Origins, Worlds, and Life A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032 (2022) / Chapter Skim
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17 Research and Analysis The stated goal of NASA's Planetary Science Directorate (PSD) is to advance scientific knowledge of the origin and history of the solar system, 1 the potential for life elsewhere, and the hazards and resources present as humans explore space.
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By any measure, R&A is a vital component of NASA's scientific enterprise. Yet, how a "well-balanced and appropriately funded R&A portfolio" is defined may vary depending on one's role in the R&A endeavor.
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in R&A activities has increased from $194 million in 2010 to $251 million currently budgeted for 2023, 2 a 30 percent increase in real year (not inflation adjusted) dollars, and a flat funding level in inflation-adjusted dollars (adopting the NASA inflation index of 1.332 from 2010 to 2023)
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PSD portfolio. The committee closes with a discussion of the role of the National Science Foundation in advancing planetary and astrobiology R&A.
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TABLE 17.1 FY2021 NASA PSD Openly Competed Research and Analysis Programs CORE DATA PARTICIPATING ASTROBIOLOGY TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY OTHER PROGRAMS ANALYSIS SCIENTIST EW NFDAP EXO PICASSO LARS Juno SSERVI SSW LDAP PSTAR MatISSE VIPER PMEF*
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BOX 17.2 Definition of the Research and Analysis Budget Line The PSD Research and Analysis budgetary wedge in Figure 17.1 is the sum of 5 budgetary components: 1) Planetary Science Research and Analysis (the main budgetary line within the Planetary Science Research category)
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Reinhart stated that this has, on average, occurred. The impact of ISFM on total R&A proposal submissions is unclear; these continued to increase in number from 2018 to 2020 (see Figure 17.2)
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particularly emphasized the funding of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, and the community building enabled by SSERVI teams is widely praised by those involved. On the other hand, many in the community -- including current and former SSERVI team members -- note that the present SSERVI structure is insular, and fosters a sense of exclusivity for those inside the virtual institute.
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The Interdisciplinary Consortia for Astrobiology Research (ICAR) was created in 2019 as a successor to the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI)
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astrobiology, for instance, exemplifies a discipline that encompasses diverse approaches including geology, biology, chemistry, and engineering (see Q9, Q10, and Q11)
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the value to NASA of a single, expansive program -- instead of multiple, thematic programs that together are just as responsive to the NASA's Science Plans as SSW -- is not self-evident. Another consequence of the 2014 reorganization was the lack of an explicit focus on fundamental research, one example of which was the Mars Fundamental Research (MFR)
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Finding: To maximize the return to NASA on R&A projects where longer durations are particularly beneficial, there is value in allowing for, and not discouraging, grants with performance periods of up to four, or even five, years, with the latter especially for some laboratory- and field-based work. Fourth year funding may also offer the benefit of reducing the number of no cost extension (NCE)
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productivity of its component R&A programs. 6 Entry of research products produced after final reports are submitted would also be important to include.
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considerable. This section discusses several issues relevant to improving the efficiency and fairness of the overall process.
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BOX 17.3 The COVID-19 Pandemic and NASA's R&A Response The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has upended the world. The myriad disruptions to familiar ways of life of course impacted the planetary science community, especially those with children, who are caregivers, who are early in their career, or who are in temporary, soft-money, or untenured positions -- with many of them in more than one of these categories.
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accept them, and external reviewers are not eligible at all. Extending honoraria to eligible external reviewers could help increase the uptake of external review requests.
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confer substantial flexibility to the investigator(s) in determining the nature (and quantity)
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TRENDS IN PSD R&A FUNDING AND PROGRAMS THROUGH TIME The 2013-to-2022 planetary science decadal survey Vision and Voyages (hereafter, V&V) stressed the importance of a strong research and analysis program and recommended that R&A be increased by 5 percent in the first year of the decade, followed by annual increases of 1.5 percent above inflation for each successive year (NRC, 2011)
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Except for Participating Scientist programs, average selection rates have decreased steadily since 2003 across the R&A portfolio (Figure 17.3)
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FIGURE 17.2 The total number of proposals submitted to PSD R&A programs (purple) increased by > 30 percent from 2003 to 2020, whereas the total number of proposals selected (green)
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FIGURE 17.4 The number of unique PIs submitting proposals has increased by almost 20 percent (grey) from 2010 to 2020.
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FIGURE 17.5 Average requested budgets for select programs from 2002 to 2020. Average requested budgets in two pre-reorganization programs, Cosmochemistry and Planetary Atmospheres, increased by 11 percent between 2003 and 2013, and by 47 percent between 2004 and 2013, respectively.
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RECOMMENDED FUNDING FOR NASA PLANETARY R&A Figure 17.3 shows a progressive decrease in PSD R&A proposal selection rates, which for core programs have gone from >40 percent at the beginning of the last decade to <20 percent. The very low current selection rates adversely undercut innovation, efficiency of scientific return, and the training and sustaining of the workforce.
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FIGURE 17.6 At present selection rates, NASA is missing out on substantial high-quality science. Shown here are the proportions of selected proposals (above the waterline)
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selection rates and threaten the continued scientific payoff from NASA's mission investments. Although the percentage difference between 8 to 9 percent and ≥10 percent can seem small, the difference in absolute dollars is substantial with respect to R&A investments.
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THE SIZE OF THE PLANETARY RESEARCH COMMUNITY There is no single solution to addressing the concerns of all R&A stakeholders. Although additional support for R&A, as recommended above, is one major part of the solution, money alone is not a panacea because of the risk of induced demand -- that a larger R&A portfolio without a commensurate plan to manage the appropriate size of the community could lead to more people submitting proposals, greater pressure on available funds, and a repeating cycle of declining selection rates.
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in specific areas)
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community needs to be improved (see the State of the Profession Chapter)
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NASA-NSF PARTNERSHIPS The National Science Foundation (NSF) also provides support for planetary science activities.
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REFERENCES Beddingfield, C
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Nesvorný, D., Vokrouhlický, D., Bottke, W.F.
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