NASA is closing its Diversity Equity and Inclusion offices
NASA has long celebrated the diversity of its workforce and put measures in place aimed at getting more under-represented people involved in the agency’s mission.
That includes diversity programs in the STEAM fields – science, technology, engineering, art, and math.
But those efforts have come to an end, according to a memo sent by acting NASA administrator Janet Petro.
“The Programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination,” said Petro in the memo obtained by Central Florida Public Media.
The memo is tied to a wider Trump-administration effort to remove DEIA initiatives from all federal agencies.
Kieth Cowing is the editor of NASAWatch.com, an independent watchdog organization that keeps close tabs on the agency, its leadership and personnel. He’s also a former NASA employee.
He said these closures could have a wide-spread effect on the agency and its tens of thousands of employees – both civil servants and contractors.
“I have had people tell me that they have been working in diversity related things, either directly in their title or on projects that had funding for that. And they said ‘Kieth, we’ve been told not to come back to work. We don’t know if we’re going to have a job change or our title won’t do anything of this.’”
NASA recently removed a page from 1978 highlighting women and minorities selected for its programs, according to Cowing. The page was deleted in less than 24 hours, leaving many questioning the future of diversity initiatives.
“If I were a contractor right now, I would seriously be looking at job hunting if you are in the field that is related to [DEI] or a mission that includes that.”
How do we bring samples from Mars back to Earth?
Rovers have been exploring the Martian surface for years, studying craters and ancient rocks. As part of the Perseverance rover’s mission, scientists hope to bring samples from Mars back to Earth.
However, because this mission would be costly and would take years to complete, NASA is now evaluating other methods to bring a piece of Mars to Earth.
Amy Williams, a member of the rovers’ science teams and an astrobiologist at the University of Florida said NASA is primarily looking at two options. One is commercial companies to build new technology. The other is use what the agency already has.
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are solidifying concepts for a Mars sample return mission that would seek to take the samples of Martian rocks and other materials being collected and stored in sealed tubes by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover and return the sealed tubes to Earth.
According to the current concept, NASA would deliver a Mars lander in the vicinity of Jezero Crater, where Perseverance (left) will have collected and cached samples. The Sample Retrieval Lander (right) would carry a NASA rocket (the Mars Ascent Vehicle), along with ESA's Sample Fetch Rover (center) that is roughly the size of the Opportunity Mars rover. The fetch rover would gather the cached samples and carry them back to the lander for transfer to the ascent vehicle; additional samples could also be delivered directly by Perseverance. The ascent vehicle would then launch a special container holding the samples into Mars orbit. ESA would put a spacecraft in orbit around Mars before the ascent vehicle launches. This spacecraft would rendezvous with and capture the orbiting samples before returning them to Earth. NASA would provide the capture and containment payload module for the orbiter.
“They’re also looking at leveraging existing hardware,” Williams said. “So, this is something in the NASA world we call heritage. It is cheaper to build something you already built than to make something new. So, Mars Sample Return, right now, would still have some new components. You still need to launch off the surface of Mars, which we've never done before.”
Williams said some of the heritage methods NASA is considering includes the Sky Crane Delivery method. This option was used to bring both curiosity and perseverance to Mars. While the mission overall will be new, Williams said she feels secure about the idea of using equipment that has been successful in previous Mars missions; like the Sky Crane.
“It's always a few steps forward in some of our technologies, while leveraging other things that really increase the likelihood of success,” Williams said. “So, that is the risk posture it looks like they're interested in taking, and it makes me more confident, even more so that we can get samples back and learn really extraordinary things about Mars and about Earth.”
While Perseverance will one day hand off its collections for the Mars Sample Return Mission, for now, the rover is taking orbital data and helping provide imagery of the planet for scientists.
“We got to this really great point where you you're sort of at the pinnacle, the highest point between Jezero crater, and you can look back down into Jezero, but you can also look forward outside the crater and into that ancient Noachian terrain,” Williams said. “So, we got these amazing images of sort of looking back and looking forward. It’s really cool to kind of look back in the crater.”
