Space Studies Board's scientific contributions
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Publications (53)
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other U.S. science research agencies operate a fleet of research aircraft and other airborne platforms that offer diverse capabilities. To inform NASA's future investments in airborne platforms, this study examines whether a large aircraft that would replace the current NASA DC-8 is neede...
The past decade has delivered remarkable discoveries in the study of exoplanets. Hand-in-hand with these advances, a theoretical understanding of the myriad of processes that dictate the formation and evolution of planets has matured, spurred on by the avalanche of unexpected discoveries. Appreciation of the factors that make a planet hospitable to...
This study discusses the publicly available studies of future flagship- and New Frontiers-class missions NASA initiated since the completion of Vision and Voyages. The report considers the priority areas as defined in Vision and Voyages where publicly available mission studies have not been undertaken; appropriate mechanisms by which mission-study...
The Research and Analysis (R&A) program managed by NASA's Planetary Science Division (PSD), supports a broad range of planetary science activities, including the analysis of data from past and current spacecraft; laboratory research; theoretical, modeling, and computational studies; geological and astrobiological fieldwork in planetary analog envir...
At the request of the Advisory Committee for Geosciences of the National Science Foundation (NSF), a review of the Geospace Section of the NSF Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences was undertaken in 2015. The Portfolio Review Committee was charged with reviewing the portfolio of facilities, research programs, and activities funded by Geospa...
New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics (NWNH), the report of the 2010 decadal survey of astronomy and astrophysics, put forward a vision for a decade of transformative exploration at the frontiers of astrophysics. This vision included mapping the first stars and galaxies as they emerge from the collapse of dark matter and cold clump...
NASA's Earth Science Division (ESD) conducts a wide range of satellite and suborbital missions to observe Earth's land surface and interior, biosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, and oceans as part of a program to improve understanding of Earth as an integrated system. Earth observations provide the foundation for critical scientific advances and envi...
The National Research Council has conducted 11 decadal surveys in the Earth and space sciences since 1964 and released the latest four surveys in the past 8 years. The decadal surveys are notable in their ability to sample thoroughly the research interest, aspirations, and needs of a scientific community. Through a rigorous process, a primary surve...
The United States has publicly funded its human spaceflight program on a continuous basis for more than a half-century, through three wars and a half-dozen recessions, from the early Mercury and Gemini suborbital and Earth orbital missions, to the lunar landings, and thence to the first reusable winged crewed spaceplane that the United States opera...
Evaluation of the Implementation of WFIRST in the Context of New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics assesses whether the proposed Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets (AFTA) design reference mission described in the April 30, 2013 report of the AFTA Science Definition Team (SDT), WFIRST-2.4, is responsive to the overall strategy to...
In 1972 NASA launched the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ETRS), now known as Landsat 1, and on February 11, 2013 launched Landsat 8. Currently the United States has collected 40 continuous years of satellite records of land remote sensing data from satellites similar to these. Even though this data is valuable to improving many different asp...
From the interior of the Sun, to the upper atmosphere and near-space environment of Earth, and outward to a region far beyond Pluto where the Sun's influence wanes, advances during the past decade in space physics and solar physics--the disciplines NASA refers to as heliophysics--have yielded spectacular insights into the phenomena that affect our...
The original charter of the Space Science Board was established in June 1958, 3 months before the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) opened its doors. The Space Science Board and its successor, the Space Studies Board (SSB), have provided expert external and independent scientific and programmatic advice to NASA on a continuous ba...
Understanding the effects of natural and human-induced changes on the global environment and their implications requires a foundation of integrated observations of land, sea, air and space, on which to build credible information products, forecast models, and other tools for making informed decisions. The 2007 National Research Council report on de...
NASA's current missions to the International Space Station (ISS) and potential future exploration missions involving extended stays by astronauts on the lunar surface, as well as the possibility of near- Earth object (NEO) or Mars missions, present challenges in protecting astronauts from radiation risks. These risks arise from a number of sources,...
NASA proposed to make a hardware contribution to the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Euclid mission in exchange for U.S. membership on the Euclid Science Team and science data access. The Euclid mission will employ a space telescope that will make potentially important contributions to probing dark energy and to the measurement of cosmological para...
More than four decades have passed since a human first set foot on the Moon. Great strides have been made in our understanding of what is required to support an enduring human presence in space, as evidenced by progressively more advanced orbiting human outposts, culminating in the current International Space Station (ISS). However, of the more tha...
