An ad-hoc committee will be organized under the auspices of the Space Studies Board to conduct a study of mission-enabling activities in NASA's space and Earth sciences program. The study will identify the appropriate roles for mission-enabling activities and metrics for assessing their effectiveness. It also will evaluate how, from a strategic perspective, decisions should be made about balance between mission-related and mission-enabling elements of the overall program as well as balance between various elements within the mission-enabling component.  Among the topics to be considered are the following:

• Roles and objectives of mission-enabling activities in NASA as a mission-oriented agency;
• Necessary characteristics of an effective program of mission-enabling activities, including metrics by which effectiveness can be evaluated;
• Principles and metrics for determining the appropriate balance of investments between mission-enabling activities and space flight missions so as to best support the Agency's overall strategic objectives;
• Principles and metrics for determining the appropriate allocation of effort and resources between various mission-enabling program components, including scientific infrastructure (e.g., airplanes, computing) that enables R&A activity;
• The role and proper fraction of support that should be devoted to "innovative" (high risk, high payoff) research, and whether this might vary between science areas;
• The extent to which current R&A programs support cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary science, especially across the divisions within SMD;
• The role of R&A programs in training the next generation of Earth and space scientists who will contribute to NASA's programs in the future; and
• Relevant benchmarks from industry or other public or private institutions where similar mission versus mission-enabling portfolio allocation assessments are made.

The project is sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. View the project on the Current Projects System.
 

View the Report  An Enabling Foundation for NASA's Earth and Space Science Missions