Space Studies Board Annual Report 2004 (2005) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 Summaries of Major Reports
3 Summaries of Major Reports
Pages 37-64
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From page 37... ...
In keeping with its statement of task (Appendix A) , the Committee on the Assessment of Options for Extending the Life of the Hubble Space Telescope assessed the scientific value of continued HST operation, issues of safety in using the space shuttle for servicing HST with an astronaut crew, the feasibility of robotic servicing, the impacts of servicing options on HST's science capability, and nsk/benefit relationships between those servicing options deemed acceptable.
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From page 38... ...
A premise of the most recently developed strategyt was that the HST SM-4 mission was an integral part of NASA's facility planning for the future of the field and that this servicing mission would occur as planned at the time necessary to prevent the demise of the telescope. The strategy's advisory recommendations reflect this assumption, and the committee, which was neither asked nor constituted to address any possible changes in priorities for astronomical research or research facilities, assumed that NASA would follow the decadal survey advisory recommendations.
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From page 39... ...
Maintaining and Enhancing Hubble's Capabilities The four previous servicing missions to Hubble have added new observing modes and increased existing capabilities, typically by factors of between 10 and 100, since the telescope first flew in 1990. As a result, Hubble now produces more data per unit time than it did originally.
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From page 40... ...
THE RISKS OF ROBOTIC SERVICING Because a robotic servicing mission does not involve nsks to the safety of an astronaut crew, the pnucipal concerns are the risk of failure to develop a robotic mission capability in time to service Hubble, and the nsk of a mission failure that results in an inability to perform the needed servicing, or worse, critically damages Hubble during the mission. Both schedule risk and mission nsk are composed of a large number of factors that were studied m considerable detail by the committee.
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From page 41... ...
IFINDING: The Goddard Space Flight Center HST project has a long history of HST shuttle servicing experience but has little experience with autonomous rendezvous and docking or robotic technology development, or with the operations required for the baseline HST robotic servicing mission, E'INDING: The proposed HST robotic servicing mission involves a level of complexity that is inconsistent with the current 39-month development schedule and would require an unprecedented improvement m development performance compared with that of space missions of similar complexity. The likelihood of successful development of the HST robotic servicing mission within the baseiirle 39-month schedule is remote.
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From page 42... ...
The very aggressive schedule, the complexity of the mission design, the current low level of technology matunty, and the inability of a robotic servicing mission to respond to unforeseen failures that may well occur on Hubble between now and a servicing mission make it unlikely that the science life of HST will be extended through robotic servicing. A shuttle astronaut servicing mission is the best option for extending the life of Hubble and preparing the observatory for eventual robotic de-orbit by, for example, attaching targets to Hubble.
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From page 43... ...
, and Wind—ranging from observations of cosmic rays signaling the approach to the temmination shock, to the large- and small-scale magnetic fields responsible for guiding and scattenug energetic particles, to name only two types. At the workshop, the greatest excitement was generated by the suggestion that the low-energy cosmic rays showed evidence that Voyager may have crossed the temmination shock completely unexpected observations illustrating Voyagers' promise for returning results with a capacity to surprise and baffle for years to come.
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From page 44... ...
A crucial role will be played by Pathfinder missions, which may explore interstellar material such as pickup ions, neutral atoms, or anomalous cosmic rays directly, or explore the boundary regions using remote measunug techniques such as Lyman-alpha or energetic neutral atoms, or explore physical processes induced by the complex partially ionized plasma populations that make up the outer heliosphere beyond some 10 AU. Sending a well-equipped spacecraft to the boundaries of the heliosphere to begin the exploration of our galactic neighborhood will be one of the great scientific enterprises of the new century one that will capture the Imagination of people everywhere.
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From page 45... ...
· What is the elemental and isotopic composition of the LISM? What are the direction and magnitude of interstellar magnetic field?
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From page 46... ...
For example, as discussed in Chapter 3, Logsdon challenged the participants to consider that "discussion about the future of the space program would really be discussion about the future of the human spaceflight program. The space and Earth science programs are part of the nation's portfolio of basic research and are not controversial in principle, though budget levels of course are always a concern ''4 Participants who commented that the science programs were successful noted not just the "facts" of success, but the means by which the science programs achieved their successes.
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From page 47... ...
Those paTficipants noted that without such along-range goal the human spaceflightprogram's season for being is hard to maculate. This is true for the specific elements of the human spaceflight program, the space shuttle and the space station, as well as for the program in general.
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From page 48... ...
THEME 4: EXPLORATION AS A LONG-TERM ENDEAVOR TO BE ACCOMPLISIIED VIA A SERIES OF SMALL STEPS Many participants argued that having a clear, agreed upon, long-term goal, such as the human exploration of Mars, is essential for the future success of the human spaceflight program. It was seen as premature, however, to set a firm date for or cost of that goal.
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From page 49... ...
Yet if the human exploration program had a goal involving long-term human spaceflight, the station could have a very clear justification: to conduct microgravity and variable-gravity research and technology development to support the agreed goal. To many participants, this meant a higher prionty for biological research m support of longduration spaceflight.
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From page 50... ...
development of a space transportation system to replace the shuttle, all directed toward facilitating the eventual human exploration of some destination beyond low Earth orbit. THEME 7: INSTITUTIONAL CONCERNS These first six themes are cross-cutting concepts relevant to the nation's future approach to civil space.
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From page 51... ...
