A nice pic, only distantly related to today’s post. Note the people for scale. From Larkman Nunatak, I think 2007?
Hi Everyone,
There have been some positive developments lately, all good news and thus worth sharing. Here’s a summary…..
1) Jim had a meeting (or two) with the Polar Programs planning folks. The system is a bit more complicated than it used to be, with long-range planners, immediate “poin-of-contact” support planners, some planners more tuned into logistics and others more tuned into cost estimates, etc. Jim (and I) were surprised to learn that we needed semiformal approval for a longer-term (5-year) plan to get our shorter term plans informally approved. Jim had the meetings, got the right approvals, and was persuasive enough to get things done. Now we are semi-quasi-pseudo approved for this coming austral summer’s planned deployment to the Dominion Range, with a 6-person field team.
2) Yesterday included two consequential developments. First we had a meeting with Dr. Kelly Fast, the current (interim) head of Planetary Defense. I have sympathy for Kelly; the last two years of personnel loss, strictures and internal litmus-tests have been binding up what’s allowable to fund and what not, etc. The result is she’s kind of a one-woman show for Planetary Defense right now. Jim gave her a full run-down of where the project stands in terms of funding, priorities, preparedness, etc. and she seemed both relieved and pleased, and has agreed to release our next increment of funding. She (like us) is feeling a bit in the dark as far as interagency agreements that let Polar Programs play nice with NASA and other agencies, but Jim and I both know people working on the issue and feel confident that progress is being made. Progress on difficult issues is not always a given in our government right now, but the vibes feel positive and we feel optimistic.
3) The best news was that the meetings described under #1 above led to the release of our SIP for completion yesterday. In normal-person-language, we now are officially invited to fill out the formal planning documents for the coming season, available to us online. That truly IS a formal invitation; you don’t get to fill out a SIP if they don’t intend to support you. With over 30 years of practice filling out these forms, we rightfully feel our SIPs are a thing of beauty; we know how to fully and honestly complete the forms in ways that make our needs reliably easy to understand. I’ll not without throwing anyone under the bus that it isn’t always the case; when new projects fill out their SIPS they’re never sure what to ask for, how to ask for it, etc. Not a problem for ANSMET, thankfully, and even easier this year since we filled out the SIP last year and we’re simply copying it forward.
These new developments have energized Jim (and me too, but mostly Jim) and he’s already trying to finalize field team invitations, get the grant money flowing freely into places it needs to go, etc. Same here at Case; I’ve got the Bootcamp to plan and a few other secondary things to take care of for the coming season. It feels good to be busy with ANSMET- sitting and waiting always feels worse than working out solutions, particularly for folks like us who are in this business for the challenge of it all.
In closing, here’s a few minor bits of news to share……
-I mentioned in the last post I’ll be giving the Barringer Lecture at the upcoming Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Frankfurt, Germany on the evening of August 10. I’d like to also mention that if you or any of your friends are in the region and want to attend, I wanted to make sure you know this is a free event, no-cost and open to the public. I would love to see you there! No need to register for the meeting, no other entrapments to worry about. Though I am sorely tempted to ask if I can set up an ANSMET merch table in the lobby. Maybe little 3d-printed ANSMET snowmobiles, wooly socks with our emblem, ANSMET-authorized energy drinks (Schutt Specials, amaretto and hot cocoa)……
-Ralph from Novelty OH