An Assessment of the Solar and Space Physics Aspects of NASA's Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan (1997) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 7-13
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released its Space Science for the 21st Century: The Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan, (the Enterprise Plan) ,1 which includes a summary of planned solar and space physics activities to be initiated by NASA in the period 1995 to 2000.
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The distortions of planetary magnetic fields caused by their interaction with the solar wind are responsible for the "magnetospheric" effects that contribute to space weather. All manifestations of this coupling, from the auroral emissions that appear in the polar regions of the upper atmosphere to the radiation environments of our Earth satellites, vary continually in response to the changing boundary conditions produced by the Sun.
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Complete currently approved programs. The space physics community must reap the benefits of the nation's investment in existing approved programs by enhancing data analysis and interpretation efforts and by supporting essential observational programs that require long-duration databases.
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, including solar probe, contains the basic mission elements necessary for accomplishing the goals outlined in CSSP/CSTR's Science Strategy, but other missions in the solar probe class should also be identified. For example, a Mercury orbiter and an interstellar probe are long-awaited space physics missions that have been repeatedly identified in National Research Council reports6,7 as the means to investigate the ionosphere's role in magnetospheric behavior (Mercury has essentially no ionosphere, but has a magnetosphere)
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However, the CSSP and the CSTR recommend that subsequent updates of the solar and space physics portion of NASA's Enterprise Plan mention the following: The innovative suborbital program (e.g., Flare Genesis balloon observations of evolving solar active regions, sounding rocket campaigns in support of the ISTP program, campaigns to observe "sprites" and "jets") , with clear acknowledgment of the contributions the suborbital program makes to the instrument capabilities of the solar connections endeavor, including both training and hardware development; The diverse and productive space physics Explorers -- SAMPEX, ACE, FAST, and eventually TRACE and IMAGE, as well as the STEDI missions (TERRIERS and SNOE)
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(However, problems experienced with the Tethered Satellite System experiment are likely to affect future plans for exploration using the space shuttle.) Missions to solar system bodies that interact differently with the solar wind than does Earth, thereby providing lessons in comparative planetology from a solar connections perspective (e.g., "magnetospheric" and aeronomical exploration of Mercury, Mars, and Pluto can help reveal how Earth's strong planetary field and ionosphere determine its unique space environment)
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From page 13... ...
6. Space Studies Board and Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, National Research Council, A Science Strategy for Space Physics, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1995.
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