The Cure for Space Burnout--Remember Why You're Here in the First Place

It’s not pretty, and we don’t like to admit it, but job/career burnout can happen in any line of work, even careers we’re passionate about. Such things usually happen through overwork, lack of creative control, lack of challenge, or as Dr. OZMG likes to say, “deeper underlying issues.” I’ve had a three-year job adaptation cycle for awhile now, where I spend the first year absorbing the content, the second year kicking arse using that content, and the third year repeating the performance of year two, but usually with a lower level of enthusiasm. My pal D2 reported a similar phenomenon to me, so it’s not unheard-of. The challenge, of course, is what to do if you’re burned out in the literal career of your dreams.

When I worked at Walt Disney World, I went through several three-year cycles, but managed to stay with the same company for 12 years. One of the things I would do just to keep myself happy and motivated was to “renew the wonder.” This would involve something like staying in one of the hotels I hadn’t stayed in before, taking a Disney Cruise, or just hanging out in the parks with no set agenda. My favorite personal recharging is still a walk through Epcot.

It’s a little hard to revisit rocket launches in the space business because they don’t happen very often. In fact, we’re only five missions away from the end of the Space Shuttle Program. That little fact is beginning to creep up on people outside NASA for the first time, and so now normal (i.e. non-space-geek) people like my family, Disney friends, and Dr. OZMG are starting to ask, “You’re closing down the Shuttle? Really? What do we do then?” And if you’ve been in the middle of that debate with little to no influence on the outcome but a whole lot invested in the outcome, you have to ask yourself what you can do to keep your spirits up and avoid the stress of prolonged uncertainty and possible massive changes in your program. In my case, I have to remind myself why I got into this business, what it means in normal-person terms, and what it means to me personally. Below is such an exercise. As usual, these views do not reflect those of NASA, my employer, etc. They are an English major’s view of why the space program matters to him.

The Big Picture

Before I got interested in space as an actual business or line of work, I was a science fiction fan. Science fiction encompasses everything from the space fantasies of Star Trek and Star Wars to the sociological utopias/dystopias of Ursula K. LeGuin and Ray Bradbury to the “hard” science fiction works of Larry Niven, Arthur C. Clarke, and Michael Crichton. Many of these stories depict human beings living, working, and having regular human problems in a future where space travel is not just possible but commonplace. We are nowhere near there yet, but that’s the “vision thing,” as George H. W. Bush might’ve said.

The space advocacy group I belong to, and currently write policy/position papers for, is the National Space Society (NSS). Their vision is “People living and working in communities beyond the Earth.” I dug that. I liked the idea of homes and businesses on the Moon, on Mars, in space stations circling this planet or others. It intrigues me that human beings could explore the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, collect helium 3 from the atmospheres of Neptune and Saturn, and use water-ice objects from the outer solar system to add water to the atmosphere of Mars. It startles and humbles me that I live in an age where objects made by humans have and can leave the solar system. I can’t do any of it, but the dreams are big, and such things appeal to me. If NSS is doing our jobs right, we get those aforementioned normal people to take an interest in the policies and technologies that will make such a future possible.

Technology

It’s not just a matter of zipping around to other planets, making footprints on the sand, and taking pretty pictures for political consumption back home. There have been and continue to be huge benefits from space exploration, direct and indirect, to people on Earth who would never in a million years consider being an engineer or an astronaut. The revolution in miniature integrated circuits—the basis for our computers today—had its birth in data collection for the Saturn V. We can thank the space program for many of our most advanced high-technology medical tools, from the CAT scan and MRI to improved breast screenings and lightweight eyeglasses. Would these advances have occurred if we hadn’t gone into space? Perhaps some, but not most of them. The key to “spinoffs” is what philosopher Gonsalvo Munevar called the serendipity of exploration:

• You develop a widget that helps a spacecraft (probe) perform a task or survive in a place with no atmosphere, high vibration (upon liftoff), temperature extremes, and strange radiations not encountered on Earth.
• You work on improving the device, material, process, or technology for future use.
• You or someone else realizes that the new device—which would never have been invented if it hadn’t been for our crazy desire to explore space—has certain properties that would also be useful for more mundane but equally useful Earth-based purpose.
• Life is improved on Earth through the new application of the space-based device.

Energy

There are two big gorillas in the medium-term future of space power that deserve to be investigated: space-based solar power (SBSP) and helium-3 fusion.

The idea behind SBSP is that you put a large farm of solar panels—say, one square mile’s worth—into geosynchronous orbit (the sort of orbit where the satellite’s period of revolution around the Earth is exactly one day, so it always stays in one place in the sky). The solar panels collect unfiltered sunlight 24 hours a day—at roughly three times the intensity felt on Earth’s equator on a hot day in spring—and transmit the energy in concentrated form via microwaves to a receiving/rectifying antenna (rectenna) on Earth. The rectenna is plugged into a city’s power grid, and voila! Fewer brownouts, fewer coal-burning power plants, less pollution, fewer hydrocarbons used. I’ve heard arguments against SBSP, but until we invest in one and put it into orbit, we really won’t know. And if we want to continue to have a prosperous, high-technology future, we’re going to need new sources of energy; “green” technologies are all too small to have much impact on our future large-scale needs.

