Space Policy

So, we knew that Trump would have some sort of space policy and yesterday he revealed it. Space Policy Directive 1 according to Trump “marks a first step in returning American astronauts to the Moon for the first time since 1972, for long-term exploration and use. This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprints — we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars, and perhaps someday, to many worlds beyond.” This sound sort of like Newt Gingrich’s idea from back in 2012 to build a colony on the Moon.  It sort of is a tweak to Obama’s plans as we will no longer be going to an asteroid. Now NASA and science haven’t been at the forefront of the Trump Presidency with facts taking a seat behind feelings, sure the race back to the moon seems to be a common Republican goal but it would be great if they could “make NASA great again”. (#MNASAGA, anyone?)  Previous attempts to make it back to the moon from the past Republican Presidents have failed to pick up steam. It’s nice that there are some guidelines being set out but it would be a whole lot better if NASA had an Administrator and one who knows that Climate Change is a thing.

However, I doubt anything will be coming of this unless Congress approves some more funding for NASA, in the 2012 Neil deGrasse Tyson told the Senate Science Committee that “Right now, NASA’s annual budget is half a penny on your tax dollar. For twice that—a penny on a dollar—we can transform the country from a sullen, dispirited nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its 20th-century birthright to dream of tomorrow.” For just a penny basically the same budget that NASA got in the 70s-90s a lot could be done and I doubt that we’d get anywhere to the 3- 4% of the Federal Budget that it got building the Apollo program. Let alone that fact that it won’t be until 2019 that the first test flight of the new Orion Spacecraft will be launched and that most likely will be unmanned and it won’t be until 2021 that we will see a manned mission. Will this policy include that new cis-lunar space station built with Roscosmos, the second International Space Station or perhaps an American space station or something else? It just want to set America as a leader in Space once again so it seem doubtful. Yet, the good news is that in 2018 the US can finally send people back up to space from its own soil with the Commercial Crew systems by SpaceX and Boeing. I guess we will have to wait and see what all happens.

News Round up

Space:  As we celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Moon landing, Buzz Aldrin has a piece in Time about the state of the US Space Program. Buzz Aldrin expresses his desire that NASA be revitalized by the US Government. NASA  currently is basically running on fumes, and needs to carpool with Russia to get into space. Aldrin expresses dismay at the current path set forth to go back to the Moon saying that we’ve been there and done that, and suggests going to an asteroid or something like that as a change. Many other famous Scientists like the Neil deGrasse Tyson would agree with this assessment and have argued that the NASA budget needs to be increased. Tyson suggest that the budget be raised from a half penny on a dollar to a full penny saying that “we can transform the country from a sullen, dispirited nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its 20th century birthright to dream of tomorrow.”  From what I’ve read the budget as a portion of the Federal Budget is like at .4% that’s a pre-Apollo number and that’s not a good thing.

Baseball: As we are around the mid-season having had that All-Star Game being played last night (American League won again and everyone bid farewell to Derek Jeter). First off  over on Netflix there is a great documentary, The Battered Bastards of Baseball. It is about the Portland Mavericks, a Single A ball club that was run independently from the Major league “system” from 1973-77. The team was owned by Bing Russell, Kurt’s father. The team consisted of has been’s and never was’s and over the five years in existence had record attendance. The Mavericks played in the Northwest League and were not affiliated with any major league team,  they played well against the affiliated teams during the regular season but as the season ended and the playoffs picked up all the affiliated teams would have a bunch of players moved down to prevent the Maverick from winning the pennant.

The other interesting baseball story comes from of all places Politico Magazine. In the article The Last Time America Rooted for Washington, Frederic J. Frommer looks back at the 1924 Washington Senators\Nationals and their World Series victory under first year manager Bucky Harris and pulls some parallels to first time manager Matt Williams and the current squad. It is a great read for fans of baseball. The Nationals\Senators were seen as America’s team who were going to take down New York, as the previous World Series had featured both New York teams and most people were tired of this. Sure the Twins have the 1924 Championship but they have also won two by themselves and it means a whole lot to the folks in Washington. Hopefully the current Nationals can add another championship to this one, and it doesn’t involve someone making a deal with the devil for Washington to make back to the World Series.

Cosmos

I am a big fan of the original Cosmos series with Carl Sagan, despite being born five years after they aired originally and not really seeing all of them until I was in my twenties. I’ve watched them most recently on the National Geographic Channel and Netflix as a little refresher on what all was covered. Now when I heard around three years ago that there was going to be a new Cosmos series I was excited for it to happen. As I am of the understanding that television has been overrun with reality/talent/game shows and most other shows aim for the lowest common denominator hoping only to attract the coveted 18-49 demographic. This make shows about science and education thing more likely to appear on the likes of PBS or one of the many cable channels.

