Statement of Task

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine shall convene an ad hoc committee to review the response of NASA's Planetary Science program to the 2011 decadal survey, "Vision and Voyages for Planetary Sciences in the Decade 2013-2022" (V&V). The committee's review will include the following tasks:

• Describe the most significant scientific discoveries, technical advances, and relevant programmatic changes in planetary sciences over the years since the publication of the planetary decadal survey (Vision & Voyages or V&V);
• Assess the degree to which NASA’s current planetary science program addresses the strategies, goals, and priorities outlined in the V&V and other relevant NRC and Academies reports and assess NASA progress toward realizing these strategies, goals, and priorities, and effectiveness in maintaining programmatic balance;
• With respect to the Mars program within the planetary science program, the committee’s assessment will include:
  • the Planetary Science Division’s Mars exploration architecture and its responsiveness to the strategies, priorities, and guidelines put forward by the National Academies’ V&V and other relevant National Academies Mars-related reports;
  • the long-term goals of the Planetary Science Division’s Mars Exploration Program and the program’s ability to optimize the science return, given the current fiscal posture of the program;
  • the Mars exploration architecture’s relationship to Mars-related activities to be undertaken by foreign agencies and organizations; and
  • the extent to which the Mars exploration architecture represents a reasonably balanced mission portfolio.
• Recommend any actions that could be taken to optimize the science value of the planetary science program including how to take into account emergent discoveries since the decadal in the context of current and forecasted resources available to it;
• Provide guidance about implementation of the decadal’s recommended mission portfolio and decision rules for the remaining years of the current decadal survey, but do not revisit or redefine the scientific priorities or mission recommendations from the V&V and;
• Recommend any actions that should be undertaken to prepare for the next decadal survey, such as community discussion of science goals, potential missions, and programmatic balance, and NASA support of potential mission concept studies. 

More information on this project may be viewed on our current projects website.
 

Committee Meetings

May 4-5, 2017, Washington, DC
View Agenda I View Presentations 

July 11-13, 2017, Caltech
View Agenda I View Presentations 

August 28-30, 2017, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
View Agenda I View Presentations
 

November 29-December 1, 2017 Irvine, CA
View Agenda I View Presentations
 

February 26-28, 2018, Washington, DC
View Agenda I View Presentations

Committee Membership

View Bios
 

Louise M. Prockter, Co-Chair
Lunar and Planetary Institute
Joseph H. Rothenberg, Co-Chair
Independent Consultant
David A. Bearden
The Aerospace Corporation
Scott Bolton
Southwest Research Institute
Barbara A. Cohen
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Andrew M. Davis
University of Chicago
Alan W. Harris
MoreData! Inc.
Amanda R. Hendrix
Planetary Science Institute
Bruce M. Jakosky
University of Colorado, Boulder
Margaret G. Kivelson
University of California, Los Angeles
Juan Perez-Mercader
Harvard University
Mark P. Saunders
Independent Consultant
Suzanne Smrekar
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
David J. Stevenson
California Institute of Technology
 

Staff

Dwayne Day
Study Director

Mia Brown
Research Associate

Dionna Wise
Travel Coordinator
 

Presentations 

Below is an archive list of names and a link to the slides presented at the committee meeting during open session. We have only included the slides for which the presenter has given consent to post.

Presenter names and slides are listed in the order of the agenda.Presentations which have been made available for posting will be added after the panel meeting is complete.

May 4-5, 2017

Jim Green
Jeffrey Johnson
Jim Watzin
Steve Squyres- no slides
Bob Grimm
Tim Swindle
Alfred McEwen
Amy Simon
Steve Mackwell

July 11-13, 2017

Bob Pappalardo 1 & 2
Barry Goldstein
Kevin Hand 1 & 2
Jennifer Eigenbrode
Hal Levison
Samuel Lawrence
Hunter Waite
Martha Gilmore
Melissa Trainer
Bonnie Buratti
William Moore
Bethany Ehlmann
Bruce Jakosky
Shane Byrne
Richard Zurek 1
Richard Zurek 2
Ken Farley
T. Joseph Lazio
Michael Meyer
Jim Green

August 28-30, 2017

Thomas Zurbuchen
Jim Watzin- No slides
Kristen Erickson
Steve Creech

November 29-December 1, 2017
Bruce Yost-permission pending
Robert Kellogg
Chad Edwards
Kevin McKeegan-permission pending

February 26-28, 2018

To be added post meeting

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* No slides indicate that the presenter did not utilize slides during their presentation.

* Permission pending indicates that the presenter has not given us consent to publish the slides they presented at the meeting.

*Written materials submitted to a study committee by external sources are listed in the project's public access file and can be made available to the public upon request via the Academies Public Access Records Office.