3
Ad Hoc Study Committees:
Activities and Membership

When a sponsor requests that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine¹ 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 standing committees provide oversight for ad hoc study committee activities. Eight ad hoc study committees were active during 2015; their activities and membership are summarized below. The SSB collaborated on two studies with the Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA) and on one study with the following boards of the Division on Earth and Life Studies: the Board on Atmospheric Science and Climate, the Board on Earth Science and Resources, the Water Science and Technology Board, and the Ocean Studies Board.

The Review of NASA’s Planetary Science Division’s Restructured Research and Analysis Programs study was formally initiated toward the end of 2015. Recruitment of committee members will commence in 2016 and a report is scheduled to be delivered to NASA by December 2016.

ACHIEVING SCIENCE GOALS WITH CUBESATS

The ad hoc Committee on Achieving Science Goals with CubeSats had their first meeting on June 22-23, 2015, at the Keck Center in Washington, D.C. During the meeting, the committee received agency perspectives on CubeSats from NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Defense (DOD), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The committee also received an update on space debris from the Secure World Foundation. The committee had their second meeting, which included a community symposium, on September 2-3, followed by a committee-only session on September 4 at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering in Irvine, California. The symposium began with keynote presentations on CubeSats and science return from David Korsmeyer (NASA Ames Research Center) and on technology trends from Richard Welle (Aerospace Corporation). The symposium continued with a series of keynote speakers and panel discussions. The first four sessions involved science areas: CubeSats in heliophysics, with a keynote by Harlan Spence (University of New Hampshire); CubeSats in planetary science, with a keynote by Julie Castillo-Rogez (Jet Propulsion Laboratory); CubeSats in astronomy and astrophysics, with a keynote by Kerri Cahoy (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); and CubeSats in Earth science, with a keynote by Antonio Busalacchi (University of Maryland). Additional panel discussions were held on technology for CubeSats, CubeSats for technology development, industry capabilities, and CubeSats in

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¹ Effective July 1, 2015, the institution is called the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. References in this report to the National Research Council are used in an historical context identifying programs prior to July 1.

education. The symposium also included a poster session with more than 60 participants. The committee had its third committee meeting in closed session on October 22-23, in Washington, D.C., followed by a policy-focused meeting on October 30 in Washington, D.C. The meeting opened with perspectives on CubeSat policy issues from Thomas Kalil (Office of Science and Technology Policy). The committee then held a panel discussion regarding orbital debris and space situational awareness, with participation from Josef Koller (DOD); J.-C. Liou (NASA); Lt. Col. Scott Putnam (Joint Space Operations Center); Michael Romanowski (Federal Aviation Administration); Dan Oltrogge (Analytical Graphics, Inc.); and Brian Weeden (Secure World Foundation). In the afternoon, the committee held a panel discussion on spectrum, with participation from Kathryn Medley (Federal Communications Commission); Jonathan Williams (National Telecommunications and Information Administration); Brennan Price (American Radio Relay League); William Horne (NASA); and Therese Moretto Jorgensen (NSF). The final discussion of the day regarded ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) current issues presented by Kevin Schmadel and Martin Ruzek (Universities Space Research Association). The committee is currently writing its draft report, and the anticipated prepublication release date is May 2016.

Membership²

Thomas H. Zurbuchen,³ University of Michigan (chair)

Bhavya Lal, IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute (vice chair)

Julie Castillo-Rogez,⁴ California Institute of Technology

Andrew Clegg, Google, Inc.

