3
Ad Hoc Study Committees: Activities and Membership
When a sponsor requests that the National Academies of Sciences, 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 discipline committees provide oversight for ad hoc study committee activities. Six ad hoc study committees and thirteen panels were active during 2019; their activities and membership are summarized below. The SSB collaborated on one study with the Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA), the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020.
DECADAL SURVEY ON ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS 2020 (ASTRO2020)
The Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020, started in late 2018, is a partnership between the National Academies and the astronomical community to identify key priorities in astronomy and astrophysics and develop a comprehensive strategy for agency investments in the upcoming decade. The committee solicited and accepted science white papers from January 7 to March 11, 2019. The survey co-chairs (appointed in late 2018) held a webinar on April 17, 2019, to discuss plans for the study and take questions from the community. White papers on activities, projects, and state of the profession considerations (APCs) were accepted from June 4 to July 10, 2019.
The survey’s steering committee held its first meeting in Washington, DC, on July 15-17, 2019. The committee heard presentations on the perspectives from the following three of the sponsoring agencies: NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy. Presentations were also given by staff of the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and the Office of Management and Budget. The Aerospace Corporation presented an overview of the technical, risk, and cost evaluation (TRACE) process, and the committee heard lessons learned from the chair of the Astro2010 decadal survey and the chair of its subsequent midterm assessment.
The six science panels held their first meetings in August and September of 2019 and their second, final meetings in September and October of 2019. Each science panel reviewed the science white papers relevant to their topic areas. They were finalizing their deliverables at the end of the year. The six program panels and the state of the profession and societal impacts panel held their first meetings in October and November of 2019, and their next two meetings will be held between January and March 2020. These panels are reviewing the APC papers from the community.
The steering committee held its second meeting on December 9-11, 2019, and heard reports from the science panels and initial thoughts from the program panels. Additional outreach included town hall meetings at the January 2019 and June 2019 American Astronomical Society (AAS) meetings and a webinar on October 28, 2019. A
town hall and a listening session on the state of the profession are planned for the January 2020 AAS meeting. More information on Astro2020 is available at http://nas.edu/astro2020.
Steering Committee Membership
Fiona A. Harrison, NAS, California Institute of Technology (co-chair)
Robert C. Kennicutt, Jr., NAS, University of Arizona (co-chair)
Julianne Dalcanton, University of Washington
Tim de Zeeuw, Leiden University
Andrew S. Driesman, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Jonathan J. Fortney, University of California, Santa Cruz
Gabriela Gonzalez, NAS, Louisiana State University
Jordan A. Goodman, University of Maryland
Marc P. Kamionkowski, NAS, Johns Hopkins University
Bruce Macintosh, Stanford University
Jacobus M. Oschmann, SPIE, The International Society for Optics and Photonics
Rachel A. Osten, Space Telescope Science Institute
Lyman A. Page, Jr., NAS, Princeton University
Eliot Quataert, NAS, University of California, Berkeley
Wanda A. Sigur, NAE, Lockheed Martin Corporation
Rachel Somerville, Rutgers University Flatiron Institute
Keivan G. Stassun, Vanderbilt University
Jean L. Turner, University of California, Los Angeles
Pieter van Dokkum, Yale University
Ellen Gould Zweibel, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Staff
Abigail Sheffer, Senior Program Officer, SSB
Gregory Mack, Senior Program Officer, BPA
Mia Brown, Research Associate, SSB
Dionna Wise, Program Coordinator, SSB
Colleen N. Hartman, Director for Space and Aeronautics
James Lancaster, Director, Board on Physics and Astronomy
Panel on Compact Objects and Energetic Phenomena
Deepto Chakrabarty, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (chair)
Laura B. Chomiuk, Michigan State University
Daniel Holz, University of Chicago
Raffaella Margutti, Northwestern University
Julie McEnery, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Peter I. Meszaros, Pennsylvania State University
Ramesh Narayan, NAS, Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Eliot Quataert, NAS, University of California, Berkeley
Scott M. Ransom, National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Todd A. Thompson, Ohio State University
Gregory Mack, Senior Program Officer, BPA