The Scientific Community Fisk concluded the workshop by saying that he believed that this workshop could be a truly histonc event if the scientific and technical communities, in the broadest sense, cam say that as a group "we believe in a human spaceflight program, we believe this country should invest in it, and we will stand up and say how it cam be done productively." Participants saw this as a realistic possibility for several reasons. First, the timing seems good, because the robotic-versus-humam dichotomy has begun to dissipate.
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From page 52... ...
By taking advantage of our ability to closely scrutinize and directly sample the plasma enviromments of the Sun, Earth, the planets, and other solar system bodies, we can test our understanding of plasmas and extend this knowledge to the stars and galaxies that we can view only from afar, Solar and space physics research explores a diverse range of plasma physical phenomena encountered at first hand in the solar system. Sunspots, solar flares, coronal mass ejections, the solar wind, collisionless shocks, magnetospheres, radiation belts, and auroras are just a few of the many phenomena that are unified by the common set of physical pnuciples of plasma physics.
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From page 53... ...
At Earth, magnetic energy stored in the magnetotail through the interaction of the solar wind and the magnetosphere is explosively released in substorms, penodic disturbances that convert this energy into particle kinetic energy. The details of how stored magnetic energy is transferred from the lobes of the magnetotail to the plasma sheet and ultimately dissipated remam subjects of intense debate.
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From page 54... ...
Plasma Physics of the Local Cosmos examines the universal properties of solar system plasmas and identifies a number of open questions illustrative of the major scientific issues expected to drive future research in solar and space physics. Recommendations regarding specific future research initiatives designed to address some of these issues are offered in another recent National Research Council report, The Stln to the Earth—and Beyond: A Decadal Research Strategy for Solar and Space Physics which was prepared by the Solar and Space Physics Survey Committee under the auspices of the Committee on Solar and Space Physics.' The two reports are thus complementary.
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From page 55... ...
In light of the commission's findings, the Committee on the Assessment of the Role of Solar and Space Physics in NASA's Space Exploration Initiative chose to interpret its charge in the broadest sense and to examine the fundamental role of solar and space physics research both in scientific exploration and in support of enabling future exploration of the solar system. From a purely scientific perspective, it is notable that the solar system, and stellar systems in general, are rich in the dynamical behaviors of plasma, gas, and dust that are organized and affected by magnetic fields.
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From page 56... ...
The strategy outlined in the solar and space physics decadal survey report was designed to accomplish these goals; the committee believes thatNASA should retain acommitmentto theaahieienuentof the goals of the decadal survey. Indeed curtailing program elements that address the scientific building blocks of space weather research jeopardizes the goal of space weather prediction.
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From page 57... ...
The decadal survey report from the Solar and Space Physics Survey Committee recommended a carefully reasoned and prioritized program for addressing high-priority science issues within the constraints of what was understood to be an attainable timeline and budget plan (see Figure 3.1 (a) in Chapter 3 below)
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From page 58... ...
Recomrnendation 3. The near-tenm pnonty and sequence of solar, heliosphenc, and geospace missions should be maintained as recommended in the decadal survey report both for scientific reasons and for the purposes of the exploration vision, Even with an SEC program that preserves the pnonties and sequence of recommended missions, there will be important consequences from delaying the pace at which missions are executed as a means of dealing with resource constraints.
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From page 59... ...
In this report, the Committee on Environmental Satellite Data Utilization (CESDU) offers findings and recommendations aimed at defining specific approaches to resolving the potential overload faced by the two agencies—NOAA and NASA—responsible for satellite data (see the preface for the committee's statement of task)
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From page 60... ...
Users of envirommental satellite data include mdividuals; federal government agencies; state and local managers, planners, and governments; commercial producers of added-value products; and Web, pout, and TV/radio broadcasters. Recommendation 1: To best serve the diverse user communities and to meet growing demand, the committee recommends that, as soon as is practical, agencies providing environmental satellite data and products collaborate, with NASA and NOAA taking the lead, to develop an explicit strategy and implementation plan for data distribution systems, user interfaces, and increased user engagement and education.
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From page 61... ...
,2 which quantify subtle but important global change trends, is not a task that can be accomplished solely in routine operational environments (such as with the National Polar-orbiting Opetational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) and Geostationary Operahonal Envirommental Satellite (GOES)
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From page 62... ...
NOAA should consider both centralized and decentralized approaches to managing the generation and distribution of environmental satellite data products to ensure cost-effective and efficient utiiizahon of existing human and inshtubonal expertise and resources. Centralized handling should be provided for operahonally critic al core products and should include the acquisition, processing, distribution, archiving, and management of calibrated, navigated radiances and reflectances at the top and bottom (atmosphencally corrected)
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From page 63... ...
The principal obstacles to expanded use have been inadequate and/or discontinuous funding for applied research as a part of data utilization programs, the lack of support for education and outreach programs, and the lack of trained professional brokers and facilitators available to work with the various bidirectional interfaces between users and providers within the environmental satellite data utilization system. Recommendation 9: A continuous level of adequate resources, especially for applied research and educahon of the work force in the use of envirommental satellite data, is needed to exploit the huge investments already made in the satellite system.
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From page 64... ...
effort to collect and provide envirommental satellite data. An integrated, sustainable basis for the stewardship of future operational systems, sensors, and algorithms should be fostered by establishing close cooperation between the research and operational agencies responsible for the utilization of environmental satellite data (including their development, collection, processing and reprocessing, validation, distribution, and exploitation)
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