Revitalizing NASA's Suborbital Program

Revitalizing NASA's Suborbital Program PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309150833
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 97

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Book Description
Suborbital flight activities, including the use of sounding rockets, aircraft, high-altitude balloons, and suborbital reusable launch vehicles, offer valuable opportunities to advance science, train the next generation of scientists and engineers, and provide opportunities for participants in the programs to acquire skills in systems engineering and systems integration that are critical to maintaining the nation's leadership in space programs. Furthermore, the NASA Authorization Act of 2008 finds it in the national interest to expand the size of NASA's suborbital research program and to consider increased funding. Revitalizing NASA's Suborbital Program is an assessment of the current state and potential of NASA's suborbital research programs and a review of NASA's capabilities in this area. The scope of this review includes: existing programs that make use of suborbital flights; the status, capability, and availability of suborbital platforms; the existing or planned launch facilities for suborbital missions (including the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy); and opportunities for scientific research, training, and educational collaboration in the conduct of suborbital missions by NASA. The findings illustrate that suborbital program elements-airborne, balloon, and sounding rockets-play vital and necessary strategic roles in NASA's research, innovation, education, employee development, and spaceflight mission success, thus providing the foundation for achievement of agency goals.

Revitalizing NASA's Suborbital Program

Revitalizing NASA's Suborbital Program PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309150833
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 97

Get Book Here

Book Description
Suborbital flight activities, including the use of sounding rockets, aircraft, high-altitude balloons, and suborbital reusable launch vehicles, offer valuable opportunities to advance science, train the next generation of scientists and engineers, and provide opportunities for participants in the programs to acquire skills in systems engineering and systems integration that are critical to maintaining the nation's leadership in space programs. Furthermore, the NASA Authorization Act of 2008 finds it in the national interest to expand the size of NASA's suborbital research program and to consider increased funding. Revitalizing NASA's Suborbital Program is an assessment of the current state and potential of NASA's suborbital research programs and a review of NASA's capabilities in this area. The scope of this review includes: existing programs that make use of suborbital flights; the status, capability, and availability of suborbital platforms; the existing or planned launch facilities for suborbital missions (including the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy); and opportunities for scientific research, training, and educational collaboration in the conduct of suborbital missions by NASA. The findings illustrate that suborbital program elements-airborne, balloon, and sounding rockets-play vital and necessary strategic roles in NASA's research, innovation, education, employee development, and spaceflight mission success, thus providing the foundation for achievement of agency goals.

Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022

Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022 PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309224640
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
In recent years, planetary science has seen a tremendous growth in new knowledge. Deposits of water ice exist at the Moon's poles. Discoveries on the surface of Mars point to an early warm wet climate, and perhaps conditions under which life could have emerged. Liquid methane rain falls on Saturn's moon Titan, creating rivers, lakes, and geologic landscapes with uncanny resemblances to Earth's. Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022 surveys the current state of knowledge of the solar system and recommends a suite of planetary science flagship missions for the decade 2013-2022 that could provide a steady stream of important new discoveries about the solar system. Research priorities defined in the report were selected through a rigorous review that included input from five expert panels. NASA's highest priority large mission should be the Mars Astrobiology Explorer Cacher (MAX-C), a mission to Mars that could help determine whether the planet ever supported life and could also help answer questions about its geologic and climatic history. Other projects should include a mission to Jupiter's icy moon Europa and its subsurface ocean, and the Uranus Orbiter and Probe mission to investigate that planet's interior structure, atmosphere, and composition. For medium-size missions, Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022 recommends that NASA select two new missions to be included in its New Frontiers program, which explores the solar system with frequent, mid-size spacecraft missions. If NASA cannot stay within budget for any of these proposed flagship projects, it should focus on smaller, less expensive missions first. Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022 suggests that the National Science Foundation expand its funding for existing laboratories and establish new facilities as needed. It also recommends that the program enlist the participation of international partners. This report is a vital resource for government agencies supporting space science, the planetary science community, and the public.

NASA Space Science Vision Missions

NASA Space Science Vision Missions PDF Author: Marc S. Allen
Publisher: AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics)
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
"Using a solar sail, the Solar Polar Imager mission would observe the Sun from a polar orbit to observe magnetic fields and convective flows in the polar regions as well as coronal mass ejections and the Sun's outer atmosphere in order to better understand the solar dynamo and solar activity. Titan Explorer mission includes an orbiter with remote sensing instruments and an airship platform to investigate the atmosphere, clouds, haze, and surface of Saturn's moon Titan. Neptune Orbiter with Probes mission would use aerocapture to explore Neptune's rings and magnetosphere, which serve as an analog for the primordial solar nebula and accretion disks around other stars, and its satellite Triton, which resembles small objects at the outer boundary of our solar system today. Neptune Orbiter, Probe, and Lander mission would use nuclear electric propulsion to investigate Neptune and orbit its satellite, Triton. Interstellar Probe would leave the heliosphere to explore interstellar space, learning about its composition and dynamics and its interaction with our solar system. Observing distant stars with ultra-high resolution, the Stellar Imager mission could reveal their magnetic activity and internal structure, helping us understand solar activity and magnetohydrodynamics throughout the Universe. By bringing our understanding of other galaxies nearly up to our understanding of our own, the Modern Universe Space Telescope could illuminate how the chemical elements are created and dispersed, how normal galaxies form and evolve, and how stars and planetary systems form. Generation-X mission could detect the first black holes formed when the Universe was only a few hundred million years old. Advanced Compton Telescope is a wide-field gamma-ray spectrometer designed to uncover how supernovae and other stellar explosions create the chemical elements through an all-sky survey of nuclear line emissions. Far-Infrared/Submillimeter Interferometer in Space would use a two-element array to study the formation of the earliest-born stars and galaxies in the Universe and to probe the structure of the disks of gas and dust collapsing today to form a new generation of stars and planets. Single Aperture Far Infrared Observatory would be a single-spacecraft large space telescope for observing the early chemical history of the Universe and the structure of young planetary systems, tracking the chemistry needed for life from interstellar clouds to young solar systems. A final chapter describes an analysis of directions for future technology development inspired by this portfolio of mission concepts."--Publisher description.