Erik Saari, Administrative Assistant, Board on Army Research and Development (BOARD; through November 2019)
Panel on Cosmology
Daniel Eisenstein, NAS, Harvard University (chair)
Lindsey E. Bleem, Argonne National Laboratory
Marc P. Kamionkowski, NAS, Johns Hopkins University
Rachel Mandelbaum, Carnegie Mellon University
Miguel Morales, University of Washington
Daniel M. Scolnic, Duke University
Matias Zaldarriaga, NAS, Institute for Advanced Study
Kathryn M. Zurek, Theoretical High Energy Physics Group
James Myska, Program Officer, National Materials and Manufacturing Board (NMMB)
Linda Walker, Program Coordinator, BPA
Panel on Galaxies
Daniela Calzetti, NAS, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (chair)
Michael Boylan-Kolchin, University of Texas, Austin
Hsiao-Wen Chen, University of Chicago
Ann E. Hornschemeier, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Susan A. Kassin, Space Telescope Science Institute
Amanda A. Kepley, National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Charles C. Steidel, NAS, California Institute of Technology
Daniel K. Stern, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Tommaso Treu, University of California, Los Angeles
Pieter van Dokkum, Yale University
David H. Weinberg, Ohio State University
Erik Svedberg, Senior Program Officer, NMMB
Shenae Bradley, Administrative Assistant, Computer Science and Telecommunications Board
Panel on Exoplanets, Astrobiology, and the Solar System
Victoria S. Meadows, University of Washington (chair)
David Brain, University of Colorado
Ian J. Crossfield, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Courtney Dressing, University of California, Berkeley
Jonathan J. Fortney, University of California, Santa Cruz
Tiffany Kataria, California Institute of Technology
Kathleen Mandt, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Mark S. Marley, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Britney E. Schmidt, Georgia Institute of Technology
Christopher C. Stark, Space Telescope Science Institute
Chris Jones, Program Officer, BPA
Erik Saari, Administrative Assistant, BOARD (through November 2019)
Panel on the Interstellar Medium and Star and Planet Formation
Lee W. Hartmann, University of Michigan (chair)
Sean M. Andrews, Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Philip J. Armitage, Stony Brook University, The State University of New York
Bruce T. Draine, NAS, Princeton University
Kaitlin M. Kratter, University of Arizona
Karin M. Sandstrom, University of California, San Diego
Snezana Stanimirovic, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Ellen Gould Zweibel, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Greg Eyring, Senior Program Officer, NMMB
Linda Walker, Program Coordinator, BPA
Panel on Stars, the Sun, and Stellar Populations
Sarbani Basu, Yale University (chair)
Nancy S. Brickhouse, Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Adam Burgasser, University of California, San Diego
Julianne Dalcanton, University of Washington
Jennifer A. Johnson, Ohio State University
R.T.J. McAteer, New Mexico State University
Elisa V. Quintana, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Louis-Gregory Strolger, Space Telescope Science Institute
Sandra Graham, Senior Program Officer, SSB
Gaybrielle Holbert, Program Assistant, SSB
Panel on an Enabling Foundation for Research
David N. Spergel, NAS, Princeton University (chair)
Michael Blanton, New York University
Kelle Cruz, Hunter College
Mark Devlin, University of Pennsylvania
Megan Donahue, Michigan State University
Keith Hawkins, University of Texas, Austin
Alina Kiessling, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Karin Oberg, Harvard University
Angela V. Olinto, University of Chicago
Bernard Rauscher, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Rachel Somerville, Rutgers University Flatiron Institute
James M. Stone, Princeton University
Greg Eyring, Senior Program Officer, NMMB
Linda Walker, Program Coordinator, BPA
Panel on Electromagnetic Observations from Space 1
Marcia J. Rieke, NAS, University of Arizona (chair)
Ruslan Belikov, NASA Ames Research Center
Rebecca A. Bernstein, Carnegie Institution for Science
Lester Cohen, Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Nikole K. Lewis, Cornell University
Bruce Macintosh, Stanford University
Amy Mainzer, University of Arizona
Mark P. Saunders, Independent Consultant
Evgenya L. Shkolnik, Arizona State University
George Sonneborn, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
C. Megan Urry, NAS, Yale University
Dwayne Day, Senior Program Officer, Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB)
Linda Walker, Program Coordinator, BPA
Panel on Electromagnetic Observations from Space 2
Steven M. Kahn, Stanford University (chair)
Lisa Barsotti, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Allison Barto, Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation
Michael Bay, Bay Engineering Innovations
Martin Elvis, Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Charles J. Hailey, Columbia University