Paulo Lozano, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Malcolm Macdonald, University of Strathclyde

Robyn Millan, Dartmouth College

Charles D. Norton, California Institute of Technology

William H. Swartz, Johns Hopkins University

Alan Title, Lockheed Martin

Thomas Woods, University of Colorado

Edward L. Wright, University of California, Los Angeles

A. Thomas Young, Lockheed Martin (retired)

Staff

Abigail Sheffer, Program Officer, SSB

Katie Daud, Research Associate, SSB

Dionna Williams, Program Coordinator, SSB

CONTINUITY OF NASA-SUSTAINED REMOTE SENSING OBSERVATIONS OF THE EARTH FROM SPACE

NASA’s Earth Science Division (ESD) conducts a wide range of satellite and suborbital missions to observe Earth’s land surface and interior, biosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere, and oceans as part of a program to improve understanding of Earth as an integrated system. Earth observations provide the foundation for critical scientific advances, and environmental data products derived from these observations are used in resource management and for an extraordinary range of societal applications, including weather forecasts, climate projections, sea-level change, water management, disease early warning, agricultural production, and response to natural disasters.

As the complexity of societal infrastructure and its vulnerability to environmental disruption increases, the demands for deeper scientific insights and more actionable information continue to rise. To serve these demands, ESD is challenged with optimizing the partitioning of its finite resources among measurements intended for exploring new science frontiers, carefully characterizing long-term changes in the Earth system, and supporting ongoing societal applications. This challenge is most acute in the decisions the division makes between support-

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² All terms began on May 14, 2015, unless otherwise noted.

³ Term began March 10, 2015.

⁴ Term began October 13, 2015.

ing measurement continuity of data streams that are critical components of Earth science research programs and in developing new measurement capabilities.

The current ESD decision-making process is primarily qualitative. Completing a study requested by NASA, the Committee on a Framework for Analyzing the Needs for Continuity of NASA-Sustained Remote Sensing Observations of the Earth from Space published the report Continuity of NASA Earth Observations from Space: A Value Framework in November 2015. The decision framework presented in this report provides a transparent and partially quantitative alternative that prioritizes the relative importance of different measurements based on their scientific value. The report identifies key evaluation factors and puts forward a decision-making framework that quantifies the need for measurement continuity and the consequences of measurement gaps for achieving long-term science goals. Following publication, Committee Chair Byron Tapley (University of Texas) briefed the report to NASA, NOAA, the Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space, and the SSB. The report is available at http://www.nap.edu. The Summary of the report is reprinted in Chapter 5.

Membership⁵

Byron D. Tapley, University of Texas, Austin (chair)

Michael D. King, University of Colorado, Boulder (vice chair)

Mark R. Abbott, Oregon State University

Steven A. Ackerman, University of Wisconsin, Madison

John J. Bates, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Rafael L. Bras, Georgia Institute of Technology

Robert E. Dickinson, University of Texas, Austin

Randall R. Friedl, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Lee-Lueng Fu, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Chelle L. Gentemann, Remote Sensing Systems

Kathryn A. Kelly, University of Washington

Judith L. Lean, Naval Research Laboratory

Joyce E. Penner, University of Michigan

Michael J. Prather, University of California, Irvine

Eric J. Rignot, University of California, Irvine

William L. Smith, Hampton University

Compton J. Tucker, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Bruce A. Wielicki, NASA Langley Research Center

Staff

Arthur A. Charo, Senior Program Officer, SSB

Anesia Wilks, Senior Program Assistant, SSB

Katie Daud, Research Associate, SSB

DECADAL SURVEY FOR EARTH SCIENCE AND APPLICATIONS FROM SPACE

The 2017-2027 decadal survey for Earth science and applications from space (ESAS 2017) began in late 2015. Sponsored by NASA, NOAA, and USGS, the survey will produce a report by July 31, 2017, that will

1. Assess progress in addressing the major scientific and application challenges outlined in the 2007 survey;
2. Develop a prioritized list of top-level science and application objectives to guide space-based Earth observations over the survey interval;
3. Identify gaps and opportunities in the programs of record at NASA, NOAA, and USGS in pursuit of the top-level science and application challenges—including space-based opportunities that provide both sustained and experimental observations; and

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⁵ All terms ended on March 31, 2015.

