NASA HAS A PLAN TO RETRIEVE ASTEROIDS

NASA Plan to Retrieve Asteroid: Top 10 Facts You Need to Know Published:9:59 am EST, March 30, 2013| Updated:12:58 pm EST, March 30, 2013| Comment | 790 By Paul Farrell SHARE THIS ARTICLE FOLLOW HEAVY 7 Share Heavy.com Photo via Kech Institute for Space Studies According to a report by Aviation Week, in their 2014 budget request, NASA will request an extra $100 million in order to fly a robot space ship close to an asteroid to retrieve it for closer inspection. Here's what you need to know... 1. President Obama is Behind the Plan The Aviation Week report says that the White House is in favor of the plan. President Obama has already been quoted as giving NASA a goal of 2025 to put astronauts on an asteroid. Something that is unlikely to happen unless NASA's budget is increased for exploratory projects like this. Had Mitt Romney won the US Presidential Election, the Republican candidate was likely to "reassess" NASA's goals. 2. This Plan Doesn't Originally Come From NASA The plan is the brainchild of the Keck Institute for Space Studies at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Their initial plan involves bringing an asteroid close enough to the moon's orbit to allow study by scientists. According to Keck's website: Moving an asteroid is a huge idea – never has a celestial object been moved by humans. It is a huge idea, but not an impossible one. A recent study at JPL has already shown possible feasibility to move a small asteroid, with a mass of ~10,000 kg, deep into the Earth's gravity well – even to the orbit of the International Space Station. 3. The $100 Million Extra That NASA Wants Won't Go Too Far The $100 million that NASA wants to begin this operation is a small fraction of the total $2.6 billion the project will cost. 
4. In Reality, This is all About the Red Planet The Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington view operations like a manned asteroid mission as part of the journey to Mars. Bob Jacobs, NASA spokesman told Space.com: There are many options — and many routes — being discussed on our way to the Red Planet NASA and the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are giving the study further review to determine its feasibility. SPREAD THE NEWS Share on Facebook Twitter Google+ Email
 5. NASA are Waiting for the Federal Budget to be Announced NASA will find out on April 10th if their $100 million request has been accepted. There currently is a petition to pressurize the government is allocating more than 1% to NASA. 6. Researchers Aren't Looking for an Armageddon Style Rock Scientists will reportedly seek to retrieve a "dried mudball" as opposed to a dangerous velocity asteroid. According to this report: Such an asteroid would be a C-type or carbonaceous asteroid, and would have the consistency of "a dried mudball." The asteroid would be hauled back via a robotic probe and positioned in an orbit above the far side of the Moon at the second Earth-Moon Lagrange Point, where the vagaries of gravity and inertia would keep the asteroid in a roughly consistent location. Once positioned there, the asteroid would—at least in theory—be within the range of a manned visit. 7. We're Still Quite a bit Away From Setting Foot on Mars The reported aim for NASA is to have a man on Mars sometime during the 2030 decade. 8. NASA are Already Involved in Another Kind of Space Race There are currently two known private companies who plan to send manned operations to asteroids. 
9. There is Also a Defense Element to the Mission NASA will also be researching ways in which a potentially earth threatening asteroid could be diverted. 10. The Recent Spate of Meteor Incidents Have Given Scientists Some Ideas Scientists are targeting and tracking asteroids which are about the same size as the meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in February. Russian Meteor Had the Power of 30 Hiroshima Bombs | HEAVY The Russian meteor was even bigger and more powerful than first estimated, with an explosion the force of 30 Hiroshima bombs. Get the stats here. Click here to read more

Read more at: http://www.heavy.com/news/2013/03/nasa-to-retrieve-asteroid-budget-request-100millio/

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RULES OF CRISIS

Three new rules for managing crises in a social world

Crisis response times have shrunk in the digital age, and companies now need to ensure they are engaged and responsive when issues blow up, says Brian West

Qantas: Needed to adapt to social media challenge

If you wait until you know everything, you will never say anything. New Zealand dairy producer Fonterra is one of the latest companies to be caught out by this time-tested maxim, failing ‘the need for speed’– one of the three new rules for managing crises in a social world.

Asiana Airlines broke all three of the new rules of crisis management when its plane crashed at San Francisco airport earlier this year, guaranteeing a big hit to its brand reputation andthe destruction of company value. Its stock price dipped by a sharp 6.2 percent the day after the crash – a three-year low – and has not recovered.