Chryssa Kouveliotou, NAS, George Washington University
Charles R. Lawrence, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
S. Harvey Moseley, Jr., Quantum Circuits, Inc.
Reshmi Mukherjee, Barnard College
Lyman A. Page, Jr., NAS, Princeton University
Gordon J. Stacey, Cornell University
Abigail Sheffer, Senior Program Officer, SSB
Megan Chamberlain, Senior Program Assistant, SSB
Panel on Optical and Infrared Observations from the Ground
Timothy M. Heckman, NAS, Johns Hopkins University (chair)
David A. Bearden, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
David Charbonneau, NAS, Harvard University
Natascha Forster Schreiber, Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik
Suvi Gezari, University of Maryland
Andrea M. Ghez, NAS, University of California, Los Angeles
Jenny E. Greene, Princeton University
J. Todd Hoeksema, Stanford University
Jacobus M. Oschmann, SPIE, The International Society for Optics and Photonics
Richard W. Pogge, Ohio State University
Massimo Robberto, Space Telescope Science Institute
David R. Silva, University of Texas, San Antonio
Erik Svedberg, Senior Program Officer, NMMB
Megan Chamberlain, Senior Program Assistant, SSB
Panel on Particle Astrophysics and Gravitation
John F. Beacom, Ohio State University (co-chair)
Laura Cadonati, Georgia Institute of Technology (co-chair)
David Besson, University of Kansas
Gabriela Gonzalez, NAS, Louisiana State University
Jordan A. Goodman, University of Maryland
Elizabeth Hays, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
N. Jeremy Kasdin, University of San Francisco
David Kieda, University of Utah
Andrea Lommen, Haverford College
Brian Metzger, Columbia University
James Yeck, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Nicolas Yunes, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Alan Angleman, Senior Program Officer, SSB
Megan Chamberlain, Senior Program Assistant, SSB
Panel on Radio, Millimeter, and Submillimeter Observations from the Ground
Andrew J. Baker, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick (chair)
Hector Arce, Yale University
Ravinder Bhatia, Thirty Meter Telescope
Tracy Clarke, Naval Research Laboratory
Matt Dobbs, McGill University
Jacqueline N. Hewitt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (through April 16, 2020)
David L. Kaplan, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Daniel P. Marrone, University of Arizona
Lynn Matthews, MIT Haystack Observatory
Joan Najita, National Optical Astronomy Observatories
Richard Plambeck, University of California, Berkeley
Jean L. Turner, University of California, Los Angeles
Arthur Charo, Senior Program Officer, SSB
Linda Walker, Program Coordinator, BPA
Panel on State of the Profession and Societal Impacts
Margaret M. Hanson, University of Cincinnati (co-chair)
Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, University of California, Santa Cruz (co-chair)
Gurtina Besla, University of Arizona
Patricia T. Boyd, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Kathryne J. Daniel, Bryn Mawr College
Martha P. Haynes, NAS, Cornell University
Jedidah Isler, Dartmouth College
Rachel L. Ivie, American Institute of Physics
Kathryn V. Johnston, Columbia University
Casey W. Miller, Rochester Institute of Technology
Jesus Pando, DePaul University
Julie Posselt, University of Southern California
Jane R. Rigby, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Willie S. Rockward, Morgan State University
Keivan G. Stassun, Vanderbilt University
Greg Eyring, Senior Program Officer, NMMB
Daniel Nagasawa, Associate Program Officer, SSB
Dionna Wise, Program Coordinator, SSB
NEAR EARTH OBJECT OBSERVATIONS IN THE INFRARED AND VISIBLE WAVELENGTHS
The Committee on Near Earth Object Observations in the Infrared and Visible Wavelengths was convened and held its first meeting in 2018. The committee was tasked with addressing the value of infrared and visible light observations of near Earth objects (NEOs) using a space-based telescope. The committee held its second meeting on February 25-27, 2019, in Irvine, California. It heard from Harold Reitsema from Ball Aerospace, Ellen Howell from the University of Arizona, and Steve Chesley, Michael Shao, Lance Benner, and Paul Chodas from JPL.
