3
Ad Hoc Study Committees: Activities and Membership
When a sponsor requests that the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine conduct a study, an ad hoc committee is established for that purpose. The committee terminates when the study is completed. These study committees are subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Section 15, because they provide advice and recommendations to the federal government. The Space Studies Board (SSB) and/or one of its standing committees provide oversight for ad hoc study committee activities. Eleven ad hoc study committees and five panels and were active during 2017; their activities and membership are summarized below. The SSB collaborated on one study with the Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA), one study with the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB), and one study with the following boards of the Division on Earth and Life Studies: the Board on Atmospheric Science and Climate/Polar Research Board (BASCPR), the Board on Earth Science and Resources (BESR), the Ocean Studies Board (OSB), and the Water Science and Technology Board (WSTB).
ASTROBIOLOGY SCIENCE STRATEGY FOR THE SEARCH FOR LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE
The Committee on an Astrobiology Science Strategy for the Search for Life in the Universe was formally appointed in November 2017 and is chaired by Barbara Sherwood Lollar of the University of Toronto. The committee was established as the response of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) to direction from Congress contained in the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017. The committee’s three scheduled meetings will be held on January 16-18 (Irvine, California), March 6-8 (Washington, D.C.), and April 25-27 (Washington, D.C.). A prepublication is due to NASA by the end of August 2018.
Membership
Barbara Sherwood Lollar, University of Toronto (chair)
Sushil K. Atreya, University of Michigan
Alan P. Boss, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Paul G. Falkowski, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Jack D. Farmer, Arizona State University
Olivier Guyon, University of Arizona
Gerald F. Joyce, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
James F. Kasting, Pennsylvania State University
Victoria S. Meadows, University of Washington
Philip M. Neches, Teradata Corporation
Carl B. Pilcher, Blue Marble Space Institute of Science
Nilton O. Renno, University of Michigan
Karen L. Rogers, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Britney E. Schmidt, Georgia Institute of Technology
Roger Summons, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Frances Westall, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Shelley A. Wright, University of San Diego
Staff
David H. Smith, Senior Program Officer, SSB
Sarah Brothers, Associate Program Officer, SSB (from September)
Anesia Wilks, Senior Program Assistant, SSB
BEST PRACTICES FOR A FUTURE OPEN CODE POLICY FOR NASA SPACE SCIENCE
The Committee on Best Practices for a Future Open Code Policy for NASA Space Science was appointed in September 2017. The study is to investigate and recommend best practices for NASA as it considers whether to establish an open code and open models policy, complementary to its current open data policy. The committee held its first meeting November 14-16, 2017, in Washington, D.C. Highlights of the committee’s meeting include briefings from Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate (SMD), on the current policies and study expectations, and a panel discussion among representatives from each SMD division about unique needs for each division. The committee also received several presentations about initiatives for and perspectives on open science and open code in different communities. The committee’s next information-gathering meetings are scheduled for January 17-19, 2018, in Washington, D.C., and February 26-28 in Irvine, California.
Membership
Chelle L. Gentemann, Earth and Space Research (co-chair)
Mark A. Parsons, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (co-chair)
Lorena A. Barba, George Washington University
Kelle Cruz, Hunter College
Brenda J. Dietrich, Cornell University
Christopher L. Fryer, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Joe Giacalone, University of Arizona
Sara J. Graves, University of Alabama, Huntsville
Joseph Harrington, University of Central Florida
Elva J. Jones, Winston-Salem State University
Maria M. Kuznetsova, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Clifford A. Lynch, Coalition for Networked Information
Melissa A. McGrath, SETI Institute
Aaron Ridley, University of Michigan
Staff
Abigail Sheffer, Senior Program Officer, SSB
Nathan Boll, Associate Program Officer, SSB (from July)
Anesia Wilks, Senior Program Assistant, SSB
DECADAL SURVEY FOR EARTH SCIENCE AND APPLICATIONS FROM SPACE
The 2017-2027 decadal survey for Earth science and applications from space (ESAS 2017; http://www.nas.edu/esas2017) was very active during the first quarter with numerous teleconferences among and between the steering committee and its five study panels. In addition, the survey steering committee met in person for their
fourth and fifth meetings on January 18-20, 2017, at the Beckman Center in Irvine, California, and on March 6-8, 2017, in Washington, D.C., respectively. Public sessions at the January meeting included discussions with George Komar, associate director of NASA’s Earth Science Division and program manager of the Earth Science Technology Office and Karen St. Germain, director, Office of Systems Architecture and Advanced Planning, NOAA NESDIS. During the meeting, the committee also hosted a virtual town hall via WebEx that provided an update to the community on survey progress. On January 24, 2017, the survey co-chairs hosted a community forum on the decadal survey during the 97th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society, which was held in Seattle, Washington. The steering committee’s fifth meeting did not include public sessions. The survey study panels met together—along with a number of steering committee members—for their third and final meeting, which was held at the Beckman Center in Irvine, California, from February 15-18, 2017.
