A Performance Assessment of NASA's Heliophysics Program (2009) / Chapter Skim
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3 Recommendations
3 Recommendations
Pages 49-56
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From page 49... ...
The central recommendation of the decadal survey was for a coordinated set of spacecraft missions and other research activities that could provide concurrent observations of the same solar and space phenomena as well as other research synergies. Although it would be extremely difficult now to restore all of the science content anticipated in the Integrated Research Strategy, this committee makes five recommendations that could help restore key features of the decadal survey's Integrated Research Strategy before the end of the decade.
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From page 50... ...
Consistent with the mission queue recommended in the decadal survey, NASA should not begin development of the Solar Probe Plus mission unless the Heliophysics Division's budget is adequate to support the original launch date or unless NASA formally consults with the community and receives a recommendation to begin development of the Solar Probe Plus mission before the remaining moderate missions recommended in the 2003 decadal survey. The Geospace Network mission was the second-ranked moderate mission recommended in the decadal survey's Integrated Research Strategy and would consist of two radiation-belt mapping spacecraft and two ionospherem apping spacecraft to determine the global response of geospace to solar storms.
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From page 51... ...
for the MMS and RBSP missions substantially exceeded the assumptions underlying the budget estimates in the decadal survey, leading to larger and more complex spacecraft, larger launch vehicles, and other cost increases that expanded development budgets by a factor of two or more. In turn, larger MMS and RBSP budgets forced the deferment of other missions in the decadal survey's Integrated Research Strategy and NASA's Heliophysics Great Observatory.
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From page 52... ...
Recommendation 6: NASA's mission roadmapping activities should seek to retain the balance and synergy of the decadal survey's Integrated Research Strategy. Several key science questions in the decadal survey receive little or no attention in the Heliophysics Roadmap, including coronal heating, the heliosphere's interaction with the interstellar medium, and the magnetospheres and ionospheres of other planets.
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From page 53... ...
Even if this report's recommendations on fulfilling the Integrated Research Strategy will have been executed, most of the recommended spacecraft missions from the 2003 decadal survey will not have begun development at the time of the next decadal survey. Advances in the field, changes in research priorities, and other factors may make some or all of those unimplemented recommendations obsolete.
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From page 54... ...
Budget issues have forced the deferral of several missions recommended by the decadal survey, reducing or eliminating opportunities for coordinated observations and putting the decadal survey's Integrated Research Strategy at risk. The next decadal survey should provide explicit recommendations about the relative priority of science from coordinated observations versus the science from individual spacecraft missions.
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From page 55... ...
For the specific case of recommendations for NASA that deal overwhelmingly with spaceflight missions, it is crucial that each of the subdisciplines (solar, heliosphere, magnetosphere, and aeronomy) have a comparable number of experienced spaceflight investigators on the final survey committee.
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