The committee held its final meeting in Washington, DC, on April 17-18, 2019. It heard from NASA’s Lindley Johnson about the NEO program and from James Bauer, University of Maryland, College Park, about data storage. The rest of the meeting was devoted to finalizing its report, Finding Hazardous Asteroids Using Infrared and
Visible Wavelength Telescopes. The committee delivered its report to NASA in early June 2019, and the report was released to the public in mid-June.
In September, NASA announced plans to build a space-based infrared telescope for detecting and tracking NEOs. The value of such a telescope for that mission was the key conclusion of the report. The summary of this publication can be found in Chapter 5.
Membership
H. Jay Melosh, NAS, Purdue University (chair)
Yanga Fernandez, University of Central Florida
Alan Harris, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Bhavya Lal, IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute
Lucy-Ann McFadden, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (retired)
Michael Mommert, Lowell Observatory
George H. Rieke, NAS, University of Arizona
Andrew Rivkin, Johns Hopkins University
Professor Daniel J. Scheeres, NAE, University of Colorado, Boulder
Edward F. Tedesco, Planetary Science Institute
Staff
Dwayne A. Day, Senior Program Officer, ASEB
Sarah Brothers, Associate Program Officer (through August 2019)
Anesia Wilks, Senior Program Assistant (through May 2019)
Dionna Wise, Program Coordinator (from September 2019)
Phoebe Kinzelman, Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Intern
PLANETARY PROTECTION REQUIREMENTS FOR SAMPLE-RETURN MISSIONS FROM MARTIAN MOONS
The Committee on Planetary Protection Requirements for Sample-Return Missions from Martian Moons, a joint activity between the Space Studies Board and the European Space Science Committee of the European Science Foundation (ESF), with some participation by Japanese scientists, began in 2017 and completed its work and issued its report, Planetary Protection Classification of Sample Return Missions from the Martian Moons, in prepublication format on January 18, 2019. The committee was the result of parallel requests sent by the Planetary Protection Offices of NASA and the European Space Agency to the National Academies and ESF, respectively. Its task was to determine whether or not samples returned from the Martian moons be classified as “restricted” or “unrestricted” Earth return for planetary protection purposes. Committee members presented the results of their study at a meeting of Committee on Space Research’s (COSPAR’s) Panel on Planetary Protection (PPP) in Vienna in late January. The PPP subsequently made a recommendation to COSPAR’s Bureau supporting the conclusions of the joint committee and a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) team that such samples be classified as unrestricted Earth return. COSPAR’s Bureau accepted the PPP’s recommendation at its meeting in Paris in March. The final, printed version of the report was published in early July 2019. The summary of this publication can be found in Chapter 5.
Following the publication of the report, and in response to a request from NASA’s chief scientist, committee staff organized a special session on planetary protection at the International Astronautical Congress in Washington, DC, in October. The session was organized around the theme “Planetary Protection for the Future: Science, Exploration, and Commerce” and featured contributions from the following participants: Kyle Acierno (vice president of Global Sales and Strategy, ispace, Japan), James L. Green (Chief Scientist, NASA), Dan Hendrickson (vice president, Business Development, Astrobotic Technology, United States), Michael Meyer (lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program, NASA), Simonetta Di Pippo (director, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, Austria), and Lisa Pratt (planetary protection officer, NASA).
