NASA-SPEAK. A whole new language.

Having posted a few times regarding the quaint use of the English Language by the otherwise excellent NASA website, I wonder is it time for a NASA-SPEAK thread? Below is an offering from today’s bulletin:

With the Space Launch System (SLS) in the background, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden spoke Monday during a visit to the agency................

I only speak English with some French and Spanish. Is there anyone out there who speaks Monday and can offer the often needed translations?

Roger that, Novak. Monday is a no go. Over and out.

Hey K4K, Rapid response. That was less than 60 seconds.. .. .. At least their satellites are working OK. :)

Roger that too, Novak (my vocabulary is quite limited).

Monday is the language you use after the weekend, it tends to be more reminiscent of relaxation but also bodes of the working week ahead. Compare that to speaking Friday which virtually never looks back and is all about the next two days.

We copy, bersad. Love speaking Friday.

k4k

Here we go again. Below direct from today's NASA website:

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Monday visited the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans .. .. ..

It becomes clear that Monday is not a language, it's the man's name. (Like Johnny English. This man knows no limits. This man knows no fear. This man knows nothing.)

This is so funny :D

>7 Novak:
...which forces one to wonder what a Michoud might be, and how you assemble one. Their web page doesn't make it any clearer:

Michoud is unique in that it contains one of the largest production buildings in the nation.

So can something be unique if it contains "one of the largest" rather than "THE largest"?
I thought this might be the best place to ask.

k4k

I thought about that too, and my conclusion is that all the other members of "the largest" are hosted in pairs. Having just one of them makes Michoud unique.

>11 Amtep:
I hadn't thought of that explanation: more amusing than my prosaic suspicion that it's the result of corporate caution and successive people making detailed edits to the wording without anyone ever reading through the complete resulting text.

11: very clever! I will have to remember that. k4k

>10 krazy4katz:, 11, 12, Very snappy..

How do you feel about this unique-speak gem from NASA Thursday?.. .. .. (Sorry, couldn't resist it. :)

As NASA works with U.S. industry to develop the next generation of U.S. spaceflight services, the agency also is developing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket

thorold. Maybe someone also is reading the completed text, also?

Um ... which agency was that?

>15 pinkozcat:
The agency Also - the American Logic and Semantics Organisation?

Shhhh. It's lower case, so it's secret. A low standard output? also.

I know that this is changing the subject a bit but I am currently filling out a form prior to having a small lesion removed from my face and this is one of the questions I am required to answer:

"Have you suffered from a recent progressive dementia (physical or mental) that has not been diagnosed?"

Having worked with people with dementia I can see two things wrong in this question.

Uhm, I can't remember.

>19 pinkozcat:. I think your hospital shares a scriptwriter with NASA. Let's not forget that the person who wrote the following on Friday also wrote NASA a job application letter once:

The report released Wednesday is based on the panel's 2013 fact-finding and quarterly public meetings; "insight" visits and meetings; direct observations of NASA operations and decision-making processes; discussions with NASA management, employees, and contractors; and the panel members' own experience.
"This year's annual report centers on risk, risk management, accountability, and transparency," said panel chairman Joseph W. Dyer. "The panel notes that in pursuit of a U.S. capability to launch humans into space, and in light of constrained budgets, an argument to accept additional risk could be rationally put forward. The ASAP underscores the need to speak transparently about risk and reward. Acceptable risk needs to be formally accepted, made accountable, and explained to the NASA team, Congress, and the public."

Nothing wrong with that.. .. ..

At least the apostrophes are in the correct place even if the rest of the punctuation is a bit enthusiastic.

I always thought that ASAP stood for "as soon as possible" but it has been used as a vowel and doesn't make sense. Perhaps apostrophes are all that the writer knows about. Does ASAP have another meaning which I haven't encountered until now?

I wonder if Jasper Fforde is writing for NASA. The examples presented above remind me strongly of the text in his novel The Eyre Affair in which is SpecOps operative, Miss Thursday Next, is the main character.

"Since it was established in 1968, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) has been evaluating NASA's safety performance and advising the Agency..."

