AAS Public Policy Blog

Its astronomy advisory committee meeting time in DC.  The Astrophysics Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council held its meeting on Oct. 8-9.  And the Congressionally Chartered AAAC held its meeting last week (Oct. 15-16).  You can see presentations from the AAAC meeting here.

It was interesting to see the process of how federal agencies like NASA, NSF, and DOE get advice from the community.  Everyone is waiting with bated breath for the Astro2010 Decadal Survey before making too many new plans for Astrophysics.  In addition to various mission updates (Fermi is performing fabulously! so is Kepler), there was an interesting discussion about whether to start a new line of named postdoctoral fellowships (like Hubble, Einstein, Sagan) for technology/instrumentation.  Its also clear that inter-agency cooperation (NASA, NSF, DOE) will be the way of the future.  There was even talk of whether this would be the last US decadal survey because it would be a global effort from next time.  We’ll have to wait and see on that one.

On a policy matter – Congress just passed the FY10 Energy and Water Appropriations bill and sent it to the Prez for his signature.  Why do we care?  Because this provides funding for DOE and DOE needs to re-start the production of Pu-238 in order to produce RTGs (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators) to explore the solar system.  It made it into the Administration’s budget request this year – but Congress zeroed out the request saying they want more details.  So we’ll have to make sure it gets funded next year!  (If you are interested in this issue, see the NRC report.)

Below, and in the podcast feed is audio from the the two Astro2010 sessions at Long Beach. Specifically, Roger Blandford’s talk Astronomy and Astrophysics 2010: Progress Report to the Community and the subsequent town hall, Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey 2010 Launch

Astronomy and Astrophysics 2010: Progress Report to the Community [ 52:05 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (251)

The National Academies has announced that Dr. Roger D. Blandford of Stanford University will chair the Decadal Survey committee. The board of Physics and Astronomy continues to solicit nominations for the other members of the committee:

Dr. Roger D. Blandford of Stanford University has been appointed by the NRC to chair the Astro2010 decadal survey committee.

The Board on Physics and Astronomy and the Space Studies Board are renewing their call for nominations of candidates for survey committee and panel members from the community.

To make your contribution to that process, please use the survey suggestions web form. You may also submit suggestions via e-mail to astro2010@nas.edu. If you use email, please include a few sentences about the candidate’s background and what the person would bring to the survey.

Please submit your suggestions for committee and panel members as soon as possible, the cut off dates are as follows:

Survey Committee membership — September 30, 2008*

Panel membership — October 30, 2008* *These cut off dates are subject to change as the appointment process progresses. Please check back here for updates.

Panel chairs as well as committee and panel members will be drawn from the pool of nominations. The survey committee will work out the panel structure at its first meeting.

Today is the final day for official comments on the appointments made to an NRC committee to study “The Role and Scope of Mission-Enabling Activities in NASA’s Space and Earth Science Missions,” through the Space Studies Board at the NRC.

You can read the full description of the committee’s purpose. An excerpt:

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.

You may comment via the feedback button at the bottom of the this link

Specifically, the comments are for:

Viewers may communicate with the National Academies at any time over the project’s duration. In addition, formal comments on the provisional appointments to a committee of the National Academies are solicited during the 20-calendar day period following the posting of the membership and, as described below, these comments will be considered before committee membership is finalized. We welcome your comments (Use the Feedback link below).

Please note that the appointments made to this committee are provisional, and changes may be made. No appointment shall be considered final until we have evaluated relevant information bearing on the committee’s composition and balance. This information will include the confidential written disclosures to The National Academies by each member-designate concerning potential sources of bias and conflict of interest pertaining to his or her service on the committee; information from discussion of the committee’s composition and balance that is conducted in closed session at its first meeting and again whenever its membership changes; and any public comments that we have received on the membership during the 20-calendar day formal public comment period. If additional members are appointed to this committee, an additional 20-calendar day formal public comment period will be allowed. It is through this process that we determine whether the committee contains the requisite expertise to address its task and whether the points of views of individual members are adequately balanced such that the committee as a whole can address its charge objectively.

This was in today’s monthly AAS electronic newsletter, but it’s worth posting here too. The Decadal Survey process is underway, and nominations of candidates for the chair are being solicited from the community. You can read the full announcement at the Board of Physics and Astronomy page, and submit nominations through that page, or to astro2010@nas.edu.