Revitalizing NASA's Suborbital Program Advancing Science, Driving Innovation, and Developing Workforce (2010) / Chapter Skim
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2 NASA's Airborne Research Capabilities
2 NASA's Airborne Research Capabilities
Pages 8-20
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From page 8... ...
of SMD since, with rare excep tions, the airborne scientific user community is chiefly concerned with the six Earth science research focus areas (atmospheric composition, carbon cycle and ecosystems, climate variability and change, Earth surface and interior, water and energy cycle, and weather)
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NASA suborbital research programs have played a lead role in studies to understand stratospheric ozone depletion processes. The NASA aircraft program allows measurements of important data in studies of cloud physics, provides platforms for testing of future satellite instrumentation, and is invaluable in a host of other atmospheric science research missions.
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The links between several satellite instruments and the associated airborne/balloon instruments are shown in Table 2.1. The discovery of the Antarctic Ozone Hole by the British Antarctic Survey set in motion the Airborne Ant arctic Ozone Experiment (AAOE)
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balloon (CLARREO) missionin development borne instrument For more than a decade, all major Earth science airborne campaigns have been required to have explicit satellite validation and complementary science objectives.
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The heaviest utilization occurs for the vehicles within ASP's Core Airborne Systems. These are con ventionally piloted vehicles, each of which have their own unique operational capabilities and can accommodate in situ and remote sensing instruments as described below.
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Joining these core, conventionally piloted vehicles are unmanned New Technology Airborne Systems. Among these unmanned aircraft systems (UASs)
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ASP capabilities are now contributing to satellite mission studies discussed in the National Research Council (NRC) decadal survey in Earth scienceEarth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond (NRC, 2007)
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Several specific examples of achievements made possible by the NASA suborbital program during my career can be cited. Stratospheric Ozone Loss and the Antarctic Ozone HoleI am proud to have played a role in determining the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole and of Arctic stratospheric ozone loss.
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Brune, Distinguished Professor and Head of Meteorology, Pennsylvania State University 2.3 TRAINING OPPORTuNITIES Through its various scientific deployments, the ASP has provided hands-on involvement for numerous gradu ate students and postdoctoral associates as well as for young professionals recently employed in the scientific and engineering fields. Over the past 20+ years, the ESD has conducted approximately 30 airborne science field campaigns.
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Airborne Element of Recommendation 1: The committee strongly supports the recommendations of the NRC decadal survey in Earth science that the ASP be restored to its former peak capabilities and that uASs be combined with manned aerial vehicles to address ESD science and mission objectives. Finding: NASA's current view of the suborbital program as a "capability" balanced to current funding limitations has resulted in a lack of managerial ownership and stewardship of this vital national capability.
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Airborne Element of Recommendation 2: To avoid fragmented management, the three suborbital program elements should be coordinated by a program lead on the staff of the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate for the suborbital program as a whole. This lead would be responsible for the develop ment of short- and long-term strategic plans for maintaining, renewing, and extending suborbital facilities and capabilities, would monitor progress toward goals in the plans, and would be an advocate for enhanced suborbital activities and integration of suborbital activities and workforce development within NASA.
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• upgrades to the WB-57F necessary to support science mission requirements have progressed quite slowly. Addressing the compelling need for increased payload capacity of the WB-57F appears to be on track with the addition of superpods to the wings in the near future.
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will impact ASP workforce capabilities. Airborne Element of Recommendation 4: A workforce study should be implemented to ascertain whether current staffing is sufficient to enable both SOFIA and the ASP aircraft at the new Palmdale, California, facility to conduct simultaneous pre-deployment and flight activities.
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