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02 Mar 2012 20:16

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Tech: NASA skimps on cyber security, China hacks us regularly as a result

  • 3.9% of NASA’s IT budget is allocated to cyber security
  • 13 successful hacking attempts were carried out against NASA last year source
  • » You get what you pay for: Really, guys? Thirteen times in a year? This means NASA gets hacked more often than I pay my phone bill. But maybe that’s to be expected when you spend so little on cyber security. This is all based on testimony from the agency’s inspector general, Paul Martin, and the rest of his testimony is quite terrifying. For example, Martin says that hackers working through Chinese IP addresses were able to gain full system access to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, steal user credentials from over 150 NASA employees, and modify system logs to cover up their tracks. Let’s hope it was just a couple of bored middle schoolers.

15 Apr 2010 19:56

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U.S.: See, everyone, Obama really cares about space exploration!

  • The bottom line is, nobody is more committed to manned spaceflight, to human exploration of space than I am. But we’ve got to do it in a smart way and we can’t just keep on doing the same old things we’ve been doing and thinking that’s going to get us where we want to go.
  • President Barack Obama • Pointedly emphasizing that yes, he does have a space plan and yes, it is different from George W. Bush’s plan. It’s more long-term than the Bush’s reignited moon mission – one that sends us to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars by the mid-2030s. One major concession he made, however – the Orion crew capsule, which he planned to cancel, is coming back in a different form. source

03 Feb 2010 10:01

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World: Iran’s space program has officially caught up to 1957

  • They launched a rocket with live animals into space. Not content to be 70 years behind the U.S. when it comes to nuclear technology, the Middle Eastern country has gladly chosen to be 50 years behind the U.S. (and Russia!) when it comes to space exploration. Rats, turtles and worms were the lucky guinea pigs for the Kavoshgar-3 endeavor, which could lead to a newfound bolstering of its ballistic missile program. source

28 Oct 2009 11:09

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Tech: Ares I-X: A look into the next generation of NASA

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  • 48 years ago today, NASA launched its first Saturn I “space launcher,” an important development in the history of space exploration. In a big way, the Ares I-X test flight, in the midst of launching, has a similar historic impact. It’s the first shot in the space agency’s next generation of spacecraft. Nerds are aflutter for this reason.source

07 May 2009 20:40

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Tech, U.S.: We ended the cold war, hoo-ray! Wait, where’s our space fuel?

  • Because of the Cold War, the U.S. had a massive nuclear weapon supply, and as a result a huge supply of Plutonium. Oh, and a crazy space race. source
  • Now, thanks to the Cold War ending a while ago, we stopped saving plutonium and now we don’t have enough fuel for deep space exploration. Crap. source
  • To make up for the demand, needed for trips past Jupiter, the Department of Energy said that they would start making Plutonium 438 again. Woot. source