Security Obsession Drives 100 Scientists from NASA: Top Security Clearance Needed to Steer Curiosity

They did an entire episode about this on The Big Bang Theory.
Sheldon Cooper said it best when he said, "what, you mean they don't let strange women from honky tonks come inand drive 350 MILLION dollar robotic cars on Mars??"


Howard says, "my mom is gonna love her! One free enema and she won't care she's not Jewish.'

Sheldon: "Good, maybe they can carpool together when they come visit you in Federal Prison."



You have ALWAYS had to have clearance to work with the rovers. Not for what you may see on Mars, but for your general knowledge of the tech.
For the love of Pete.

By Law NASA Is NOT Allowed To Tell The Truth

Please check down below NASA website fine print :

The requirements of this part to make Agency records available do not apply to matters that are--

(1) a) Specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive Order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and

(1) b) Are in fact properly classified pursuant to such Executive Order;

(2) Related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of NASA;

(3) Specifically exempted from disclosure by statute (other than 5 U.S.C. 552), provided that such statute:

a) Requires that the matters be withheld from the public in such a manner as to leave no discretion on the issue, or

b) Establishes particular criteria for withholding or refers to particular types of matters to be withheld;

Originally posted by intrptr
Since when did NASA, (N)ever (A) (S)traight (A)nswer tell all anyway? NASA moved to Langley, Langley is CIA. That should be obvious. The spy satellites controlled by National Space Administration look down , the science ones look out.

NASA, Langley

edit on 9-7-2013 by intrptr because: link

---

The offices that deal with satellite imagery is the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office)
and the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) which design, manufacture and launch their
OWN satellites with almost NO input or help from NASA other than for public liaison purposes
when publicizing high profile launches (i.e. the XB-37 space plane).

Spy satellite launches WERE done using the NASA Space Shuttles, but the X-37 is now
the preferred vehicle along with using some rather more secretive single-stage-to-orbit
launches from the undercarriage or backs of extremely high-flying aircraft.

NASA is the little bum-brother of the big-boy NSA/NRO/Space Command/etc. agencies
who get TONNES more money and black-budget secrecy. NASA gets the cold shoulder
and while its employees do have all these secrecy oaths and NDAs (Non Disclosure Agreements)
they have to sign for mostly no reason other than simple anti-foreign intelligence purposes.

So when it comes to NASA and satellites they are the poor boy with no shovel in the sand-box.

As an aside, here is a tasty tidbit for y'all....There is this internally famous Mars Rover photo of
what looks like to be duck or geese tracks on the martian sands...that one's NEVER been
publicly released, but I do know it's there! I just KNOW that in a few days or weeks that
a highly cropped version will be anonymously released into the public arena.....!!!!!

--- :-) ---- ;-) --- :-) ---- ;-) --- :-) ---- ;-) --- :-) ---- ;-) --- :-) ---- ;-) --- :-) ---- ;-) --- :-) ---- ;-)

The offices that deal with satellite imagery is the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office)
and the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) which design, manufacture and launch their
OWN satellites with almost NO input or help from NASA other than for public liaison purposes
when publicizing high profile launches (i.e. the XB-37 space plane).

So when it comes to NASA and satellites they are the poor boy with no shovel in the sand-box.

There is this internally famous Mars Rover photo ...that NEVER been
publicly released, but I do know it's there! I just KNOW that in a few days or weeks that
a highly cropped version will be anonymously released into the public arena.....!!!!!

I'm afraid that the powers that be have become a bit more aggressive than just cutting & cropping ,,,their sand-box is now fully operational & are now using a "MACHETE" too hack out the data from their deep space network.....it will be to late when your NASA friends arrive

(Multi-Advanced Communications Hybrid Environment for Test and Evaluation )
"MACHETE"

Originally posted by StargateSG7
So when it comes to NASA and satellites they are the poor boy with no shovel in the sand-box.

That means it's time for NASA to go then, they don't have a public voice and they don't have a military one either!

However, Curiosty was a pretty successful project and the rest in PR, so just pretty pictures to look at then? I don't think so.

reply to post by Arken

This is old news, was posted here last year:
Security Obsession Drives 100 Scientists from NASA
The NASA folks apparently had some legitimate concerns about data privacy as discussed in the other thread.

Originally posted by Ostracized

The offices that deal with satellite imagery is the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office)
and the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) which design, manufacture and launch their
OWN satellites with almost NO input or help from NASA other than for public liaison purposes
when publicizing high profile launches (i.e. the XB-37 space plane).

So when it comes to NASA and satellites they are the poor boy with no shovel in the sand-box.

There is this internally famous Mars Rover photo ...that NEVER been
publicly released, but I do know it's there! I just KNOW that in a few days or weeks that
a highly cropped version will be anonymously released into the public arena.....!!!!!