4. Recommend—considering science priorities, implementation costs, new technologies and platforms, interagency partnerships, international partners, and in situ and other complementary programs—approaches to facilitate the development of a robust, resilient, and appropriately balanced U.S. program of Earth observations from space.

Like the 2007 inaugural decadal survey, Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond, ESAS 2017 will help shape science priorities and guide agency investments into the next decade. Detailed information about the survey and a calendar of upcoming events is available at http://www.nas.edu/esas2017. Notable events that occurred in 2015 included appointment of the Survey Steering Committee (http://sites.nationalacademies.org/DEPS/esas2017/DEPS_169444), receipt of more than 200 responses to the survey’s request for information (RFI), the organization of a town hall on December 14, 2015, at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and planning for the first meeting of the steering committee on January 18-20, 2016, in Washington, D.C. Additional town halls were also planned at 96th annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society and the AGU Ocean Sciences meeting in January and February 2016, respectively. Presentations from these events will be posted on the survey’s website. The survey steering committee is supported by several study panels (http://sites.nationalacademies.org/DEPS/esas2017/DEPS_170909) and cross-disciplinary working groups; in total, some 100 members of the community are expected to participate on one or more of the survey’s committees.

Membership⁶

Waleed Abdalati, University of Colorado, Boulder (co-chair)

Antonio J. Busalacchi Jr., University of Maryland, College Park (co-chair)

Steven J. Battel, Battel Engineering, Inc.

Stacey Boland, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Robert D. Braun, Georgia Institute of Technology

Shuyi S. Chen, University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences

William E. Dietrich, University of California, Berkeley

Scott C. Doney, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Christopher B. Field, Carnegie Institution for Science

Helen A. Fricker, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

William B. Gail, Global Weather Corporation

Sarah T. Gille, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Dennis L. Hartmann, University of Washington

Daniel J. Jacob, Harvard University

Anthony C. Janetos, Boston University

Everette Joseph, University of Albany, State University of New York

Molly K. Macauley, Resources for the Future

Joyce E. Penner, University of Michigan

Soroosh Sorooshian, University of California, Irvine

Graeme L. Stephens, Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology

Byron D. Tapley, University of Texas, Austin

W. Stanley Wilson, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Staff

Arthur A. Charo, Senior Program Officer, SSB

Charlie Harris, Research Associate, SSB (from September 28)

Andrea Rebholz,⁷ Program Coordinator, ASEB

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⁶ All terms began on December 1, 2015.

⁷ Staff from other Boards who are shared with the SSB.

NASA SCIENCE MISSION EXTENSIONS: SCIENTIFIC VALUE, POLICIES, AND REVIEW PROCESS

The Committee on NASA Science Mission Extensions was formed in October 2015 and held a committee-only teleconference in December. The committee, co-chaired by Vicky Hamilton and Harvey Tananbaum, is to hold its first in-person meeting February 1-2, 2016, at the Keck Center in Washington, D.C., and a second meeting is scheduled for March 2-4, 2016, at the Beckman Center in Irvine, California. The committee will be looking at the process by which NASA conducts science mission extensions. Its report is tentatively scheduled for delivery to NASA in late summer 2016.

Membership⁸

Victoria E. Hamilton, Southwest Research Institute (co-chair)

Harvey D. Tananbaum, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (co-chair)

Alice Bowman, John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

John R. Casani, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (retired)

James H. Clemmons, The Aerospace Corporation

Neil Gehrels, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Fiona A. Harrison, California Institute of Technology

Michael D. King, University of Colorado, Boulder

Margaret G. Kivelson, University of California, Los Angeles

Ramon E. Lopez, University of Texas, Arlington

Amy Mainzer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Alfred S. McEwen, University of Arizona