During the second quarter of 2017, the steering committee met in person for their sixth and seventh meetings on May 9-11, 2017, and June 19-20, 2017, in Boulder, Colorado, and Irvine, California, respectively. A draft from the ESAS 2017 committee entered the National Academies review process in late August. As the third quarter ended, the steering committee, along with its study panels and staff, was working on responding to report review.
A draft decadal survey was approved on December 30, 2017. A prepublication version of Thriving on Our Changing Planet: A Decadal Strategy for Earth Observation from Space is available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/24938/thriving-on-our-changing-planet-a-decadal-strategy-for-earth. As the fourth quarter ended, the steering committee was preparing for public release on January 5, 2018, and briefings to the study’s sponsors—NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)—as well as to Executive Branch and congressional staff. Town Hall discussions were also scheduled on January 10, 2018, at the 98th annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Austin Texas and on February 14, 2018, at the 2018 Americal Geophysical Union Ocean Sciences meeting in Portland, Oregon.
More than 100 members of the community served on one or more of the survey’s committees or panels. The survey’s website includes newsletters to the community, links to community responses to survey requests for information (RFIs), information on the organization of the survey and its members, and archives that include presentations made to the committee and by the committee at previous town hall presentations. A final version of the survey publication and a popularization of the survey are expected to be published in spring 2018.
Membership
Waleed Abdalati, University of Colorado, Boulder (co-chair)
Antonio J. Busalacchi Jr.,* University of Maryland, College Park (co-chair)
William B. Gail, Global Weather Corporation (co-chair†)
Steven J. Battel, Battel Engineering, Inc.
Stacey Boland, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Robert D. Braun, University of Colorado
Shuyi S. Chen, University of Washington
William E. Dietrich, University of California, Berkeley
Scott C. Doney, University of Virginia
Christopher B. Field, Stanford University
Helen A. Fricker, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Sarah T. Gille, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Dennis L. Hartmann, University of Washington
Daniel J. Jacob, Harvard University
Anthony C. Janetos, Boston University
Everette Joseph, University of Albany, State University of New York
Molly K. Macauley,‡ Resources for the Future
Joyce E. Penner, University of Michigan
Soroosh Sorooshian, University of California, Irvine
Graeme L. Stephens, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Byron D. Tapley, University of Texas, Austin
W. Stanley Wilson, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Staff
Arthur A. Charo, ESAS 2017 Study Director and Senior Program Officer, SSB
Lauren Everett, Program Officer, BASCPR
Charlie Harris, Research Associate, SSB (through August 2016)
Marchel Holle, Research Associate, SSB (from November 2016)
Andrea Rebholz, Program Coordinator, ASEB
___________________
* Resigned May 5, 2016, following the announcement of his appointment as president of UCAR.
† As of June 1, 2016.
‡ Deceased July 8, 2016.
Panel on Weather and Air Quality: Minutes to Subseasonal
Steven A. Ackerman, University of Wisconsin, Madison (co-chair)
Nancy L. Baker, Naval Research Laboratory (co-chair)
Philip E. Ardanuy, INNOVIM, LLC
Elizabeth A. Barnes, Colorado State University
Stanley G. Benjamin, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Mark A. Bourassa, Florida State University
Bryan N. Duncan, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Charles E. Kolb, Aerodyne Research, Inc.
