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OCR for page 361
361
The OEP Panel commends the successful efforts of insti-
tutions that have done well in this area. The Univer-
sities of Arizona, California, Hawaii, Texas, and Wyoming
are examples of state universities that have been notably
successful in obtaining funds from their state legisla-
tures specifically earmarked for astronomy. The Hale,
Lowell, and McDonald Observatories are examples of private
institutions that have been similarly successful. There
are probably other success stories of which we are
unaware.
13. Reduced Administrative Burdens and MultiYear
-
Funding. There is a serious concern among scientists
that too much time goes into research administration--
time that could otherwise be devoted to the research
itself. The problem is exacerbated if the scientist's
research is supported by a number of small grants and
contracts rather than through a single, more substantial
channel. We urge the funding agencies to switch, as
rapidly as possible, to longer-term (say, 3-year) funding
of research projects, with reporting requirements reduced
to submission of copies of published papers or annual
reports, or both. We further urge that simple mechanisms
be instituted for consolidation of small projects from a
single agency.
IV. ASTRONOMY AND THE ASTRONOMERS IN THE 1970 ' s
Astronomy has flourished in the 1970'S, despite constric-
tions in public spending and employment opportunities.
In this section we describe the astronomers and their
activities in the 1970' s, beginning with a brief view of
the profession in 1979. We then give a picture of the
astronomical "pipeline" in the 1970' S. delineating how
astronomers progress through the stages of an astronomical
career: undergraduate, graduate student, postdoctoral
recipient, tenure-track, and then tenured. Our surveys
indicate that the most severe constriction in the pipe-
line occurs at the juncture between the postdoctoral and
the tenure-track stages. The challenge lies not in find-
ing jobs but in finding jobs with some degree of perma-
nence.
The next section deals with trends that are likely to
affect the profession. One trend of particular importance
is the decline in university enrollment that will occur
between now and the end of the century. This, combined
OCR for page 362
362
with the relatively small number of astronomers near
retirement age, is likely to produce an extremely tight
job market in the 1980's. We then continue with a discus-
sion of funding of astronomy, research trends in
astronomy, astronomical facilities, international aspects
of astronomy, and finally, communication with the public.
A. The Astronomical Profession in 1979
We estimate (see Appendix 6.A) that the current number of
practicing Ph.D. astronomers in the United States is 3000.
Their distribution by place of employment is given in
Table 6.1 (see Appendix 6.A for sources).
Table 6.1 shows, not surprisingly, that astronomers are
significantly underrepresented in industry compared with
both the physics/astronomy community as a whole and with
the total scientific community. The total number of
physicists and astronomers is estimated by the National
Research Council to be 23,876 in 1977, so astronomers are
only a small component of the entry in the third column
of Table 6.1. None of the changes between the first two
columns of Table 6.1 are significant because of the small
numbers and because of a change in the description of the
category "Observatory or Research Institution" that oc-
curred between surveys (see Appendix 6.A).
TABLE 6.1 Place of Employment of U.S. Astronomersa
Physicists All Science and
and Astron- Engineering
AAS Members (%) omers, Doctorates,
Employer 1973 1978 1977 (%) 1977 (%)
Education 64 58 54 56
Government 18 17 12 10
Observatory/
research
institutions 8 13 5
Business/industry 5 8 29
Planetarium
Other
1 1 —
5 3 1
-
~Totals may not add to 100% because of rounding.
6
26
1
OCR for page 363
363
TABLE 6.2 Distribution of Academic Astronomers
Physicists
Type of AAS Members (%) and Astronomers,
Institution 1973 1978 1979 (%)
Universities 90 83 62
4-year colleges 7 16 26
2-year colleges 3 1 12
. . ... .
It is worth subdividing the large academic category by
class of institution (Table 6.2). There has been a sig-
nificant increase in the fraction of AAS members who are
employed in the 4-year colleges. The uncertainties (see
Appendix 6.A) based on counting statistics, indicate that
the increase is definitely real. Our data cannot distin-
guish between the person trained as a physicist who
started teaching an astronomy course, learned some astron-
omy, and joined the AAS and the astronomy-trained person
who obtained a job at a 4-year college.
