, exponentially more.
Polywell designs have the potential to be tweaked for different fuels, and to use water injection for a getting out of Earths gravity well in a QED style fusion rocket." - Roger Fox
THE SPACE FUNNY PAGE:
PLUTO: Planet, Dwarf Planet, Planetoid, Kuiper Belt Object (KBO)?
Submitted to the comments section by Pluto
TODAY'S POLL:
The poll today relates to the article on yesterday's Page 2. It was about NASA inking another deal with Russia to buy launch services for soyuz seats to the ISS. This brings the total to over a billion dollars. Is it time to start investing in high tech jobs for America in the commercial astronaut launch services or keep sending billions overseas for their space industry.
Read other NASA and Space diaries on DKOS.