SBAG Findings
Findings from SBAG 29, July 11–13, 2023
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.