Fox is taking a big risk with this second generation of Cosmos. So far it has been doing alright it is averaging about 4 million viewers a week so far but it seems like that number has been dropping each week, these numbers do not take into consideration how many people watched the show On Demand,  DVR’d it or watched it at a later broadcast on the National Geographic Channel. The episodes themselves have averaged about a 9 over on imdb. It is great to see real science on television for a change. Growing up I watched Bill Nye the Science Guy after school like everyday and as an adult I watch NOVA both show were\are on PBS so it is wonderful to see that a regular channel take the time to try to help improve the science literacy in America.

The new Cosmos is grounded with Neil deGrasse Tyson who is the most prominent Scientist in America. This also is a way to remind children of the awesomeness that is space especially since NASA seems more focused on robotic missions lately and to get a person into space means going through Russia. This option currently is not a friendly one as NASA has cut ties with the FKA, Russia’s space agency, with the exception of the ISS.   My biggest complaint is that the show has commercial breaks however it’s on network television so that is somewhat expected, but it is nice that they don’t do a recap of the last minute when they come back as many shows do. It would be interesting to watch both series back to back to see what we’ve learn in the 34 years since the original came out. Hopefully the new series can reach that 400 million viewers that the original had and even top it.  Since the schools all seem to be embracing the STEM programs  it would be nice to see some more educational science programs on network television.

Upfronts and Preakness

As we have seen over the past couple of night it is Finale time and soon the summer television will begin. The highlight of the summer being a revival of Whose Line?. in July on CW. Over this past week television executives have trotted out their perspective line ups for the upcoming fall season. Overall it looks like there will be a whole lot more fantasy and comedy on television. Now here’s what looks exciting for the fall.

Sunday basically stays the same although after the Olympics there seems to be a new show worth checking out Believe on NBC. Believe is a show created by Alfonso Cuaron and is a Bad Robot production so it has that going for it.

Monday has the last season of How I Met Your Mother and another Bad Robot production Almost Human, a sci-fi crime drama that sounds interesting.

Tuesday is going to be a great night with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., set after the events of The Avengers, and could have Marvel characters popping up in the show. This along with an adaptation of About a Boy for television and a whole night of comedy on Fox with New Girl, Tuesday looks like a exciting night in tv land.

Wednesday will still be Arrow night. Sure there a a few new comedies one staring Rebel Wilson and another about Little League baseball, but this is a tough night going up against X Factor/Idol.

Thursday we have NBC and CBS trying to form comedy block and ABC spinning off another fairy tale show. NBC starts with Parks & Rec followed by what look like lackluster shows and then the Michael J Fox Show a show that sounds interesting but I guess it has to be seen to know what it’s all about. CBS starts their block with Big Bang Theory followed by The Millers, a new Greg Garcia show; and The Crazy Ones with Robin Williams. I think that CBS’s block looks better.

Friday there are some shows on television for once. Raising Hope has moved to Fridays which is sort of sad news, but it seems Fox might keep it around until it reaches 100 episodes so it can cash in on a syndication deal. NBC will debut a new take on Dracula in the fall and a Neil Cross’s (Luther) take on Blackbeard.

Saturday there is college football in the fall and reruns and movies come the spring, which will lead to the killing off the unaired episodes of cancelled shows in the summer.

Fox also said that it will be doing a 24 miniseries, this could be instead of the movie that has been gestating the past three years. Fox will also be airing a revival of the Cosmos series with Neil deGrasse Tyson. It is unclear when this will be airing. There are rumors that Happy Endings might be picked up by USA for a new season.

Today is the 138th running of the Preakness Stakes. the second race in the triple crown. This year there is a small field running, a third of which did not run in the Derby. Of the nine, Orb is the odds on favorite to win the race. Orb has greatness in his DNA as Secretariat and Seattle Slew are among his Pedigree. The big question coming into race day is if Orb will be able to win. Rosie Napravnik is again in the field riding Mylute and she has a chance win in this small field or at least finish better than any previous female jockey. There is another other jockey in the race as well as Kevin Krigger, an African-American, looks to do something that hasn’t happened in 115 years and win the Preakness. Although Krigger did run in the Derby he finished in a disappointing 17th place, we know for sure that he will improve on that result.  It again looks like it will be an exciting race either way.