Ying-Hwa Kuo, * University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
W. Paul Menzel, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Maria A. Pirone, Harris Corporation
Armistead G. Russell, Georgia Institute of Technology
Julie O. Thomas, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego
Duane E. Waliser, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Xubin Zeng, University of Arizona
Sandra Graham, Senior Program Officer, SSB
Andrea Rebholz, Program Associate, ASEB
___________________
* Resigned September 14, 2016.
Panel on Climate Variability and Change: Seasonal to Centennial
Carol Anne Clayson, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (co-chair)
Venkatachalam Ramaswamy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (co-chair)
Arlyn E. Andrews, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
Enrique Curchitser, Rutgers University
Lee-Lueng Fu, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Guido Grosse, Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research
Randal D. Koster, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Sonia Kreidenweis, Colorado State University
Emilio F. Moran, Michigan State University
Cora E. Randall, University of Colorado
Philip J. Rasch, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Eric J. Rignot, University of California, Irvine
Christopher Ruf, University of Michigan
Ross J. Salawitch, University of Maryland
Amy K. Snover, University of Washington
Julienne C. Stroeve, University of Colorado, Boulder
Bruce A. Wielicki, NASA Langley Research Center
Gary W. Yohe, Wesleyan University
Lauren Everett, Program Officer, BASCPR
Erin Markovich, Senior Program Assistant, BASCPR
Panel on Earth Surface and Interior: Dynamics and Hazards
Douglas W. Burbank, University of California, Santa Barbara (co-chair)
David T. Sandwell, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (co-chair)
Robin E. Bell, Columbia University
Emily E. Brodsky, University of California, Santa Cruz
Donald P. Chambers, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg
Lucy Flesch, Purdue University
George E. Hilley, Stanford University
Kristine M. Larson, University of Colorado, Boulder
Stefan Maus, University of Colorado, Boulder
Michael S. Ramsey, University of Pittsburgh
Jeanne Sauber, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Khalid A. Soofi, ConocoPhillips
Howard A. Zebker, Stanford University
Anne Linn, Scholar, BESR
Eric Edkin, Senior Program Assistant, BESR
Panel on Global Hydrological Cycles and Water Resources
Ana P. Barros, Duke University (co-chair)
Jeff Dozier, University of California, Santa Barbara (co-chair)
Newsha Ajami, Stanford University
John D. Bolten, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Dara Entekhabi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Graham E. Fogg, University of California, Davis
Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, University of California, Irvine
David C. Goodrich, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Terri S. Hogue, Colorado School of Mines
Jeffrey S. Kargel, University of Arizona
Christian D. Kummerow, Colorado State University
Venkat Lakshmi, University of South Carolina
Andrea Rinaldo,* École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Edwin Welles, Deltares USA Inc.
Eric F. Wood, Princeton University
Ed Dunne, Program Officer, WSTB (through July 2017)
Lauren Everett, Program Officer, BASCPR (from July 2017)
Tamara Dawson, Program Coordinator, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology
___________________
* Resigned June 6, 2017.
Panel on Marine and Terrestrial Ecosystems and Natural Resource Management
Compton J. Tucker, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (co-chair)
James A. Yoder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (co-chair)
Gregory P. Asner, Carnegie Institution for Science
Francisco Chavez, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
Inez Y. Fung, University of California, Berkeley
Scott Goetz, Woods Hole Research Center
Patrick N. Halpin, Duke University
Eric Hochberg, Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences
Christian J. Johannsen, Purdue University
Raphael M. Kudela, University of California, Santa Cruz
Gregory W. McCarty, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Linda O. Mearns, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Lesley E. Ott, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Mary Jane Perry, University of Maine
David A. Siegel, University of California, Santa Barbara
David L. Skole, Michigan State University
Susan L. Ustin, University of California, Davis
Cara Wilson, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Constance Karras, Associate Program Officer, OSB
Payton Kulina, Senior Program Assistant, OSB (through September 2016)
Alexandra Phillips, Senior Program Assistant, OSB (from September 2016)
James Heiss, Postdoctoral Fellow
EXOPLANET SCIENCE STRATEGY
The Committee on an Exoplanet Science Strategy is currently being recruited; it is expected that they will be appointed in early 2018. This study was requested by NASAs SMD in response to direction from a congressional mandate contained in the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017. It is anticipated that the committee will hold its first meeting in the first quarter of 2018. A prepublication is due to NASA by the end of August 2018.