The ocean is a fundamental component of the earth's biosphere. It covers roughly 70 percent of Earth's surface and plays a pivotal role in the cycling of life's building blocks, such as nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, and sulfur. The ocean also contributes to regulating the climate system. Most of the primary producers in the ocean comprise of microscopi...
Through an examination of case studies, agency briefings, and existing reports, and drawing on personal knowledge and direct experience, the Committee on Assessment of Impediments to Interagency Cooperation on Space and Earth Science Missions found that candidate projects for multiagency collaboration in the development and implementation of Earth-...
Every 10 years the National Research Council releases a survey of astronomy and astrophysics outlining priorities for the coming decade. The most recent survey, titled New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics, provides overall priorities and recommendations for the field as a whole based on a broad and comprehensive examination of sci...
Driven by discoveries, and enabled by leaps in technology and imagination, our understanding of the universe has changed dramatically during the course of the last few decades. The fields of astronomy and astrophysics are making new connections to physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. Based on a broad and comprehensive survey of scient...
The Space Studies Board (SSB) was established in 1958 to serve as the focus of the interests and responsibilities in space research for the National Academies. The SSB provides an independent, authoritative forum for information and advice on all aspects of space science and applications, and it serves as the focal point within the National Academi...
In response to requests from Congress, NASA asked the National Research Council to undertake a decadal survey of life and physical sciences in microgravity. Developed in consultation with members of the life and physical sciences communities, the guiding principle for the study is to set an agenda for research for the next decade that will allow th...
Over the past 5 years or more, there has been a steady and significant decrease in NASA's laboratory capabilities, including equipment, maintenance, and facility upgrades. This adversely affects the support of NASA's scientists, who rely on these capabilities, as well as NASA's ability to make the basic scientific and technical contributions that o...
Suborbital flight activities, including the use of sounding rockets, aircraft, high-altitude balloons, and suborbital reusable launch vehicles, offer valuable opportunities to advance science, train the next generation of scientists and engineers, and provide opportunities for participants in the programs to acquire skills in systems engineering an...
NASA's space and Earth science program is composed of two principal components: spaceflight projects and mission-enabling activities. Most of the budget of NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is applied to spaceflight missions, but NASA identifies nearly one quarter of the SMD budget as "mission enabling." The principal mission-enabling activi...
The United States is currently the only country with an active, government-sponsored effort to detect and track potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs). Congress has mandated that NASA detect and track 90 percent of NEOs that are 1 kilometer in diameter or larger. These objects represent a great potential hazard to life on Earth and could c...
As civil space policies and programs have evolved, the geopolitical environment has changed dramatically. Although the U.S. space program was originally driven in large part by competition with the Soviet Union, the nation now finds itself in a post-Cold War world in which many nations have established, or are aspiring to develop, independent space...
Spacecraft require electrical energy. This energy must be available in the outer reaches of the solar system where sunlight is very faint. It must be available through lunar nights that last for 14 days, through long periods of dark and cold at the higher latitudes on Mars, and in high-radiation fields such as those around Jupiter. Radioisotope pow...
NASA maintains a planetary protection policy to avoid the forward biological contamination of other worlds by terrestrial organisms, and back biological contamination of Earth from the return of extraterrestrial materials by spaceflight missions. Forward-contamination issues related to Mars missions were addressed in a 2006 National Research Counci...
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was created in 1863 by an Act of Congress, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, to provide scientific and technical advice to the government of the United States. Over the years, the breadth of the institution has expanded, leading to the establishment of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 1964 and t...
Since the 1990s, the pace of discovery in the field of solar and space physics has accelerated, largely owing to NASA investments in its Heliophysics Great Observatory fleet of spacecraft. These enable researchers to investigate connections between events on the Sun and in the space environment by combining multiple points of view. Recognizing the...
In January 2004 NASA was given a new policy direction known as the Vision for Space Exploration. That plan, now renamed the United States Space Exploration Policy, called for sending human and robotic missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. In 2005 NASA outlined how to conduct the first steps in implementing this policy and began the development of...
To begin implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration (recently renamed "United States Space Exploration Policy"), NASA has begun development of new launch vehicles and a human-carrying spacecraft that are collectively called the Constellation System. In November 2007, NASA asked the NRC to evaluate the potential for the Constellation System...
The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 directed the agency to ask the NRC to assess the performance of each division in the NASA Science directorate at five-year intervals. In this connection, NASA requested the NRC to review the progress the Planetary Exploration Division has made in implementing recommendations from previous, relevant NRC studies. Th...
