NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Robert M. White is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is President of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. Robert M. White are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.
Support for this project was provided by Contract NASW 4627 between the National Academy of Sciences and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Cover: Mars mosaic image courtesy of Alfred McEwen of the U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona. Lunar crescent image courtesy of Dennis di Cicco. Cover design by Penny Margolskee.
Copies of this report are available from Space Studies Board, National Research Council, 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20418.
Copyright 1994 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
COMMITTEE ON HUMAN EXPLORATION
NOEL W. HINNERS,
Martin Marietta Astronautics Company,
Chair
RICHARD L. GARWIN, *
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
LOUIS J. LANZEROTTI,
AT&T Bell Laboratories
ELLIOTT C. LEVINTHAL, *
Stanford University
WILLIAM J. MERRELL, JR.,
Texas A&M University
ROBERT H. MOSER,
University of New Mexico
JOHN E. NAUGLE, †
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (retired)
GEORGE DRIVER NELSON,
University of Washington
SALLY K. RIDE, *
University of California, San Diego
MARCIA S. SMITH, †
Congressional Research Service
GERALD J. WASSERBURG, †
California Institute of Technology
Staff
DAVID H. SMITH, Executive Secretary
BOYCE N. AGNEW, Administrative Assistant
* |
Former committee member who participated in writing this report. |
† |
Committee members added for third CHEX study who participated in writing this report. |
SPACE STUDIES BOARD
LOUIS J. LANZEROTTI,
AT&T Bell Laboratories,
Chair
JOSEPH A. BURNS,
Cornell University
ANDREA K. DUPREE, *
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
JOHN A. DUTTON,
Pennsylvania State University
ANTHONY W. ENGLAND,
University of Michigan
LARRY ESPOSITO, *
University of Colorado
JAMES P. FERRIS,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
HERBERT FRIEDMAN,
Naval Research Laboratory
RICHARD GARWIN, *
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
RICCARDO GIACCONI, *
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
HAROLD J. GUY,
University of California, San Diego
NOEL W. HINNERS,
Martin Marietta Astronautics Company
JAMES R. HOUCK, *
Cornell University
DAVID A. LANDGREBE, *
Purdue University
ROBERT A. LAUDISE,
AT&T Bell Laboratories
RICHARD S. LINDZEN,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JOHN H. McELROY,
University of Texas, Arlington
WILLIAM J. MERRELL, JR.,
Texas A&M University
RICHARD K. MOORE, *
University of Kansas
ROBERT H. MOSER, *
University of New Mexico
NORMAN F. NESS,
University of Delaware
MARCIA NEUGEBAUER,
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
SIMON OSTRACH,
Case Western Reserve University
JEREMIAH P. OSTRIKER,
Princeton University
CARLE M. PIETERS,
Brown University
JUDITH PIPHER,
University of Rochester
MARK SETTLE, *
ARCO Oil Company
WILLIAM A. SIRIGNANO,
University of California, Irvine
JOHN W. TOWNSEND,
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (retired)
FRED W. TUREK,
Northwestern University
ARTHUR B.C. WALKER JR.,
Stanford University
MARC S. ALLEN, Director
* |
Former member. |
COMMISSION ON PHYSICAL SCIENCES, MATHEMATICS, AND APPLICATIONS
RICHARD N. ZARE,
Stanford University,
Chair
RICHARD S. NICHOLSON,
American Association for the Advancement of Science,
Vice Chair
STEPHEN L. ADLER,
Institute for Advanced Study
JOHN A. ARMSTRONG,
IBM Corporation (retired)
SYLVIA T. CEYER,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
AVNER FRIEDMAN,
University of Minnesota
SUSAN L. GRAHAM,
University of California, Berkeley
ROBERT J. HERMANN,
United Technologies Corporation
HANS MARK,
University of Texas, Austin
CLAIRE E. MAX,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
CHRISTOPHER F. McKEE,
University of California, Berkeley
JAMES W. MITCHELL,
AT&T Bell Laboratories
JEROME SACKS,
National Institute of Statistical Sciences
A. RICHARD SEEBASS III,
University of Colorado
CHARLES P. SLICHTER,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
ALVIN W. TRIVELPIECE,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
NORMAN METZGER, Executive Director
Preface
In 1988 the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering stated in the report, Toward a New Era in Space: Realigning Policies to New Realities, that “the ultimate decision to undertake further voyages of human exploration and to begin the process of expanding human activities into the solar system must be based on nontechnical factors.” It is clear, however, that if and when a program of human exploration is initiated, the U.S. research community must play a central role by providing the scientific advice necessary to help make the relevant political and technical decisions.