Membership*
David Charbonneau, Harvard University (co-chair)
B. Scott Gaudi, Ohio State University (co-chair)
Fabienne Bastien, Pennsylvania State University
Jacob Bean, University of Chicago
Justin R. Crepp, University of Notre Dame
Eliza Kempton, Grinnell College
Chryssa Kouveliotou, The George Washington University
Bruce Macintosh, Stanford University
Dimitri P. Mawet, California Institute of Technology
Victoria S. Meadows, University of Washington
Ruth Murray-Clay, University of California, Santa Cruz
Evgenya L. Shkolnik, Arizona State University
Alycia J. Weinberger, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Staff
David B. Lang, Senior Program Officer, BPA
Christopher Jones, Program Officer, BPA
Nathan Boll, Associate Program Officer, SSB (from July)
Dionna Wise, Program Coordinator, SSB
___________________
* Terms began in 2018.
EXTRATERRESTRIAL SAMPLE ANALYSIS FACILITIES
The Committee on Extraterrestrial Sample Analysis Facilities was appointed in August 2017. The study is to prepare for what laboratory analytical capabilities and infrastructure will be needed by NASA’s Planetary Science Division (and partners’) analysis and curation of existing and future extraterrestrial samples. The committee held its first meeting November 19-21, 2017, in Irvine, California. The committee heard presentations about current and proposed future NASA sample return missions, including the planned architecture for Mars Sample Return, the OSIRIS-Rex asteroid sample return mission, the CORSAIR comet surface sample return mission concept, and the MoonRise lunar sampler return mission concept. The committee also heard from the Curation and Analysis Planning Team for Extraterrestrial Materials, from the Astromaterials Acquisition and Curation Office at NASA-Johnson Space Center, and about the Smithsonian Institution’s meteorite collection and curation. The committee’s next information-gathering meetings are planned for January 22-24, 2018, in Houston, Texas, and April 3-5, 2018, in Washington, D.C.
Membership
Roberta L. Rudnick, University of California, Santa Barbara (chair)
James H. Crocker, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company
Vinayak P. Dravid, Northwester University
John M. Eiler, California Institute of Technology
Katherine H. Freeman, Pennsylvania State University
Abby Kavner, University of California, Los Angeles
Timothy J. McCoy, Smithsonian Institution
Clive R. Neal, University of Notre Dame
Frank M. Richter, University of Chicago
Hanika Rizo, Carleton University
Kimberly T. Tait, Royal Ontario Museum
Staff
Abigail Sheffer, Senior Program Officer, SSB
Sarah Brothers, Associate Program Officer, SSB (from September)
Anesia Wilks, Senior Program Assistant, SSB
LARGE STRATEGIC NASA SCIENCE MISSIONS: SCIENCE VALUE AND ROLE IN A BALANCED PORTFOLIO
The Committee on Large Strategic NASA Science Missions: Science Value and Role in a Balanced Portfolio began in 2016, the committee held its final meeting February 15-17, 2017, at the Keck Center of the National Academies where it heard from NASA officials about the status of the science divisions. The committee’s draft entered review in May and was approved for release in July. The prepublication was delivered to NASA in early August and released to the public shortly after. The final publication was available in December 2017.
The committee co-chairs Ralph McNutt and Kathryn Thornton briefed NASA associate administrator for science, Thomas Zurbuchen, and his staff, as well as staff of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee and the House Appropriations Committee. In December 2017, committee co-chair Kathy Thornton and study director Dwayne Day briefed numerous people at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory who were interested in how the publication’s recommendations may affect future large strategic missions. The summary of this publication can be found in Chapter 5.