#24 Thank you. It is going to get more and more confusing as more and more abbreviations are used.

25> To be fair, that text was taken from a job application in which that abbreviation was probably well understood by all involved.

>21 Novak:
If they are going to speak transparently, we had better write odourlessly.

As far as I can decode it, the excerpt in post 21 is saying "we need to admit that we can't afford to launch people into space safely any more." However good the press officer, messages like that rarely manage to emerge from the corporate hierarchy without various bosses doing their best to obfuscate them.

>27 thorold:. Spot on, thorold. “Speak transparently” is what first caught my attention and when I re-read these two short paragraphs it just got worse and worse. Do you think Bart Simpson is involved?

By the way, I am a devoted fan and follower of NASA, I think their website is awesome and their achievements are outstanding. It is not my intention to knock them, it is just their use of the language I find so amusing. Posts on this thread are downloaded direct from the NASA website and unedited by me.

>29 thorold:. Agreed 100%. I confess I no longer attempt to tease out the "between the lines" meaning from the language, I just enjoy the humour.

The rover also may' sounds less right than 'The rover may also'. I hear that order a lot from non-native speakers (like I am).

The use of also indicates a previous mention of the rover in an earlier sentence or paragraph. If this was not present, its use is indeed unnecessary.

Never say "Roger that" to a Brit. You may see something unexpected.

Aggghhh. I think it's delberate.. .. .. (Perhaps the PO is on the beach and it's his kids doing his job?)

NASA Set for a Big Year in Earth Science with Five New Missions

The five launches, including two to the International Space Station (ISS), are part of an active year for NASA Earth science researchers, who also will conduct airborne campaigns to the poles and hurricanes, develop advanced sensor technologies, and use satellite data and analytical tools to improve natural hazard and climate change preparedness.

They can't be that bad by mistake.

33> Love it..! Also See, also >27 thorold: the "Certain use of the comma" thread also also. And as well, and too.

That one actually makes some sense to me, if you think of "human" as a demonym sort of adjective. Human-made would be more precise, but awkward. ("Japanese car" - "Japanese-made car") - I think the biggest issue is in the jargon use of "spacecraft", which seems to include meteors and planets and such, too.

How far did human spacecraft travel in the 1970s?

More to the point, how far have those inhuman ones travelled? Or are we talking about the ones made by aardvarks?

Good point, Booksloth. One wonders if the most technologically advanced organisation on earth (or in the galaxy) find themselves searching for the simple words … man-made?

> 35-40

Ah, "human spacecraft." Not "made by humans" or "made of humans" but "designed to carry humans" . . . as opposed to "robotic spacecraft" that don't have cabins and life-support systems. It's the gender-neutral version of "manned spacecraft."

Not, I admit, an elegant coinage, but better than the runner-up: "crewed spacecraft," which works fine in writing but, when spoken, calls forth images of chewing gum, bailing wire, and the ingenious use of flattened beer cans

> 36

As far as I know, "spacecraft" has always meant, specifically, human-made vehicles designed to travel in space, having been coined has an analog of "aircraft." A planet isn't a spacecraft for the same reason a duck isn't an aircraft.*

* Though there are unconfirmed reports that the aardvarks are experimenting with rocket-powered . . . ah, never mind.

#41 So the correct term should be, "humanned spacecraft"?

41> "Crude spacecraft", beer cans etc' Now that really did make me laugh, thanks.

Always strikes me how the International Space Station (ISS) unmanned (inhuman?) delivery modules resemble huge beer cans.

Is that true.. .. .. .. about the aardvarks?

ETA: huge.

Somehow I'm reminded of a naval warfare game where you could decide how aggressively a fleet should move into a new area. The top aggressiveness option was 'If it floats and it doesn't quack, sink it."

44> Now, the word "Duck!" (get down) isn't easy to explain.. .. .. ..

Here is today's little gem:

Such a lunar transit happens two to three times each year. This one lasted two and one half hours, which is the longest ever recorded. When the next one will occur is as of yet unknown due to planned adjustments in SDO's orbit.

Could this have been worded better?