I'm afraid that the powers that be have become a bit more aggressive than just cutting & cropping ,,,their sand-box is now fully operational & are now using a "MACHETE" too hack out the data from their deep space network.....it will be to late when your NASA friends arrive

(Multi-Advanced Communications Hybrid Environment for Test and Evaluation )
"MACHETE"

edit on 9-7-2013 by Ostracized because: (no reason given)

Thank you very much for your contribution to this thread and for this very important add.
Stars.

Originally posted by lunarcartographer
reply to post by Arken

 

Arken, for what it's worth, when I was involved with mapping the NASA 'Apollo Lunar Landing Missions', everyone working on the project had a Top Secret clearance with a SCI caveat (Sensitive Compartmented Information); TS/SCI. The policy was that the Agency reviewed controlled what was released to the public, and not individual employees - that was drilled in you head. There were consequences to pay if you 'talked'; even after retirement. I strongly suspect that JPL does indeed have TS/SCI compartmented information in 'some' divisions, if for no other reason most satellite data is usually highly classified.

With the recent disclosures of TS/SCI information by Snowden, I suspect that they will clamp down on security clearances in all the agencies, even more than in the past.

Thanks for your contribution and your precious comment.
star.

It is a little bit odd that they would do this kind of a thing to a privately run scientific community which is not in any way shape or form involved in National Security ANYTHING! Just another reason to be distrustful of the authorities in this country.

Funny, I applied to positions at Fermi lab and Argonne National Lab and they didn't require a top secret clearance. Though I'm not a scientist, both positions would have given me access to data.

So it can't be about high level data, it has to be something specific to NASA.

Originally posted by digital01anarchy
reply to post by Arken

 

the problem is in a nut shell people have no clue what they give away just talking about work in general. i have worked in a critical data center for a very big very well known company that supplies people with power I'm sure you can guess the name. While connecting patch panels I thought I would take a picture of the data center to use in my digital resume. Funny thing is I'm a information security major and should have known better. That one picture when I realized what I had on it could create a pathway for hackers its showed switches "the brand" its showed labels ect lol while small it could be enough to help some hacker. I deleted it quickly. Imagine working for nasa and having the Chinese, Russians and every other country trying to steal your data all the time. How do I know these countries are doing this I have met someone who was the head of data security at JPL in a lecture he told the class its normal. Like i said information security major

you need to think about the way countries act with uncovered information. Think about this scenario someone social engineers a way into the network with a high clearance. The find top secret data on a lets say new satellite they steal it then build a satellite with the capabilities to hold lets say a warhead instead of a high powered camera.

edit on 9-7-2013 by digital01anarchy because: (no reason given)

You are 100% correct! When my husband was stationed in Germany, a common ad on the AFN (Armed Forces Network), that we could see for free, was about OPSEC (operational security for the non-military types). They had little "skits" about how easy it was to accidentally reveal something that should not be revealed. Even talking about being on a break from this or that unit, in the wrong location, could give an enemy information on troop movements. A spouse talking about some training or other to a friend could reveal even more.

I can understand people being concerned about privacy, and for most jobs, that's a legitimate worry. For something that is sensitive, even if not technically classified, it's critical, though, to be sure people understand the risks involved in revealing data. A security clearance isn't just about the investigation, but about the person being trained to understand how to keep some things secret. My husband actually did intel for years, and for a long time, I didn't get to hear ANYTHING about his work days. Maybe "so-and-so had a birthday", or "such-and-such's wife had a baby", or other personal stuff, but nothing at all about the work.

it sounds like, perhaps there are things happening in that place that ARE secret, and they have to control access.

Privacy? In the USA? Does such a thing even exist?

Someone commented that you don't need security clearance for other scientific organisations, but then you can't really deliver a nuclear weapon with a particle collider or in a test tube. You can in a rocket or other type of space vehicle. I perfectly understand the need for security in a space agency. You wouldn't want North Korea to have a functional launch system that could deliver nuclear warheads to any point on this planet.

reply to post by Arken


This article is from the beginning of December last year....
And there are multiple threads related to it....

reply to post by StargateSG7

The offices that deal with satellite imagery is the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office)
and the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) which design, manufacture and launch their
OWN satellites with almost NO input or help from NASA

Thanks for making that distinction for me, I stand corrected. Interesting post.

About those chicken tracks? Without seeing them I can tell you they are probably made by a tumbling elongated rock from some impactor. Stuff like that is visible all over the moon. Low gravity, little erosion, lasts forever.

Chicken tracks, lol?

See the first three images in here.

boulder tracks

Originally posted by wildespace
Someone commented that you don't need security clearance for other scientific organisations, but then you can't really deliver a nuclear weapon with a particle collider or in a test tube.

Actually, one of the places that didn't require a top secret clearance did have nuclear facilities. It was the original place that did testing for nuclear weapons.