Membership
Ralph L. McNutt, Jr., Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory (co-chair)
Kathryn C. Thornton, University of Virginia (co-chair)
David A. Bearden, The Aerospace Corporation
Joel N. Bregman, University of Michigan
Anny Cazenave, International Space Sciences Institute, Bern, Switzerland
Anne R. Douglass, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Victoria E. Hamilton, Southwest Research Institute
Marc L. Imhoff, University of Maryland
Charles D. Norton, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Carol S. Paty, Georgia Institute of Technology
Marc D. Rayman, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
William S. Smith, ScienceWorks International
Edward L. Wright, University of California, Los Angeles
Gary P. Zank, University of Alabama, Huntsville
Staff
Dwayne A. Day, Senior Program Officer, ASEB
Mia Brown, Research Associate, SSB (from December 2016)
Katie Daud, Research Associate, SSB (through December 2016)
Anesia Wilks, Senior Program Assistant, SSB
MIDTERM ASSESSMENT OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECADAL SURVEY ON LIFE AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH AT NASA
The Committee on a Midterm Assessment of Implementation of the Decadal Survey on Life and Physical Sciences Research at NASA held its first meeting on February 7-9, 2017, in Washington, D.C.The committee first met with Craig Kundrot, director of the NASA Division of Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications (SLPSRA), who provided an overview of the organization as well as its relationship to the decadal survey. Next, Francis Chiaramonte, David Tomko, Steve Davison, and Dr. Mark Lee briefed the committee on the research and accomplishments of the four SLPSRA research subdivisions including physical sciences, biological sciences program, human research, and fundamental physics. NASA Deputy Chief Scientist Gale Allen provided context for SLPSRA’s role within NASA, including organizational connections and potential future roles. Julie Robinson, ISS chief scientist, briefed the committee on ISS research, past, present, and future. She highlighted groundbreaking discoveries, including the “Cool Flames” experiment. The committee’s open session ended on the second day with a briefing from Michael Roberts, deputy chief scientist at the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) about the role of CASIS in microgravity research. The committee spent the remainder of its meeting in closed session reviewing materials, developing data requests, and conducting task and meeting planning—with a particular focus on plans for a community input colloquium during its next meeting. Following the February meeting, the committee continued to work on developing, organizing, and publicizing this event.
The committee held its second and third meetings on April 18-20 in Washington, D.C. and on June 20-22, 2017, in Woods Hole, MA, respectively. As part of its April meeting the committee held a 1 day Community Input Colloquium, which included six moderated panel sessions, each focused on a broad area of microgravity research. The live-streamed event had been widely advertised in the research community and was well attended by researchers, both in person on online. Both the presentations and discussions were organized with the goals of addressing discipline-specific questions relevant to the statement of task and enabling the committee to hear from the larger community on a range of issues and challenges. In addition to the colloquium presentations, the committee also heard from SLPSRA director, Craig Kundrot on grant data sets requested by the committee for its work, and from Kris Kandarpa (National Institutes of Health), Richard Ricker (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and Vyacheslav Lukin (NSF) regarding synergies between research at their agencies and NASA.
Following its April meeting, the committee continued to work closely with SLPSRA on obtaining comprehensive data sets for SLPSRA grant and ISS research activities. At its June meeting, the committee was briefed by ISS chief scientist Julie Robinson on one of these data sets; and by ISS deputy director Robyn Gatens on NASA’s evolving strategy for the ISS and exploration in the 2024 timeframe. The majority of the June meeting was held in closed session and was focused on analysis and draft development.
The committee held its final meeting on August 28-30 in Irvine, California where it focused on revisions and reviewing and finalizing its findings and recommendations. No open sessions were held. Following the meeting, the committee continued to work intensively on preparing the draft for external review and later to respond to report review comments from a broad set of external reviewers. The report approval process was completed in early December. The committee prepublication, A Midterm Assessment of Implementation of the Decadal Survey on Life and Physical Sciences Research at NASA, was subsequently delivered to NASA on December 12, 2017, and released to the public on December 15, 2017. Committee Chairs Daniel Dumbacher and Robert Ferl briefed both NASA and congressional staff on December 14, 2017, and additional government briefings and dissemination activities are planned for early 2018. The document is currently being edited for final publication in the spring of 2018. The summary of this publication can be found in Chapter 5.
