Small Bodies Assessment Group

SBAG Findings

Findings from SBAG 29, July 11–13, 2023

1. Finding #1 (raising this finding to the PAC) – SBAG urges NASA to define an appropriate path forward for spacecraft that are delivered to storage without a launch date.
   There is currently a clear pathway for the end of active missions, however, the fate of shelved missions remains uncertain. Some missions in NASA's PSD portfolio are economical, efficient, and innovative but due to lack of launch opportunities, budgetary pressures, etc., these missions are at higher risk of being delayed or shelved. SBAG suggests that NASA recognize the resources and efforts that have already been spent on the development of the shelved missions (e.g., Janus) and encourages NASA to define a process to be used when putting flight hardware into storage that will establish the criteria for exiting storage. Following a process with clearly documented criteria will increase transparency and enable the community to help find alternative paths forward, including as international or private collaborations or redirecting the missions to other suitable targets.
2. Finding #2 (raising this finding to the PAC) – SBAG encourages NASA and NSF to request that the National Academies release Origins, Worlds, and Life (OWL): A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032 in its full form, including all figures, without further delay.
   The publicly available draft of Origins, Worlds, and Life (OWL): A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032 lacks key material, specifically figures. As a community, this document is used to justify our science, prioritize our projects, and assist NASA in maintaining a balanced programmatic portfolio for exploration and discovery. Excerpts and figures from the document are routinely shared in proposals for funding and presented to entities like Congress and various Administrators making key decisions on budgets and strategic planning. When chapters are missing large amounts of material, as the OWL currently is, the document is not nearly as strong of an argument in favor of its community backed findings and recommendations. Moving toward the future of planetary science in a properly informed manner is in everyone’s best interest. SBAG requests that the full OWL Decadal Study, including all figures and tables, must be released as soon as possible; further delay is not acceptable.
3. Finding #3 (raising this finding to the PAC) – In alignment with a top priority investigation identified in the Apophis Specific Action Team Report, SBAG encourages NASA to pursue a mission opportunity, achievable within available resources, to explore Apophis prior to its close Earth approach, whether initiating its own effort or via collaboration with foreign and domestic partners.
   The mission effort should focus on exploring the asteroid Apophis prior to its close flyby of the Earth in 2029, leveraging the natural laboratory experiment afforded by this unique and rare close approach opportunity, to complement the data to be collected by the OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft after Apophis’ close flyby of the Earth. The collected data will provide a complete investigation of this remarkable opportunity to quantify and understand in real time the consequences of planetary tides on the evolution of asteroids and glean important information on Apophis’ interior structure, which is otherwise unobtainable.
4. Finding #4 (raising this finding to the PAC) – SBAG encourages NASA to establish a viable path forward for funding New Horizons flyby operations and science if a new Kuiper Belt close flyby target is discovered.
   New Horizons has been a groundbreaking mission and has provided numerous important results for small body science, including the first flyby of a Kuiper Belt object. As a fully functional asset traversing the outer realms of our Solar System, New Horizons continues to have the potential to make discoveries in the planetary, astrophysics and heliophysics disciplines, and a pathway to study an additional Kuiper Belt close flyby target, if such an object is discovered, should be considered for the future operations of New Horizons.
5. Finding #5 – SBAG urges that future NASA budget plans continue to include a funding line sufficient to support new Planetary Defense mission activities following the launch of NEO Surveyor.
   The 2022 Planetary Decadal Survey (Origins, Worlds, and Life: A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032) recommends that NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office should be funded at adequate levels to conduct a robust program of necessary planetary defense-related activities, technologies, and demonstration missions launching on a regular cadence. In addition, the Decadal named the highest priority planetary defense demonstration mission to follow Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) and the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor: a rapid-response, flyby reconnaissance planetary defense mission targeted to a challenging NEO, representative of the population (~50-to-100 m in diameter) of objects posing the highest probability of a destructive Earth impact. The proposed NASA budget, however, indicates that the funding allocation for Planetary Defense will drop in the years following Surveyor's launch to a level that would support operations and current activities but not a new mission start. SBAG supports a new mission start for a competed rapid response planetary defense mission.