Another potential future energy source would be nuclear fusion using helium-3, an isotope of helium that is more easily fused into other elements without as much hard radiation as a side effect. We’ve been pushing for fusion for over 50 years, and it’s always been “only 20 years away.” Helium-3 is most likely a longer-term energy solution, but again should not be discounted until we at least try it. If we want both a high-technology civilization and an improved environment, space technologies offer two possibilities worth investigating. The long-term energy supply from both of these sources runs into the centuries, not just decades.

Materials

John S. Lewis has postulated that a nickel-iron asteroid a few miles across would be enough to meet the metal needs of our planet for 20 years or more. The reasoning being, these asteroids have a lot more than just nickel and iron (an decent combination for making stainless steel, by the way), including platinum-group metals, and other useful metals, not to mention organic materials (carbon, nitrogen) and water ice, all of which could be used to build things in space or meet our metal-hungry civilization back on Earth. Of course we’d need more routine access to and from space before the cost of hauling in such a treasure trove was possible, but in the meantime, the possibilities asteroids open up for building a civilization in space are very exciting.

Civilization

Raised in the American Midwest as I was, I grew up learning about the Northwest Ordinance, and the six-by-six-mile squares that were parceled out to German and Irish and other European farmers to make the settlement of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin possible. The government offered up land for sale, and people bought it, promised nothing save the right to make what good use of it they could and the responsibility to pay taxes when they did. The “frontier narrative” speaks to me as a freedom-loving American. It won’t be completely repeatable in space because human-made habitats will be extremely vulnerable—much more so than wagon trains moving across the Great Plains—but space as a place offers the hope of establishing a new life for the very dedicated few.

Education

Exploring and living in space will require our very best efforts. It will take the combined works of many, many smart people to make it so safe that someone who is NOT that smart to live out there without a degree. The specialties cover the range of human civilization to date, from garbage collection to quantum physics. Everything that we do here we will do or try in space. We just have to learn how to do them all over again, and that will take a very unique educational system, very technical and very creative. To make those works possible, we will need people educated people capable of understanding how structures, machines, and people will act in unfamiliar environments. We will need artists and musicians and yes, even writers to be out there eventually to convey the views of people living away from the blue-green-brown-white ball we call Earth and taking their best shot at the meaning of it all. If expanding our civilization into space is our long-range goal, then our educational systems must rise to meet the challenge. Just developing the curriculum for that would be the work of several lifetimes—but how rewarding, if successful!

Summary

So there you go: I want it all. I want a thriving, bustling, free civilization in space. I want to see great works of art and architecture. I want to see risk-taking, new experiments in freedom, an expanding pie of economic growth, cheap and plentiful energy and materials for a combative world. And I believe space exploration can make such things possible. However, it is very easy to get wrapped around the axle with the current politics or arguments of the day: where do we go first? What rockets do we build? What do we spend money on, how much do we spend, and who spends it? Should we send robots or humans? How far should we go to prevent pollution of the space environment?

Space is as much a philosophical as it is a technical adventure, as America was to the Europeans 500 years ago. What lessons might we learn today that we didn’t learn then? That is the reason I stay in this gig: I want to learn—and maybe even contribute—some of those answers.

Potpourri CXII

The fun continues...

The L.A. Times to NASA TV: Liven Up

Former Shuttle Astronaut Sally Ride seeks to address the persistent gender gap in the sciences.

The Voyager spacecraft are still making discoveries.

A little late, but here's a cute background story on the origins of NORAD's "Santa Tracker."

From Martin: movie model maker Doug Drexler posted the Constellation Program's 2009 Year in Review YouTube video to his site.

Potpourri CXI

Cleaning out the inbox and getting laundry done this morning...it's an epic morning at Casa de Bart! Why not join in the fun?

The Iranians claim to be behind a crash/hack of Twitter yesterday. Message: "You allow our people to tell the world what we're doing to them, we'll crash your site." Nice.

From Melissa: an alternative to the Diet Dr. Pepper I've been drinking ("That stuff causes kidney damage!")...Zevia Black Cherry Cola. Well, first I'll have to find it locally. Second, I'll have to find out if I'm allergic to it. The reason I shifted from regular to diet was because I liked the caffeine but was allergic to the high-fructose corn syrup. Zevia is sweetened with stevia, a plant-based sweetener that has recently appeared on TV as an alternative to aspartame or saccharine (both old favorites of mine).

Need something fun (toys/treats) for your dog this holiday season? Here's a shameless plug for Bark Avenue Bakery, my friend Christine's dog bakery in southwest Orlando. Chris also takes internet orders for merchandise.

A reflection of sunlight was found on a frozen lake on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Frozen water? Unlikely, given how far out Saturn is from the sun, but interesting nonetheless. Interesting universe out there.

From Pastor: Luther Bible verses in MP3 online. Guess who volunteered to read for the German service this year? That'll teach me to take Spanish in high school...

The Zombie Apocalypse craze continues. Doc ordered one of these shirts--how the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine would look like in the event of the Z.A. Still don't get this zombie thing. Some sort of comment on the quality of acting on television? Our politicians? I'm baffled.

