NASA has been shutdown!

All NASA employees have been sent home, with the exception of a few that run the unfortunate astronauts in the ISS, the guys still working on the MAVEN project, and a few select other groups.
Everyone else?
Go home.
There's less than 600 of about 18,000 NASA employees still working as of Oct 4th.
Website is down, Twitter is down, phone lines are down.
There's no one to run the Hubble should it need to temporarily shutdown in the face of radiation, which it does several times a year. When it shuts down, someone has to manually command it to reboot.
There's no one to do that.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is still running, thanks to the fact that they're run by California Institute of Technology employees, who aren't government employees.
MAVEN, which has to be launched towards Mars by Dec. 7th, is still okay.
Honestly guys, I'm freaking out here. We could stand to lose a ridiculous amount of astronomical data, and the entire space program, already on crutches, could be eliminated. Even ground-based astronomy is losing out, due to the shutdown of the Very Large Array and probably others I don't know about.
When the shutdown ends is unknown, and what condition things will be in is unknown.


Thoughts? Panic attacks? Information?
Do tell.

 

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I wonder is congress made of American people ? or is there a Syrian conspiracy.

Do congress man and senators , give a dam about this country ? or they think they are self centered entity which does not give a dam but only about thenselves ?

 

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well basically it goes like this...NASA subsidiaries are still operating and so are NASA employees under them, and majorly all missions pretty much are ran using other companies through NASA>

 

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When one thinks of the government shutting down the first problem that comes to mind isn't NASA.

 

...but what?

 

The financial markets become unstable, people losing their jobs or income, agencies shutting down when you are required to make use of them, etc.

 

Military, justice, health, education . . .


Here's a pretty extensive summary of how sweeping the shutdown is.
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/09/politics/government-shutdown-impact/

It looks multifaceted. It seems to single out any agencies they might target as "Big Government" plus some targets that look cynically chosen -- Obama's legal office, and his office on Budget. (I haven't noticed that they've shut themselves down).

Also, look at DOJ. They managed to shut down civil and anti-trust litigation.

 

The Juno site is also closed. It's making it's flyby on Oct 9th. It will need a trajectory tweak just after Earth closest approach. Will staff be watching for a flyby anomaly? Will the data be recorded and recoverable afterwards?

 

I can't believe how irresponsible the so called representable of the people are

Next question : do this people who are off work will the get back pay, for their days off ?

 

I would believe the NASA employe wold be loyal to the job , they will not abandon their fellow coworker in jeopardy or in danger, I wold think at some point their dedication to science becomes more important then the paycheck.

 

You don't need to worry. The wars, the torture, and the spying continue without interruption.

 

I'm curious. Why is there so much concern and hype over this government shutdown? Is it because there are 7+ billion people on the planet? Is it because the Internet is so prevalent and people can spread a lot more information/fear to a lot more people much more quickly these days? It it because of technology? Is it because that our economy is not recovering like many are claiming it is and society is much weaker now than ever before and on the verge of collapsing? All of the above? None of the above? Why all the commotion, fuss and fear?

 

To me is very simple Those overpaid bastard in the congress playing a game that might affect the economy . Now if the people who are off don't get paid the is how should it be but if they get paid then we the public who pay their salary give them more vacation for doing nothing

 

Because fear works.

 

Ahh, so the reason for all the concern is because we have a lot more people on the planet than say 20 years ago? And because there is more people today a government shutdown in the past wouldn't be as significant as a government shutdown today?

 

It's important because we very much need the government.

 

Hi spiddergoat . are you a fed. gov. employe ? if so how is it affecting you ?

 

Adding to what spidergoat said, the concern surrounds all of the work which should be going on which is left undone. Ultimately people are only concerned about things that affect them directly, or else things they see coming down the pike which are likely to affect them, and/or the things which affect people they know, or strangers for whom they feel compassion.

The only questions that seem to be relevant to your remarks are: what work is being left undone, and what are the consequences? How does that affect me? How does that affect other people I care about, or people I don't know, but who I do not wish to become the random victims of the Republican struggle for power?

 

I'm not so selfish that my only concern is for my own short term well being.