Enabling Foundation for NASA's Earth and Space Science Missions

,

• Publisher: National Academies Press
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN:
  9780309151580
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Physical Sciences

NASA's space and Earth science program is composed of two principal components: spaceflight projects and mission-enabling activities. Most of the budget of NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is applied to spaceflight missions, but NASA identifies nearly one quarter of the SMD budget as "e;mission enabling."e; The principal mission-enabling activities, which traditionally encompass much of NASA's research and analysis (R&A) programs, include support for basic research, theory, modeling, and data analysis; suborbital payloads and flights and complementary ground-based programs; advanced technology development; and advanced mission and instrumentation concept studies.While the R&A program is essential to the development and support of NASA's diverse set of space and Earth science missions, defining and articulating an appropriate scale for mission-enabling activities have posed a challenge throughout NASA's history. This volume identifies the appropriate roles for mission-enabling activities and metrics for assessing their effectiveness. Furthermore, the book evaluates 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. Collectively, these efforts will help SMD to make a good program even better.

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
• OTHER REPORTS OF THE SPACE STUDIES BOARD
• COMMITTEE ON THE ROLE AND SCOPE OF MISSION-ENABLING ACTIVITIES IN NASA’S SPACE AND EARTH SCIENCE MISSIONS
• SPACE STUDIES BOARD
• Preface
• Acknowledgment of Reviewers
• Contents
• Summary
• 1 Overview of the Science Mission Directorate’s Mission-Enabling Activities
• 2 Assessment of NASA’s Mission-Enabling Activities
• 3 Principles and Metrics for Managing Effective Mission-Enabling Portfolios
• 4 Maximizing Program Effectiveness Through Strategic Management
• 5 Consolidated Findings and Recommendations
• Appendixes