Insurgents in Iraq have occasionally intercepted imagery from overhead drones. Apparently encryption wasn't high on the list? How good would an insurgent feel if the feed they were getting was of themselves just as the missile was being fired? The Department of Defense is working on this issue, presumably.

With the sun's sunspot cycle being very quiet the last few years, NASA has determined that the outermost layer has been cooling dramatically. No word from the global warming crowd if they were going to accuse the sun of being in collusion with oil companies to undermine the proof of global warming.

SpaceX was planning to run its last engine test prior to launching Falcon 9 in 2010. No word on the SpaceX website yet that they've actually run the test, though.

Scientists using data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) presented a paper suggesting that the radiation environment on the Moon might not be any worse than what a nuclear industry or x-ray technician gets exposed to in a year. This is good news for future explorers or settlers, as there are existing protocols and mitigation steps to cope with those levels of radiation. Still, you wouldn't want to be sunbathing out there...

Alerting Bruce Willis...saving the world from an incoming asteroid wouldn't be as simple as NASA sending up a group of roughnecks to take care of business. Former Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart suggests that a certain amount of international diplomacy would be called for first. Why? Well, deflecting an asteroid using some sort of tug would be a very gradual process, and until it was safely out of the risk zone, its trajectory could actually be pointed at various countries on the Earth. Who decides what a safe trajectory is? Who builds the hardware? Sigh. There are times when it helps to take unilateral action.

From Tracy: an article explaining why the trends in new media are hard to track.

NASA is making audio files of space stories available online.

From Lin:

• An editorial on the source of the ongoing problems with the economy. If you've read this blog or Lin's contributions long enough, you probably don't need to guess what direction this editorial is pointing.
• An open letter from the National Taxpayers' Union asking Congress to reject H.R. 4173, "The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009" because of the amount of additional regulation taxes it would impose on an already struggling economy. The Obama administration either doesn't get it or gets it and doesn't care, but if you take more money from businesses by increasing taxes and make it harder for them to operate, they will not create jobs and the economy will remain stuck.
• While salaries might be declining in the private sector, the number of civil servants making big money has increased dramatically in the last two years (note: this implicates Bush AND Obama).

And to end on a more positive note, I've been toying with research for a science fiction novel. Dr. OZMG is a sharp observer of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality types, so I'll probably be pinging her at some point on how the various MBTI types might operate in a space environment. One thing that was interesting to note was that the primary jobs needed to get any mission done up there--astronaut, engineer, scientist, researcher, pilot--tend to fall into two major personality categories: INTJ (my type, incidentally), and INTP. Both of these types are introverted, more focused on abstract principles than exterior/social cues, and thinking (as opposed to feeling). This also describes most of my friends in the space business.

That is not to say that there are not extroverted scientists or engineers (or even technical writers). It's just that folks with this set of personality traits is more drawn to the technical disciplines that make space travel possible. The more social folks will probably end up making money elsewhere and becoming passengers on Virgin Galactic or some other space tourism operation.

Potpourri CX

From Tracy, a site that tracks trends in scientific research and how many times particular papers are cited.

For those of you accessing NASA TV via direct satellite link, the satellite is changing.

Just to give myself an idea of what Dr. OZMG has decided to put herself through, I did a little reading on what it takes to train for a marathon. I think I'll stick with aerobics, walking, and weight lifting for my exercise. I've had the popping knees and ankles of an 80-year-old man since I was about 10. I can be an energetic cheering section, though...

Yikes! The U.S. has exceeded the congressionally approved ceiling for the national debt--over $12 trillion!

Roy Disney, nephew of the late Walt Disney, has died. A shame. Roy was a decent guy, from all I heard.

A book that's right up Dar's alley: Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making.

Another book of interest: Changing the Conversation: Messages for Improving Public Understanding of Engineering.

Hat tip to Dar for pointing this one out to me: From NASWatch/SpaceRef: A rumored/leaked breakthrough in learning what President Obama's NASA policy is going to be. The original story can be found here.

Potpourri CIX

Spent a couple days hanging with the incomparable Dr. OZMG. Not nearly enough, but I'll survive. Meanwhile, the inbox continues to fill up with other, less important items that still require my attention. Let the good times roll...

New from Hu: This was a surprise to me, but Orion Propulsion (run by my friend Tim Pickens) has been bought by Dynetics (a company that now employs two former customers of mine, former Marshall Space Flight Center Director Dave King and former Ares Projects Manager Steve Cook. Huntsville and the space business really are a small world.

If you scroll down on this page, the YouTube video on this page is kinda fun. Fighter jocks doing what they do best--showing off in their pretty airplanes.

Here's a picture of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner's first flight, which has been delayed a bit due to technical issues. The 787 isn't that far different from other commercial airliners you'll see, but its fuselage has more composites than any previous model, making the plane 20% lighter that it would be if it were made of metal. Cool concept, but I'll be interested to see what the long-term effects of pressurizing and repressurizing an all-composite airframe are. Unlike metal, apparently composites are harder to check for fatigue. This bears watching, especially with an airliner that is being built across multiple sites worldwide.

