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The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine was chartered by the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD), with support from the National Science Foundation, to conduct a new decadal survey to develop a comprehensive science and mission strategy for planetary science (1). The survey was tasked to determine the current state of knowledge and to identify the most important scientific questions to be addressed in astrobiology and planetary science during the upcoming decade of 2023 - 2032. For the first time, the decadal survey also included and addressed the topic of planetary defense, now recognized as a key element of NASA’s planetary science activities under the direction of NASA’s SMD Planetary Defense Coordination Office. The topic of planetary defense was included in the decadal survey as a dedicated chapter, divided into five sections based on the framework from the U.S. National NEO Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan (2). These sections discussed: NEO Detection, Tracking, and Characterization NEO Modelling, Prediction, and Integration NEO Deflection and Disruption Missions International Cooperation on NEO Preparation NEO Impact Emergency Procedures and Action Protocols Content of these sections included identifying the activities, ground- and space-based assets, facilities, resources, technologies, and missions that should be considered to enable NEO preparedness over the next decade. Supporting inputs to this chapter involved contributions from submitted white papers authored by many members of the NEO science and planetary defense communities. In addition, a planetary defense rapid mission architecture study commissioned by the decadal survey small bodies panel and led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory examined several different types of in-situ characterization and mitigation demonstration missions. All of this input contributed to the formulation of 42 findings and 11 recommendations that suggest a path forward for increasing our understanding of the NEO population and their associated physical characteristics, modelling the impact probabilities and hazard potential of these objects, and implementing plans to develop and test NEO impact mitigation capabilities. Including planetary defense in the decadal survey has helped sharpen the focus on this international issue and provided key inputs for stakeholders and decision makers to consider when developing future planetary defense-related activities. Such information is vital for developing a long-term integrated planetary defense capability able to protect humanity in the decades to come.
This report summarizes the activities of the VLBI Analysis Center at the Main Astronomical Observatory of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2012.
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Our inner Solar System has the four terrestrial planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, along with Earth’s large Moon, two small moons of Mars, dwarf planet Ceres, numerous 100-km class asteroids, and a multitude of small bodies that populate the asteroid belt and the inner planet region. To what extent does this structure reflect a deterministic outcome of general Solar System formation processes, and how much of it is instead a consequence of stochastic events that would change in unpredictable ways if the system’s formation could be rerun? This fundamental question motivates scientific investigations of the inner Solar System, with implications not only for understanding our own planet’s origin but also for the origin of planetary systems and Earth-like planets beyond our own.
Physiological response of astronauts to Gemini V space flight
Physics of magnetosphere - Conference, Washington, D.C., September 1968
At the request of NASA the Subcommittee on Fire Toxicology undertook the tasks of evaluating the state-of-knowledge in fire toxicology and recommending guidelines for establishing standard approaches for testing the toxicity of polymeric materials in fires. The recommended guidelines on methodology for evaluation of toxicity of pyrolysis and combustion products are presented. Flow charts reflecting the organizations responsible for the evaluation tasks are presented to show organizational changes which took place between 1977 and 1978. Also listed are the names, phone numbers and companies in attendance at the meeting.
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The Space Studies Board is a unit of the NRC's Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences (DEPS), and it reports to the Division for oversight. DEPS is one of six major program units of the NRC through which the institution conducts its operations on behalf of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. Within DEPS there are a total of 14 boards that cover a broad range of physical science and engineering disciplines and mission areas. Members of the DEPS Committee on Engineering and Physical Sciences provide advice on Board membership and advise on proposed new projects to be undertaken by the Board or its committees. Every 3 years the DEPS Committee also reviews the overall operations of each of its boards. The last review of the SSB was in 2001. The Board meets three times per year to review the activities of its committees and task groups and to be briefed on and discuss major space policy issues. An internal executive committee composed of seven at-large members of the Board meets at least once a year and may convene via conference call at other times to plan for SSB activities and to advise the chair between meetings. All projects proposed to be conducted by standing committees or ad hoctask groups must first be reviewed and approved by the Board or its executive committee, and the Board monitors the progress of the projects throughout the course of the studies.
