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OCR for page 1
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" NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
COMMISSION ON PHYSICAL SCIENCES, MATHEMATICS, AND RESOURCES
2101 Constitution Avenue Washington, D. C. 20418
SPACE SCIENCE BOARD OFFICE LOCATION:
JOSEPH HENRY BUILDING
21ST STREET AND
PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, N. W.
January 13, 1987
Dr. Burton I. Edelson
Associate Administrator
Office of Space Science and Applications
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Washington, D.C. 20546
Dear Burt:
At the October meeting of the Space Science Board's
Committee on Space Astronomy and Astrophysics, Dr. C. Pellerin
reviewed the present status and future prospects of the Explorer
program for the committee. As you know, the Explorer program
has been one of the most productive components of NASA's space
research effort. Astronomy and astrophysics Explorers have .been.
particularly successful: with pioneer surveys of the universe
by satellites such as Uhuru and IRAS, and with rich, detailed
studies of specific wavebands by missions such as IUE. Future
missions such as COBE, EUVE, and XTE promise similar scientific
rewards.
The CSAA is concerned about the recent addition of
substantial charges to the Explorer budget as a result of the
Challenger accident. At the time when the CSAA report, "The
Explorer Program for Astronomy and Astrophysics," (NAP, 1986),
was completed (a few months ago), the Explorer budget was
committed for about 4 years. This led to the recommendation for
a substantial augmentation of the Explorer budget line. Now,
because an additional 2 to 3 years of funds will be committed
due to the costs expected to result from attempts to recover
from the Challenger disaster, seven years must pass before
resources will become available for new opportunities. This
budget picture cripples progress in the innovative Explorer
program and indicates that more than 15 years are now required
to complete an Explorer mission.
The response of the space science community to the recent
Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) for Explorers demonstrates the deep
interest in the program. In order to overcome the present
crisis, we feel that the Explorer budget be augmented promptly.
without this augmentation, NASA is faced with two choices in
dealing with the responses to the DCL: select new candidate
missions and thereby extend the already long queue, or return
them and seriously demoralize the community. Neither of these
options is satisfactory. Substantial augmentation of the
Explorer budget would make evaluation of the responses to the
DCL worth undertaking, shorten or eliminate the queue, and
provide the frequent flight opportunities needed for a vigorous
The National Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering
to serve government and other organizations
OCR for page 2
...
i-
,
Dr. Burton I. Edelson
Page 2
Explorer program. The committee recognizes that you must weigh
your decisions in the context of overall program priorities and
budgets.
In addition, it seems timely now to initiate development of
a reusable Explorer platform. The CSAA Explorer report
suggested the use of refurbishable spacecraft as one way to
control costs and increase flight opportunities. EUVE and X~E
seem particularly well-suited to this scheme: a reusable
platform will allow these missions to be completed in a cost
effective and timely manner.
The long-term health of the Explorer program is vital to all
space science. Planning should begin now to design a program
containing a mixture of Shuttle-launched and exchanged
platforms, and ELVis to achieve the frequency of flight
opportunities so sorely needed to revitalize the Explorer
program.
Sincerely,
~
Blair Savage, Chairman
Committee on Space
Astronomy and Astrophysics