Membership
Daniel L. Dumbacher, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (co-chair)
Robert J. Ferl, University of Florida (co-chair)
Reza Abbaschian, University of California, Riverside
Alan R. Hargens, University of California, San Diego
Yiguang Ju, Princeton University
Dominique Langevin, Laboratoire de Physique des Solides of the University Paris Sud
Gloria R. Leon, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
W. Carl Lineberger, University of Colorado, Boulder
Elliot M. Meyerowitz, California Institute of Technology
Todd J. Mosher, Syncroness
Elaine Oran,* University of Maryland, College Park
James A. Pawelczyk, Pennsylvania State University
James T’ien, Case Western Reserve University
Mark M. Weislogel, Portland State University
Gayle E. Woloschak, Northwestern University
Staff
Sandra J. Graham, Senior Program Officer
Marchel Holle, Research Associate
Dionna Wise, Program Coordinator
___________________
* Resigned April 21, 2017.
PLANETARY PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS FOR SAMPLE-RETURN MISSIONS FROM MARTIAN MOONS
The Committee on Planetary Protection Requirements for Sample-Return Missions from Martian Moons is a joint activity between the SSB and the European Space Science Committee of the European Science Foundation (ESF), with some participation by Japanese scientists. The committee is the result of parallel requests sent by the Planetary Protection Offices of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to the National Academies and ESF, respectively, to assess the results of research jointly sponsored by NASA and ESA on whether or not hypothetical martian organisms can survive ejection from the surface of Mars during a giant impact and subsequent emplacement on the surfaces of Phobos and Deimos. A major goal of this activity is to determine whether or not samples returned from the martian moons receive a planetary protection classification of “restricted” or “unrestricted” Earth return. The joint committee met in London, United Kingdom on November 7-9, 2017. A prepublication is due to be delivered to NASA and ESA in the spring of 2018.
Membership
David Pearce, Nothumbria University (chair)
Athena Coustenis, National Centre for Scientific Research of France
Michael J. Daly, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Abigail Fraeman, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Guy Libourel, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur
Akiko Nakamura, Kobe University
Robin Putzar, Fraunhoffer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics
Kaliat T. Ramesh, Johns Hopkins University
Norman H. Sleep, Stanford University
Megan B. Syal, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Staff
David H. Smith, Senior Program Officer, SSB
Mia Brown, Research Associate, SSB
Andrea Rebholz, Program Coordinator, ASEB
REVIEW OF NASA’S PLANETARY SCIENCE DIVISION’S RESTRUCTURED RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS PROGRAMS
The Committee on the Review of NASA’s Planetary Science Division’s Restructured Research and Analysis Programs has completed all of its planned meetings in 2016. A complete draft of the committee’s draft was assembled late in 2016 and the committee spent the first few months of 2017 responding to reviewer comments. A revised draft was approved for release by the National Academies on March 14, 2017. A complete, edited prepublication was delivered to NASA on April 19, 2017 and the chair of the committee briefed the leadership of NASA SMD on the publication’s conclusions and recommendations on April 21, 2017. The public release of the publication was April 26, 2017. The summary of this publication can be found in Chapter 5
Membership
Stephen J. Mackwell, Universities Space Research Association (chair)
Michael F. A’Hearn, University of Maryland, College
Joseph K. Alexander, Alexander Space Policy Consultants
Joseph A. Burns, Cornell University
Larry W. Esposito, University of Colorado, Boulder
G. Scott Hubbard, Stanford University
Torrence V. Johnson, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Makenzie Lystrup, Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation
Juan Perez-Mercader, Harvard University
John D. Rummel, SETI Institute
Staff
David Smith, Senior Program Officer
Mia Brown, Research Associate, SSB (from December 2016)
Katie Daud, Research Associate, SSB (through December 2016)
Dionna Wise, Program Coordinator
REVIEW OF PLANETARY PROTECTION POLICY DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES
The Committee on the Review of Planetary Protection Policy Development Processes, was formally appointed in February 2017 and held its first meeting at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., on March 7-9, 2017. Following the receipt of a request from NASA in December 2016 for the committee to issue an interim publication, the first meeting was devoted exclusively to beginning work on a short document outlining the goals, rationales, and definition of planetary protection. Work on the interim draft continued until mid-April. The draft was sent to eight external reviewers for comment on April 21 and delivered to NASA on June 7, 2017. Joseph Alexander, the committee’s chair, briefed NASA on June 13. The committee’s final three planned meetings took place in Washington, D.C., Irvine, California, and Woods Hole, Massachusetts on May 23-25, June 27-29, and August 8-10, respectively. The committee schedule calls for a prepublication to be delivered to NASA in spring 2018.