Understanding the high energy limit of hadronic and nuclear collisions is at the forefront of nuclear and particle physics. When boosted to ultrahigh energies, all hadrons and nuclei eventually transform into a universal form of matter called the Color Glass Condensate (CGC). The CGC is characterized by the high density (saturation) of small-x gluons which leads to distinct experimental signatures. Tantalizing hints of the CGC have been observed at HERA, RHIC and the LHC, but the prospects for the discovery of the CGC are more promising at future experiments such as the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) at BNL Indeed, according to the National Science Academy report published in 2019, one of the three major goals of the EIC is to address the nature of the gluon saturation. (The other two are the mass and spin structure of the nucleons.) With this in mind, the small-x community is gearing up to meet the challenges of the EIC era. Over the past several years, there has been impressive progress in the next-to-leading order (NLO) calculations in the CGC framework of various observables such as single hadron production in proton-nucleus collisions, inclusive and exclusive dijet and trijet production in Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS), jet-plus-photon production in DIS, etc. We expect that NLO calculations will be the standard tool to confront future experimental data at the EIC. Another emerging trend of the community is the interplay between small-x physics and spin physics. The RHIC result for the gluon helicity ΔG has underscored the necessity to understand the longitudinal spin structure of the proton at small-x. There have been theoretical indications that a significant fraction of spin and orbital angular momentum is stored in the small-x region. As for the transversely polarized proton, a surprising new connection between the gluon Sivers function at small-x and the QCD Odderon has been pointed out and its implications at the EIC has been discussed. In view of these developments, we think it is timely to organize a dedicated workshop on small-x physics to summarize the present status of the field and to discuss future directions. A major focus of this workshop will be to identify outstanding problems that could significantly benefit from collaborative efforts amongst scientists working on formal, phenomenological, and computational aspects of small-x physics.
The Geostationary Synthetic Thinned Aperture Radiometer (GeoSTAR) is a new Earth remote sensing instrument concept that has been under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. First conceived in 1998 as a NASA New Millennium Program mission and subsequently developed in 2003-2006 as a proof-of-concept prototype under the NASA Instrument Incubator Program, it is intended to fill a serious gap in our Earth remote sensing capabilities - namely the lack of a microwave atmospheric sounder in geostationary orbit. The importance of such observations have been recognized by the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council, which recently released its report on a 'Decadal Survey' of NASA Earth Science activities1. One of the recommended missions for the next decade is a geostationary microwave sounder. GeoSTAR is well positioned to meet the requirements of such a mission, and because of the substantial investment NASA has already made in GeoSTAR technology development, this concept is fast approaching the necessary maturity for implementation in the next decade. NOAA is also keenly interested in GeoSTAR as a potential payload on its next series of geostationary weather satellites, the GOES-R series. GeoSTAR, with its ability to map out the three-dimensional structure of temperature, water vapor, clouds, precipitation and convective parameters on a continual basis, will significantly enhance our ability to observe hurricanes and other severe storms. In addition, with performance matching that of current and next generation of low-earth-orbiting microwave sounders, GeoSTAR will also provide observations important to the study of the hydrologic cycle, atmospheric processes and climate variability and trends. In particular, with GeoSTAR it will be possible to fully resolve the diurnal cycle. We discuss the GeoSTAR concept and basic design, the performance of the prototype, and a number of science applications that will be possible with GeoSTAR. The work reported on here was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
National Academy of Science recommendations for future life sciences activities within NASA
Recent National Academy of Science Decadal Surveys in space and Earth-science have called for simultaneous, distributed multi-point measurements in and from space, requiring constellations of small spacecraft. Small satellites have demonstrated their utility for enabling high-quality science measurements and observations. NASA missions have leveraged advances in sensor miniaturization, technology innovations, and new small satellite mission architectures to enable meaningful measurement-based scientific investigations that operate on small satellites and that are responsive to science objectives described in National Academy of Science Decadal Surveys. The advent of high capability small spacecraft enables consideration of science missions involving multiple small spacecraft, constellations of a few or many for simultaneous distributed in situ observations or remote observations from a variety of viewpoints. The central challenge for fielding instrumented space-flight constellations is to provide the required multiple sets of fully verified and calibrated instrument hardware, software, and operational processes from within a one-off project-based scientific space flight culture. Although there are numerous commercial entities providing “off-the shelf” spacecraft and avionics, the challenge lies in the multi-unit production of the uniquely targeted instrumentation necessary to perform the specific measurements required for a particular science investigation. Traditionally, the cost of such instrumentation has represented a significant portion of the hardware cost for a mission and posed the highest risk area for implementation. A shift in paradigm from large science platforms to constellations of smaller satellites drives the challenge to build instruments in a quasi-production environment. This paper describes key aspects of, and challenges encountered in the development program for the successful production of instruments for the Fast-Plasma Investigation (FPI) instrument suite of 64 flight plasma spectrometers and supporting electronics on the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) 4 satellite constellation mission. Although the MMS mission was not composed of small satellites, there are key aspects of the instrument production that apply directly to constellations of small satellites.