Very few astronomers teach in junior colleges. Studies
(see Appendix 6.A) show that the administrators of junior
colleges do not see any significant increase in their
future hiring of Ph.D.'s and have not hired many in the
past (see the section on projections of the demand for
astronomers below).
B. The Astronomical "Pipeline"
Figure 6.4 illustrates the various career stages through
which astronomers pass. The width of the pipe at each
stage corresponds roughly to the number per year passing
through this stage in the 1970's. The distinction between
"physics" (or, equivalently, "physics and astronomy") and
"astronomy" departments used here is one that is consis-
tently followed in our Panel report: an "astronomy"
department is one that is listed separately, with its own
chairman, in the AIP Directory of Physics and Astronomy
Staff Members (American Institute of Physics, 1979) and
that has a majority of department members working in
astronomy. Other departments are classified by us as
"physics" departments, though sometimes they are named
"physics and astronomy."
OCR for page 364
364
I POST- ~
I GRADUATE I j DOCTORAL
I WORK
~ IN l
- ASTRONOMY I
I STUDY j
I IN
TRoNOMY! -
I POST-
b ~
1 . ~ :
ad, i,.' ~
I . :::::::: :-~:: T ~ ~ D ED A DO ::::Y:-::::::::::
;:::::::::::::::: i:: An'' ' ~;~:2:
`:::::::~::::: 'n`. :~ _
Fiji::::: :::::: ::~::
~ :: ::
I
50 PERSONS
FIGURE 6.4 The bottleneck in the astronomical employment
pipeline occurs at the point where a permanent position
would normally be expected. The OEP Panel's major recom-
mendation is for new assistant professorships and
parallel-track positions to increase research vitality at
universities; these recommendations, if implemented,
would also lessen the employment problem.
Detailed justification of the numbers embodied in the
pipeline picture is provided in Appendix 6.A. Also note
that the data used in constructing the figure were ob-
tained at a time when the flow was far from a steady
state.
The pipeline begins with approximately 180 bachelor's
degrees in astronomy awarded each year. Most of these
people do not go on to graduate school in astronomy but
to graduate study in other fields or to work. m e 60 who
do continue astronomical studies are joined by 120 with
bachelor's degrees in physics plus a few from other
fields. The distinction between a bachelor's degree in
astronomy and in physics is not great, since the courses
taken are virtually identical at most institutions. Some
departments offer "physics" degree programs that include
several astronomy courses--programs that, elsewhere, would
lead to "astronomy" bachelor's degrees.
About 80 of those 180 students that enter astronomy
graduate programs each year do not receive Ph.D. degrees
OCR for page 365
365
in astronomy, leaving approximately 100 astronomy Ph.D.
degrees each year. The 80 include "masters-only" recipi-
ents. An additional 50 persons receive Ph.D. degrees in
physics with theses on astronomical topics. These 50
persons have begun work in astronomy while in graduate
school and therefore do not represent a separate influx
of people into the field. A list of the departments
awarding such degrees in 1975 illustrates that many well-
known astronomical research institutions fall into this
category: Caltech, Florida, Johns Hopkins, Hawaii,
Louisiana State, MIT, New Mexico Institute of Mining and
Technology, University of New Mexico, New York University,
Northwestern, Princeton (physics department), Rensselaer
Polytechnic, Rochester, Syracuse, Texas A&M, Washington
(St. Louis), Wyoming, and Yeshiva. We checked to see
whether people from physics departments followed different
tracks than people from astronomy departments and found
no obvious trend.
The next stage of the pipeline is the postdoctoral
recipient. We define a postdoctoral position as a posi-
tion of limited duration that will generally not be
renewed for more than 3 years. When the National Research
Council initially set up its postdoctoral fellowship pro-
gram, these positions were regarded as being the most
desirable way of spending a year or two following receipt
of the Ph.D. (Kevles, 1977). Now, postdoctorates are the
rule rather than the exception. The AIP surveys indicate
that slightly more than half of the astronomy Ph.D.'s have
a postdoctoral position in the February following the
receipt of their Ph.D. This is probably a lower limit
since some postdoctorate may respond that they accepted
"employment" rather than a "postdoctoral" position.
To delineate the pipeline, we viewed the normal dura-
tion of the postdoctoral stage as 2 years--a desirable
transition period. Following this stage, a number of
avenues are open to those who do not obtain tenure-track
positions.