Since its establishment in 1958, the Space Studies Board (SSB; formerly the Space Science Board) has been the principal nongovernmental advisory body on civil space research in the United States. In this capacity, the board established the Committee on Human Exploration (CHEX) in 1989 to examine many of the science and science policy matters concerned with the return of astronauts to the Moon and eventual voyages to Mars. The board asked CHEX to consider three major questions:
-
What scientific knowledge must be obtained as a prerequisite for prolonged human space missions?
-
What scientific opportunities might derive from prolonged human space missions?
-
What basic principles should guide the management of both the prerequisite science activities necessary to enable human exploration and
-
the scientific activities that may be carried out in conjunction with human exploration?
This report focuses on the second of these topics. The first topic was covered in Scientific Prerequisites for the Human Exploration of Space, published in 1993; the third topic is the subject of a future report.
The Space Studies Board and CHEX concluded that the existing research strategies of several of the board's discipline committees form a basis for beginning to determine the scientific research opportunities that might arise if and when humans undertake voyages to the Moon and Mars. (See the appendix for a list of these committees and their contributing members.) CHEX thus asked the discipline committees to identify those scientific opportunities and classify them under two headings: (1) those that can be conducted only in association with long-term human missions and (2) those that could also be conducted by other means (for example, robotic or ground-based) to achieve the same or equivalent goals.
Early in their analyses the discipline committees found that, with one exception, they were not able to identify opportunities that unambiguously require human presence. The exception, the study of the effects of prolonged missions to the Moon and Mars on human physiology and psychology, is in and of itself of low priority absent a program of human exploration. Regarding opportunities that are in competition with other means, difficulty was encountered because of the considerable uncertainty existing concerning the practical capability of humans and the eventual capabilities of robotic missions over the long time scale involved in any program of human exploration. The committees thus expanded their advice to include the following considerations:
-
Identification of those scientific objectives for the Moon and Mars for which human presence can play a significant role;
-
Discussion of the realistic capabilities of humans and robots in planetary exploration and in carrying out scientific investigations in those environments;
-
Discussion of the appropriate phasing and mix of human and robotic activities in achieving those objectives;
-
Discussion of the requirements for crew selection and training, technical development, and program structure to meet the scientific objectives in a program of human exploration; and
-
Identification of robotic scientific opportunities that may be enabled by some of the technology developed for the human exploration program.
CHEX itself developed a description of the overall role of science in a program of human exploration. In that context, it then assimilated, evalu-
ated, and integrated the contributions of the discipline committees. Information on the biomedical research opportunities arising from prolonged space missions was provided by the SSB's Committee on Space Biology and Medicine. Input on field science, the relative capabilities of humans and robots, and the search for planets around other stars was supplied by the SSB's Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration. (CHEX consulted A Strategy for the Scientific Exploration of Mars, by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Mars Science Working Group, for additional information on the planetological and exobiological aspects of Mars precursor science.) Research opportunities in astrophysics and solar and space physics were considered by the SSB's Committee on Solar and Space Physics and the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate's Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Research. Astronomical input from these discipline committees was augmented with material from The Decade of Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics, a report written by the National Research Council's Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee. Details of the individual scientific strategies and goals of the relevant discipline committees, on which they based much of their input, are contained in the reports listed in the bibliography.
Noel W. Hinners, Chair
Committee on Human
Exploration