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An Enabling Foundation for NASA's Earth and Space Science Missions (2010)

Chapter: Appendix C: Traceability of Mission-Enabling Activities from Strategic Goals

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Traceability of Mission-Enabling Activities from Strategic Goals." National Research Council. 2010. An Enabling Foundation for NASA's Earth and Space Science Missions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12822.
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C
Traceability of Mission-Enabling Activities from Strategic Goals

A detailed example, following a single hypothetical thread in the Planetary Science Division, is illustrated in Figure C.1. Each major division goal is broken down into scientific tasks and subtasks, and the requirements for particular scientific capabilities and activities are then identified for each subtask. In that way, mission-enabling activities spanning the general scope of knowledge base, technology development, and workforce maintenance are identified at the activity level. The process of translating top-level goals into more detailed objectives, requirements, and activities can benefit by drawing on research community input via the advisory committee process.

Once a mission-enabling traceability matrix is generated for each Science Mission Directorate (SMD) division, the resultant mission-enabling activities can be compared with those activities contained within the program elements identified in an inventory used to enhance budget transparency. Ultimately, these should converge. Initially, this exercise is likely to identify areas of necessary mission-enabling activities that are not currently supported within SMD.

Traceability obviates the practice of restoring overall mission-enabling funding cuts or expanding mission-enabling funding primarily through the creation of new programs. The committee heard that there is the perception within SMD that the Office of Management and Budget will not approve the expansion of existing programs (even to restore a prior cut in funding). The result is program element proliferation and subject redundancy, which decreases efficiency in management and increases the need to write more proposals and subsequent multiple submissions of the same proposals by members of the science community. Appropriately sizing a mission-enabling activity within a single program element, instead of fragmenting its funding across several program elements, offers benefits to both managers and scientists.

Having identified firmly grounded funding levels for all mission-enabling activities and programs, all linked to and flowing from strategic goals, comparisons with existing budgets will likely reveal a range of disparate results from substantial funding to no funding at all. The worst response to such a scenario would be a sudden reallocation of resources across all programs to achieve a common level of underfunding.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Traceability of Mission-Enabling Activities from Strategic Goals." National Research Council. 2010. An Enabling Foundation for NASA's Earth and Space Science Missions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12822.
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FIGURE C.1 Sample Science Mission Directorate Planetary Science Division traceability matrix (thread).

FIGURE C.1 Sample Science Mission Directorate Planetary Science Division traceability matrix (thread).

Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Traceability of Mission-Enabling Activities from Strategic Goals." National Research Council. 2010. An Enabling Foundation for NASA's Earth and Space Science Missions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12822.
×
Page 54
Suggested Citation:"Appendix C: Traceability of Mission-Enabling Activities from Strategic Goals." National Research Council. 2010. An Enabling Foundation for NASA's Earth and Space Science Missions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12822.
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Page 55
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NASA's space and Earth science program is composed of two principal components: spaceflight projects and mission-enabling activities. Most of the budget of NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is applied to spaceflight missions, but NASA identifies nearly one quarter of the SMD budget as "mission enabling." The principal mission-enabling activities, which traditionally encompass much of NASA's research and analysis (R&A) programs, include support for basic research, theory, modeling, and data analysis; suborbital payloads and flights and complementary ground-based programs; advanced technology development; and advanced mission and instrumentation concept studies.

While the R&A program is essential to the development and support of NASA's diverse set of space and Earth science missions, defining and articulating an appropriate scale for mission-enabling activities have posed a challenge throughout NASA's history. This volume identifies the appropriate roles for mission-enabling activities and metrics for assessing their effectiveness. Furthermore, the book evaluates how, from a strategic perspective, decisions should be made about balance between mission-related and mission-enabling elements of the overall program as well as balance between various elements within the mission-enabling component. Collectively, these efforts will help SMD to make a good program even better.

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