Deborah G. Vane, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Staff

Dwayne Day, Senior Program Officer, ASEB

Katie Daud, Research Associate, SSB

Anesia Wilks, Senior Program Assistant, SSB

REVIEW OF MEPAG REPORT ON PLANETARY PROTECTION FOR MARS SPECIAL REGIONS

The Committee for the Review of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) Report on Planetary Protection for Mars Special Regions, an ad hoc activity of the Academies and the European Science Foundation, held its second and final full meeting in Irvine, California, on February 12-13, 2015. The committee completed delivery of its report to NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) in mid-September and presented its conclusions and recommendations at the COSPAR (Committee on Space Research) Planetary Protection Workshop held at the International Space Science Institute in Bern, Switzerland, on September 22-24. The committee completed its work and was dissolved at the end of December 2015. The final, printed version of the committee’s report, Review of the MEPAG Report on Mars Special Regions, was released in late December 2015. The Executive Summary of the report is reprinted in Chapter 5. A paper derived from the committee’s final report has been accepted for publication and is scheduled to appear in the February 2016 issue of Astrobiology.

Membership⁹

Petra Rettberg, German Aerospace Center, Cologne (chair)

Alexandre Anesio, University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Victor R. Baker, University of Arizona

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⁸ All terms began on October 28, 2015.

⁹ All terms ended on November 30, 2015.

John A. Baross, University of Washington

Sherry L. Cady, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Christine M. Foreman, Montana State University

Ernst Hauber, German Aerospace Center, Berlin

Gian Gabriele Ori, Universita d’Annunzio, Pescara, Italy

David Pearce, Northumbria University, United Kingdom

Nilton O. Renno, University of Michigan

Gary Ruvkun, Massachusetts General Hospital

Birgit Sattler, University of Innsbruck, Austria

Mark P. Saunders, Independent Consultant

Dirk Wagner, German Research Center for Geosciences, Potsdam

Frances Westall, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Orléans, France

Staff

David H. Smith, Senior Program Officer, SSB

Emmanouil Detsis, Science Officer, ESF

Andrea Rebholz,¹⁰ Program Coordinator, ASEB

REVIEW OF PROGRESS TOWARD THE DECADAL SURVEY VISION IN NEW WORLDS, NEW HORIZONS IN ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

The ad hoc Committee for the Review of Progress Toward the Decadal Survey Vision in New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics, chaired by Jacqueline Hewitt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, held its first meeting on October 8-10, 2015, in Washington, D.C. The committee heard from the NASA Astrophysics Division (APD), the NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST), the Department of Energy High Energy Physics (HEP) program, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, ESA, and project teams from or representatives of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, NSF Mid-Scale Innovations Program, U.S. Laser Interferometer Space Antenna project, and U.S. Athena project.

The committee held a science symposium during its second meeting on December 12-14 at the Beckman Center in Irvine, California. The committee heard an opening keynote address from Roger Blandford, who chaired the 2010 astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey (Astro2010). The symposium continued with a series of speakers and panel discussions, many of whom participated in the Astro2010 process. The sessions assessed what progress had been made on the high-priority science questions and discovery areas identified in the 2010 New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics report. During the second day of the meeting, the committee heard talks from representatives of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), the Thirty Meter Telescope, the Giant Magellan Telescope, and the Cherenkov Telescope Array, as well as presentations from the European Consortium’s eLISA mission and a community leader in exoplanet technology for direct imaging space-based missions. The symposium was webcast and has been made available for later viewing at https://vimeo.com/album/3742483.

The committee also held bi-weekly teleconferences, hearing from Daniel Eisenstein, Harvard University, on the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument; Debra Elmegreen, Vassar College, on the 2015 National Research Council (NRC) report Optimizing the U.S. Ground-Based Optical and Infrared Astronomy System; Randall Smith, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, on IXO-Athena-preparations; Amber Miller, Columbia University, on cosmic microwave background polarization; Eric Smith, NASA, on the James Webb Space Telescope; and Terry Herter and Riccardo Giovanelli, Cornell University, on the CCAT telescope.

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¹⁰ Staff from other Boards who are shared with the SSB.