A Budgetary Analysis of NASA's New Vision for Space Exploration

A Budgetary Analysis of NASA's New Vision for Space Exploration PDF Author:
Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
Looks at the George W. Bush Administration's vision for human and robotic space exploration. Assesses the implications for the content and funding of NASA's future exploration programs. Examines alternatives for the future of the space shuttle program and the United States' involvement in the International Space Station.

Reauthorizing the Vision for Space Exploration

Reauthorizing the Vision for Space Exploration PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Space, Aeronautics, and Related Sciences
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Outer space
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description


Visions into Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022

Visions into Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022 PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309479339
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description
In spring 2011 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine produced a report outlining the next decade in planetary sciences. That report, titled Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022, and popularly referred to as the "decadal survey," has provided high-level prioritization and guidance for NASA's Planetary Science Division. Other considerations, such as budget realities, congressional language in authorization and appropriations bills, administration requirements, and cross-division and cross-directorate requirements (notably in retiring risk or providing needed information for the human program) are also necessary inputs to how NASA develops its planetary science program. In 2016 NASA asked the National Academies to undertake a study assessing NASA's progress at meeting the objectives of the decadal survey. After the study was underway, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017 which called for NASA to engage the National Academies in a review of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. NASA and the Academies agreed to incorporate that review into the midterm study. That study has produced this report, which serves as a midterm assessment and provides guidance on achieving the goals in the remaining years covered by the decadal survey as well as preparing for the next decadal survey, currently scheduled to begin in 2020.

Review of Goals and Plans for NASA's Space and Earth Sciences

Review of Goals and Plans for NASA's Space and Earth Sciences PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309181046
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 74

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Book Description
Both the President's commission on how to implement the President's space exploration initiative and Congress asked the NRC undertake an assessment and review of the science proposed to be carried out under the initiative. An initial response to that request was the NRC February 2005 report, Science in NASA's Vision for Space Exploration. While that report's preparation, NASA created capabilities and strategy roadmapping efforts which became the object of the next phase of the NRC review. The new NASA administrator modified that NASA activity resulting in changes in the NRC review effort. This report provides a review of six science strategy roadmaps: robotic and human exploration of Mars; solar system exploration; universe exploration; search for earth-like planets; earth science and applications from space; and sun-earth system connection. In addition, an assessment of cross-cutting and integration issues is presented.

Astrophysics in the Next Decade

Astrophysics in the Next Decade PDF Author: Harley A. Thronson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402094574
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 523

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Book Description
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), planned for operation in about five years, will have the capability to investigate – and answer – some of the most challenging questions in astronomy. Although motivated and designed to study the very early Universe, the performance of the observatory’s instruments over a very wide wavelength range will allow the world’s scientific community unequaled ability to study cosmic phenomena as diverse as small bodies in the Solar System and the formation of galaxies. As part of preparation to use JWST, a conference was held in Tucson, Arizona in 2007 that brought together astronomers from around the world to discuss the mission, other major facilities that will operate in the coming decade, and major scientific goals for them. This book is a compilation of those presentations by some of the leading researchers from all branches of astronomy. This book also includes a “pre-history” of JWST, describing the lengthy process and some of the key individuals that initiated early work on the concepts that would evolve to become the premier space observatory of the next decade.

The Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon

The Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309185769
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
Because of the Moon's unique place in the evolution of rocky worlds, it is a prime focus of NASA's space exploration vision. Currently NASA is defining and implementing a series of robotic orbital and landed missions to the Moon as the initial phase of this vision. To realize the benefits of this activity, NASA needs a comprehensive, well-validated, and prioritized set of scientific research objectives. To help establish those objectives, NASA asked the NRC to provide guidance on the scientific challenges and opportunities enabled by sustained robotic and human exploration of the Moon during the period 2008-2023 and beyond. This final report presents a review of the current understanding of the early earth and moon; the identification of key science concepts and goals for moon exploration; an assessment of implementation options; and a set of prioritized lunar science concepts, goals, and recommendations. An interim report was released in September 2006.

The Space Science Decadal Surveys

The Space Science Decadal Surveys PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309377382
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
The National Research Council has conducted 11 decadal surveys in the Earth and space sciences since 1964 and released the latest four surveys in the past 8 years. The decadal surveys are notable in their ability to sample thoroughly the research interest, aspirations, and needs of a scientific community. Through a rigorous process, a primary survey committee and thematic panels of community members construct a prioritized program of science goals and objectives and define an executable strategy for achieving them. These reports play a critical role in defining the nation's agenda in that science area for the following 10 years, and often beyond. The Space Science Decadal Surveys considers the lessons learned from previous surveys and presents options for possible changes and improvements to the process, including the statement of task, advanced preparation, organization, and execution. This report discusses valuable aspects of decadal surveys that could taken further, as well as some challenges future surveys are likely to face in searching for the richest areas of scientific endeavor, seeking community consensus of where to go next, and planning how to get there. The Space Science Decadal Surveys describes aspects in the decadal survey prioritization process, including balance in the science program and across the discipline; balance between the needs of current researchers and the development of the future workforce; and balance in mission scale - smaller, competed programs versus large strategic missions.