Recent National Academy of Science Decadal Surveys in space and Earth-science have called for simultaneous, distributed multi-point measurements in and from space, requiring constellations of small spacecraft. Small satellites have demonstrated their utility for enabling high-quality science measurements and observations. NASA missions have leveraged advances in sensor miniaturization, technology innovations, and new small satellite mission architectures to enable meaningful measurement-based scientific investigations that operate on small satellites and that are responsive to science objectives described in National Academy of Science Decadal Surveys. The advent of high capability small spacecraft enables consideration of science missions involving multiple small spacecraft, constellations of a few or many for simultaneous distributed in situ observations or remote observations from a variety of viewpoints. The central challenge for fielding instrumented space-flight constellations is to provide the required multiple sets of fully verified and calibrated instrument hardware, software, and operational processes from within a one-off project-based scientific space flight culture. Although there are numerous commercial entities providing “off-the shelf” spacecraft and avionics, the challenge lies in the multi-unit production of the uniquely targeted instrumentation necessary to perform the specific measurements required for a particular science investigation. Traditionally, the cost of such instrumentation has represented a significant portion of the hardware cost for a mission and posed the highest risk area for implementation. A shift in paradigm from large science platforms to constellations of smaller satellites drives the challenge to build instruments in a quasi-production environment. This paper describes key aspects of, and challenges encountered in the development program for the successful production of instruments for the Fast-Plasma Investigation (FPI) instrument suite of 64 flight plasma spectrometers and supporting electronics on the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) 4 satellite constellation mission. Although the MMS mission was not composed of small satellites, there are key aspects of the instrument production that apply directly to constellations of small satellites.
Alvin Tollestrup was a physicist and engineer of uncommon insight, intuition, and ingenuity who was revered in life for his essential leadership in the development of superconducting magnets for high-energy accelerators. He exhibited a matchless mastery of what he called freshman physics — though his mastery hardly ended there — and an uncanny gift for joining careful measurements with transparent calculations to reveal the essence of a subject. To watch Alvin at work was to learn how a true scientist formulates and solves a problem. He had other gifts: a nose for significant problems in both science and technology, the ability to draw talented people to an important cause, and a mentor's instinct for spotting gifted junior colleagues and helping them to mature as engineers and scientists. He was also good company! Alvin brought his keen vision about what constitutes important science, along with powerful ambition for the institution and for fundamental science, to considerat ions about Fermilab's future. His questions were uniformly probing, his opinions unfailingly interesting, and his appetite for work consistently inspiring. Among Alvin's many contributions to experimental particle physics — in a career that spanned seven decades — the rich achievements of the Collider Detector at Fermilab Collaboration, of which he was a founder and an enduring leader, stand out. The discovery of the top quark in 1995 earned worldwide acclaim. He reaped individual accolades as well, including election to the National Academy of Sciences. The National Medal of Technology, conferred in 1989, recognized Alvin’s leading role in developing superconducting magnets for Fermilab's Tevatron. Universities Research Association created the Tollestrup Award for Postdoctoral Research, commemorating Alvin's avuncular support for young scientists. This volume celebrates Alvin Tollestrup’s career and the rich, fulfilling life he led beyond the laboratory. Contributions from colleagues and family illuminate many facets of this remarka! ble figure. May old friends savor the memory of the Alvin they knew, while discovering less-familiar parts of his history; and may readers who did not have the opportunity to know Alvin firsthand find inspiration in his exemplary life in science.