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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Statement of Task." National Research Council. 2011. Assessment of Impediments to Interagency Collaboration on Space and Earth Science Missions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13042.
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A
Statement of Task

BACKGROUND

On October 15, 2008, the president signed into law H.R. 6063, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2008, which authorized appropriations to NASA for Fiscal Year 2009. Section 507 of the act, “Assessment of Impediments to Interagency Cooperation on Space and Earth Science Missions,” directed NASA to engage the National Research Council to carry out the following assessment:

(a) Assessments- The Administrator, in consultation with other agencies with space science programs, shall enter into an arrangement with the National Academies to assess impediments, including cost growth, to the successful conduct of interagency cooperation on space science missions, to provide lessons learned and best practices, and to recommend steps to help facilitate successful interagency collaborations on space science missions. As part of the same arrangement with the National Academies, the Administrator, in consultation with NOAA and other agencies with civil Earth observation systems, shall have the National Academies assess impediments, including cost growth, to the successful conduct of interagency cooperation on Earth science missions, to provide lessons learned and best practices, and to recommend steps to help facilitate successful interagency collaborations on Earth science missions.


(b) Report- The report of the assessments carried out under subsection (a) shall be transmitted to the Committee on Science and Technology of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate not later than 15 months after the date of enactment of this Act.

ACTIVITY

The Space Studies Board will establish an ad hoc study committee to prepare a report that will:

  • Assess impediments, including cost growth, to the successful conduct of interagency cooperation on Earth science and space science missions;

  • Identify lessons learned and best practices from past interagency Earth science and space science missions; and

  • Recommend steps to help facilitate successful interagency collaborations on Earth science and space sci­ence missions.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Statement of Task." National Research Council. 2011. Assessment of Impediments to Interagency Collaboration on Space and Earth Science Missions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13042.
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Specifically, the study shall:

  • Examine the rationale for interagency cooperation in Earth science and space science missions, including variations in motivation for interagency cooperation among agencies.

  • Survey Earth science and space science missions, either in operation or under formulation or development, which involve a significant partnership in either mission execution or instrument development by NASA with one or more other federal agencies. Such missions might include:

    • Fermi (formerly the Gamma-ray Large Aperture Space Telescope, GLAST), a NASA-DOE astrophysics mission;

    • Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM), a NASA-DOE astrophysics mission;

    • OSTM/Jason-2, developed by NASA and CNES and handed off for operation to NOAA and EUMETSAT;

    • ACE, developed and operated by NASA for research purposes, but provides data for operational use to NOAA and DOD;

    • GOES-R, being developed by NASA for NOAA under a reimbursable arrangement and originally included development of an advanced instrument suite (the Hyperspectral Environmental Suite);

    • National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), a tri-agency (NOAA, DOD, and NASA) program; also the NPOESS Preparatory Program (NPP), a joint program of NASA and the NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO);

    • The operational Landsat system, which has involved combinations of NASA, NOAA, and USGS; include also the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM); and

    • C/NOFS, a DOD-NASA program to enable forecasting and nowcasting of ionospheric irregularities.

  • From these case studies, identify lessons learned and best practices. Areas include.

    • Acquisition strategies;

    • Program management and structure, including partnership models; and

    • Interagency issues related to the “research to operations transition.”

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Statement of Task." National Research Council. 2011. Assessment of Impediments to Interagency Collaboration on Space and Earth Science Missions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13042.
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Page 43
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Statement of Task." National Research Council. 2011. Assessment of Impediments to Interagency Collaboration on Space and Earth Science Missions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13042.
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Page 44
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Through an examination of case studies, agency briefings, and existing reports, and drawing on personal knowledge and direct experience, the Committee on Assessment of Impediments to Interagency Cooperation on Space and Earth Science Missions found that candidate projects for multiagency collaboration in the development and implementation of Earth-observing or space science missions are often intrinsically complex and, therefore costly, and that a multiagency approach to developing these missions typically results in additional complexity and cost. Advocates of collaboration have sometimes underestimated the difficulties and associated costs and risks of dividing responsibility and accountability between two or more partners; they also discount the possibility that collaboration will increase the risk in meeting performance objectives.

This committee's principal recommendation is that agencies should conduct Earth and space science projects independently unless:

  • It is judged that cooperation will result in significant added scientific value to the project over what could be achieved by a single agency alone; or
  • Unique capabilities reside within one agency that are necessary for the mission success of a project managed by another agency; or
  • The project is intended to transfer from research to operations necessitating a change in responsibility from one agency to another during the project; or
  • There are other compelling reasons to pursue collaboration, for example, a desire to build capacity at one of the cooperating agencies.

Even when the total project cost may increase, parties may still find collaboration attractive if their share of a mission is more affordable than funding it alone. In these cases, alternatives to interdependent reliance on another government agency should be considered. For example, agencies may find that buying services from another agency or pursuing interagency coordination of spaceflight data collection is preferable to fully interdependent cooperation.

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