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5
Con,gressional Testimony
5.l Exploration of the Solar System in the Coming Decade
Statement of Michael J.S. Belton, chair of the Solar System Exploration (DecadalJ Survey and President of
Belton Space Exploration Initiatives, LLC, before the Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space,
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, U.S. Senate, on July 30, 2003.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee. My name is Michael Belton, and I served as
Chairman of the Solar System Exploration (Decadal) Survey for the Space Studies Board of the National Research
Council. The NRC is the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences, chartered by Congress in 1863 to
advise the government on matters of science and technology. I am also an Emeritus Astronomer at the National
Optical Astronomy Observatory and President of Belton Space Exploration Initiatives, LLC, in Tucson, Arizona. I
have been involved in space exploration for most of my professional life and have been an investigator on several
NASA flight missions including Mariner Venus-Mercury, Voyager, Galileo, Contour, and Deep Impact.
The Office of Space Science of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration sponsored the SSE Survey
to chart a bold strategy for general solar system and Mars exploration over the next decade. The Survey, which
reported in July 2002, derived its recommendations and priorities by looking even farther into the future and is
based on direct and well-considered inputs from the scientific community and interested public organizations. It
has achieved a broad consensus of opinion in these communities. Its recommendations are for a strong, competi-
tive, flight program based on a few key scientific questions, a sound research infrastructure including public
outreach, and a forward-looking technology program that I expect will obtain the most innovative and cost-effective
mission solutions.
A critical element of the charge to the Survey was to formulate a "big picture" of solar exploration what it is,
how it fits into other scientific endeavors, and why it is a compelling goal today. We were also tasked to develop an
inventory of top-level scientific questions and provide a prioritized list of the most promising avenues for flight
investigations and supporting ground-based activities for the period 2003-2013.
In performing the Survey we took care to trace the relationships between basic motivational questions of
interest to the public at large and the scientific objectives, integrating themes, key scientific questions, and
prioritized mission list that form the core of our recommendations. Solar system exploration remains a compelling
activity because it places within our grasp answers to basic questions of profound human interest Are we alone?
Where did we come from? What is our destiny? Mars and icy satellite explorations may soon provide an answer to
the first question; exploration of comets, primitive asteroids, and Kuiper Belt objects may have much to say about
the second; surveys of near-Earth objects will say something about the third.
99
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Space Studies Board Annual Report 2003
Although the scientific goals of NASA's Solar System Exploration program have been quite stable, in recent
years the emphasis has increased in two areas the search for the existence of life, either past or extant, beyond
Earth, and the development of detailed knowledge of the near-Earth environment in order to understand what
potential hazards to the Earth may exist. The field of astrobiology has become an important element in solar system
exploration and there is an increasing interest in learning more about objects that could collide with the Earth at
some future time.
The Survey developed four integrating themes to guide solar system exploration in the coming decade:
· The First Billion Years of Solar System History. This formative period propelled the evolution of Earth and the
other planets, including the emergence of life on Earth, yet this epoch in our solar system's history is poorly known.
· Volatiles and Organics: The Stuff of Life. Life requires organic materials and volatiles, notably liquid
water, originally condensed from the solar nebula and later delivered to the planets by organic-rich cometary and
asteroidal debris.
· The Origin and Evolution of Habitable Worlds. Our concept of the "habitable zone" is being expanded by
recent discoveries on Earth and elsewhere in the solar system. Understanding our planetary neighborhood will help
to trace the evolutionary paths of the planets and the fate of our own.
· Processes: How Planets Work. Understanding the operation of fundamental processes is the find foundation of
planetary science, providing insight to the evolution of worlds within our solar system, and planets around other stars.
With these four themes agreed to, the Survey was able to prioritize among the literally hundreds of scientific
questions of interest to the community. The resulting set of twelve key questions with high scientific merit should
guide the selection of flight missions over the next decade. We measure the scientific merit of a question by asking
whether its answer has the possibility of creating or changing a paradigm, whether the new knowledge might have
a pivotal effect on the direction of future research, and to what degree the knowledge that might be gained would
substantially strengthen the factual basis of our understanding.
The twelve key questions, grouped within the four themes, are:
The First Billion Years of Solar System History
1. What processes marked the initial stages of planet and satellite formation?
2. How long did it take the gas giant Jupiter to form, and how was the formation of the ice giants different from
that of the gas giants?