Astrobiology is a scientific discipline devoted to the study of life in the universe - its origin, evolution, distribution, and future. In 1997, NASA established an Astrobiology program (the NASA Astrobiology Institute - NAI) as a result of a series of new results from solar system exploration and astronomical research in the mid-1990s together wit...
"Beyond Einstein science" is a term that applies to a set of new scientific challenges at the intersection of physics and astrophysics. Observations of the cosmos now have the potential to extend our basic physical laws beyond where 20th-century research left them. Such observations can provide stringent new tests of Einstein's general theory of re...
Three recent developments have greatly increased interest in the search for life on Mars. The first is new information about the Martian environment including evidence of a watery past and the possibility of atmospheric methane. The second is the possibility of microbial viability on Mars. Finally, the Vision for Space Exploration initiative includ...
The Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) announced by President George W. Bush in 2004 sets NASA and the nation on a bold path to return to the Moon and one day put a human on Mars. The long-term endeavor represented by the VSE is, however, subject to the constraints imposed by annual funding. Given that the VSE may take tens of years to implement, a...
The astronomy science centers established by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to serve as the interfaces between astronomy missions and the community of scientists who utilize the data have been enormously successful in enabling space-based astronomy missions to achieve their scientific potential. These centers have transfor...
While a number of remarkable discoveries in astronomy and astrophysics have taken place over the past 20 years, many important questions remain. Continued progress in these fields will require NASA's leadership. To help determine if NASA can meet this challenge, Congress, in the 2005 NASA Authorization Act, directed the agency to have "[t]he perfor...
The sources, distributions, and transformation of organic compounds in the solar system are active study areas as a means to provide information about the evolution of the solar system and the possibilities of life elsewhere in the universe. There are many organic synthesis processes, however, and ambiguity surrounds the relative effectiveness of t...
The United States and the former Soviet Union have sent spacecraft to mars as early as 1966, with Mars' exploration being priority for NASA spacecraft. Both sides, however, have failed as well as succeed. The inability to determine if life exists on Mars is considered one of NASA's failures and undercut political support for additional Mars mission...
When the space exploration initiative was announced, Congress asked the NRC to review the science NASA proposed to carryout under the initiative. It also asked the NRC to assess whether this program would provide balanced scientific research across the established disciplines supported by NASA in addition to supporting the new initiative. In 2005,...
Both the President s commission on how to implement the President s space exploration initiative and Congress asked the NRC undertake an assessment and review of the science proposed to be carried out under the initiative. An initial response to that request was the NRC February 2005 report, Science in NASA s Vision for Space Exploration. While tha...
In January 2004, President Bush announced a new space policy directed at human and robotic exploration of space. In June 2004, the President's Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy issued a report recommending among other things that NASA ask the National Research Council (NRC) to reevaluate space science priorities...
Principal Investigator-Led (PI-led) missions are an important element of NASA's space science enterprise. While several NRC studies have considered aspects of PI-led missions in the course of other studies for NASA, issues facing the PI-led missions in general have not been subject to much analysis in those studies. Nevertheless, these issues are r...
Recent spacecraft and robotic probes to Mars have yielded data that are changing our understanding significantly about the possibility of existing or past life on that planet. Coupled with advances in biology and life-detection techniques, these developments place increasing importance on the need to protect Mars from contamination by Earth-borne o...
In 2003, NASA began an R&D effort to develop nuclear power and propulsion systems for solar system exploration. This activity, renamed Project Prometheus in 2004, was initiated because of the inherent limitations in photovoltaic and chemical propulsion systems in reaching many solar system objectives. To help determine appropriate missions for a nu...
The Earth is a dynamic planet whose changes and variations affect our communications, energy, health, food, housing, and transportation infrastructure. Understanding these changes requires a range of observations acquired from a variety of land-, sea-, air-, and space-based platforms. To assist NASA, NOAA, and the USGS develop these tools, the NRC...
In 1997, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) formed the National Astrobiology Institute to coordinate and fund research into the origins, distribution, and fate of life in the universe. A 2002 NRC study of that program, Life in the Universe: An Assessment of U.S. and International Programs in Astrobiology, raised a number of co...
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has operated continuously since 1990. During that time, four space shuttle-based service missions were launched, three of which added major observational capabilities. A fifth - SM-4 - was intended to replace key telescope systems and install two new instruments. The loss of the space shuttle Columbia, however, resu...
In 2001, following a National Research Council (NRC)-National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) workshop on opportunities for NOAA�s environmental satellite program, then Space Studies Board Chair John H. McElroy sent a letter to Gregory W. Withee, Assistant Administrator for NOAA�s Satellite and Information Services, outlining three po...