The first photo of the crash was tweeted 30 seconds after the incident and the first photo from a passenger having exited the crashed plane was uploaded, with commentary, just 18 minutes after the crash. Asiana took more than four hours to update its Twitter and Facebook pages and another two hours to issue its first statement, failing the speed of response test.

When Qantas suffered a catastrophic failure of an engine on its A380 aircraft in November 2010, the airline was flying blind in the social media space. Qantas did not even have a Twitter account let alone a social media listening tool – the second rule in a social world. Managing Director Alan Joyce admitted this fact at a press conference in February 2011, three months after the incident.
"We first noticed a problem when our share price started to collapse, and that’s because [of] these reports coming out of Twitter. They were reported by one mainstream media outlet on the basis of the Twitter reports that the aircraft had crashed in Indonesia and that started to obviously cause a problem with the share price," Mr. Joycesaid at the time.

Companies need to invest more management time and resources in preparing, updating and testing crisis response plans to take into account the rapid changes arising from social media. It is staggering that companies are yet to understand and prepare for the demanding requirements of the new crisis paradigm. To do this effectively, there are three things – at the very least – that they need to be doing right now.

• First, they have to recognize that if they have not updated their crisis response plan in the past 12 months, it is now useless. In fact, it is a dangerous document.

• Second, social media has to be at the heart of their crisis communications response strategy, along with a social media listening tool working 24/7 globally in at least 190 languages.

• Third, companies need to train and delegate authority to the first responders to a crisis, empowering both in-country and frontline staff.

The days where companies can use centralized crisis command and control are over – especially when incidents occur in another time zone.In this new social world, detailed crisis response plans, Initial Public Statements and the tools needed for managing a crisis in the first few hours have to be shared with frontline staff and in-country personnel – the third and final rule of managing the new crisis paradigm.

When a crisis is measured in tweets per second, these first responders need to be given the authority to react immediately and without waiting for head office. Furthermore, companies can’t be taking the time to educate head office on the cultural and social-geo issues specific to a country. This works both ways – West to East for companies like Apple, with its recent misstep in China, and East to West for Asiana Airlines.

The key to success is having a detailed plan that covers the initial hours of a crisis – the so-called ‘golden hours’ – when you can exercise some control over the situation. You also need a team and a strategy – a longer-term guiding light strategy.

If companies follow these rules, they can ensure their company value and brand reputation are not being defined by someone else’s 140 characters.

Brian West is FleishmanHillard’s global lead for Crisis Management. He has more than 30 years’ experience in corporate & public affairs in Asia Pacific and globally, and has managed the communication and stakeholder relations programs for governments, NGOs, media, unions, customers, employees and local communities during some of Asia’s highest profile incidents.

DIPLOMATS AND THE DIGITAL ERA

The aim of this article is to crowdsource its content, which will be later published online. If you want to contribute ideas to this article, please:

1) add your first and last name, social media handle (only one, preferably Twitter), and affiliation in the byline (no anonymous edits please);

2) add paragraphs (feel free to add it anywhere in the article) or correction/edit (please add it in red or other color);

3) add your advice for ambassadors and diplomat at the end of the article by numbering it...

CROWDSOURCING ADVICE FOR AMBASSADORS AND DIPLOMATS ON HOW TO HARNESS THE DIGITAL ERA

by Andreas Sandre and Matthias Lüfkens (@Luefkens), Burson-Marsteller, Digital Practice Leader.

Add below here, separate by a semi-colon:

Kevin

EXAMPLE: John Doe (@johndoe), Director of the International Institute

Crowdsourcing is booming. From the efforts to map damages in stricken areas after Hayian in the Philippines, to engaging the public in the discovery and preservation of history, crowdsourcing platforms are becoming everyday tools in many sectors. And why not for diplomacy -- or rather, digital diplomacy?

Wikipedia is one of the most successful results of crowdsourcing, with millions of articles compiled by millions of users. As of September 2013, Wikipedia was ranked as the 9th most popular site on the internet for desktop & mobile platforms with 116,835,000 visitors. Of these, about one out of 15,000 contribute five or more edits, and of those, a stable 10% contribute more than 100 edits each month.

