Studies in ProgressThe National Research Council’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, in conjunction with the Transportation Research Board, will establish an ad hoc study committee to conduct an independent review of NASA’s aviation safety-related research programs. The review shall assess whether the programs have well-defined, prioritized, and appropriate research objectives; The programs are properly coordinated with the safety research programs of the Federal Aviation Administration and other relevant federal agencies; The programs have allocated appropriate resources to each of the research objectives; and suitable mechanisms exist for transitioning the research results from the programs into operational technologies and procedures and certification activities in a timely manner. Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space The National Research Council Space Studies Board, in cooperation with the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board will organize a decadal survey to establish priorities and provide recommendations for life and physical sciences research in microgravity and partial gravity for the 2010-2020 decade. The committee will develop criteria for the prioritization. The decadal survey will define research areas, recommend a research portfolio and a timeline for conducting that research, identify facility and platform requirements as appropriate, provide rationales for suggested program elements, define dependencies between research objectives, identify terrestrial benefits, and specify whether the research product directly enables exploration or produces fundamental new knowledge. These areas will be categorized as either those that are required to enable exploration missions or those that are enabled or facilitated because of exploration missions | 