6. Finding #6 – SBAG encourages NASA and the international planetary defense community to work with the United Nations to declare 2029 the International Year of Planetary Defense.
   Planetary defense, by its potential of protecting all of humanity, needs to be an international effort. No one nation should do it alone. This is widely recognized, as documented in the United States Government planetary defense action plan, which was recently updated and released during the biennial planetary defense conference held at the United Nations facilities in Vienna, Austria. The National Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan for NEO Hazards and Planetary Defense, Goal 4, specifically calls out the need to 1) Build international awareness of potential NEO impacts as a global challenge; 2) Increase international engagement and cooperation on observation infrastructure, numerical modeling, and scientific research; and 3) Foster consultation and coordination on NEO impact planning, mitigation, and response. The near-Earth flyby of the asteroid Apophis on Friday, April 13, 2029, passing inside geosynchronous orbit, is a once in a millennium event that will be observed by millions of people in Europe and northern Africa. The flyby marks an opportunity for public outreach, education, and engagement throughout the world.
7. Finding # 7 – SBAG encourages NASA to consider ways to offer support more proactively for US participation in international small body and planetary defense missions.
   SBAG notes that the current approach of waiting for an international partner to explicitly invite US participation before NASA develops and issues a mission-specific call for Participating Scientist Program proposals, which in turn take time for the community to submit to and for NASA to review, means that a significant amount of time (~18-24 months) could elapse between an invitation for US participation being issued and when funding begins for selected US scientists to work on that mission. As an alternative, SBAG encourages NASA to explore the possibility of implementing a standing non-mission-specific funding opportunity that could be proposed to immediately upon an invitation for US participation in an international mission being formally extended. This approach would significantly shorten the time needed before funded US participation could begin for that mission and offer the community more predictability in terms of the availability of NASA support for US involvement in international missions.
8. Finding #8 – SBAG recommends that NASA continue to support programmatic balance in their portfolio as a key factor when responding to challenging budget pressures.
   The small body community emphasizes the importance of a balanced planetary science mission portfolio, including existing missions and new opportunities under the New Frontiers, Discovery, and SIMPLEx programs. Excluding any one of these opportunities may hinder the advancement of entire science communities. SBAG encourages transparency in decisions, paths forward for missions already selected, and following the recommendations in the 2022 Planetary Decadal Survey (Origins, Worlds, and Life: A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032) when faced with difficult budgetary constraints, all while continuing to stay committed to programmatic balance.
9. Finding #9 – SBAG strongly supports IRTF’s ongoing operation and maintenance, including the funding of new instruments to sustain its position as a leading facility for planetary science and infrared astronomy.
   For over four decades the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) has provided foundational scientific results in the field of planetary science, including small body science, as well as support for NASA’s planetary missions. Key small bodies results include deriving compositional information for dozens of asteroids and comets, many of which were NASA and ESA mission targets, Phobos, Deimos, Pluto, and Charon. The IRTF has also played an important role in observing unique celestial events such as the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact with Jupiter, and in mission support campaigns, including the development of accurate calibration benchmarks. The fact that IRTF is an important asset and highly capable facility was reiterated in its recent Senior Review and thus should continue to be funded and maintained.
10. Finding #10 – SBAG urges that NASA acknowledge and address the concern over providing adequate meeting services by specifying how resources will be sufficiently allocated to support these critical community services.
    Meetings form an integral part of our community’s function, making the availability and quality of meeting services a high-priority matter. Organizers and attendees at several recent meetings, supported by NASA meeting services, have raised concern over the planning, coordination, and effective management of these meetings. If a community meeting falls under NASA’s responsibilities, then adequate staffing and funding should be allocated across a reasonable timeline to suitably run an effective meeting.