Membership
David Pearce, Northumbria University (chair)
Andre Antunes, Edge Hill University (from September 2018)
Athena Coustenis, National Centre for Scientific Research of France
Michael J. Daly, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Abigail Fraeman, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Ansgar Greshake, Museum fur Naturkunde (from September 2018)
Guy Libourel, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur
Akiko Nakamura, Kobe University
Francois Poulet, Institute of Space Astrophysics (from September 2018)
Robin Putzar, Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics
Kaliat T. Ramesh, Johns Hopkins University
Norman H. Sleep, NAS, Stanford University
Shino Suzuki, Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology (from September 2018)
Megan Bruck Syal, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Erin L. Walton, MacEwan University (from September 2018)
Staff
David H. Smith, Senior Program Officer
Emmanouil Detsis, Science Officer, European Science Foundation
Mia Brown, Research Associate
Andrea Rebholz, Program Coordinator
Jonathan Lutz, Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Intern
REVIEW OF THE NASA SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE SCIENCE PLAN
The Committee on the NASA Science Mission Directorate Science Plan was formally appointed on July 16, 2019, in response to a June 12 request from NASA to review the Science Mission Directorate’s (SMD’s) Science Plan, the sixth such request since the first such document was reviewed in 1997. The committee held its one and only meeting in Washington, DC, on August 1-2, 2019. At the meeting, committee members received an introduction to and context of the science plan from NASA SMD Associate Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA SMD Chief of the Administration Branch Ellen Gertsen, and NASA SMD Deputy Associate Administrator for Research Michael New. The committee also received an assessment of the plan from the NASA Advisory Committee’s (NAC’s) Science Committee, given by NAC Chair Meenakshi Wadhwa and NAC Executive Secretary Elaine Denning. The rest of the meeting was spent on discussion and writing the report. A draft report was sent to reviewers on August 14, 2019, and approved for release on September 23, 2019. The committee’s report, Review of the Draft 2019 Science Mission Directorate Science Plan, was publicly released on October 17, 2019. The summary of this publication can be found in Chapter 5. NOTE: NASA formally released its 2020-2024 SMD Science Plan during a virtual town hall held on May 28, 2020. The full text is available at https://science.nasa.gov/about-us/science-strategy.
Membership
Jeff Dozier, University of California, Santa Barbara (chair)
Victoria E. Hamilton, Southwest Research Institute (vice chair)
Steven J. Battel, NAE, Battel Engineering, Inc., and University of Michigan
Melissa A. McGrath, SETI Institute
Anna M. Michalak, Carnegie Institution for Science
Robyn Millan, Dartmouth College
Preethi Nair, University of Alabama
Tuija Pulkkinen, NAS, University of Michigan
Keivan G. Stassun, Vanderbilt University
Mark H. Thiemens, NAS, University of California, San Diego
Staff
David H. Smith, Senior Program Officer
Andrea Rebholz, Program Coordinator
Colleen N. Hartman, Director for Space and Aeronautics
Ben Cassese, Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Intern
Stephen Tames, Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Intern
REVIEW OF PROGRESS TOWARD IMPLEMENTING THE DECADAL SURVEY-SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS: A SCIENCE FOR A TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
The Committee on the Review of Progress Toward Implementing the Decadal Survey-Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society held its first in-person meeting on February 25-27, 2019 in Washington, DC. The committee’s agenda included sessions on the survey and its implementation with representatives from NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Solar Observatory (NSO). Those representatives included Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA SMD associate administrator and vice chair of the 2013 decadal survey steering committee; Nicky Fox, NASA SMD Heliophysics Division director; Mike Wiltberger, NSF/Geospace section head; Elsayed Talaat, NOAA/NESDIS Office of Projects, Planning, and Analysis director; Dave Boboltz, program director, NSO and DKIST; and Valentin Pillet, NSO director. The committee also heard from Mike Liemohn and Janet Kozyra, the chair and executive secretary, respectively, of NASA’s Heliophysics advisory committee; Anthea Coster and Mark Linton, the co-chairs of NASA’s Living With a Star Program Analysis Group (LPAG); Tim Bastian, the chair of the 2015 review of the NSF Geospace Portfolio; Ed DeLuca, the chair of the NASA Heliophysics Roadmap committee, which was charged with implementing the 2013 decadal survey; Terry Onsager, NOAA SWPC, regarding the National Space Weather Program Action Plan; and Dan Baker, chair of the 2013 decadal survey steering committee.
