Space Studies Board Annual Report 2005
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
The National Academies Press
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
The Space Studies Board is a unit of the National Research Council, which serves as an independent advisor to the federal government on scientific and technical questions of national importance. The National Research Council, jointly administered by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine, brings the resources of the entire scientific and technical community to bear through its volunteer advisory committees.
Support for the work of the Space Studies Board and its committees and task groups was provided by National Aeronautics and Space Administration Contract NASW-01001, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Contract DG133R04CQ0009, National Science Foundation Grant ATM-0109283, Department of the Interior Contract 05HQGR0104, and Department of Defense Contract NRO000-04-C-0174.
From the Chair
The foreword to this 2005 annual report of the Space Studies Board provides an opportunity to comment not only on our activities for the past year, but also on the environment that has shaped those activities. As has been true for the past several years, it is an environment that is continuously evolving. Early in 2005, the leadership of NASA changed, and with it new emphases emerged. Some of the early interpretations of the 2004 Vision for Space Exploration, in which only certain aspects of space science were encouraged, disappeared and a broader mandate for science emerged. But what also emerged was fiscal reality, which precluded many of the exciting activities that were planned for NASA’s science programs.
In this environment of change, there has been a continuing need to evaluate NASA’s plans against the strategies for science that have been laid down in the various NRC decadal surveys, and to assist NASA in determining how best to proceed given the reduced level of resources it will have. Coupled with this has been a continuing need to provide Congress with the assessments of NASA’s plans that it requests.
As is evident in this annual report, this past year has been the busiest for the Space Studies Board in quite some time. That pace of activities is expected to continue. The space program will, it is hoped, overcome its technical and fiscal constraints and pursue the many new opportunities that lie ahead. We will attempt in 2006, as we have in all previous years, to provide useful advice on how to overcome these constraints and to pursue our future.
L.A. Fisk
Chair
Space Studies Board
Space Studies Board Chairs
Lloyd V. Berkner (deceased), Graduate Research Center, Dallas, Texas, 1958–1962
Harry H. Hess (deceased), Princeton University, 1962–1969
Charles H. Townes, University of California at Berkeley, 1970–1973
Richard M. Goody, Harvard University, 1974–1976
A.G.W. Cameron (deceased), Harvard College Observatory, 1977–1981
Thomas M. Donahue (deceased), University of Michigan, 1982–1988
Louis J. Lanzerotti, American Telephone & Telegraph Co., Bell Laboratories, 1989–1994
Claude R. Canizares, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994–2000
John H. McElroy, University of Texas at Arlington (retired), 2000–2003
Lennard A. Fisk, University of Michigan, 2003–