Citations
... The 2018 ESS report recommends that "NASA should lead a large strategic direct imaging mission capable of measuring the reflected-light spectra of temperate terrestrial planets orbiting Sun-like stars." (Charbonneau et al. 2018) "The radial velocity method will continue to provide essential mass, orbit, and census information to support both transiting and directly imaged exoplanet science for the foreseeable future." -ESS report top-level finding, 2018 Without precise radial velocity data, some of NASA's largest planned observatories will fall short of the ultimate goal to determine whether exoplanets can support life. ...
... The success of orbital and landed missions has led to a new understanding of the variety of aqueous environments on Mars as evidenced through the diversity of minerals detected at the surface (e.g., Squyres et al. 2004;Bibring et al. 2006;Squyres et al. 2008;Murchie et al. 2009;Boynton et al. 2009;Ehlmann & Edwards 2014). Orbit-based mineral detections were initially interpreted as indicating persistent wetter climates with greater water availability during the oldest epochs (Noachian), which produced phyllosilicates, followed by episodically wet conditions in later periods (Hesperian) conducive to the production of sulfate salts (e.g., Bibring et al. 2006). ...
... The current recommendation to better understand the outer heliosphere and its interaction with the local ISM, relies on NASA's solar-terrestrial probes, as illustrated by the reference mission IMAP in coordination with the Voyager missions 109 . The structure of the outer heliosphere is important to us because it regulates the CR penetration into near-Earth space and it has a direct role in reducing space radiation and making life possible in our solar system. ...
... Most applications of space situational awareness and OOS are for detection and manipulation of non-cooperative targets. Non-cooperative targets refer to space objects that lack communication response devices or other active sensors, and cannot (or cannot completely) obtain information about their structure, size, and motion state [9]. Due to the lack of prior knowledge about non-cooperative targets, most traditional detection and identification methods are difficult to be directly applied to non-cooperative targets [10]. ...
... However, as the solar radiation pressure is very low, large sail areas are needed and very long acceleration times must be endured. The successful JAXA-built spacecraft IKAROS demonstrated the technology on a Venus bound mission launched in 2010(Tsuda et al., 2011). The Planetary Society's LightSail-1 mission deployed a solar sail in orbit in 2015. ...
Reference: Small Satellites for Space Science
... An immediate concern is the question of planetary protection [56,[85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95]. An example of this is the issue of quarantine for spacecraft to and from Mars [88,[96][97][98]. The European Space Agency (ESA) ExoMars missions be looking for life on Mars but-due to ethical and biological sterilization considerations-will avoid landing in areas judged the most promising for life, first awaiting their detailed study from a distance [99,100]. ...
... Similarly, there are plans for recovered flights from Kwajalein Atoll using the recently tested NFORCE water recovery system. Long-duration sounding rockets capable of providing limited access to orbital trajectories and > 30 min observation times have been studied (46) , and NASA is continuing to actively investigate this possibility. However, no missions using this platform are currently planned, and as a result the associated technology development is moving slowly. ...
... Dark energy is hypothesized to explain the tending to accelerate the expansion of the universe. As stated in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey (2010) [21], the only way moving forward in understanding this mysterious component of our universe is to use the universe at large to infer the properties of dark energy by measuring its effects on the expansion rate and the growth of structure, (addressing the Frontier of Knowledge, Expansion of the Universe). Therefore, precision measurements of the expansion of the universe with time and of the rate at which cosmic structure grows are required. ...
... At the same time, the lack of geologic composition data points to the advantage of a significant potential applicability of this model. Our suggested model can be applicable to future missions such as NISAR and NASA's Decadal Survey Designated Observables like Mass Change (MC) and Surface Deformation and Change (SDC) as an indirect geologic composition product [15]. Supplementary Figure 5. Geologic composition prediction with distant data sampling (minimum distance between samples was 10km) using InSAR land deformation data. ...
... In addition, the sum of the neutrino masses [1] remains unknown. It is expected that the operational weak lensing surveys, including the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey 1 (HSC) [2], the Dark Energy Survey 2 (DES) [3], the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) 3 [4], the Prime Focus Spectrograph 4 [5], the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS) [6], as well as near-future Stage-IV large-scale structure (LSS) surveys such as Euclid 5 [7], the Vera C. Rubin Observatory 6 [8], and the Roman Space Telescope 7 [9,10], will improve our understanding to many of the questions that cosmology is facing from high-precision measurements of the intervening mass distribution of the universe. ...
Reference: Weak lensing trispectrum and Kurt-spectra