3. What was the rate of decrease in the impactor flux throughout the solar system, and how did it affect the
timing of the emergence of life?
Volatiles and Organics: The Stuff of Life
4. What is the history of volatile material, especially water, in our solar system?
5. What is the nature and history of organic material in our solar system?
6. What planetary processes affect the evolution of volatiles on planetary bodies?
The Origin and Evolution of Habitable Worlds
7. Where are the habitable zones for life in our solar system, and what are the planetary processes responsible
for producing and sustaining habitable worlds?
8. Does (or did) life exist beyond the Earth?
9. Why did the terrestrial planets diverge so dramatically in their evolution?
10. What hazards do solar system objects present to Earth's biosphere?
Processes: How Planets Work
11. How do the processes that shape the contemporary character of planetary bodies operate and interact?
12. What does our solar system tell us about other solar systems, and vice versa?
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Congressional Testimony
101
To advance the subject these scientific themes and key questions must be addressed by a series of spaceflights
of different sizes and complexities. Also, as resources are finite, these proposed new flight missions must be
prioritized.
It is important at this juncture to understand that the foundation on which the Survey's priorities rest must also
be maintained and secured. The top-level programmatic priorities that are required to provide the foundation for
productivity and continued excellence in solar system exploration are:
· Continue approved Solar System Exploration programs, such as the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and
Titan, those in the Mars Exploration Program, the Discovery Program of low-cost missions, and ensure a level of
funding that is adequate for both the successful operations and the analysis of the data and publication of the results
of these missions.
· Assure adequate funding for fundamental research programs, follow-on data analysis programs, and
technology development programs that support these missions.
· Continue to support and upgrade the technical expertise and infrastructure in implementing organizations
that provide vital services to enable and support solar system exploration missions.
——i;, ——i;,—
· Continue to encourage, facilitate, and support international cooperation in its solar system exploration flight
programs.
Maintaining a mix of mission size is also important. For example, many aspects of the key science questions
can be met through Discovery class missions (<$325 million), while other high-priority science issues will require
larger, more expensive projects. Particularly critical in our strategy is the New Frontiers line of missions ($325 million
to $650 million), which are principal-investigator (PI)-led, medium-class, competed missions. This line was
proposed in the President's FY 2003 budget submission before the Survey was completed. The Survey strongly
supported the proposal to establish a New Frontiers line of competitively procured flight missions with a total
mission cost of approximately twice the Discovery cap.
Experience has also shown that large missions that enable extended and scientifically multifaceted experimen-
tation are an essential element of the mission mix. The Survey recommended that the development and implemen-
tation of Flagship (>$650 million) missions, comparable to Viking, Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini-Huygens, be at a
rate of about one per decade to provide for the comprehensive exploration of science targets of extraordinarily high
priority.
Within this structure the Survey recommended the following prioritized flight program of missions in general
solar system exploration in the period 2003-2013. It must be emphasized that, at NASA's request, the prioritization
was done within cost classes and not over the entire list. Also by NASA's request, the priorities for the Mars
Exploration Program were kept separate from the priorities for the Solar System Exploration Division.
Small Class
1. Discovery missions (at a frequency of approximately 1 every 18 months)
2. Cassini Extended Mission
Medium Class
Kuiper BeltIPluto
2. South Pole Aitkin Basin Sample Return
3. Jupiter Polar Orbiter with Probes
4. Venus In-situ Explorer
5. Comet Surface Sample Return
Large Class (at afrequency of approximately I every decade)
Europa Geophysical Explorer
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Space Studies Board Annual Report 2003
For the Mars Exploration Program the Survey recommended that in the coming decade the flight program
should focus on missions that get down onto the surface of the planet with the ultimate goal of implementing Mars
Sample Return missions in the period immediately following the current decade. It is believed that such samples
are necessary to settle the question of the presence of life. The Survey recommended the following flight mission
priorities for Mars exploration in the period 2006-2013:
Small Class
Mars Scout line
2. Mars Upper Atmosphere Orbiter
Medium Class
1. Mars Smart Lander
2. Mars Long-lived Lander Network
Large Class
Mars Sample Return (Preparation for flight missions in the next decade)
In addition the Survey committee counseled that NASA should seek to engage international partners at an early
stage in the planning and implementation of Mars Sample Return; that the Mars Smart Lander (MSL), while
addressing high-priority science goals, should take advantage of the opportunity to validate technologies required
for sample return, and that the Scout program should be structured like the Discovery program, with PI leadership
and competitive missions. The Survey advocated that a Scout mission should be flown at every other Mars launch
opportunity.
