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The Role of Small Missions in Planetary and Lunar Exploration (1995) / Chapter Skim
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4 Management Structure and Procedures
Pages 33-37

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From page 33...
... NOTICE MEMBERSHIP PREFACE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 1 SELECTION CRITERIA AND PROCEDURES CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 The most important aspect of the selection process for small missions is CHAPTER 4 that, after open solicitation of proposals, missions be chosen on the basis of peer CHAPTER 5 review. The competitive nature of this process is designed to bring forth the best APPENDIX scientific, technical, and management approaches and to foster creative solutions for achieving mission success in a fiscally constrained environment.
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From page 34...
... In other words, small missions should not be driven primarily by requirements to demonstrate technology, as Clementine was; to be testbeds for future missions, as Mars Pathfinder is; or by the need for a source of funding to make a NASA contribution to an international program such as ESA's Rosetta. Science objectives must continue to receive the highest priority in the mission selection process.
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From page 35...
... Periodic reviews are a necessary part of any successful enterprise and will naturally he required by the PI to maintain internal oversight of the project. External oversight should be carried out via NASA's participation in the internal review process; the emphasis should be technical exchange of information, rather than dictation of additional reviews.
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From page 36...
... NASA must be willing to accept a share of the risk associated with low-cost missions as well as to acknowledge that extensive review and oversight are neither affordable nor consistent with the small-mission philosophy. COMPLEX recommends that each project propose an "oversight ceiling," consistent with the management approach, which can serve as a baseline for developing a review plan.
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From page 37...
... REFERENCES 1. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, The Final Report on the Discovery Management Workshop, report of a workshop held at the San Juan Capistrano Research Institute, April 13-15, 1993; submitted by the Executive Committee (Frank Carr, W.E.
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Key Terms

  • discovery management
  • discovery program
  • management approach
  • science objectives
  • technical development

  • mission success
  • cost growth
  • external changes
  • mission design
  • complex believes

  • selection criteria
  • funding profile
  • management cost
  • mission selection
  • integrated team

  • limited budgets
  • thereby increase
  • process traditionally
  • management team
  • primary means

  • instrument definition
  • workshop final
  • fixed throughout
  • project start
  • fiscally constrained

  • complex recommends
  • internal cost
  • technical capabilities
  • changes beyond
  • affordable nor


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