The National Academies Press

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From page 1... ... . NASA ASTRONOMY SCIENCE CENTERS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS NASA empowers a range of center types and sizes, from relatively modest facilities to large, fullservice science centers, with budgets ranging from approximately $6 million to $80 million (Appendix A) Read the entire page →
From page 2... ... IPAC and its associated Spitzer and Michelson science centers. The committee concluded that because a number of space-based astronomy missions had been delayed, the existing astronomy centers have sufficient scientific and programmatic expertise to manage all of NASA's astronomy center responsibilities now, for the foreseeable future, and after the active phases of current and planned missions have been completed. Finding: The Chandra X-ray Center, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center have sufficient scientific and programmatic expertise to manage NASA's current science center responsibilities after the active phases of all current and planned space-based astronomy missions have been completed. Read the entire page →
From page 3... ... Finding: The ability of the Chandra X-ray Center, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center to provide the appropriate level of support to the scientific community depends critically on the extent to which they can attract, retain, and effectively deploy individuals with the mix of research and engineering skills necessary to maintain continuity of service. Guest Observer Facilities and Explorer-Class Mission Centers It was clear to the committee that all of the NASA astronomy science centers examined for the study can provide valuable services to the community, but that the smaller GOF and Explorer mission centers lack the resources and staff support to provide the full range of science center services effectively on their own. GOFs such as those for RXTE and XMM–Newton can manage a modest level of service in many areas only because they are able to draw on portions of the time of talented people who were engaged in other activities at their institutions. Associating GOFs or Explorer centers with the larger archival centers or flagship mission centers, which have staff and infrastructure in place, enables them to leverage necessary skills and services and serve their scientific constituents. Finding: Embedding GOFs in existing science centers, such as the HEASARC, provides for efficient user support, especially when the scope of a space mission does not require establishing a separate center. Read the entire page →
From page 4... ... Recommendation 2. NASA should adopt a set of best practices as guiding principles to ensure the effectiveness of existing flagship and archival NASA astronomy science centers and to select the operational functions of any future centers. Read the entire page →
From page 5... ... Recommendation 3. NASA should ensure that NASA astronomy science centers cooperate among themselves and with other agencies to develop strategies and plans for • Developing common protocols and formats for proposal entry; • Developing a universal infrastructure for data formats and metadata, archiving, and retrieval and analysis tools; and • Providing curriculum materials and professional development programs for K-12 teachers. Read the entire page →

From page 1...

... . NASA ASTRONOMY SCIENCE CENTERS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS NASA empowers a range of center types and sizes, from relatively modest facilities to large, fullservice science centers, with budgets ranging from approximately $6 million to $80 million (Appendix A)

Read the entire page →

From page 2...

... IPAC and its associated Spitzer and Michelson science centers. The committee concluded that because a number of space-based astronomy missions had been delayed, the existing astronomy centers have sufficient scientific and programmatic expertise to manage all of NASA's astronomy center responsibilities now, for the foreseeable future, and after the active phases of current and planned missions have been completed. Finding: The Chandra X-ray Center, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center have sufficient scientific and programmatic expertise to manage NASA's current science center responsibilities after the active phases of all current and planned space-based astronomy missions have been completed.

Read the entire page →

From page 3...

... Finding: The ability of the Chandra X-ray Center, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center to provide the appropriate level of support to the scientific community depends critically on the extent to which they can attract, retain, and effectively deploy individuals with the mix of research and engineering skills necessary to maintain continuity of service. Guest Observer Facilities and Explorer-Class Mission Centers It was clear to the committee that all of the NASA astronomy science centers examined for the study can provide valuable services to the community, but that the smaller GOF and Explorer mission centers lack the resources and staff support to provide the full range of science center services effectively on their own. GOFs such as those for RXTE and XMM–Newton can manage a modest level of service in many areas only because they are able to draw on portions of the time of talented people who were engaged in other activities at their institutions. Associating GOFs or Explorer centers with the larger archival centers or flagship mission centers, which have staff and infrastructure in place, enables them to leverage necessary skills and services and serve their scientific constituents. Finding: Embedding GOFs in existing science centers, such as the HEASARC, provides for efficient user support, especially when the scope of a space mission does not require establishing a separate center.

Read the entire page →

From page 4...

... Recommendation 2. NASA should adopt a set of best practices as guiding principles to ensure the effectiveness of existing flagship and archival NASA astronomy science centers and to select the operational functions of any future centers.

Read the entire page →

From page 5...

... Recommendation 3. NASA should ensure that NASA astronomy science centers cooperate among themselves and with other agencies to develop strategies and plans for • Developing common protocols and formats for proposal entry; • Developing a universal infrastructure for data formats and metadata, archiving, and retrieval and analysis tools; and • Providing curriculum materials and professional development programs for K-12 teachers.

Read the entire page →

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