This future program for solar system exploration laid out above clearly requires a mix of medium and large-
class missions to adequately challenge current scientific paradigms. It also requires that small missions whether
Discovery class, Mars Scout, or mission extensions, provide focused ways of responding quickly to discoveries
made or provide vehicles for entrepreneurial creativity and new scientific ideas. Our proposed Kuiper Belt-Pluto
mission may well be the last great reconnaissance mission within solar system exploration and, with it completed,
we can expect that the program will rapidly enter a phase of large and medium class missions operating on the
surfaces of planets or within their atmospheres and plasma environments. These missions will utilize technologies,
yet to be practically developed, that will enable long sojourns, power advanced instrumentation, and return samples
to the Earth. The inclusion of Project Prometheus and the optical communications initiative in the President's
FY 2004 budget submission are two excellent examples of the type of technology development that is needed to
move solar system exploration forward.
The Survey recognized that a significant investment in advanced technology development is needed in order
for both the recommended flight missions to succeed and to provide a basis for increased science return from future
missions. The following list of future possible missions (unprioritized) with high science value was noted by the
Survey and gives some idea of the technical challenges that lie ahead:
Terrestrial Planet Geophysical Network
Asteroid Rover/Sample Return
Ganymede Observer
Titan Explorer
Neptune Orbiter/Triton Explorer
Saturn Ring Observer
Mercury Sample Return
Trojan/Centaur Reconnaissance Flyby
lo Observer
Europa Lander
Neptune Orbiter with Probes
Uranus Orbiter with Probes
Venus Sample Return
Comet Cryogenic Sample Return
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Congressional Testimony
The Survey identified the following areas in which we believe that technology development is appropriate:
Power: Advanced RTGs and in-space nuclear fission reactor power source
Propulsion: Nuclear electric propulsion, advanced ion engines, aerocapture
Communication: Ka band, large antenna arrays, and optical communication
Architecture: Autonomy, adaptability, lower mass, lower power
Avionics: Advanced packaging and miniaturization, standard operating system
Instrumentation: Miniaturization, environmental (temperature, pressure, radiation) tolerance
Entry to Landing: Autonomous entry, hazard avoidance, precision landing
In-Situ Ops: Sample gathering, handling and analysis, drilling, instrumentation
Mobility: Surface, aerial, subsurface, autonomy, hard-to-reach access
Contamination: Forward contamination avoidance
Earth Return: Ascent vehicles, in space rendezvous, and Earth return systems
103
These technology areas were not prioritized by the Survey. Nevertheless, I note that in-flight power and
nuclear electric propulsion initiatives were included in the 2003 budget request and appear again in the 2004 request
as Project Prometheus. Also, there are other elements of the above list that are, I believe, being actively considered
for inclusion in a future mission in NASA's New Millennium program.
The road that leads to the future of any endeavor is usually well defined only at its start. And quickly, the future
becomes obscured by latent uncertainties: the possibility of new discoveries, of changing paradigms, changes in
national policy, blind alleys, and funding pleasures and disappointments. Solar system exploration is no exception
and in the time since the Survey was completed and published I have felt great excitement and considerable pleasure
as important elements of our strategic plan have been proposed to Congress and move, hopefully, towards reality.
The New Horizons mission, which I believe can fulfill our goals at the Kuiper Belt and Pluto, is seeing strong
support the proposed Jupiter Icy Moons Mission will more than fulfill our goal of a flagship mission to further
explore the subsurface oceans on Europa while simultaneously applying the new technologies that the Survey
advocates as a basis for much of the future program. The most important of these new technologies in-flight
power and nuclear electric propulsion are adequately covered in the proposed Project Prometheus. The New
Frontiers program is going ahead and we await details of how NASA intends to implement this program to include
the flight priorities that we have advocated. Finally, the research infrastructure, which underlies the flight program,
also appears to be drawing adequate support.
The tragic Columbia accident will no doubt have effects on this program in ways that I cannot anticipate.