Inspired by Wikipedia, in 2006 the U.S. Department of State’s Office of eDiplomacy -- celebrating its 10th anniversary this year -- launched Diplopedia, an internal knowledge-sharing platform, one of the many crowdsourcing projects it runs today. Diplopedia is an online encyclopedia of foreign affairs information that can be edited by any of its users.

"To be effective, today's diplomat must convey a deeper understanding of his or her country beyond the international headlines," reads a 2010 study on Diplopedia by Rice University. "When you allow staff to create and edit entries, you are allowing a greater product that can be easily shared over time."

Many governments, think tanks, and foundations are now using crowdsourcing platforms to gather and assess information. The idea is to include more voices in the process, whether it’s for crowdsourcing ideas for new initiatives or to include the public in the policy debate.

This is the reasoning behind this article, whose content is crowdsourced from users on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms.

There are many articles and blog posts out there on how to use digital tools to build and engage networks and make the diplomatic process more inclusive -- and I have written extensively on social media and innovation in foreign policy. But the idea of digital diplomacy is exactly to include all audiences in the debate, while nurturing an open discussion.

Ambassadors and diplomats have embraced digital tools at various levels, from using Twitter and Facebook, to exploring tools like MapBox to map offices and services around the country; from Storifying events and initiatives, to experimenting with GoogleGlass at public functions. The opportunities are endless and organizations like the Digital Diplomacy Coalition and the Young Professional in Foreign Policy are dedicated to share innovative ideas, best practices, and more among the diplomatic community in Washington DC and elsewhere.

Here is some advice that has been collected by crowdsourcing this article:

Training

Don’t rush into social media without some basic training. Twitter is probably the best tool to learn social media engagement in ‘private mode’. Set up a protected Twitter account, mutually follow a handful of your colleagues and start “test tweeting” for a couple of weeks. Ask your social media trainer and your team to cast a critical eye on your tweets. Once you are comfortable with the platform and its 140-character limitation delete the “test tweets” and go public. At Burson-Marsteller we have designed a Tweet Academy workshop to help our clients master the tool. (by Matthias @Luefkens @Twiplomacy).

Who to follow

Follow and connect with your peers. @Twiplomacy has a number of useful Twitter lists of embassies and diplomats around the world. You can either subscribe to the lists for your reading pleasure or better pick your peers and follow them to connect on Twitter. Start by following all your peers and colleagues in your city. Twitter will not replace face to face meetings, phone calls or emails but it’s another communication channel you should use. Once mutually connected with your peers you can send Direct Messages via Twitter, which are far more effective than email. Don’t worry about following too many people. You don’t have to read all their tweets. For better Twitter reading you should create lists of must-read accounts instead. (by Matthias @Luefkens @Twiplomacy)

32 Twitter Tips

1     Don't tweet what you eat, but tweet as you eat, ie three times per day - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

2     .@replies will only be seen by all your followers if you put a dot before the @ (aka 'dot replies') - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

3     Be personal. However, unless you are the president of the USA keep your private life out of your Twitter feed http://bur.sn/gx6WN - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

4     Don’t tweet about the weather, unless you’re English or your business is The Sun http://bur.sn/gx6ZR - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

5     Be human, however keep your emotions under control http://bur.sn/gx71S - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

6     Tweet positive. Don’t vent your anger on Twitter http://bur.sn/gx7nF - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

7     Never use foul language. http://bur.sn/gx8dq - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

8     Be brief. Don’t exceed 100-120 characters; leave space for retweets (RTs) - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

9     Be short and to the point http://bur.sn/gx74F - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

10   The best tweets are often the shortest http://bur.sn/gx76P - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

11   The most popular tweet ever had only three words and a picture http://bur.sn/gx9TS - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

12   A tweet with exactly 140 characters is called a "Twoosh", but it's often impossible to retweet. See http://bur.sn/gx7Fe - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

13   Following someone doesn’t mean you must read all their tweets. Create lists for curated Twitter readings. - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

14   Create and follow lists https://twitter.com/Twiplomacy/lists #Curation - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

15   Are your staff on Twitter? Creating staff lists http://bur.sn/gxiGx helps you monitor what your employees are tweeting - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

16   Create a monthly editorial calendar and a weekly/daily tweet sheet - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