Visiting Faculty Positions: Teaching is involved, and
the tenure of an individual position is limited to 1 year
(although a person may receive successive appointments at
the same institution).
Extended Postdoctoral: Often one postdoctoral position
is followed by another. Our data indicate that a move
from one institution to another occurs. An AIP study
(Porter, 1979) showed that half of the 1973 postdoctoral
recipients held one postdoctoral position, one third held
two, and 13% held three or more.
OCR for page 366
366
Research Associate: A person is supported by a grant
or contract and is employed as long as an appropriate
grant is available. The desirability and stability of a
research associate position depends on the arrangements
made by a particular institution.
We estimate that there are 300 people in the first two
groups, plus 70 people who are in research-associate posi-
tions with some degree of security. We believe that 150
represents a lower limit to the size of the extended post-
doctoral reservoir and that 350 is an upper limit; the
justification of these numbers is provided in Appendix
6.A. This reservoir represents between 5 and 12% of the
astronomical labor force.
We recognize that some of the research-associate posi-
tions can be regarded as satisfactory from a long-term
standpoint; these are represented in the figure by a pipe
leading from the reservoir to the right-hand side of the
picture (representing permanent positions).
The OEP Panel's prime recommendation deals with this
small part of the pipeline, which must become larger to
stabilize the field in the 1980's. Responses to our
questionnaire indicate that only 21% (18 of 87 institu-
tions) had formal arrangements for a parallel track.
Respondents listed 25 people as falling within this cate-
gory. Since institutions responding to our questionnaire
represent 44% of the astronomy work force, we estimate
that about 60 people are in what can be considered to be
satisfactory, long-term positions of this kind. Our
follow-up studies show that this type of employment began
to appear in 1970, and so we make a very uncertain esti-
mate of 60/10 or 6 people per year who follow this route.
Any survey would face serious problems in differentiating
between research-associate positions that carry prestige
reasonably similar to that of faculty positions and posi-
tions that are regarded by the incumbents as extended
holding patterns.
In some other fields the proportion of research asso-
ciates is considerably greater than the 10% that one
obtains by comparing the number of research associates
with the total number of astronomers.
We examined our questionnaire results in search of
significant differences in employment patterns as a
function of research field, research orientation, and
sex. A detailed table is provided in Appendix 6.A. In
the population of 244 tenure-track employees, 144 research
associates, and 165 postdoctoral recipients discussed, an
OCR for page 367
367
above-average proportion of solar physicists and planetary
astronomers were research associates when compared with
the number of tenure-track employees. There were no
other significant trends. Research associates were 11.19
female, in contrast to 6.6% of the tenure-track employees.
Th is result, only significant at the 2-standard-deviation
level, agrees with a similar
(and similarly significant)
finding of the AAS Committee on the Status of Women
(1980).
Another exit from the postdoctoral position is the
tenure-track position, which can lead to a tenured job or
its equivalent. In academic positions, the assistant
professorship is often (but not always) such a position;
there are some parallels in the National Astronomy
Centers. In government laboratories, civil servants have
a one-year probationary period, after which they possess
a fairly high degree of job security. An additional group
working in government laboratories are contract employees
of an outside company who do astronomy as part of the con-
tract between the company and the government laboratory.
It seems clear from our data that the most difficult
career transition to make, in the 1970's, was the one
between the postdoctoral or other temporary position and
a permanent or potentially permanent position. Our ques-
tionnaire revealed information (Table 6.3) about those who
were postdoctoral recipients or research associates in
1977/1978 and 1978/1979. We asked department chairmen the
status of these persons in January 1980, a time interval
such that the Persons had some opportunity to attempt to
obtain a permanent position.
The "probably permanent
elsewhere" category includes those who took positions in
industry. Most of the postdoctoral recipients and
research associates were still in astronomy.
In contrast, the transition between a tenure-track
position and a tenured one proved considerably easier.
In January 1980, we asked department heads and group
leaders what had happened to those who were in tenure-
track positions in 1973/1974 and 1974/1975.
~ , .