NASA has a new website that allows teenagers to have access to mission data for school papers and so forth. Pretty cool!

Speaking of Dr. OZMG, she's registered for the Reykjavik Marathon in Iceland this coming August. The Down Under Defense Expert (DUDE) recommended checking both the regular Icelandair web site, but also the site for locals to see about getting the best rate for air fare. Yes, the site's in Icelandic, but as the DUDE put it, "The res pages for most airlines look alike."

The DUDE also suggested a couple of novels by an Icelandic author: Yrsa Siguoardottir, Last Rituals and My Soul to Take.

From Lin, with the comment, "This seems like further justification for space exploration." Four planets found circling other stars? Yes, indeedy. That sounds like justification to me. But we're having trouble funding stuff flying within this solar system...good luck finding money for something orbiting another star if there aren't Vulcans involved.

Another reason the U.S. needs to maintain the ability to fly humans into space: Russia just isn't that dependable as a partner on some things. For instance, it has recently reneged on an agreement to provide NASA with plutonium needed to power exploration vehicles. Once the Shuttle is retired, the Russians will be able to charge whatever they like for their services, especially if SpaceX or United Launch Alliance don't have their collective acts together yet.

From Doc, a new poster, with a suggestion that I restrain him from ordering this item for his cube.

Found during my morning environmental scanning, "a crisis of confidence for aerospace careers." It's getting difficult to be a professional space geek, unless you REALLY want it.

Ending Life on Your Time or God’s

Yesterday a hard day for Dr. OZMG and her family. Her 80+ year-old grandfather has been in the hospital, staying alive basically on life support. There was little change in his condition after they put him on the machines, and they turned off the respirator per the man's living will. He passed away before I could post this. Dr. OZMG and I are wont to discuss philosophical topics, and the subject of living wills came up—individuals’ wishes to have (or not have) extreme measures taken to save their lives in the event of Bad Things happening. This is one of those issues that is bound to cause me trouble, either because I disagree with my church or because I don’t fully understand how the church places one value above another. However, I’m willing to dive in because I consider the matter important enough to wrestle with here, not just among friends.

Life is our most precious gift from God. Throughout history we have dedicated considerable effort, thought, and technology to doing all that we can to preserve it. We even have incredibly vicious arguments over when life begins and what constitutes reasonable boundaries for preserving it. Keeping ourselves or our loved ones alive “at all costs” is an easy answer, but sometimes doesn’t match the painful realities. We don’t think twice about treating minor or even major illnesses. We get limbs fixed, wounds healed, and damaged or diseased organs removed. We get surgery done, take noxious chemicals, and get ourselves irradiated to reduce this or that malignancy. No one considers these efforts at treatment violations of God’s will.

But then there are the really Bad Things that come along: aggressive cancer, incapacity, coma, and other circumstances where we or our loved ones are either in excruciating pain or unlikely to wake up. Our love for life and our desire to preserve it can come into conflict with our compassion for the one we see suffering. Mind you, I’m partial to extraordinary measures: “If A doesn’t work, try B. If B doesn’t work, try C, D, or E. If E doesn’t work, try something really wild.” But eventually there comes a point where the limits of human knowledge are reached, and nothing further in the medical bag of tricks will work. Then what? Then you face the ugly probability of watching someone you love slowly die, either in unconsciousness or agony.

I am not a fan of Jack Kevorkian. That man was and is more interested in killing patients than looking for alternatives to improve the lives they have. I am not an advocate of euthanizing anyone with a merely inconvenient ailment or condition. I love life and wish for it to continue in as many ways as possible. I am just wondering, point-blank, which value is supposed to take priority when our medical sciences have reached their limit: protecting life or preventing suffering? And if it’s not “playing God” to do everything possible to keep someone alive, why is it playing “playing God” to stop trying and to resign oneself to the inevitable once that point is reached?

There’s a great line from a Star Trek book of all things that addressed this very issue. A very old man was suffering from a blastoma that was killing him and he stopped the treatments he was getting because they made him feel even worse. He explained to a young Lieutenant Sulu, “I’m not afraid of dying, son. I’m afraid of dying badly.”

No doubt someone will argue that my reasoning here leads to a slippery slope; and that while extreme measures and circumstances might call for compassionate release, it’s too easy (as in the case of Terry Schiavo) to just pull the plug on someone whom we don’t want to care for anymore because it’s too inconvenient, expensive, difficult, or painful. But really: when it’s your loved one suffering there in pain or a vegetative state, what the heck would YOU do? When prayer and hope and medicine have all reached their limits, what do you do next? I don’t know. God willing, I’ll never have to find out.

'Tis the Season...

From Dar, a little tech lesson on how candles work.

Potpourri CVIII

Note to other Blogger.com users: For some reason the "Paste" option is disabled in IE 8. Copy/paste works just fine in Firefox!

Busy research day…too much stuff to explain everything in detail, so I'm just posting headlines and links.