17   Lost for words? Tweet historic events or historic quotes... - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

18   Don’t forget to send Holiday Greetings via Twitter, cheaper than a greetings card http://bur.sn/gxaFH - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

19   Use different Twitter clients for your personal and corporate Twitter accounts to avoid accidents - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

20   #Multiple #hashtags will make your #tweet #difficult to #read - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

21   #LongHashtagsAreAnnoyingAndPointless - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

22   It is ok to make spelling mistakes but proof read your tweets before sending: http://bur.sn/gx7bF - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

23   Read your posts out loud http://bur.sn/gx6Dj via @shortstackjim @socialmedia2day - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

24   Know when to use a comma. Spelling matters http://bur.sn/gx6Dj via @shortstackjim @socialmedia2day - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

25   Mom This is How Twitter Works - Learn the basics: http://bur.sn/gx8hJ - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

26   Use http://goo.gl or http://bit.ly or get your branded URL shortener http://bur.sn to shorten links - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

27   Don’t buy followers http://bur.sn/gxbnU via @SGH_Marketing @SocialMedia2day - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

28   Use a Twitter client such as @Hootsuite @Tweetdeck http://bur.sn/gxbQg via @andrewriesen @socialmedia2day- @BMdigital #TwitterTips

29   Never make people laugh - unless that is the intended outcome http://bur.sn/gxcaG via @softwarehollis @socialmedia2day- @BMdigital #TwitterTips

30   Social media doesn't have to be time consuming http://bur.sn/gxicQ via @BradleyESmith @socialmedia2day - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

31   Make your tweets RARE: Relevant, Articulate, Reliable, Enabling http://bur.sn/gxedH via @TheTweepleQueen @socialmedia2day

32   Don’t make a crisis out of a tweet - @BMdigital #TwitterTips

Add below here, separate by a semi-colon:

EXAMPLE:

1) Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut vehicula bibendum ipsum, sed fringilla sapien euismod vel. Aliquam tempus augue iaculis lacus dictum vehicula. (by John Doe -- or by @johndoe);

1) (by @mjmclean);

You have risen to the position you have due in large part to your knowledge, experience and networks.  Your voice matters on the diplomatic stage and is now a welcome addition to online dialogues. Global issues affect us all and your voice can extend beyond the borders of your accredited territory(ies). You are contributing to a dialogue and being part of a community.

> Twitter is simply another tool in your diplomatic arsenal (phone, face-to-face, email, meetings etc.)

> Find a mentor within your embassy or your peer network, don’t be afraid to ask and learn.
Learning how find, filter, and listen will make it enjoyable and exciting;

> Listen to what others are saying; pay attention to/critique how they’re engaging; (other diplomats in your city/country, #digitaldiplomacy)

> Be curious, be yourself.  Share and seek based on your interests.

> Enjoy!

2) From Scott Nolan Smith, @ScottNolanSmith - Co-Founder of the Digital Diplomacy Coalition & Head of Digital Diplomacy at the British Embassy in Washington:

It is important to remember that digital diplomacy is not separate from diplomacy. It is not a solution to the world’s problems, nor a catch all to being a great diplomat. Digital technologies, however, do present new tools and opportunities for diplomats to do their jobs better, and for foreign ministries to achieve their goals in new ways. Digital technologies provide an additional set of tools to the wider diplomatic toolkit. Digital, particularly social media, allows governments to be more engaging, to listen more and broadcast less. It's no longer about ‘the audience,’ it’s  about the communities you engage with and become a part of.

;

3) <@feromalo> Innovation is neither analog nor digital, it's methodological (it's related to strategies, and not merely with tools).

Even if social media holds strategic potential for enhancing communication tactics, there is no guarantee that it is (or will be) used that way. The reality is that more often than not it's used only for broadcasting (transmitting, sending, spreading, promulgating information to audiences), and not necessarily for communication (understood as interaction or engagement between social actors, ie, communities).

My suggestion: don't highlight the technology, and rather focus on the design of the engagement process.

In other words, the focus should not be primarily in the medium or communications technology, but in how messages (communication strategies and tactics) are structured / tailored. Furthermore, the target audiencie/community is the one that should define both (the messege and the means of contact, influence and persuasion to be used; be them traditional or novel).

"'Google before you tweet' is the new 'think before you speak'." Author unknown.

</@feromalo>