Fwd: DPS Mailing #05-05: Message from the Chair....

[Eugen Leitl]

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Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 14:03:04 -0600
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From: Linda French <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: DPS Mailing #05-05:  Message from the Chair....
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Greetings, DPS Colleagues,

  +------------------CONTENTS:------------------------------+
        1)   MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
        2)   2005 DPS PRIZE NOMINATIONS SOUGHT
        3)   PRELIMINARY DPS 2005 INFO
        4)   VENUS EXPLORATION ANALYSIS GROUP (VEXAG)
  +----------------------------------------------------------+

1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1
Dear Colleagues:

Last week saw another ominous development for planetary science.  On 
Wednesday, NASA announced its selections from the latest (11th) round 
of Discovery proposals.  From 18 proposals, no stand-alone flight 
missions were selected, an unprecedented occurrence.

The DPS is stunned by this decision.  Discovery proposals require a 
tremendous amount of unfunded work by Principal Investigators (PIs), 
their Co-Investigator teams, NASA centers, other research centers and 
laboratories, and their industry partners. 

Are we to believe that none of the flight missions proposed merited 
going to "Phase A," which is not selection for flight, but selection 
for further detailed study to determine suitability for flight? 

The Discovery Program is one of NASA's most innovative and 
cost-effective programs.  It is a major and in our judgment 
irreplaceable part of planetary exploration. Incredible ideas are 
conceived, and if all goes well, brought to fruition.  Missions are 
flown, such as Pathfinder, NEAR, Lunar Prospector, Stardust, Genesis, 
Messenger, and Deep Impact, that frankly never would have had little 
chance of being flown under the old way of doing business. 

While the Discovery proposal PIs have yet to be debriefed on the 
details of each evaluation, we do know that some submitted proposals 
have heritage from earlier rounds and have in past Discovery proposal 
cycles simultaneously received the highest possible scientific 
ranking and the lowest possible risk ranking. 

Last week, NASA also announced that the next Discovery AO would be 
released soon, and officials have told us that both the cost cap 
would be raised and the existing budget profile restrictions would be 
relaxed.  These are welcome developments, but the effect of last 
week's non-selection will likely adversely affect the applicant pool 
regardless of the scope of the program in the future. 

As we noted above, qualified teams and their industrial partners have 
invested their own resources, countless man-hours and (all together) 
millions of dollars.  But in the face of such seemingly arbitrary 
actions by the Agency, they cannot be expected to continue doing so. 
And as a result, America's space program is the loser.

In effect, the non-selection of potential mission candidates for 
study means that a Discovery mission has been cancelled, and the 
Discovery selection process has failed.  We call upon NASA to conduct 
an open selection-process failure analysis, just as it would for a 
flight mission loss.

The paradigm of PI-led missions like Discovery represents American 
enterprise, ingenuity, and entrepreneurship at its best.  The 
Discovery Program, and the nascent New Frontiers Program, and the 
smaller scale Explorer programs, all PI-led, must not be allowed to 
falter.  The DPS strongly urges NASA to reaffirm its support for the 
Discovery and other PI-led programs by making mission selections in 
response to NASA Aos, and to work with Congress to ensure the funding 
of these missions.

Finally, we note that last week's decision takes place against the 
background of profound change in NASA's directions and priorities, 
more details of which are expected in the FY06 Federal Budget to be 
released Monday, February 7th.  The AAS and DPS will be closely 
analyzing the implications of the budget for NASA and the programs 
within it. 

In the meantime, letters, phone calls, and faxes to NASA and the 
press in support of the Discovery and other PI-led programs are 
critically important.  These could stress 1) your disappointment in 
the recent non-selection and 2) your support for Discovery and other 
PI-led programs; request that 3) NASA openly investigate the causes 
of this non-selection; and most important, that 4) NASA recommit 
itself to making competitive selections in these programs. 

We ask you, however, to also prepare for a much larger effort that we 
may be calling upon you to undertake, which transcends our serious 
concerns for individual programs.

On behalf of the DPS Committee,

Bill McKinnon
DPS Chair


2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2

2005 DPS PRIZE NOMINATIONS SOUGHT

As announced in Mailings #05-01 and 05-02, the DPS Prize Subcommittee 
is seeking nominations for 2005 winners of the Urey, Kuiper, 
Masursky, and Sagan Prizes.  The deadline for submission of completed 
applications is 7 March, 2005.

More information is available at 
http://www.aas.org/~dps/prizes_contact.html, along with a nomination 
form.  A complete nomination will be considered by the Prize 
subcommittee for three years. You may wish to contact me to see if 
there already is an active pending nomination for your candidate. 
Because of the time it takes to accumulate materials needed for a 
nomination, I encourage all of you to begin as soon as possible. The 
award will be presented at the 2005 DPS meeting in Cambridge, England.

William D. Cochran
DPS Prize Subcommittee Chair
McDonald Observatory
1 University Station C1402
Austin TX 78712-0259
Ph: (512) 471-6474
Fax: (512) 471-6016
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

3---------3---------3---------3---------3---------3---------3---------3

PRELIMINARY INFORMATION ABOUT DPS 2005
CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND

The preliminary meeting website is at  http://www.dps2005.org.  It is 
not yet possible to book accommodation, etc., via the website.  Those 
functions will be available soon.

4---------4---------4---------4---------4---------4---------4---------4

VENUS EXPLORATION ANALYSIS GROUP (VEXAG)

Dear Colleague,
We are working with NASA to establish a Venus Exploration Analysis 
Group (VEXAG). While this group will build on a nucleus of US 
scientists involved in the ESA's Venus Express mission, it is 
intended to represent the full range of scientific interest in the 
study or our sister planet.

As NASA moves to redefine itself in light of the President's Vision 
for Exploration, strategic roadmaps are being developed for 
exploration and scientific investigations throughout the solar 
system. We feel that it is imperative that the Venus community has a 
voice as these roadmapping exercises continue to define mission 
priorities for the coming decades. VEXAG is intended to fill this 
role of assisting NASA in its planning and to represent the wishes of 
the community in much the same way as MEPAG, LEAG and OPAG represent 
the Martian, Lunar and Outer Planets Communities, respectively.

If you have a wish to participate in VEXAG or simply want to stay 
informed of Venus-related activities internationally, please register 
at out new web site
<http://www.lpi.usra.edu/vexag>
While this site is now just under construction, it is intended to act 
as a locus for information on Venus activities, and as an archive for 
and connection to Venus data.

Best regards,

Steve Mackwell
Director, LPI

+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Linda French Emmons, DPS Secretary
Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Submissions should be in text format (no attachments, please).


-------------------------------------------------------

-- 

***********************************************************************
Amara Graps, PhD        
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, CNR - ARTOV, 
Via del Fosso del Cavaliere, 100, I-00133 Roma, ITALIA
tel: +39-06-4993-4375      |fax:  +39-06-4993-4383
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/dustgroup/~graps
************************************************************************
"We came whirling out of Nothingness scattering stars like dust." 
--Rumi

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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org";>leitl</a>
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