Monarch Butterflies in Spaaaaaaaace!
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091208-space-monarch-butterflies.html

Leonard David on Public Space Travel
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/091207-spaceshiptwo-space-touristm.html

Variations in Brightness for Sun-like Stars
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091207-sun-stars-brightness.html

Cassini Providing Data on the Heliosphere
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/View_From_The_Center_Of_The_Solar_System_999.html

Jeffrey Bell on “Rocket Plane Roulette”
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Rocket_Plane_Roulette_999.html

NASA Moon Design Competition
http://www.space-travel.com/reports/NASA_announces_moon_design_competition_999.html

Climate Protestors Climb the Roman Colosseum
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/091209124623.rpqa087c.html

NASA Managers Looking at Adding Another Shuttle Flight
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2009/12/nasa-evaluating-sts-135-addition-to-shuttle-manifest/

Moment of Random: Captain Berlin vs. Hitler
http://www.needcoffee.com/2009/12/08/captain-berlin-vs-hitler-movie-review/#more-14335

Need Coffee eview of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods
http://www.needcoffee.com/2009/12/08/neil-gaiman-dreams/#more-14323

RFI for Using Constellation or Robotic Hardware for Future Missions
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=32990

Anti-Terrorism Hero or Wishful-Thinking Nut?
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/tedd_petruna_i_thwarted_muslim_hijackers_on_airtra.php?ref=mp

Creating Starfleet Academy?

NASAWatch: http://nasawatch.com/archives/2009/11/creating-starfl.html
OpenNASA: http://www.opennasa.com/2009/12/07/starfleet-academy/
Me: http://bartacus.blogspot.com/2008/07/starfleet-academy-proposal-several.html

Bar Camp? Not Quite What You’re Thinking…
http://www.opennasa.com/2009/12/05/spaceup-a-space-unconference/
http://spaceup.org/agenda/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp

Government in the Digital Age
http://www.opennasa.com/2009/11/25/government-in-the-digital-age/

Leading in an Era of Disruptive Innovation (THINK, for God’s sake and your own. THINK before you unleash your infernal gadgets on the world!!!)
http://www.opennasa.com/2009/11/19/leading-amidst-the-disruptive-innovation-storm/

Boeing Looking for a Non-Union Source of 787 Parts Due to Strike (I’m shocked, shocked…)
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/12/07/daily19.html

Flight Delays Up in October (Okay, fine, but how many of those were due to airline problems vs. the government’s antiquated Air Traffic Control system?)
=http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/2009-12-08-october-airline-performance_N.htm

Go Boldly on The Space Show
http://www.goboldlynasa.org/
http://spacefellowship.com/2009/12/07/this-week-on-the-space-show-121/
http://www.thespaceshow.com/detail.asp?q=1271

(From Dar the Science Cheerleader) Hydrogen-Powered Cars for Kids...and This is a Toy!
http://www.sciencecheerleader.com/2009/12/the-cure-for-the-holiday-shopping-blues/

Science Jewelry for the Brain
http://www.sciencecheerleader.com/2009/12/science-jewelry-for-your-brain/

I Can Has Singularity?
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20091120/

Global Warming and Mt. Kilimanjaro
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704342404574577892593153408.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular

Did You Know that CO2 Was a Threat to Public Health? According to the EPA, It Is
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/2009/Q4/view600.html#Tuesday

Shubber Ali on Giving Up Space Blogging (Can’t Say That I Blame Him)
http://spacecynic.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/thanksgiving-and-a-sort-of-farewell/

Jeff Foust on NASA’s FY2010 Budget
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2009/12/09/fy2010-budget-endgame/

Chris Carberry Resigns from Mars Society Executive Director Post
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2009/12/05/mars-society-executive-director-steps-down/

Soyuz to Start Launching from French Guiana
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/11/30/335601/soyuz-to-go-west-in-2010.html

For Orlando people who get warm and romantic thoughts about cold & ice
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/orl-ice-pg,0,1748946.photogallery

Walt Disney World is Reducing Discounts in 2010. Wait a minute, Disney does discounts??
http://thedailydisney.com/blog/2009/12/iger-disney-will-dial-back-on-park-discounts-in-latter-part-of-2010/

The Copenhagen summit on global climate change is not going well...the U.N. is not happy that it's not getting its way and that a draft agreement was leaked to the press
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/08/copenhagen-climate-summit-disarray-danish-text

From my NASA PAO feed:

NASA MAKING GOVERNMENT MORE ACCESSIBLE WITH CUTTING-EDGE USE OF NEW MEDIA

WASHINGTON -- NASA is supporting the White House's Open Government
Directive with a number of Internet-based programs designed to make
the agency more accessible and create a dialog with the American
people about their space program.

NASA is one of six departments and agencies working to spur innovation
by making it easier for high-tech companies to identify
collaborative, entrepreneurial opportunities. Government agencies are
home to treasure troves of data and information, too much of which is
underutilized by the private sector because it is either not easily
found or exists in cumbersome formats. NASA and the National
Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration in the
Department of Health and Human Services, the Agricultural Research
Service in the Department of Agriculture, the National Institute of
Standards and Technology in the Department of Commerce and the
Department of Energy are working together to increase access to
information on publicly-funded technologies that are available for
license, opportunities for federal funding and partnerships, and
potential private-sector partners.