85% were still in astronomy, with rounded figures as
follows:
43% tenured in the same department
1096 tenured in another department, in astronomy
9% civil servants
3% otherwise permanently employed in astronomy
9% research associates (including one postdoctoral
recipient)
6% contract employee
OCR for page 368
368
TABLE 6.3 Positions of Postdoctoral Recipients and
Research Associates after 2 Yearsa
Postdoctoral Research
Recipients Associates
Number in sample 165 144
Percent who are
No longer in astronomy 7 4
Tenure or tenure-track 15 8
Civil servant 7 3
Probably permanent elsewhere 2 3
Visiting faculty 4 1
Research associate 16 73
Postdoctoral recipient 36 4
Contract employee 6 3
Unknown 8 1
Totals may not add to 100% because of rounding.
6% still employed in astronomy, unknown
employment status
15% were no longer in astronomy.
Thus 64%, or 139 people in the sample, had achieved
permanent employment in astronomy.
We recognize that there are uncertainties in Figure
6.4. We believe the proportions at the end of the pipe-
line are reasonably well established by our follow-up
surveys, in particular those of the classes of 1970 and
1975.
C. Trends With Time
We use our follow-up studies to examine changes in the
shape of the pipeline during the past 10 years. These
studies have the disadvantage of examining people in
various career stages. While it might be possible to
examine the location and employment of people a specified
number of years after receiving the Ph.D. degree, this
would be difficult to do consistently. Furthermore, the
job crisis in its present form--the presence of a large
number of astronomers in temporary positions--has emerged
OCR for page 369
369
only relatively recently, and studies of where people
were 5 or 10 years ago would be uninstructive.
With this caveat, we examine time-dependent trends.
1. Is There a Job Crisis?
Our studies show that approximately one quarter of the
astronomers receiving their Ph.D. degrees in the years
1959-1961 and 1964-1965 have left astronomy (Figure 6.5).
These numbers form a baseline, since those astronomers
faced a job market unconstrained by economics or demog-
raphy. The difference in the fraction leaving astronomy
for the classes of 1959-1961 and the more recent group is
not statistically significant. What has changed are the
types of positions occupied by those remaining in astron-
omy, if we include the percentage who are in academic
positions that are not in the tenure track. No one from
the classes of 1959, 1960, or 1961 has such a position;
all in academia are professors or associate professors
and presumably have tenure. (Those with mailing addresse s
at NASA laboratories might be contract employees or might
be civil servants, and so it is hard to find out what the
parallel curve for government laboratories would look
like.) The percentage of people in non-tenure track
positions has been rising sharply. Our questionnaire
demonstrates the extreme difficulty of moving from a tem-
porary position to a permanent or potentially permanent
(tenure-track) position. Thus the "crisis" can be de-
scribed as follows: persons with Ph.D. degrees in astron-
omy are not leaving the field in unusual numbers, but they
are in temporary positions rather than in permanent ones.
Only if all of those in the pool of temporarily employed
astronomers end up with permanent jobs in astronomy can
one say that the attrition of people from the field is
normal. A phenomenon of the 1970's has been the growth
of this reservoir of temporarily employed people.
How satisfactory are these non-tenure-track positions?
A definitive answer is not possible. About a quarter of
the people in the pool of temporary employees have' in
fact, some explicit guarantee of job stability--some well
defined parallel track. For some unknown and unknowable
additional fraction, the institutional climate and confi-
dence in institutional leadership makes their positions
satisfying even in the absence of explicit guarantees.
However, nearly half of the people in this pool are in
extended postdoctoral holding patterns or are in visiting
-
OCR for page 370
370
00
80
60
40
20
o
~4
4/
960
AT
965 1 970 1 975
YEAR
FIGURE 6.5 The dimensions of the employ-
ment problem. Open circles, percentage of
those receiving a Ph.D. degree (still liv-
ing) who are still in astronomy; T. per-
centage of those in academia who are in
nontenure track, possibly temporary posi-
tions; 4, percentage of those in academia
who are in 4-year colleges versus year Ph.D.
degree was received. Those who obtained the
Ph.D. degree in 1970 would normally be
pected to have obtained permanent positions
by now.
faculty positions, and some others are in temporary
research-associate positions. Our proposal for the
creating of an increased number of stable research
associate positions with professional stature equivalent
to faculty positions addresses this problem.
