This is exactly what I'm talking about. This nonsense is pushing out dedicated people. But good on your son; if JPL is just going to fire people like they're in industry without the pay scale, there is no point in going to JPL. You can do great science in industry too.

Just heard about a 30-yr JPL scientist that was laid off. Had an email from them about one of our projects at 1PM. Three hours later: fired.

Again, if JPL leadership were actively trying to destroy morale, would they be handling the layoffs any differently?

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory laid off 11% of its staff today, including many people working on an active Mars rover mission. “There’s no whitewashing the ‘doomsday-eve’ feeling that's looming over all our heads,” wrote one JPL’er. eos.org/research-and...

Air traffic controller staffing concerns have recently been in the news - NWS provides direct critical support to ATC, and the Gov't Accounting Office recently raised serious concerns about staffing for that effort, revealing a ~25% shortfall in staffing. More: https://tinyurl.com/4etwc76u

From what I've heard, the way JPL has handled these mass layoffs is disgraceful and makes the process harder. I understand that sometimes you just can't afford things, but it's haphazard, random, and cruel. You can treat your employees with grace even as you end their employment.

Be well to my JPL colleagues. Know that if you are let go, it isn't your fault. You are valued by the rest of us, and you are good at what you do. If any of you need an ear or support, I will try to help however I can if you reach out.

Let's go Mars LightShip!
🧪🔭 #planetsci

If it wasn’t clear, this is all in the context of another 10% layoff at NASA JPL happening tomorrow.

Part of the cuts stem from JPL’s failure to put together a feasible mars sample return mission, but also a huge driver is NASA capitulating in advance to the presidents budget request.

Awesome to see this. I visited Purdue a few years ago and had a nice conversation with Mike about climate science with the mission. I'm looking forward to read it (when it finally shows up through my library since Yale doesn't let me see springer publications through vpn. Yay for profit publishing.)

New paper out! Let’s do a gravity science mission to Mars!

I'm so glad Duffy has time to focus on this now that he has solved the NASA mission funding crisis and hired the several thousand air traffic controllers we need to cover retirements.

This is beyond bad. All of our disease defenses are down now. We are sitting ducks. This is #RussellVought #DonaldTrump #RFKJr. They are endangering American lives with their insane crusade. These men are hazardous to your health and dangerous to the republic. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

What did we discuss in the weekly Friday Science Discussion at the office? Lot's of fun stuff. Let's go through some of them.

1/7
#planetaryscience 🧪

Was planning on going next week anyway. Will now absolutely 100%, could not chain me to a tree, keep me from going to one.

What a little, weak set of weirdo man-babies. I'm (we're) more American than any of them.

Ha! It looks like Avi Loeb silently edited his Medium post about the Perseverance Navcam images, after being called out for his wrong interpretation.
While he previously claimed the image was of 3I/Atlas, he now says the claim came from "social media". 🔭

It is bonkers that whether or not your mission is still alive is totally dependent on whether a mission PI was able to get to some house member to tell some 20 year old staffer to put a line item, single sentence in a house budget request that will never actually end up passing. This is just insane.

We need to talk about Russell Vought – But Properly

Why certain mainstream outlets insist on sanitizing Vought as a devout “small government” conservative – and what actually animates his war against pluralistic democracy.

Some thoughts from my new piece:

🧵

The full comments I wrote to the CNN writer. I'm delighted the part they pulled is about the broader usefulness of studying Mars.

I was able to read an embargoed version of this yesterday. It is pretty amazing what this team was able to do. They tracked these dust devils to estimate the background wind and wind shear. Models look to underestimate this.

I was quoted in this @cnn.com article about it.

More CaSSIS coolness!

The correct link is in the thread, but here it is as well: www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

Jacobs is an actual scientist and seems willing to try behind-the-scenes to protect us from the destructive potential of an RFK-like anti-administrator. I'd rather have Jacobs than Mass, Maue, Curry, Koonin, Ramaswamy, or rando tech bro. I mean, we have Acting NASA Real World Admin Duffy right now.

Standards are low, but despite Sharpiegate and the troubling ways (see UCS blog below) Jacobs contorts himself into not crossing the admin (which is how Isaacman failed his NASA confirmation), Jacobs is the best person we can hope to run NOAA. Perfect is the enemy of the good for the next 3 years.

We made a similar argument in Nature on research funding:

"[G]rant-receiving institutions and the communities that they serve need assurance that funds allocated by Congress will be spent."

Impoundment subverts the law.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The world's premier space agency isn't exempt from the U.S. government shutdown. "You can't just sit in your lab and think that this doesn't impact you, because it's very clear now that it does,” says one planetary scientist. 🏛️ ❌ Read more in @skyandtelescope.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/26e5h4d2 #nasa