Whether these effects will be positive or negative remains to be seen. However, I note the old proverb "much good
can often come out of adversity." Since the end of the Apollo Program, the human spaceflight program has served
to enable a number of robotic missions (the Shuttle has been needed to launch important spacecraft such as the
Ulysses, Magellan, and Galileo probes, and the Hubble Space Telescope), but has not played a direct role in the
exploration of other solar system bodies. In the distant future I expect that this may change in some elements of the
program. Human exploration of Mars is a long spoken of goal but faces major technical challenges. A second area
is the protection of the Earth from a potentially hazardous near-Earth object on a collision course The role of
.
humans, if any, in such an endeavor has not yet been satisfactorily worked out and, in my opinion, deserves
attention.
In conclusion, the future of solar system exploration appears to be very bright.
NASA is taking the
technological and programmatic steps necessary to support future missions that will explore our solar system in
astounding detail. Supported by the strategy laid out in the Survey, future solar system exploration will enable us to
answer three fundamental human questions: Are we alone? Where did we come from? What is our destiny?
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Space Studies Board Annual Report 2003
5.2 Solar and Space Physics Research: The Coming Decade
Statement of Louis J. Lanzerotti, Chair of the Solar and Space Physics Survey Committee and Consultant,
Lucent Technologies, before the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space,
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, U.S. Senate, on July 30, 2003.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Louis Lanzerotti, and I served as
chairperson of the Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey for the Space Studies Board of the National Research
Council. The NRC is the operating arm of the National Academies, initially chartered by Congress in 1863 to
advise the government on matters of science and technology. I am also Distinguished Research Professor at the
New Jersey Institute of Technology and a consulting physicist at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies.
I am here today to provide an overview of the future of solar and space physics during the coming decade.
I would like to begin by giving you some context for this area of science.
The Sun is a variable, magnetic star. Solar and space physics research focuses on understanding the activity of
our Sun and its effects on the Earth and the other planets. It also seeks to understand the physical processes that take
place in the area in space around planets, including Earth. These planetary space environments are regions of
ionized gas (or plasma) whose motions are subject to the influence of magnetic and electric fields. Solar and space
physics seeks finally to explore and understand the interaction of the Sun with our galactic environment; that is,
with the gas and dust between our solar system and nearby stars. Within this interstellar cloud, the solar wind, a
continuous supersonic outflow of magnetized plasma from the Sun, not only interacts with the Earth and planets,
but also inflates an enormous bubble, the heliosphere, whose boundaries lie far beyond the orbit of Pluto and have
yet to be explored. It is the entire heliosphere that is the domain of solar and space physics.
The knowledge that space physicists gain through their study of the Sun and solar system plasmas are very
often applicable to the study of distant stars and galaxies and are related to laboratory plasma research. And, very
importantly, in the particular case of the interactions of solar emissions with the Earth, this research has consider-
able practical importance for technological systems and for humans in space.
The explosive release of energy from the Sun solar storms produces a variety of disturbances in the Earth's
space environment. These disturbances, known as 'Space weather," can adversely affect critical space-based and
ground-based technologies and pose potential health hazards to astronauts and to the crews and passengers of
aircraft flying polar routes. Understanding solar activity and its effect on the Earth's space environment is key to
developing the means of understanding and ultimately mitigating the adverse effects of space weather. Recognition
of the importance of achieving this understanding led to the establishment during the past decade of NASA's Living
With a Star Program and the NSF-led interagency National Space Weather Program.
Another area in which solar and space physics makes important contributions of practical value is the study of
global climate change. Knowledge of both long- and short-term variations in the Sun's activity and output is critical
to distinguish between natural variability in the Earth's climate and changes that result from human activity.
That, in brief, is the scope and content of the field of solar and space physics. Since the space age began over
40 years ago, we have learned much about the workings of the Sun and the space environments of Earth and the
other planets. But there are many questions still to be answered. In late 2000 the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-
tration (NOAA), the Office of Naval Research, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research asked the NRC to
conduct a comprehensive study of the current status and future directions of U.S. ground- and space-based solar and
space physics research programs. To carry out this task, a Survey Committee and five specialized study panels were
established. The findings of the study panels were presented to the Survey Committee, which prepared a summary
report based on the recommendations of the panels as well as on its own deliberations. Throughout the study
process, the study panels and Survey Committee actively sought a broad community consensus with input from the
wider solar and space physics community.