Why does astronomy have a job problem, when the prob-
lem in physics is apparently easing (Grodzins, 1979)?
First (Figure 6.6), the number of physics degrees awarded
OCR for page 371
371
has declined by one third since its peak in 1970, while
the number of astronomy degrees awarded has remained about
150 per year throughout the 1970's. Second (Figure 6.7),
astronomers find a less natural home in industry than
physicists do. Physicists who work for industrial firms
still consider themselves to be doing physics. Astrono-
mers in industry who do astronomy generally work for
companies with income from federal grants, rather than
from product sales, and they thus have a future that
depends on federal funding for astronomy rather than on
the general state of the economy.
11
o
llJ
:E
is
_
LLI
Ct 10004
_
_
100 - ~-
~ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1966 1968 1970 1972 1 974 1 976 1978
YEAR OF DEGREE
FIGURE 6.6 Number of degrees awarded per
year in all physical sciences (circles with
dots); source: NRC Summary Report: 1978 Doc-
toral Recipients for United States Univer-
sities, 1979); physics (filled circles) and
astronomy (open circles). Sources for
physics and astronomy are given in Appendix
6.A.
OCR for page 403
403
range from typical values of 200,000 per year up to
400,000 per year. However, only 33,348 students take
courses in the 69 departments listed by the AIP as giving
some kind of astronomy degree--38 separate astronomy
departments and 31 combined departments named "astronomy
and physics departments (Ellis, 1979). An additional
58,672 students are in introductory courses in physics
departments with graduate programs. The remainder--the
majority of astronomy students--are taught in the under-
graduate colleges and junior colleges, often by instruc-
tors without any formal background or training in astron-
omy. If the annual enrollments of 200,000 per year or
more continue through the 1980's, at least 2 million
people will have been exposed to astronomy through this
means. It is important for departments and professional
organizations to ensure that these courses are taught
well. At the very least, these 2 million voters should
remember astronomy as a fascinating human venture rather
than as the least painful (or least difficult) way to
fulfill a science requirement. While no formal surveys
have been done, our impression is that student response
to these courses has been good. Certainly their high
enrollment in the face of competing courses offered by
other science departments in search of students to popu-
late their courses is encouraging.
H. Funding Trends
1. Introduction
m e health of astronomy can be measured by a variety of
means. However, one must first ask: Should it be
healthy? We believe the answer to be an unqualified yes
since astronomy makes fundamental discoveries about our
Universe, its energy and matter, its origin and evolution,
and the basic laws of physics governing its behavior.
The theoretical underpinning is moving along in good
synchrony with new observations, advanced technology for
detectors and data processing has advanced at a timely
rate, and access to space for astronomical observations
has become almost routine. Thus, we judge astronomy to
merit, in a competitive world, a significant investment
in terms of people and financial resources. In this
section we treat the financial resources with the aim of
establishing what absolute dollar resources are going
into astronomy and its component parts, what proportion
OCR for page 404
404
of research money astronomy receives (i.e., how well it
competes), and whether the absolute and relative amounts
are reasonable. Finally, we wish to see if funding trends
have developed, consciously or otherwise, good or bad,
which need to be brought to the attention of the funding
agencies and the astronomy community.
2. Astronomy's Competitive Position
Since the mid-1960's, astronomy's proportion of the
nation's basic research budget has ranged from a high of
12% to a low of 6~.
The prime sources of astronomy funding are NASA and
NSF, typically 95%, with DOD and other agencies supplying
a smaller albeit important portion (Figure 6.23).
The important effect of nonfederal support of astronomy
may be seen in Figure 6.24, from Kuhner (1978). "Other"
includes private and state support. "None," means "none
cited," and undoubtedly includes some work that was feder-
ally supported but not acknowledged. "None" most cer-
tainly does not mean that the work was unsupported; we
judge that most of the support involved was actually
private and state.
