Date:  May 2, 2012

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Report Warns of Rapid Decline in U.S. Earth Observation Capabilities;

Next-Generation Missions Hindered by Budget Shortfalls, Launch Failures

 

WASHINGTON — A new National Research Council report says that budget shortfalls, cost-estimate growth, launch failures, and changes in mission design and scope have left U.S. earth observation systems in a more precarious position than they were five years ago.  The report cautions that the nation's earth observing system is beginning a rapid decline in capability, as long-running missions end and key new missions are delayed, lost, or cancelled.

 

"The projected loss of observing capability will have profound consequences on science and society, from weather forecasting to responding to natural hazards," said Dennis Hartmann, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, and chair of the committee that wrote the report.  "Our ability to measure and understand changes in Earth's climate and life support systems will also degrade."

 

The report comes five years after the Research Council published "Earth Science and Applications From Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond," a decadal survey that generated consensus recommendations from the earth and environmental science and applications community for a renewed program of earth observations. The new report finds that although NASA responded favorably and aggressively to the decadal survey, the required budget was not achieved, greatly slowing progress.  Changes in program scope without commensurate funding, directed by the Office of Management and Budget and by Congress, also slowed progress.  A further impediment, the report says, is the absence of a highly reliable and affordable medium-class launch capability.

 

Despite these challenges, NASA has been successful in launching some of the missions in development when the survey report was published.  It has also made notable progress in establishing the "Venture-class" program, as recommended in the decadal survey. The suborbital program and the airborne science program are additional areas where significant progress is being made.  In accord with the decadal survey's recommendations, NASA also aggressively pursued international partnerships to mitigate shortfalls and stretch resources.   

 

In the near term, the report concludes, budgets for NASA's earth science program will remain inadequate to meet pressing national needs.  Therefore the agency should focus on two necessary actions: defining and implementing a cost-constrained approach to mission development, and identifying and empowering a cross-mission earth system science and engineering team to advise on the execution of decadal survey missions.

 

The report also reviews the state of NOAA's satellite earth observation program, an integral part of the decadal survey's overall strategy and tied to the success of NASA's program.  Budget shortfalls and cost overruns in NOAA's next generation of polar environmental satellites account for the slow rate of progress.  An interagency framework, recommended in the decadal survey to assist NASA and NOAA in optimizing resources, has yet to be realized.  This framework is even more crucial now that both agencies face fiscal constraints, and its importance is reiterated in the present report.

 

The study was sponsored by NASA.  The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies.  They are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter.  The National Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.  For more information, visit http://national-academies.org.  A committee roster follows.

 

Contacts: 

Lorin Hancock, Media Relations Officer

Shaquanna Shields, Media Relations Assistant

Office of News and Public Information

202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu

 

 

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Pre-publication copies of Earth Science and Applications from Space: A Midterm Assessment of NASA’s Implementation of the Decadal Survey are available from the National Academies Press; tel. 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242 or on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu.  Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above).

 

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NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL

Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences

Space Studies Board

 

Committee on the Assessment of NASA’s Earth Science Programs

 

Dennis L. Hartmann (chair)

Professor
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
University of Washington

Seattle

 

Mark R. Abbott

Dean and Professor
College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences
Oregon State University

Corvallis

 

Richard A. Anthes

President Emeritus
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Boulder, Colo.

 

Philip E. Ardanuy

Chief Scientist and Director, Remote Sensing Applications

Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems

Sterling, Va.

 

Stacey Boland

Senior Systems Engineer and Observatory System Engineer for OCO-2

Earth Mission Concepts
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, Calif.

 

Antonio J. Busalacchi Jr.

Director, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, and Professor

Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science

University of Maryland

College Park

 

Anny Cazenave1

Senior Scientist

Laboratoire d'Etudes en Geophysique et Oceanographie Spatiales

Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales

Toulouse, France

 

Ruth S. DeFries1

Professor

Department of Ecology, Evolution,

and Environmental Biology

Columbia University

New York City

 

Lee-Lueng Fu2

JPL Fellow
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, Calif.

 

Bradford H. Hager

Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Earth Sciences

Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and

Planetary Sciences

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge

 

Hung-Lung Allen Huang

Distinguished Scientist

Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies

Space Science Engineering Center

University of Wisconsin

Madison

 

Anthony C. Janetos

Director
Joint Global Change Research Institute
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/University of Maryland

College Park, Md.

 

Dennis P. Lettenmaier2

Robert and Irene Sylvester Professor of Civil

and Environmental Engineering

University of Washington

Seattle

 

Jennifer A. Logan

Senior Research Fellow
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Harvard University

Cambridge, Mass.

 

Molly Macauley

Vice President for Research and Senior Fellow
Energy and Natural Resources Division
Resources for the Future

Washington, D.C.

 

Anne W. Nolin

Associate Professor
Department of Geosciences
Oregon State University

Corvallis

 

Joyce E. Penner

Ralph J. Cicerone Distinguished Professor of

Atmospheric Science and Associate Chair

Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor

 

Michael J. Prather

Fred Kavli Chair and Professor
Department of Earth System Science
University of California

Irvine

 

David S. Schimel

Chief Science Officer and Principal Investigator
National Ecological Observatory Network Inc.

Boulder, Colo.

 

William F. Townsend

Independent Aerospace Consultant

Annapolis, Md.

 

Thomas H. Vonder Haar2

Director Emeritus

Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere; and

University Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science

College of Engineering

Colorado State University

Fort Collins

 

 

STAFF

 

Arthur A. Charo

Study Director

 

Lewis Groswald

Research Associate

 

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1         Member, National Academy of Sciences

2         Member, National Academy of Engineering