#45 Still less, the word "Duck" (dear, sweetheart, honey). All right, duck?

#45 All right, duck?

Obviously you are the snob on this one with my being in the lower social class. I would have heard, "All right, duckie?"

Your, "All right, duck?" made me think of the Manchester, "All right, Chuck?", as would have been said often by Bet in the Rover's Return.

My Yorkshire/Lancashire relations would have used duck, chuck and chick (usually that one was reserved for addressing the younger generation) more or less interchangeably at one time but I suspect they abandoned Chuck fairly quickly the moment Bet joined the cast. (We may not be snobs but we do have standards.)

I feel deprived now. I never had any Yorkshire/Lancashire relations. I did have a Yorkshire petrology lecturer and it was a treat to hear him great his sedimentology colleague with, "L O Jon!" (That does not do the effect justice, but the Yorkshire Hello! is wonderful to hear, musical in its delivery.)

#45 All right, duck?

This did not work for me. Shouted this to her in Tesco and she dived under the checkout. (Must have been the blitz)

"Chuck" is certainly typical Manchester, but I'd have thought "Luv" was more normal in Lancashire generally. "Duck" makes me think of Nottinghamshire.

The most striking thing about the Yorkshire "L O" when you're not used to it is that it's normally associated with an unexpected head peering round the back door into your kitchen. (Front doors are for high officials and funerals; knocking would be stand-offish and formal.)

51>

Bill Bryson (forgotten which book) tells of: stagger out of bed, put kettle on, lean against kitchen sink, do a lift-leg-fart.......Look around to see next-door-neighbour standing there. Back door always open? It's making me laugh just typing it.

#51 You may well be right about that. My mother's family originated in Yorkshire then split and moved three ways - one lot to Lancashire, one lot to Notts and one lot to Devon - so it's quite possible I've confused the colloquialisms.

41> ABVR, Herewith proof of your statement; looks OK but would not stand inclusion in a broadcast.

In addition to launching NASA's new Orion spacecraft on crewed missions to deep space, SLS also may launch robotic spacecraft on deep space scientific missions. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the SLS Program for the agency.

On the positive side NASA have invented the word STEM, (Science, technology, engineering, mathematics) the world needs more of this type of thinking.

two and one half hours

so, 90 minutes?

>54 Novak: STEM
They could have included "industry" to get SMITE - only a little bit more redundancy, and a much punchier acronym. Bur maybe more appropriate for the Pentagon...

#54 NASA have invented the word STEM

I think there must be a plant.

55> Well spotted JerryMmm. I too would agree that two and one half hours could be 90 minutes.

Two and a half hours could not.

It could also be two and a half hours or 150 minutes .

>41 ABVR: Taken from today's webpage: and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system.

NASA appear to have dropped the "Human spacecraft" angle, as you suggest and have gone for "uncrewed". Will be interesting to see how the crewed craft will be termed.

This is a mighty step for mankind.

>61 Novak:
With the way these things normally evolve, I'd put my money on "ununcrewed".
Or maybe even the George Orwell approach: "Doubleplus-un-uncrewed".

But there's also a school of thought that treats "polo" as the opposite of "crew", so you could be talking about "unpoloed" spacecraft.

If they leave it to the engineers, it will be something like "on-board meat-based repair system" or "animate payload" (but with a neater acronym)...

Could be "carbon-based personnel".

From today's news: "New maps of Saturn’s moon Titan .. ... .. .. The pair of patches was spotted by a NASA-led international team of researchers investigating the chemical make-up of Titan’s atmosphere."

Oh, was they?

>65 Novak:
Sponsored by L'Oreal?

What do you want? They're scientists, not poets laureate.

What's a couple of periods?

>65 Novak:

In Florida, USA, "the pair was spotted" is correct grammar. You lot is the ones that has a problem with it.

However I have no defense for the "very unique setting." Perhaps the writer was indulging in a jewel{er}y metaphor. The Endeavour is a jewel set in the ring of the earth's horizon.

Sounds pretty unique to me.

pretty and unique indeed.

You lot is the one's what got a problem wit'it.