Of the federal funding agencies, NSF, DOD, and others
have contributed in a relatively stable way over the past
decade, with the major fluctuations being caused by
specific NASA flight projects. For example, the high
occurred in 1969 during the funding of the Apollo Tele-
scope Mount, and the low during the "restructuring" of
the High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAD) series in
1975 (Figure 6.25). As proportions of internal budgets
within NSF, astronomy has remained rather constant, at
about 5% until construction of the VLA when it rose to
about 6.5%. In NASA, the physics and astronomy program
has steadily increased since 1965, with allowance for the
HEAD drop in 1975, from 3% to over 9% of the NASA research
and development (R&D) budget. This tripling of percentage
represents a doubling of actual funding, the combination
reflecting both a decrease in total NASA R&D over the
period and an increased sophistication of spacecraft and
importance of space astronomy.
3. NASA Funding for Astronomy
Within NASA, most astronomy funding in the 1970's has
come from the physics and astronomy programs. The pro-
OCR for page 405
405
300
250
200
150
100
50
o
FEDERAL FUNDING FOR ASTRONOMY
$ MILLION
NASA
NSF
_ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
/ OTHER
70
75
80
300
250
200
150
100
50
o
FIGURE 6.23 Federal funds for astronomy basic research
as reported to NSF and compiled in Volumes 19-29 of
Federal Funds for Research and Development. Fiscal year
1979 is the last year for which actual expenditures are
reported.
gram functions include supporting research and technology
(SR&T), project funding (spacecraft development and mis-
sion operations), and data analysis. These functions are
spread in differing and changing proportions among a num-
ber of program categories. It is almost impossible, and
totally impractical, to derive accurate values for the
functional categories. NASA funding for physics and
OCR for page 406
406
NASA TOTAL = 21 °'o
/ NASA
/
-
NONE \
22X
\
NONE
S3 ~
\ ~
NASA TOTAL = 32°'
l
NSF TOTAL = 36°'
42co
~ /4~/\
1 1 ~
NSF
23%
7 °- \
OTH ER \_
14~ J
1965
OTHER TOTAL = 276'
NSr TOTAL = 49%
NASA
17%
1977
',i; 28°lo
1 0 °' \
OTHER
gcO 70THER TOTAL = 24
FIGURE 6.24 Changes in the funding pattern for papers
published in the Astrophysical Journal. (From Kuhner,
1978.)
astronomy is shown in Figure 6.26. Over the past decade,
the Sounding Rocket, Airborne and Balloon programs have
had close to level funding in real-year dollars. These
programs are typically used for experiment development,
for first looks, and for observations that inherently do
not require the lengthly observing times attainable from
OCR for page 407
407
satellites. The nature of these programs allows quick
reaction to new findings and has served as a valuable
training ground for graduate students to develop engi-
neering skills needed in space-hardware construction.
The impact of inflation on these programs has been strik-
ing, there being a large component of petroleum-derived
material in balloons, aircraft operations, and sounding
rocket propellants.
The Explorer program, currently at a level of $33
million, has provided a steady source of satellite
hardware since the mid-1960's. Considered a "level-of-
effort" program, it has experienced increased financial
demands owing to increasing sophistication of satellites,
including instrumentation; increased operating costs
caused by longer orbital lifetime and associated data
analysis; and increased R&D cost caused by more work done
10,
. .
.09
08
07
06
.05
04
03
_
02 ~ ,
\~' \\ I
.01— \!
O ~ L I If I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I
56
1(.14)
l
l
l
l
\
"~\~` .
~ ,
it,
NSF as:
NSF TOT.
l
I
.',-- 1
NASA PEA
NASA ROD
1 1 1 1 1 1
75 80
60 65 70
YEAR
FIGURE 6.25 Sources of funding for astronomy. Astronomy
funding from NSF is plotted as a fraction of the total NSF
budget (dashed line). For NASA the Physics and Astronomy
program is plotted as a fraction of the Research and Tech-
nology budget. These ratios are very sensitive to
variation in the number of major construction projects.
10
.09
08
05
04
03
02
01
O
OCR for page 408
408
175
150
125
100
75
50
PHYS I C S AND ASTRONOMY
BASELINE PROGRAM
S MILLION
,
,
Explorer
=~
~ 9;~ AT -ATn
, _ .
25 _ ,/
/
/
/ Mlsslon -
/ ops ~
/ Data An
I . ~ .
