An Enabling Foundation for NASA's Earth and Space Science Missions (2010) / Chapter Skim
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1 Overview of the Science Mission Directorate's Mission-Enabling Activities
1 Overview of the Science Mission Directorate's Mission-Enabling Activities
Pages 7-24
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From page 7... ...
As emphasized in the NASA Science Plan: "Long-term outcomes are science based, not mission based; thus suborbital and research and analysis (R&A) programs are part of the discussion -- it is not simply a matter of weighing a mission in one area against a mission in another." 2 MISSION-ENABLING ACTIVITIES -- DEFINITION The Committee on the Role and Scope of Mission-Enabling Activities in NASA's Space and Earth Science Missions defined mission-enabling activities as including the following: 1 NASA, 2006 NASA Strategic Plan, NP-2006-02-423-HQ, Washington, D.C., 2006.
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; • Development of advanced sensors, research instruments, and spaceflight mission system technologies; • General data analysis (including archival data studies and synthesis of new and/or long-term data sets from multiple spaceflight missions) ; and • Earth science applications (including research to apply NASA Earth science results to fields such as agri culture, ecology, and public health and safety)
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Those differences include whether the divisions invite open-ended or targeted research topics for proposals, how data analysis activities are treated within and outside flight mission budgets, management of data archives and suborbital programs, roles of interdisciplinary and large-scale modeling efforts, and the roles of other funding agencies. Table 1.1 provides a summary of the relative sizes of the four divisions' programs.
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NESSF is the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowships program. a Totals do not include the one-time 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act supplement of $75 million for astrophysics and $325 million for Earth science.
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OVERVIEW OF THE SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE'S MISSION-ENABLING ACTIVITIES BOX 1.1 Case Study: Mission-Enabling Activities Advance Study of the Solar Corona Research on why the solar corona is millions of degrees hotter than the Sun's surface offers a case study of the essential importance that mission-enabling activities play for space science. The story begins with NASA-funded theoretical research in the 1980s.
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As such, the science mission teams require the best possible knowledge of mission objectives and their science context if spaceflight missions are to be developed in a cost-effective manner that maximizes the return on investment. As missions become more complex, the knowledge base necessary to support the strategic goals of SMD is constantly growing across all science disciplines and consists of activities that span all modes of basic and applied research.
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It was therefore a puzzle as to how the particles seen at high latitudes were able to propagate there, from their acceleration site. When a new and interesting discovery such as this is made, theorists, supported through the mission enabling program, attempt to explain it.
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AN ENABLING FOUNDATION FOR NASA'S EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE MISSIONS BOX 1.3 Suborbital Measurements Enhance Atmospheric Science and Astrophysics NASA's atmospheric chemistry program used balloon-borne instruments to provide the initial observa tions of key stratospheric species necessary to understand the processes, both human and natural, that impact the abundance of stratospheric ozone. Balloon-borne observations in the 1970s showed the destruc tion of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
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that are used for data analysis and modeling in all four SMD science discipline areas. 8 For example, in 2008 these supercomputer systems supported over 130 principal-investigator-led projects in Earth sciences such as developing advanced data assimilation and visualization tools and modeling how interactions of Earth's oceans and atmosphere affect climate change.
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6 AN ENABLING FOUNDATION FOR NASA'S EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE MISSIONS BOX 1.4 Planetary Astronomy Program Discovers Main Belt Comets In work using ground-based optical telescopes funded by the NASA planetary astronomy program, astronomers discovered comets orbiting in the main asteroid belt, a previously unknown class of solar system body. These bodies, referred to as "main-belt comets" (MBC)
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OVERVIEW OF THE SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE'S MISSION-ENABLING ACTIVITIES BOX 1.5 Curation of Meteorites from Mars and the Moon NASA's support for the laboratory analyses of meteorites led to the discovery of meteorites from Mars and also from the Moon. A very rare class of meteorites had elemental and mineralogical compositions sug gestive of origin in a differentiated body of planetary size.
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In addition to con tributions to instruments used for Mars missions, PIDDP has supported development of instruments or advanced instrument technologies that were subsequently used on the NASA-European Space Agency (ESA) Cassini mission to Saturn, Hubble Space Telescope, Messenger mission to Mercury, Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission, ESA Rosetta comet mission, and ESA Beppi Colombo mission to Mercury, among others.
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OVERVIEW OF THE SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE'S MISSION-ENABLING ACTIVITIES BOX 1.6 Case Study: Ocean Color Science Advances via Mission-Enabling Activities Satellite remote sensing of ocean color has progressed significantly in the last three decades through a combination of new missions, mission-enabling data analysis, and technology development activities. For example, researchers have documented a significant decrease in ocean productivity through analysis of the multiple-satellite time series of ocean color measurements.
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0 AN ENABLING FOUNDATION FOR NASA'S EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE MISSIONS BOX 1.7 Sounding Rocket Technology and Exploration Unveiled the X-ray Universe In 1963 an Aerobee rocket was launched from White Sands, NM, to detect X-rays from the Moon. With a flight to only 225 km altitude, onboard Geiger counters discovered Scorpio X-1, the first astronomical X ray source other than the Sun, and detected the cosmic diffuse X-ray background radiation.
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Similarly, balloon flights have provided development and test opportunities for prototype X-ray and gamma ray optics and detectors, cosmic microwave background bolometers, cosmic ray isotope spectrometers, Earth-atmosphere limb sounders, and many other instruments. These technologies have been incorporated into many past, currently operating, and planned future spaceflight missions.
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Sounding rockets have a important role in technology development, workforce development, and 11NASA also has its own internal needs for operational space weather capabilities to understand and mediate space radiation risks to human spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit.
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Bottom: Shown is Pennsylvania State University (PSU) graduate student Ann Hornschemeier; courtesy of David N
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In divisions with a strong numerical modeling emphasis -- i.e., heliophysics and Earth science -- advances in theoretical research need to be strongly coupled with and feed into the modeling effort. As a consequence of the different roles mission-enabling activities have within each division, the committee believes that it is entirely appropriate for mission-enabling activities to be managed separately in each of the divi sions and not consolidated in a single SMD mission-enabling program organization.
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