NASA short of cash - Computer Point

Into the suspension of the U.S. federal activities for the lack of agreement on the 2014 budget also involved in the space agency. That will work only support personnel to the ISS

Rome – If you will not come quickly the necessary agreement to release the funds for the activities of the fiscal year, 2014, NASA, EPA, CDC and all other Federal agencies are headed to the Union budget will close their doors at least temporarily . The employees will remain at home without pay and will be warranted only essential services: if the space agency support from Huston to astronauts on the ISS, in the case of the CDC close monitoring of the most worrying epidemics, and so on.

The U.S. legal system means that, in the absence of agreement on the budget law that fixed expenditure ceilings for the year that began Oct. 1 (for finances Stars and Stripes is already in fiscal year 2014), the activities of public office should be suspended instead of continuing in a so-called “provisional operation.” The standard overseas thus differs significantly from the Italian, and this means that about 800 thousand employees will be laid off until further notice without pay . A problem in the activities of everyday life for ordinary citizens, and a problem for science and the IT world since the U.S. federal agencies also deal with important matters relevant to safety (aviation, health care, monitoring of celestial bodies in route collision with our planet) and scientific research.

In the case of NASA, the question is exemplary: in the space agency’s payroll, there are about 18 thousand employees, and who is expected to remain in service are just 600 . They are the specialists in mission control in Houston, who will be responsible to continue to assist the two astronauts with a U.S. passport at the time on board the ISS, as well as the various ongoing missions (including rovers around Mars and other satellites placed at different distances from Earth) that require

human supervision to ensure continuity and prevent data loss and therefore a risk to the success of the mission. All that can be clicked instead, including missions and launches scheduled, will be arrested: will only be guaranteed the preservation of assets, to avoid the wait for the release of the money in Washington causing further losses elsewhere.

The same conditions apply to DOJ, Library of Congress, National Science Foundation, NIH, and all federal acronyms that deal in various capacities for research and development: in some cases there will be a stop indiscriminate use of all activities (such as will happen to the Library of Congress who held the doors closed at all), other services can be guaranteed basis and emergencies. But, for example, the program of vaccination against influenza organized every year by the CDC will be suspended and probably will end up being canceled due to this “shutdown”, not to mention that also monitoring for outbreaks of infection or already full-blown epidemic will be reduced to a flicker if not in some cases arrested .
One factor to consider, in the case of NASA, is also the supply of food and other supplies to the space station in the relationship in which you clarify the guidelines for the suspension of the activities stressed the need to control the issue for possibly provide supplies or any eventuality (emergencies on board, evacuations, etc.). aid agency may be private companies which are now launched in the supply of turnkey space missions and have already started working with NASA: Despite the initial difficulties, the Orbital Sciences Cygnus docked to the ISS without any problems (with their supplies in the hold), and in the same hour of the Falcon 9 SpaceX has taken off in a new, more powerful carrying a weather satellite in Canada.

If private companies agree to give credit to NASA, so to speak, with the support of the Russian Soyuz there would be big problems to continue the ISS project. In any case, the agency will have to cope with more of a headache to solve the bloc’s immediate liquidity to carry out your own research: problem not other agencies such as the NSA , which although does not enjoy at the time of the favors of the public, as in cases of national security and military activity are exceptions to shutdown .

Luca Annunziata