The Survey Committee's report, The Sun to the Earth and Beyond: A Decadal Research Strategy in Solarand
Space Physics, identifies five broad scientific challenges that define the focus and thrust of solar and space physics
research in the decade 2003 through 2013. Further, the report develops specific program priorities that will be
needed for the four sponsoring federal agencies, NASA, NSF, NOAA, and DOD, to meet these challenges. The Sun
to the Earth and Beyond also identifies key technologies that must be developed to meet the immediate and
projected requirements of solar and space physics research and presents policy recommendations designed to
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Congressional Testimony
105
strengthen the solar and space physics research enterprise. Throughout its deliberations, the Survey Committee
paid particular attention to the applied aspects of solar and space physics to the important role that these fields
play in a society whose increasing dependence on space-based technologies renders it ever more vulnerable to space
weather.
To address the five scientific challenges set forth in The Sun to the Earth and Beyond, the Survey Committee
devised an integrated and prioritized set of research initiatives to be implemented in the 2003-2013 time frame.
Nearly all of these initiatives are either planned or have been recommended in previous NASA and NSF planning
efforts. The recommended initiatives fall within four categories: small programs (<$250 million); moderate
programs ($250 million to $400 million); one large program costing (>$400 million); and "vitality" programs that
focus on the infrastructure for solar and space physics research. To arrive at the final recommended set of
initiatives, the Committee relied on two criteria scientific importance and societal benefit. Based on these criteria,
the Committee assigned priorities to the recommended initiatives. A complete listing of the Survey Committee's
prioritized recommendations, along with a thumbnail description of each program, is given in Table ES. 1 of the
Executive Summary of the report. Instead of going through the entire list with you, it would be more instructive,
I think, for me to outline the five science challenges identified by the Committee and to indicate the role that the four
or five highest-priority initiatives will play in addressing those challenges during the coming decade.
Challenge 1: Understanding the structure and dynamics of the Sun. During the past decade, thanks to
several space missions and new ground-based observations, we have achieved notable advances in our knowledge
and understanding of the structure and workings of the Sun's interior and the structure and dynamics of the million-
degree solar atmosphere, the corona. However, answers to certain fundamental questions continue to elude us.
Why, for example, is the Sun's corona several hundred times hotter than the Sun's surface? How is the solar wind,
which expands from the corona, accelerated to the supersonic velocity that is measured in the solar system? How is
the very intense magnetic energy that is stored in the Sun released both gradually and explosively? What is origin
of the variability ("turbulence") observed in the solar wind and that affects Earth? To answer these questions, the
Survey Committee strongly recommends implementation of a NASA Solar Probe mission to undertake the first
exploration of the regions very near the Sun, which is the birthplace of the heliosphere itself. Measurements made
close to the Sun by a Solar Probe will revolutionize our basic understanding of the solar wind. In addition, the
Committee gave strong endorsement to the development of an advanced ground-based radio telescope (funded by
NSF), the Frequency-Agile Solar Radiotelescope, that will provide a revolutionary new tool to study explosive
energy release, three-dimensional structure, and magnetic fields in the corona.
Challenge 2: Understanding heliospheric structure and the interaction of the solar wind with the local
interstellar medium. We have acquired a great deal of new knowledge during the last ten years about the inner
heliosphere (within the distance of Jupiter's orbit) and its changes over the course of a solar cycle most of our data
have come from the joint NASA/European Space Agency Ulysses mission, which has provided single-point
measurements over the poles of the Sun, i.e., out of the plane of the planets. The Survey Committee now
recommends the implementation of a Multispacecraft Heliospheric Mission that would place four or more
spacecraft in orbit about the Sun at different distances and solar longitudes to monitor changes across its entire
globe. This mission will provide insight into the connections between solar activity, heliospheric disturbances, and
the effects of the solar wind on Earth. This mission will thus represent an important addition to our national space
weather effort.
As I noted earlier in my statement, the solar wind inflates a giant bubble known as the heliosphere within the
local interstellar medium. The outer reaches of the heliosphere and its boundary with the interstellar medium are
among the last unexplored regions of the solar system. An Interstellar Probe that could directly sample these
regions and move beyond the heliosphere to measure the material in the Sun's galactic environment has long been
a dream of the space science community and would be one of the grand scientific enterprises of the early 21st
century. Implementing such a mission exceeds our present technological capacity, however, particularly with
respect to propulsion and power. The development of nuclear power capabilities in the next decade, as is presently
planned by NASA, or the development of solar sails, would greatly facilitate an interstellar probe mission in the
future.
