The shutdown in the U.S. also disrupts the space - THE WORLD

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The shutdown in the U.S. also disrupts the space

Nasa at a standstill, only three percent of the 18,000 employees still work. Nevertheless, the space programs continue to run, because private companies have long since taken over the field.

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When Nasa at a standstill, only three percent of the 18,000 employees still work. Nevertheless, the space programs continue to run, because private companies have long since taken over the field. From Guido Meyer

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America is Hollywood. And learning from Hollywood means learning to survive. In this case, however, the Americans like to exaggerate once. Thus, the Lincoln Memorial is since Tuesday “closed” on the Mall in Washington. But this building open to the front does not close, possibly through bricked. Therefore presented earlier this week temporary guards, easily bypassed safety gate before the monument: Everything connected with the government is closed, the U.S. space agency

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text NASA is an “administration”, a direct subordinate unit of the federal government. She follows the instructions of the White House and the Congress, and because they themselves have no own funds, they would actually have to close their doors media attention, probes and Web sites on Tuesday. The National Air and Space Museum in the capital is in fact currently closed. However, it is not NASA, but the Smithsonian institutions that operate all the museums along the Mall in Washington, all of which are currently closed. Those looking for relaxation at NASA TV, the internet or stream live images of the International Space Station (ISS), but unlucky.

But when NASA there is such a thing as strikebreakers who just carry on. Thus all ongoing missions – from the ISS on the brand new lunar probe LADEE and the Mars rover “Curiosity” to the Pluto spacecraft “New Horizons” – continued. Only the disclosure of information to the public is currently on hold, as “Curiosity” announced on Twitter himself: “I’m sorry, but I will not respond to requests during the shutdown I hope to soon be available again..”

Also the website of the space agency the specifications from Washington are not consistently implemented. The main portal www.nasa.gov Although only the announcement appears “Due to lack of financial backing from the federal government, this page is not available. Deeply we regret this inconvenience.” But the addresses of the various sub-divisions still work to be provided with only one banner, after which they are not currently being updated.

When Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, it is, however, reason for shutting down the websites are not the cost but the risk of hacker attacks this time out for use and then no one was present to repair the damage.

ISS is still accessible

but

These concerns do not seem to creep up on all NASA centers. Most NASA’s ISS on topic. Prestige project that is compiled into a cooperation with partners from Europe, Russia, Canada and Japan will continue to actively advertised. Thus, NASA sent via their website http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/ daily notes, when the station is about what point the Earth to observe with the naked eye. Even the Kennedy Space Center with its website and visitor center opened unchanged. The right belongs to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, also acts as if it were nothing to the budget crisis.

And the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which is responsible for the implementation of many NASA missions – such as the Saturn probe “Cassini” or the monitoring of the path of the “Voyager “spacecraft from beyond our solar system – is unimpressed by the official government shutdown. There is, however, not directly to NASA, but to the California Institute of Technology.

That a household emergency in the capital on the space sector goes by such marking, also located on the transformation of the space in recent years. Since NASA has shut down its space shuttle fleet in 2011, not only makes the headlines for NASA. Private companies have taken a monopoly on the supply of the ISS by the national authority. The Californian company SpaceX supplied with its “Dragon” capsule to the ISS supplies and new experiments and test results transported back to Earth. Only this week, SpaceX has successfully tested a stronger version of the launcher “Falcon 9″. Equally successful was the maiden flight of the new van “Cygnus” by Orbital, which docked with the ISS on Sunday. Who needs a government authority if the private sector that can just as well

stress at new Mars Mission

missions to explore the solar system are dependent on a space agency like NASA – on an actively operating. While NASA currently supports all of their currently running projects, but not those that are currently being planned. This is the next mission to Mars: On 18 November is supposed to take off for the red planet, the probe MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution). The probe is already in Cape Canaveral, from where they are to begin their journey. However, the rest start preparations for the shutdown.

Only about three percent of the approximately 18,000 employees of NASA currently perform an emergency service. The start window of the Mars probe, which until 7 December last, can therefore only be maintained even under difficult conditions. “If we are seven days a week around the clock to work in layers after the end of the financial dispute, then we will do that,” predicts Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN of the Chief Scientist. Otherwise, the probe must remain on the ground until 2016. Previously can the constellation of Earth and Mars in the solar system no reasonable travel to.

These prospects have made at the NASA sounding the alarm bells: In a fit of sovereignty and self-confidence against the U.S. government on Thursday that it has already frozen MAVEN launch preparations for a “emergency” and declared an “emergency situation” and they can start again.

All other projects are currently servicing institutions that operate on behalf of NASA. Both the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona and the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge therefore continue to look at the night sky for objects that are on a collision course for Earth. They work as normal, since the money rich for one year, soothes Tim Spahr, the director of the Minor Planet Center.

When the emergency situation will be completed, is so far in the stars. But at least be caused by the budget dispute any permanent damage to the Earth. No chunks of the universe is a gap to exploit any attention, as can be seen in the cinema film “Armageddon.” Because fortunately for Hollywood delivers Although a lot, but not everything is an inspiration.

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