The committee held its second in-person meeting on April 3-5, 2019, in Boulder, Colorado. The committee again heard from the agencies addressed in the decadal survey, NASA (Nicola Fox, Heliophysics Division director); NSF (Mike Wiltberger, Geospace section head); and NOAA (Elsayed Talaat, Office of Projects, Planning, and Analysis director). The committee’s third and last in-person meeting was held on July 23-25, 2019, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and devoted to completion of the committee’s draft report, Progress Toward Implementation of the 2013 Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics: A Midterm Assessment.
The committee completed its draft report in the fourth quarter of 2019, which then underwent review. The revised report was subsequently approved by the National Academies at the end of the calendar year and will be released to the public in prepublication format in January 2020. Dissemination activities and publication of an edited version of the report are anticipated in the first and second quarters of 2020, respectively.
Membership
Robyn Millan, Dartmouth College (co-chair)
Thomas N. Woods, University of Colorado, Boulder (co-chair)
Timothy S. Bastian, National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Monica Bobra, Stanford University Hansen Experimental Physics Lab
Anthea J. Coster, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Edward E. Deluca, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Scott L. England, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Stephen A. Fuselier, Southwest Research Institute
Ramon E. Lopez, University of Texas, Arlington
Janet G. Luhmann, University of California, Berkeley
Katariina Nykyri, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Jens Oberheide, Clemson University
Merav Opher, Boston University
Carolus J. Schrijver, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center
Joshua Semeter, Boston University
Jeffrey P. Thayer, University of Colorado, Boulder
Alan M. Title, NAS/NAE, Lockheed Martin Space Technology Advanced R&D Labs
Staff
Arthur A. Charo, Senior Program Officer
Abigail A. Sheffer, Senior Program Officer
Mia Brown, Research Associate
Sarah E. Moran, Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Intern
REVIEW OF THE REPORT OF THE NASA PLANETARY PROTECTION INDEPENDENT REVIEW BOARD
The Committee on the Review of the Report of the NASA Planetary Protection Independent Review Board was established in response to a request from NASA in August 2019 to conduct a review of the findings of the Planetary Protection Independent Review Board (PPIRB). The PPIRB, led by Alan Stern, Southwest Research Institute, was tasked by NASA SMD early in 2019 to look at the agency’s planetary protection policies. The committee was appointed in late October 2019 and met in Washington, DC, and Irvine, California, on November 20-22, 2019, and December 16-17, 2019, respectively. A subgroup of committee members will meet in Pasadena, California, on January 20-21, 2020, to assemble a complete draft of the report, Assessment of the Report of NASA’s Planetary Protection Independent Review Board. Delivery of the report to NASA is scheduled for the end of the first quarter of 2020.
Membership
Joseph K. Alexander, Alexander Space Policy Consultants (chair)
David P. Fidler, Washington University
G. Scott Hubbard, Stanford University
Rosaly M. Lopes, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Margarita Marinova, SpaceX
H. Jay Melosh, NAS, Purdue University
Kirsten Siebach, Rice University
Caroline Smith, Natural History Museum - London
Trista Vick-Majors, Michigan Technological University
A. Thomas Young, NAE, Lockheed Martin Corporation (retired)
Staff
David H. Smith, Senior Program Officer
Mia Brown, Research Associate
Gaybrielle Holbert, Program Assistant
Jordan McKaig, Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Intern
Osase Omoruyi, Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Intern