NASA's Innovative Partnerships Programs Office is working to establish
an RSS feed to publicize technologies available for public licensing.
By making information from multiple agencies available in RSS and XML
feeds on Data.gov, the government empowers innovators to find the
information they need and receive real-time updates, which can fuel
entrepreneurial momentum, create new jobs, and strengthen economic
growth. NASA's RSS feed will make these opportunities more visible to
the commercial and research communities. NASA plans on having the
feed operational by Dec. 31.

NASA also has undertaken an extensive effort to use the Internet and
social media tools to engage the public on agency activities. NASA's
home page on the Internet, www.nasa.gov, offers information on all of
the agency's missions, research and discoveries.

In January 2009, nasa.gov capitalized on the agency's growing social
media efforts by rolling out a new "Connect and Collaborate with
NASA" page, at www.nasa.gov/connect. This provides the public with
quick connections to the agency's pages on Twitter, Facebook,
UStream, YouTube, Flickr and MySpace, as well as NASA podcasts and
vodcasts on iTunes. The page also provides links to agency chats,
Tweetup events, RSS feeds and the agency's official blog.

The agency's social media presence was further expanded in November
with the addition of NASA's Twitter feed to the homepage. The website
offers links to NASA-related desktop "widgets" and opportunities for
the public to collaborate directly with the agency through art
contests, engineering challenges and imagery and data analysis.

Another new communication tool is Spacebook, a NASA internal expert
networking utility. Spacebook has been used to improve collaboration
across NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The Spacebook site allows
new and established NASA staff to get to know the agency's diverse
community of scientists, engineers, project managers and support
personnel.

"Space doesn't explore itself. Science doesn't discover itself. People
do that, and to do that they have to talk," said Emma Antunes, the
project manager who also manages Goddard's Web site. "They have to
trade questions and ideas. They have to connect. And, the more
diverse the group, the more likely connections and conversations will
lead to new ideas and innovation. Spacebook will enhance NASA's
capacity to do just that."

A fun video from the Coalition for Space Exploration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ZWMeFR5bw

TV show recommendation by Hu: Outer Space Astronauts... http://www.syfy.com/outerspaceastronauts/

Web Contest:
Enter this contest for pre-collegiate students by building a Web site that communicates your vision of the future.

Furniture made from reclaimed wine barrels: http://www.etsy.com/shop/StilNovoDesign

And, of course, I'd be remiss as a space geek if I didn't point out the rollout of SpaceShipTwo on Virgin Galactic's site.

And I think that'll do for tonight...

Creating Documents Without Guidance

I've discovered over the years that vague assignments are either a joy or a pain for the professional technical writer. A typical scenario is something like this: your boss or customer comes to you and says, "We have X amount of information we want to get out, but we don't quite know what to do with it. Want to take a crack at it?"

To which I usually reply, "Heck, yeah!" and I dive in. Not everyone is so gleeful about such an open-ended assignment. The top two questions I've been trained to ask for any new document are:

1. Who's my audience?
2. What's the purpose of the document (i.e. how do I want them to react after reading it)?

Sometimes I might not get clear-cut answers to even that...the point is just to do information organization/design (More on that in a moment). In addition to the two questions above, there are usually two other questions that affect any document a technical communicator is called upon to produce:

• What form or format will my document take?
• What style will I need to use?

In general, the form and format will depend upon the amount of information that needs to be conveyed, while the style will depend on your audience.

But let's say, for the sake of this discussion, that you've received minimal guidance about your content except that the final product will be coming from your corporate president, senior project manager, or someone else near the top of the food chain. I actually enjoy this sort of assignment because it's challenging to think like the boss. You've got, maybe, 2-3 pages' worth (750 words, with or without pictures) of content, which might or might not be organized, and might or might not be on 2-3 pieces of paper...and you might or might not be familiar with the subject matter. Where do you start?

1. Read: Not to be a smart@$$, but you read what you've been given in whatever order it's presented to you. It might not make the slightest bit of sense, but you have to start somewhere.
2. Research: This usually means looking up or asking whoever you think might know what unfamiliar terminology means. Ideally you do as much Googling or sniffing through Wikipedia or internal publications before you ask. (I got burned on this a few times before a manager asked me, point-blank, "Do you ever look things up before asking?" Shame-faced, I went back to my cube and did my homework before asking another durnfool question.
3. Brainstorm: So now that you have the general gist of things...you know what the topic is, what's being said about it, and you know how much stuff you have to work with. Now it's time to take that extra 10 minutes to brainstorm about the pile of data in front of you and in your head. Take a stab at asking:
   --Who do YOU think the audience should be?
   --How do you think they would want to be addressed?
   --What's the most effective way to convey the information and get the reaction you (or your executive) wants?
   --What's the best way to organize the information?
   --How should the information appear visually? (This is the point where my friend Dr. OZMG suggested, "Use pretty fonts and emoticons!" And in truth, depending on your content, this might not be such a bad idea. Sometimes a clever visual gimmick, outside the usual corporate or institutional practice, is exactly what is needed to get your audience's attention.)
   
