Those of us who have worked with Bruce Pittman have been informed, inspired, amused and chagrined by the wisdom of Pittman's Postulates.  We thought it only fair to share them with our fellow members of the Silicon Valley Space Club.

They're too good to present all at once, so here's the Pittman's Postulate of the Week:

"We often focus on the things that are easy to measure, whether they are important or not, and ignore the things that are difficult to measure no matter how important they are.  So in bureaucracies, because of this, important things often aren't urgent and urgent things often aren't important."  R. Bruce Pittman.

"Program development in NASA is like trolling for whales.  The good news is, we GOT a whale!  The bad news is ... we got a WHALE!" R. Bruce Pittman

"Sometimes program planning in NASA is like getting an orchestra together and saying 'everyone play your favorite song as loud as you can.' "  R. Bruce Pittman

"In a systems trade, the hidden agenda has infinite weight."  R. Bruce Pittman

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Announcements!

New Scary Vu-Graph of the Week (21 Sept 09) So ... speaking of metrics for the U.S. space program, shouldn't we be going to space ... more often? Scary Vu-graphs of the Week - Ouch! So ... in a future where science and technology determines economic and national security ... Clean-up on Planet 3 -- Whose job is it? Earth's orbital debris problem - Current strategy:  Monitor and hope for the best FYI:  This strategy is not working As the international competition in space commerce increases, have we embarked on a strategy to blunt the competitive edge?  (The dates on the chart below span 47 years. It goes from 1958 on the far left to 2005 on the far right -- and 2006-2008 were worse) Barriers to Innovation in NASA - Gotta See This! A video by some who didn't fear making a career limiting video, because their careers were already limited. YouTube Video 20 January 2009  Important Opportunity for Students! Heinlein Space Prize!  The Heinlein Prize Trust announces the Microgravity Research Competition to reward innovation in the use of microgravity to advance biotech, nanotech, combustion, metallurgy, and other fields.  Sponsored by the Trust and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), the competition offers a $25,000 prize and transportation to and from Low Earth Orbit for the winning experiment aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.  Notices of Intent to Propose are due 20 Feb 2009 and Proposals are due 20 March 2009.  The flight might occur as early as November 2009.  For more info see the downloadable documents below and  www.labflight.com The documents downloadable below are Microgravity Research Competition Announcement and Press Release - Microgravity Research Competition. Kudos to Space X and Dennis Stone of JSC for making this happen 12 Dec 08 Announcing Human-Tended Suborbital Science Workshop at the Westin San Francisco Market Street on 15 December 2008 from noon to 5:00 pm in conjunction with the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.  This event is sponsored by the Universities Space Research Association in collaboration with the Personal Spaceflight Federation and the NASA Ames Research Center.  Recently, in an historic first, NASA created a program office at Ames to use emerging commercial suborbital vehicles for scientific research, including, but not limited to, flights to space of researchers to enable human-tended experiments.   The purpose of the workshop is to bring interested researchers from a number of fields together with suborbital vehicle operators to exchange information and discuss the scientific potential of these exciting new capabilities.  Emerging commercial suborbital companies that will be participating in the workshop include Virgin Galactic, Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, and XCOR Aerospace.  The first NASA RFI and funded NRA for the purpose of program formulation is open until 5 Dec 2008. For further info and Workshop RSVP:  http://suborbitalex.arc.nasa.gov/ Dec. 4 SVSC Meeting Presentation - Download Jay Skiles Silicon Valley Space Club Presentation from the Attachments Below (11 MB PowerPoint Document) 20 Nov 08 The Aerospace Technology Working Group Fall Meeting to be held at NASA Ames Research Center from 9-11 December 2008. This always lively and forward looking forum is open to SVSC members. Registration requested. 20 Nov 08  Announcing Human-Tended Suborbital Science Workshop at the Westin San Francisco Market Street on 15 December 2008 from noon to 5:00 pm in conjunction with the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.  This event is sponsored by the Universities Space Research Association in collaboration with the Personal Spaceflight Federation and the NASA Ames Research Center.  Recently, in an historic first, NASA created a program office at Ames to use emerging commercial suborbital vehicles for scientific research, including, but not limited to, flights to space of researchers to enable human-tended experiments.   The purpose of the workshop is to bring interested researchers from a number of fields together with suborbital vehicle operators to exchange information and discuss the scientific potential of these exciting new capabilities.  Emerging commercial suborbital companies that will be participating in the workshop include Virgin Galactic, Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, and XCOR Aerospace.  The first NASA RFI and funded NRA for the purpose of program formulation is open until 5 Dec 2008. For further info and Workshop RSVP:  http://suborbitalex.arc.nasa.gov/ 18 Nov 08  Check out the awesome Space Based Solar Power video from the Futures Channel! SVSC member Paul Damphouse does an outstanding job explaining the potential.  http://www.thefutureschannel.com/dockets/realworld/space_based_solar_power/ 11 Nov 2008 NASA seeks your input on suborbital science, use of suborbital vehicles, and commercial suborbital development including for the first time commercial human-tended science on suborbital spacecraft!. Due date 5 December 2008  ...Read more

10 Nov 2008 - Space 2.0 write-up released. This write-up  was originally penned by the Silicon Valley Space Club last March, and circulated to other select individuals. Elements of this plan are well reflected in President Elect Obama's NASA Space Policy (see below) -- which we are very pleased to see. Its going to be an exciting time the next few months!!