_
S. Rockets Ba I loons
O. ~~ 4
60 65
70 75 80
YE AR
175
150
125
100
75
50
25
O
FIGURE 6.26 NASA physics and astronomy baseline pro-
grams: cumulative fiscal year budgets for "level-of-
effort" programs. Approximately one third of "Sounding
Rockets" goes to experiment development. The Supporting
Research and Technology-Advanced Technology Development
(SRT-ATD) constitutes the bulk of university grants for
nonflight research. The Data Analysis line typically
supports data analysis in excess of that associated with
the prime mission. The Explorer program initially con-
tained spacecraft development, mission operations, and
data analysis. With establishment of a separate Mission
Operations and Data Analysis budget line in 1977, the
Explorer line now contains only spacecraft development
funds. All budget numbers are from NASA budget documents
and are in real-year dollars. 1982 values are based on
the March 1981 Reagan Administration revised budget
submission.
OCR for page 409
409
on contract (versus in-house personnel, whose cost is
separately budgeted by NASA). To alleviate the pressures
in the Explorer and other programs, a Mission Operations
and Data Analysis item was instituted in fiscal year 1977
so that now most of the Explorer budget goes into space-
craft development.
Data Analysis and Research and Analysis (grant fund-
ing, formerly called SR&T) support were slowly decreasing
in the late 1960's and early 1970's when a concerted
effort was made by NASA to try to increase them to counter
the effects of inflation and to take advantage of the new
opportunities becoming available. The increases in the
mid to late 1970's includes specific advanced technology
development (ATD) for the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) and
Space Telescope in 1975 and 1976 and the first significant
Spacelab definition funding ($3 million to $4 million per
year from 1975 to present). A 82.5 million program in
theoretical plasma physics was initiated in 1980.
The increased spacecraft complexity and longer orbital
lifetimes put extreme pressure on the NASA operations and
data analysis budgets, resulting in the creation of a
line item for these costs in 1977. All operational costs
and data analysis occurring during the lifetime of space-
craft including Explorers, is covered by this item (data
analysis typically extending one year beyond end of mis-
sion). The significant increase is attributable in large
part to operations and data analysis for the HEAD'S, SSM,
IUE, and ISEE, all but the latter being astronomy
· .
mlsslons .
Figure 6.27 shows funding since 1961 of physics and
astronomy flight programs, exclusive of Explorers. Note
that all are astronomical except the Orbiting Geophysical
Observatories in the 1960's and about 50% of the Spacelab
payloads initiated in the late 1970's. The trends are
obvious--a decreasing rate in the 1960's as Orbiting Solar
Observatories and Orbiting Astronomical Observatories
phased out and a significant increase in the mid to late
1970's occasioned by HEAD's, SSM, SST, International Solar
Polar Mission, and Spacelab.
4. NSF Funding for Astronomy
Figure 6.28 shows NSF funding since 1970 for the three
major categories: Grants (the major source of university
research support); Center Operations, which fund the
National Centers (Kits Peak National Observatory, Cerro
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410
1
200
150
100
50
o
PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
FL IGHT PROGRAMS
S MILLIONS
jam AOSO
an,/
I
I
iSL \
A"/ \~_,/ \.
\OSO/ \ \ in/\ ' ST
OGO j\ \ \ —
/ - \
OAO
\., .~.//HEAO \
1 1 1
· ,iG>O.
,\y ,
75 80
60 65 70
YEAR
200
150
100
50
o
FIGURE 6.27 NASA physics and astronomy flight programs:
cumulative fiscal year annual budgets for spacecraft
developments. Spacecraft development includes mission
operations and significant data analysis funding through
1977, at which time a new Mission Operations and Data
Analysis budget line was established (see Figure 6.26).
OAO (Orbiting Astronomical Observatory), OGO (Orbiting
Geophysical Observatory), OSO (Orbiting Solar Observa-
tory), AOSO (Advanced Orbiting Astronomical Observatory),
HEAD (High Energy Astronomical Observatory), SSM (Solar
Maximum Mission), SL (Spacelab payloads), ST (Space TeLe-
scope), SP (International Solar Polar Mission), GRO
(Gamma Ray Observatory). All budgets are in real-year
dollars. 1982 values are based on the March 1981 Reagan
Administration revised budget submission, which deferred
the GRO, reduced SL, and canceled the U.S. portion of the
International Solar Polar Mission. (1981 has not been
changed to reflect the impact of the proposed 1982
revisions of the Carter submission.) All budget numbers
are taken from NASA budget documents. Costs of launch
vehicles and NASA manpower are not included.