   Anything longer than ten minutes, either by hand-writing or making out a list on your computer, is probably wasting your time. Work with a peer or two if this helps you.
4. Organize: Take your ideas from your brainstorming session and put them into the order and (rough) format that most makes sense to you. This is where the technical communicator, in my view, can add value to any document. The trick is understanding your content enough to know what order or layout most makes sense for the user. Do you have something with a lot of steps? Then your content should be arranged chronologically. Do you have something that needs to be understood geographically or by layout, like a map or a new form? Perhaps you need to work with your graphics person to develop an easy-to-use "mind map" for your content to guide the user visually. Of course you might actually BE the graphics person; but even if you aren't, you should have some idea of how you want your content to appear--electronically or on the written page. Your graphics person might come up with ideas you hadn't thought of because visual imagination is much different from literary imagination--one of the reasons I'm very grateful for the graphics people in my area.
5. Draft: Start taking a SWAG (engineering term for "scientific wild-@$$ guess") at what you want to say. You've got the content, you've got the layout, now you just need to start doing the brick-and-mortar work of putting words together. Get the basic thoughts down first.
6. Polish: Your first draft is almost guaranteed to look and read nothing like the final product. This was a hard lesson for an English major to learn coming out of college, where I liked to think that the fire of raw inspiration would carry the day. The serious work isn't getting it down in one fell swoop, but getting it right. This is the point where you start trying to capture the "voice" of your customer and the tone you want to set for your audience. If it's an Important Thing, like something to do with legal or regulatory compliance, your tone is direct, serious, and no-kidding-this-has-to-be-done-or-you-go-to-jail. If it's introducing a new product or service, the tone should be enthusiastic ("See what we're doing" or "See what we're doing for you?!"). If it's something warm and fuzzy, like the annual Independence Day party, perhaps a little levity is called for. It also helps to know the personality or preferred style of your executive. If their behaviors or preferences aren't well known, you might have to ask.
7. Peer Review: Have another writer or, if none is available, your customer, review your best-guess, polished draft. Expect other ideas and revisions. Depending on whether it's the customer or a peer, you might or might not have more say about changes. If your peer or customer questions why you organized the information a particular way, be prepared to explain your thought process. This can go on for one or multiple cycles. Again, don't take this as the mark of a bad product or a reflection on your work. Requirements change for communication products as much as engineering products.
8. Finalize: This is where you tweak the minor stuff...missing punctuation, grammatical and other typos, and then turn things over to your graphics person(s) to go to print or online.

I probably could have stopped at step 6, but I've learned a lot about product improvement even toward the end of a development cycle, so it's worth considering the entire "life" of a document as you're creating it.

In the end, you should have a product--web site, presentation, letter, white paper, brochure, or other document--that accomplishes what your customer wanted in the first place. And yes, I do get paid to do this.

Potpourri CVII


My fellow (and much higher-profile) space blogger friend Jeff Foust has a great lineup of editorials today on The Space Review. Topics include:

• The potential impact of "ClimateGate" on NASA's scientific reputation.
• A good defense of the Ares I-X flight test and a plea for civility in the pro-space community.
• A discussion on safety and the Ares I crew launch vehicle based on Jeff's observations of the House subcommittee re: space safety last week.
• An editorial discussing other uses of the soon-to-be-happening suborbital spaceflight industry besides space tourism.

There's a Washington Post article on the environmental impact of rockets.

Speaking of the Washington Post, they wrote an article recently on a competition the Department of Defense created to see how social networking could be used to gather information. This is pretty wild.

This appears to be a clearing house page that provides links to a variety of astronomy-related blogs.

A Popular Mechanics reporter recently visited Marshall Space Flight Center and got access to a lot of the work the Ares Projects has been doing.

The White House is pushing for more math and science. Good. Where's the money coming from? Though I suppose one could ask the same thing about NASA, NSF, and the rest of the stimulus. Hate it when my conservative spending habits get in the way of my scientific/space habits.

Potpourri CVI

I have been accused of neglecting this blog of late, to which I can only plead guilty. I have been rearranging my priorities--partially to make room for someone else in my life besides me and my oversized glass writer's ego and partially because I've experienced a corresponding lack of interest in the hot issues of the day. Those who make talk radio or other political hot topics the center of your day should probably take note...there is a life outside of politics, and it is very good.

From Father Dan, a link to something called the Social Security Death Index, which lists (as near as I can tell) the deaths of all U.S. persons since 1962.

From the Sapporo beer label, a specialty item: beer made from space barley (i.e., barley that has been in space).

Interested in learning how to learn your fancy new Apple hardware? Check out this site. Apple provides seminars, which you can search by zip code.

My favorite rocket scientist, Les Johnson, has a new book coming out soon called Paradise Regained: The Regreening of Planet Earth. It looks intriguing--using space resources as a way to reduce the strain on Earth's environment by accessing space resources. If it is like Les's other books, it will be highly informed and clearly explained for even the English majors in the reading audience. Looking forward to reading it!

From Lin:

• An article from the U.S. Geological Survey on a potential 3 to 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil lurking beneath North Dakota and Montana...one wonders if the folks advocating for energy independence in the Obama administration are listening/reading.
• An article from Commentary Magazine, which I have but haven't read yet, on why Obama is wrong in his approach to missile defense.
• Lin had a question about this article regarding the release of environment/climate data from NASA and one person's effort to extract it from the agency. It sounds like a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request got ignored, and the complainant is using the occasion of the climate data fracas at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to press his case.