Membership
Joseph K. Alexander, Alexander Space Policy Consultants (chair)
John R. Casani, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (retired)
Leroy Chiao, OneOrbit, LLC
David P. Fidler, Indiana University
Joanne Gabrynowicz, University of Mississippi
G. Scott Hubbard, Stanford University
Eugene H. Levy, Rice University
Norine E. Noonan, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg
Kenneth Olden, Environmental Protection Agency
Francois Raulin, Universite de Paris
Gary Ruvkun, Massachusetts General Hospital
Mark P. Saunders, Independent Consultant
Beth A. Simmons, University of Pennsylvania
Pericles D. Stabekis, Independent Consultant
Andrew Steele, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Staff
David H. Smith, Senior Program Officer, SSB
Mia Brown, Research Associate, SSB
Andrea Rebholz, Program Coordinator, ASEB
REVIEW OF PROGRESS TOWARD IMPLEMENTING THE DECADAL SURVEY VISION AND VOYAGES FOR PLANETARY SCIENCES
The Committee on the Review of Progress Toward Implementing the Decadal Survey Vision and Voyages for Planetary Sciences was approved in late February 2017. The committee is co-chaired by Louise Prockter of the Lunar and Planetary Institute and Joseph Rothenberg, formerly of Google.
In March 2017, shortly after the committee was appointed, the NASA Authorization Act was signed into law and included provisions for an Academies assessment of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. NASA and the Academies determined that the best course of action would be to incorporate this assessment into the mid-term review and to add several members with Mars expertise.
The committee met May 4-5, 2017 at the Keck Center in Washington, DC; July 11-13 at CalTech in Pasadena, CA; August 28-30, 2017 in Woods Hole, MA; and November 29-December 1, 2017 in Irvine, CA. A fifth meeting is scheduled for February 26-28, 2018 in Washington, DC. The introduction of a new NASA architecture proposal for Mars sample return during the August meeting complicated the committee’s work and the committee requested additional information on Mars sample return technology development for its Irvine meeting. The committee was impressed with the detail it received on the Mars technology development and has begun writing its final draft. The committee aims to deliver its prepublication to NASA in summer 2018.
Membership
Louise M. Prockter, Lunar and Planetary Institute (co-chair)
Joseph H. Rothenberg, Independent Consultant (co-chair)
David A. Bearden, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Scott Bolton, Southwest Research Institute
Barbara A. Cohen, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Andrew M. Davis, The University of Chicago
Melinda D. Dyar, Mount Holyoke College
Alan W. Harris, MoreData! Inc.
Amanda R. Hendrix, Planetary Science Institute
Bruce M. Jakosky, University of Colorado Boulder
Margaret G. Kivelson, University of California, Los Angeles
Scott L. Murchie, Johns Hopkins University
Juan Perez-Mercader, Harvard University
Mark P. Saunders, Independent Consultant
Suzanne Smrekar, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
David J. Stevenson, California Institute of Technology
Staff
Dwayne A. Day, Senior Program Officer, ASEB
Mia Brown, Research Associate, SSB
Dionna Wise, Program Coordinator, SSB