Challenge 3: U/zderstandi/zg the behavior of the space enviro/zme/zts of Earth and other solar system bodies.
Earth's space environment draws energy from its interaction with the supersonic solar wind. This interaction drives
the flow of plasma within the magnetosphere the volume of space controlled by Earth's magnetic field and leads
to the storage and subsequent explosive release of magnetic energy in disturbances known as geomagnetic storms.
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Space Studies Board Annual Report 2003
(The northern and southern auroras are dramatic manifestations of this convulsive energy release.) The transfer of
energy from the solar wind to the magnetosphere results from enisc~dic merging calf Earth's ~ec~ma~netic field with
the portion of the Sun's magnetic field that is swept along with the solar wind. This process is known as magnetic
reconnection. While the general role of this energy transfer in affecting the Earth's space environment has long
been recognized, there are numerous unanswered fundamental questions. Therefore the Survey Committee
endorsed as its highest priority in the moderate program category the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS)
mission, a four-spacecraft Solar Terrestrial Probe mission that is designed to study magnetic reconnection inside the
magnetosphere and at its boundaries.
Some of the energy extracted from the solar wind is deposited in Earth's high-latitude upper atmosphere, thus
creating the aurora. To study the effects of magnetosphere disturbances on the structure and dynamics of the upper
atmosphere, the Committee has assigned high priority in the small program category to the NSF's Advanced
Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar (AMISR). AMISR's ground-based observations at high latitudes will provide
essential contextual information for in situ, orbital "snapshot" measurements by spacecraft missions such as the
NASA Geospace Electrodynamics Connections (GEC) mission, a Solar Terrestrial Probe mission also recom-
mended by the Committee.
The Committee also emphasizes the scientific importance of investigating the complex space environments of
other planets. Such investigations serve as rigorous tests of the ideas developed from the study of Earth's own
environment while extending our knowledge base to other solar-system bodies. Therefore the Committee strongly
recommends a NASA Jupiter Polar Mission (JPM), which will study energy transfer in a magnetosphere that, unlike
Earth's, is powered principally by planetary rotation instead of by the solar wind. All previous missions to Jupiter
have flown in or near the equatorial plane, leaving the energetically important polar regions unexplored.
Challenge 4: Understanding the basic physical principles Or solar and space plasma physics. The
heliosphere is a natural laboratory for the study of plasma physics, and a number of the initiatives proposed by the
Committee will lead to advances in understanding fundamental plasma physical processes. For examples as noted
~ _ ~ _
- --- - r -- - --- - --- - - `~---~7 - - —~ - ~-- - <::7 - - ---~~~;~-- - ~- - -- - - -~ - -~--
~ .
above, MMS is specifically designed to study magnetic reconnection, a physical process of fundamental importance
in all astrophysical systems, from the Earth to the solar system to our galaxy and beyond. To complement the
observational study of such fundamental processes in naturally occurring solar system plasmas, the Survey
Committee recommends vigorous support of existing NASA and NSF theory and modeling programs as well as
support for new initiatives such as the Coupling Complexity Research Initiative, a joint NASA/NSF theory and
modeling program.
Challenge 5: Developing a near-real-time predictive capability for the impact of space weather on human
activities. Most technologies that fly in space and some that are on Earth's surface are affected severely by the
geomagnetic storms whose origins can be traced to the Sun. These events produce subsidiary space weather
phenomena, such as the blackouts of high frequency communications and disturbances of satellite transmissions,
including those from spacecraft such as the Global Positioning System. The high-energy solar particles can
severely disrupt spacecraft operations and present serious radiation hazards to astronauts and to the crews and
passengers of aircraft flying on polar routes. In addition to interfering with communications and navigation
systems, strong geomagnetic storms often disturb spacecraft orbits because of increased drag in the high-altitude
atmosphere, and they even have caused electric utility blackouts over wide areas.
Both our understanding of the basic physics of space weather and our appreciation of its importance for human
activity have increased considerably during recent years. Much remains to be learned, however, about processes-
such as changes in the Earth's radiation that affect the environment in which many satellites operate; about the
variations in the properties of the highest regions of the atmosphere that can adversely affect GPS navigation
systems and high-frequency radio propagation; and, finally, about the changes that occur on the Sun that ultimately
cause the detrimental effects of space weather. The Survey Committee has therefore ranked as its second highest
priority in the moderate-program category the Geospace Missions of NASA's Living With a Star program. These
missions consist of two pairs of spacecraft that will be instrumented to study, respectively, changes in the upper
atmosphere and the behavior of the Earth's radiation belts during geomagnetic storms.