Membership¹¹

Jacqueline N. Hewitt,¹² Massachusetts Institute of Technology (chair)

Adam S. Burrows, Princeton University

Neil J. Cornish, Montana State University

Andrew W. Howard, University Hawaii, Manoa

Bruce Macintosh, Stanford University

Richard F. Mushotzky, University of Maryland

Angela V. Olinto, University of Chicago

Steven M. Ritz, University of California, Santa Cruz

Alexey Vikhlinin, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

David H. Weinberg, Ohio State University

Rainer Weiss, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Eric M. Wilcots, University of Wisconsin

Edward L. Wright, University of California, Los Angeles

A. Thomas Young, Lockheed Martin Corporation (retired)

Staff

David Lang, Program Officer, BPA

Katie Daud, Research Associate, SSB

Dionna Williams, Program Coordinator, SSB

A STRATEGY TO OPTIMIZE THE U.S. OPTICAL/INFRARED SYSTEM IN THE ERA OF THE LARGE SYNOPTIC SURVEY TELESCOPE

With funding from NSF, the NRC conducted a study that recommends a strategy to optimize the U.S. ground-based optical and infrared astronomy observatory system in preparation for the full operation of the LSST. The BPA-SSB ad hoc Committee on a Strategy to Optimize the U.S. Optical and Infrared System in the Era of LSST, appointed in July 2014, held three meetings in 2014. The committee’s report, Optimizing the U.S. Ground-Based Optical and Infrared Astronomy System, entered the review process in early February 2015, and the report was released on April 17, 2015. The committee chair briefed interested government parties in conjunction with the release of the report. The Executive Summary of the report is reprinted in Chapter 5.

Membership¹³

Debra M. Elmegreen, Vassar College (chair)

Todd A. Boroson, Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network

Debra Fischer, Yale University

Joshua A. Frieman, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

Lynne Hillenbrand, California Institute of Technology

Buell T. Jannuzi, University of Arizona

Robert P. Kirshner, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Lori M. Lubin, University of California, Davis

Robert Lupton, Princeton University

Paul L. Schechter, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Paul Adrian Vanden Bout, National Radio Astronomy Observatory

J. Craig Wheeler, University of Texas, Austin

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¹¹ All terms began on August 12, 2015, unless otherwise noted.

¹² Term began on June 10, 2015.

¹³ All terms ended on May 1, 2015.

Consultant to the Committee

Joel Parriott, American Astronomical Society

Staff

David B. Lang, Senior Program Officer, BPA

Katie Daud, Research Associate, SSB

Linda Walker, Program Coordinator, BPA

Beth Dolan, Financial Manager, BPA

SURVEY OF SURVEYS: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE DECADAL SURVEY PROCESS

The ad hoc Committee on Survey of Surveys: Lessons Learned from the Decadal Survey Process completed a draft of its report in February 2015, and it was sent to 12 reviewers for comment in early March. The committee completed its responses to reviewer comments in late May, and the report was approved for release on June 15. The committee released its final report, The Space Science Decadal Surveys: Lessons Learned and Best Practices, as a prepublication on July 29, and the final printed version was delivered in late October. The Summary of the report is reprinted in Chapter 5.

Membership¹⁴

Alan Dressler, Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science (chair)

Daniel N. Baker, University of Colorado, Boulder

David A. Bearden, Aerospace Corporation

Roger D. Blandford, Stanford University

Stacey Boland, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Wendy M. Calvin, University of Nevada, Reno

Athena Coustenis, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France

J. Todd Hoeksema, Stanford University

Anthony C. Janetos, Boston University

Stephen Mackwell, Lunar and Planetary Institute

J. Douglas McCuistion, X-energy, LLC

Norman H. Sleep, Stanford University

Charles E. Woodward, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

A. Thomas Young, Lockheed Martin Corporation (retired)

Staff

David H. Smith, Senior Program Officer, SSB

Katie Daud, Research Associate, SSB

Dionna Williams, Program Coordinator, SSB

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¹⁴ All terms ended on June 30, 2015.