Decadal Science Strategy Surveys Report of a Workshop (2007) / Chapter Skim
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2 Review of Recent Decadal Surveys
2 Review of Recent Decadal Surveys
Pages 9-20
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From page 9... ...
In the Survey Committee Panel, the chairs of the committees that wrote Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium; Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos: Eleven Science Questions for the New Century; Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond; New Frontiers in the Solar System: An Integrated Exploration Strategy; and The Sun to the Earth -- and Beyond: A Decadal Research Strategy in Solar and Space Physics summarized their studies from the perspective of approaches employed, impacts, problems, and recommendations for future surveys. An agency panel and a congressional panel provided opportunities for speakers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
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From page 10... ...
McKee indicated that unforeseen developments, including postsurvey budget constraints, cost growth in recommended missions, and the Columbia disaster, which delayed the refurbishment of the Hubble Space Telescope by several years and incurred many hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs, impaired NASA's ability to act on the survey report recommendations. In looking back at the astronomy and astrophysics survey, Dr.
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From page 11... ...
Rearrange the membership of the NRC Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics to include a significant fraction of the survey committee. Doing so will allow changing priorities if costs increase greatly, but only as a last resort since this could undermine the process.
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From page 12... ...
Louis J Lanzerotti, chair of the Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey Committee and research professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology,
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From page 13... ...
Like its counterpart surveys summarized above, Dr. Lanzerotti's survey committee held numerous town meetings and then integrated input from six expert panels to prepare overall recommendations for program goals and priorities.
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From page 14... ...
Other problems facing the survey committee had included the overly broad and open-ended charge, which was to review the status of the field; overlapping or ambiguous agency roles; and obtaining and verifying mission cost estimates.
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From page 15... ...
Unlike the other classical decadal surveys, Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos did not produce a strictly ordered list of priorities; rather, it presented a strategic package of projects to achieve the science goals. The study resulted in a federal plan of action put together by OSTP.9 Dr.
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From page 16... ...
Cleave offered the following recommendations for the next decadal surveys: • Focus on science questions and objectives, not specific missions. If missions are identified, NASA and the NRC should work together on approaches to find mission cost boundaries that fit within the budget.
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From page 17... ...
Turner, are also important. • Survey committees need to be mindful of the breadth of the scientific communities that they are charged to represent and of inadvertently disenfranchising some segments of a community.
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From page 18... ...
VIEWS FROM CONGRESS The third and final panel of Session 1 drew views about the decadal survey process from one current and two former congressional staffers. William Adkins, president of Adkins Strategies LLC and former staff director of the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, called the decadal surveys the gold standard for scientific advice.
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From page 19... ...
Survey committees also need to state explicitly what they see in terms of mission size trade-offs in a balanced program. Robert Palmer, a former staff director of the House Committee on Science, agreed with his colleagues that members of Congress think very highly of the decadal surveys because they help them do their jobs of advocating a strong U.S.
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From page 20... ...
That is, decadal studies need to provide the best balance of scientific priorities and prioritized missions (a strategic package) , work with the agencies to understand the budgetary and political realities, and give the agencies advice and decision rules to help them respond to major budget, programmatic, or political changes, while understanding that the agencies need flexibility in implementing specific programs and missions.
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