OCR for page 411
411
1 1
10
9
8
CL
o
7
6
3
2
,~
a
o 5 _
J4 - I
I
_
1
MSF SUPPORT IN CONSTANT 1970 DOLLARS
, GRANTS
VLA
\~ ~ NRAO
- KPNO
,NAIC
CTIO
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 .1
70 72 74 76 78
Fl SCAL YEAR
FIGURE 6.28 NSF astronomy funding, 1970-
1982. The Grants program, National Center
operations, and construction of major facil
ities are plotted cumulatively (solid
lines). me total NSF Astronomy Division
funds are given by the upper line. The
ratio of dollars for National Center opera-
tions to dollars for research grants is
plotted as a dashed line. The 1982 numbers
are based on the revised budget submitted
by the Reagan Administration in March 1981,
which deferred construction of a 25-m
millimeter-wave radio telescope.
-
Tololo Inter-American Observatory, National Radio Astron-
omy Observatory, National Atmospheric and Ionospheric
Center, and Sacramento Peak Observatory); and Facilities
[such as Very Large Array (VLA) construction]. The trend
for Grants and for Center Operations has been upward in
real-year dollars. Center Operations represents new
responsibilities including Sacramento Peak Observatory in
1977 and the initiation of VLA operations in 1978. The
Facilities "wedge" represents mainly a major resurfacing
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412
70
60
50
40
20
NSF ASTRONOMY DIVISION By
- ~ MILL10~/
/ /
LOCI L/
/ CENTER
/ OPERATIONS
30 __ ~
- OPS: '' ~~ _
GRANTS
10 ~
01 _
70
GRANTS
75
YEAR
3.0
2.5
2.0
I 5 0
80
FIGURE 6.29 NSF support is shown, in con-
stant dollars, for the grants program, for
the Very Large Array (VLA), for the National
Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), for Kitt
Peak National Observatory (KPNO), for the
National Atmospheric and Ionospheric Center
(NAIC), and for the Cerro Tololo Inter-
American Observatory (CTIO).
of the large Arecibo dish in the early 1970's and VLA
construction in the mid to late 1970's. With the comple-
tion of the VLA, there is no major facilities construction
in the NSF Astronomy Program starting in 1981 (initiation
of a proposed 25-m millimeter wave telescope has been
deferred because of federal budget restrictions).
On a constant-dollar basis, the effect of inflation
has been particularly severe. Figure 6.29 shows that
while the Grants program has risen slightly in constant
dollars, the Center Operations funds have stayed level or
have actually decreased over the 1970's. m is trend is
also reflected in the Center Operations to Grants ratio
(see Figure 6.28), which shows a steady decrease from a
high of 2.7 in 1970 to a low of 1.8 in 1978. A conscious
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413
decision has been made in NSF to bring that ratio up to
2.0, a value reached in the proposed fiscal year 1981
budget.
The trends in number of grants, average grant size,
total grant dollars, and number of astronomers are shown
in Figure 6.30. The number of astronomers has risen by
40% over the decade (judging from AAS membership), while
the number of NSF grants rose by 60% (some of this in-
crease represents a breakup of several large grants into
a number of smaller grants); the average grant size rose
from about $50,000 to about $80,000, and the total grant
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
o
AVG. GRANT (a K)
l
400(0)
TOTAL
GRANTS SM
:~
/ 20 - 350(0))
#BAAS MEMBERS;/ / 16
/~/T ~~ 4250(0)
AIR _
/ OF GRANTS
-
/
, 1 ;1 ,l l, l Ail 1 --
70 75 80
YEAR
60 65
200(0)
OF GRANTS
WAS (0)
150(0)
130(0)
FIGURE 6.30 NSF astronomy funding compared
with number of astronomers. The total grant
funding and the number of grants are plotted
in actual dollars. The average grant size
shows a 50% increase from 1970 to 1980: the
Consumer Price Index rose twice as rapidly
during that time. Membership in the American
Astronomical Society (AAS) is indicative of
the number of capable research astronomers
in the United States. Nearly all AAS members
have a Ph.D. degree. During the last decade
the AAS membership increased by 40%.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
center operations
