4
Workshops, Symposia, Meetings of Experts, and Other Special Projects
In 2013, the Space Studies Board (SSB) printed one workshop summary, convened one workshop, and organized one meeting of experts.
ASTROBIOLOGY ROADMAP: A MEETING OF EXPERTS
In March 2013, NASA requested that the Space Studies Board organize a one-time meeting of selected experts and government officials to provide the latter with a synthesis of the compelling questions in astrobiology. This meeting of experts was an integral component in a multiphase, NASA-led project to update and revise the agency’s Astrobiology Roadmap. This document elaborates a vision for the future directions of astrobiology research and serves as a foundation for discussions of astrobiology in the United States and abroad. Prior versions of the Astrobiology Roadmap were published in 1999, 2003, and 2008.
NASA’s Astrobiology Program devised a novel three-phase approach to the construction of the new roadmap. Phase one was the construction by NASA of a virtual community, engaging any and all scientists interested in astrobiology research. This virtual community employed a series of online workshops to identify and discuss major themes in astrobiology. The NRC played no role in this phase.
Phase two took the materials generated by the virtual workshops and subsequent online discussions and organized and distilled them to create an initial draft of key sections of the roadmap. The NRC-organized meeting of experts was an integral component of this phase. A physical meeting of some 50-plus experts took place at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on June 17-20. Although no NRC-endorsed product resulted from this meeting, it did provide NASA with a diversity of individual opinions concerning the synthesis of the compelling questions in astrobiology raised by the preceding phase-one activities.
Phase three of the drafting of the new roadmap continues. This phase includes the generation of a near-final draft of the roadmap by a NASA-appointed steering group, a period of community comment, and revision. A formal NRC review of the draft document in the latter half of 2014 is under consideration.
LESSONS LEARNED IN DECADAL PLANNING IN SPACE SCIENCE: A WORKSHOP
The workshop Lessons Learned in Decadal Planning in Space Science on November 12-13, 2012, in Irvine, California, was hosted by the SSB in collaboration with the Board on Physics and Astronomy. This workshop reviewed and discussed key aspects of the most recent NRC decadal surveys in space science—solar and space physics (2012), planetary science (2011), astronomy and astrophysics (2010), and Earth science and applications from space (2007)—with the goal of identifying lessons learned and best practices. The workshop brought together a variety of stakeholders in the space community who are impacted by and/or are responsible for the formulation and
implementation of the decadal surveys. In addition to focusing on the decadal surveys, the workshop also afforded an opportunity to discuss the recent mid-decade reviews. The workshop participants from government and the research community engaged in a dialog that identified ideas for the future evolution of the decadal survey and mid-decade review processes by examining closely how the recent surveys were executed and are being implemented.
A report summarizing the discussions and dialog that took place at the workshop, Lessons Learned in Decadal Planning in Space Science: Summary of a Workshop, was released on August 28, 2013. The summary’s Concluding Remarks are reprinted in Chapter 5. Plans for a follow-on have been formulated and initiation is expected in 2014.
Planning Committee Membership1
Alan M. Dressler, Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science (co-chair)
Charles F. Kennel, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego (co-chair)
Steven J. Battel, Battel Engineering
Stacey W. Boland, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
William B. Gail, Global Weather Corporation
J. Todd Hoeksema, Stanford University
Anthony C. Janetos, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Maryland
Robert P. Lin, University of California, Berkeley2
Stephen J. Mackwell, Lunar and Planetary Institute
Ralph L. McNutt, Jr., Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Paul L. Schechter, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A. Thomas Young, Lockheed Martin Corporation (retired)
Staff
David H. Smith, Senior Program Officer, SSB (study director)
Lewis Groswald, Research Associate, SSB
Rodney N. Howard, Senior Program Assistant, SSB (through March 8)
At the request of the Department of Defense (DOD; Air Force Research Laboratory) and the National Science Foundation (NSF; Directorate for Geosciences/Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences), the SSB held a workshop on May 20-21, 2013 in Washington, D.C., entitled “The Role of High-Power, High Frequency-Band Transmitters in Advancing Ionospheric/Thermospheric Research.” The workshop provided a forum for information exchange between the comparatively small group of researchers engaged in programs of upper atmospheric research using high-power high-frequency (HF) radar transmitters (“heaters”) and the larger ITM (ionosphere-thermosphere-magnetosphere) research community. For a variety of reasons, including the different orientations of DOD, which is primarily interested in applied research related to active ionospheric modification, and the civil agencies, principally NSF, which have broader mandates for basic research, these communities have historically viewed themselves as being distinct with limited overlapping interests.
Per the statement of task, the workshop was organized to consider the utility of heaters in upper atmospheric research in general, with a specific focus on the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) transmitter facility, which is located in Gakona, Alaska. The reasons for this are twofold: First, the sponsors of the study were aware of the potential—one that became increasingly apparent during the period between project approval by the National Research Council (NRC) in late Spring 2012 and the actual workshop in late Spring 2013—for substantial cutbacks in support by the Air Force for the continuing operation of HAARP. Second, NSF’s upper atmosphere research section was considering transfer to Gakona, Alaska, of the AMISR (Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar) relocatable modular phased-array radar at Poker Flat, Alaska, for joint research campaigns with the
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1 All terms ended on September 30, 2013.
2 Dr. Lin passed away on November 17, 2012.
HAARP transmitter and ancillary instruments. The organizers were keenly aware of the increasing interest among the sponsors for focused discussions on the HAARP facility and the agenda for the meeting and the preponderance of discussions at the workshop reflected these interests.
On December 20, the committee released a prepublication version of its report, Opportunities for High-Power, High-Frequency Transmitters to Advance Ionospheric/Thermospheric Research: Report of a Workshop. A final version of the report was printed in February 2014. The Overview of the report is reprinted in Chapter 5.
Membership
Louis J. Lanzerotti, New Jersey Institute of Technology (chair)
Paul A. Bernhardt, Naval Research Laboratory
Herbert C. Carlson, Utah State University
Anthea J. Coster, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
John C. Foster, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sixto A. González, Arecibo Observatory/SRI International
David L. Hysell, Cornell University
Brett Isham, Interamerican University, Bayamón, Puerto Rico
Elizabeth A. Kendall, SRI International
Kristina A. Lynch, Dartmouth College
Konstantinos (Dennis) Papadopoulos, University of Maryland
Staff
Arthur Charo, Senior Program Officer (study director)
Lewis B. Groswald, Associate Program Officer
Linda Walker, Senior Project Assistant