Of critical importance both for our efforts to understand and predict space weather and for basic solar and space
physics research is information about solar wind conditions prior to their reaching Earth. Such information is
currently being provided by the NASA Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft and the NASA Wind
satellite. However, both spacecraft are now operating beyond their design lifetimes. The Survey Committee
considers it of paramount importance to ensure uninterrupted monitoring of the solar wind and therefore assigned
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Congressional Testimony
107
high priority to the implementation of an Upstream Solar Wind Monitor as a replacement for ACE and Wind.
Given the operational importance of the measurements that such a monitor would provide, the Committee
recommends that responsibility for its implementation be transferred from NASA to NOAA. The importance of
space weather and of this challenge to national needs is also reflected in the high prioritization that the Committee
assigned to the multi-agency National Space Weather Program.
In addition to specific research initiatives to address the five science challenges, the Survey Committee gave
careful consideration to the "infrastructural" requirements for a robust solar and space physics research program
during the coming decade. The Sun to the Earth and Beyond thus offers a number of recommendations in the
following areas: technology development, solar and space physics education, and space research policy and
program management, including space weather policy. All of the recommendations in these areas are given in the
Executive Summary attached to my statement, so I will summarize only a few of the key ones here.
High-priority areas of technology development identified by the Survey Committee include advanced
propulsion and power, highly miniaturized spacecraft, advanced spacecraft subsystems, and highly miniaturized
sensors of charged and neutral particles and photons. A number of initiatives in these areas are already under way
within NASA such as the New Millennium Program, the Sun-Earth Connection and Living With a Star instrument
development programs, and the In-Space Propulsion program, and the Committee strongly endorses these
initiatives.
The Survey Committee's consideration of issues related to education was driven by two main concems: how to
provide a sufficient number of trained scientists to carry out the research program set forth in The Sun to the Earth
and Beyond and how solar and space physics can contribute to the development of a scientifically and technologi-
cally literate public. Here I will mention only one of the Survey Committee's recommendations namely, that NSF
and NASA jointly establish a program to provide partial salary, start-up funding, and research support for four new
faculty members a year for five years in the field of solar and space physics. I was pleased to learn recently that the
NSF has already taken significant steps in this direction. Such a program will augment the number of university
faculty in solar and space physics and is essential for a strong national solar and space physics research program
during the coming decade.
As I noted earlier, in my comments on the space weather challenge, the Survey Committee strongly recom-
mends that NOAA assume responsibility for the implementation of an upstream solar wind monitor. Other Survey
Committee recommendations regarding space weather policy address measures to facilitate the transition from
research to operations, the acquisition and availability of data on solar activity and the geospace environment, and
the roles of the public and private sectors in space weather applications. NOAA and the DOD as the two
operational agencies, are primarily responsible for implementing most of the Survey Committee's recommenda-
tions in this area.
Finally, the Survey Committee developed a number of policy recommendations for strengthening the national
solar and space physics research program. For example, a vital space research program depends on cost-effective,
reliable, and readily available access to space that meets the requirements of a broad spectrum of missions. The
Survey Committee therefore recommends revitalization of NASA's Suborbital Program, the development by
NASA of a range of low-cost launch vehicles, and the establishment of procedures of "ride shares" on DOD (and
possibly foreign) launch vehicles. The Committee also addressed the impact of export controls on solar and space
physics research, which inevitably involves international collaboration, and recommended that the relevant federal
agencies implement procedures to expedite international collaborations involving exchanges of scientific data or
information on instrument characteristics.
Let me now conclude my comments with a quote from Marcel Proust: "The real voyage of discovery consists
not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." The solar and space physics research program envisioned
by the Survey Committee for the coming decade offers both: visits to new solar system landscapes the unexplored
near-Sun region, Jupiter's polar magnetosphere and the "new eyes" of observational initiatives such as MMS
FASR, and AMISR and of advanced theoretical and computational initiatives such as the Coupling Complexity
Research Initiative, which will enable us to "see" the fundamental connections underlying the complex phenomena
captured in our observational data.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
survey committee