On another personal note, I have been worn down by the sheer complexity of 21st century reality, and will soon be purchasing a smart phone of some kind. The folks responding to my request for inputs on Facebook have mostly recommended the iPhone, which I've rejected out of a knee-jerk anti-Apple attitude more than anything else. However, if it does what I want, I might relent. That doesn't mean I'll go out and buy a Mac next (as Father Dan might say, "Get a grip!"). Another hot item on the market right now is the Droid, which is Motorola's answer to the iPhone and features a hard-key popout keyboard that I lilke, being less than savvy with touch screens. Most of my friends and family members who have these toys use something out of the BlackBerry. What interests me is that they all use different models, and all seem equally happy with them, so I guess I might end up taking one friend's advice and just going with what looks cool. :-)

How do you keep a space geek in suspense? Tell you you'll get back to him after the next NASA program study. The Obama administration wants to emphasize international cooperation. Great. Can they at least allow Constellation/Ares/Orion to continue building hardware in the meantime?

This was a pretty good interview on NPR regarding current goings-on in space.

From Martin...an opportunity to market your own blog via t-shirt/sweatshirt. Might have to look into that. Not that I don't love the 15 of you who check in on a daily basis, but eventually I might need to pay bills with this site, ya know?

A Business Week article on the Singularity University giving lectures to CEOs about the future. Sounds cool. Anyone got 25 grand they care to loan me?

From Gwen: An Arizona public school teacher lost his job for running the SETI @ Home application from his work computer.

From D2:

• On a slow day, I was wondering aloud what I could do to make myself more useful or marketable in my current line of work. Dede suggested looking at the IRS tax credit available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, a.k.a., the stimulus) for lifetime learning expenses. I'm far from a pure libertarian on such things--I got through my M.A. with a federal loan--but a) I'm not sure how long ARRA money will be available, and b) I can probably find better ways to spend my time and other people's money.
• Xerox is offering the opportunity to send "thanks to the troops" postcards. Worth checking out.

A good editorial by Patti Grace Smith (former FAA person in charge of Commercial Space Transportation and now an aerospace consultant on why commercial rockets to the International Space Station are not inherently unsafer than government-built vehicles. I go around and around with my coworkers on this issue. The usually concede that commercial entities could do the job, but they haven't done it yet; ergo government must continue to do it. Yeah, I contend, but for how long? At which point the conversation peters out, as I hear vague terms like "human rating" and "flight rate." The federal budget is not endless, and NASA will not get much past the Moon until it is set free from low-Earth orbit and ISS operations. Just sayin'.

That's about it for now. Be good to yourselves and each other. There's a lot of weirdos out there.

Potpourri CV

First, from my buddy Dauna at Science @ NASA, a great article on the benefits gained from the Mars Spirit rover getting stuck in the Martian sand.

From my NASA PAO feed:

NASA will host a media teleconference with Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager, at 1 p.m. CST on Thursday, Dec. 3. Ess will provide reporters with an update gathered during the test flight of the rocket, which took place October 28 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

New from Hu: A story from PR Newswire on processes used to develop the tank dome for the Ares I upper stage.

For the Down Under Defense Expert (DUDE): Kiwis in spaaaaaaace! And from the DUDE, a link to the company itself.

Also from the DUDE: Green politics is now considered a religious faith and so subject to the same protections in the UK.

That's about it for now. Ciao!

Psychology and Space

The following links are the result of a text exchange with the irrepressible Dr. OZMG on counseling in the space biz. As usual I provided too much information, but what the heck.

• A rather old (1982?) Johnson Space Center paper on "The Psychology of Human Orbital Factors."
• The Association of Aviation Psychology, which presumably covers regular aviation and aerospace.
• The International Journal of Aviation Psychology, which I believe is the official journal of the AAP above.
• Here's that psych book I recommended earlier, and which I might add to my Christmas list for science fiction research/writing purposes: Choosing the Right Stuff: the Psychological Selection of Astronauts and Cosmonauts.
• Another book in the same category: Space Psychology and Psychiatry.
• ABC News Article: "Feeling Low Up High: The Lonely Astronaut."
• Psychiatric News Story: "NASA Addresses Mental Health of Mars-Mission Members."
• National Academies Press book: Safe Passage: Astronaut Care for Exploration Missions.
• APA Online article: "Psychology Keeps Astronauts Well Grounded."
• NASA Astronaut Health Care System Review Committee February - June 2007 Report to the Administrator (this was the report requested after the Lisa Nowak affair).
• Astronauts with a psychology degree or some connection with psychology:
  --Dan Tani (like me, a Glenbard East High School graduate)
  --Nicholas Patrick
  --James Pawleczyk
  --Thomas Reiter (European Space Agency)
  --Gerhard P. J. Thiele (ESA)
• A NASA Flight Surgeon with the Constellation Program...also an Illinois guy.
• I mislabeled this for Dr. OZMG earlier, but it's a newsletter out of JSC that happened to focus on employee mental health, on the ground and in space.