Nasa S Science Programs

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is one of the United States' leading federal science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) agencies and plays an important role in the landscape of STEM education. In 2015, NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) created the Science Activation (SciAct) program to increase the overall coherence of SMD's education efforts, to support more effective, sustainable, and efficient use of SMD science discoveries for education, and to enable NASA scientists and engineers to engage more effectively and efficiently in the STEM learning environment with learners of all ages. SciAct is now transitioning into its second round of funding, and it is beneficial to review the program's portfolio and identify opportunities for improvement. NASA's Science Activation Program: Achievements and Opportunities assesses SciAct's efforts towards meeting its goals. The key objectives of SciAct are to enable STEM education, improve U.S. scientific literacy, advance national education goals, and leverage efforts through partnerships. This report describes and assesses the history, current status, and vision of the program and its projects. It also provides recommendations to enhance NASA's efforts through the SciAct program.

Effective science, clearly a mandate for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), involves asking significant questions about the physical and biological world and seeking definitive answers. Its product is new knowledge that has value to the nation. NASA's flight projects are highly visible and usually the most costly elements of this process, but they are only a part of the science enterprise. Flight projects are founded on research that defines clear scientific goals and questions, designs missions to address those questions, and develops the required technologies to accomplish the missions. This research is funded primarily by NASA's research and analysis (R&A) programs. Data from flight projects are transformed into knowledge through analysis and synthesis-research that is funded both by R&A and by the data analysis (DA) portion of mission operations and data analysis (MO&DA) programs. R&A and DA programs are the subject of this report and are grouped for convenience under the heading of research and data analysis (R&DA).

NASA's space and Earth science program is composed of two principal components: spaceflight projects and mission-enabling activities. Most of the budget of NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is applied to spaceflight missions, but NASA identifies nearly one quarter of the SMD budget as "mission enabling." The principal mission-enabling activities, which traditionally encompass much of NASA's research and analysis (R&A) programs, include support for basic research, theory, modeling, and data analysis; suborbital payloads and flights and complementary ground-based programs; advanced technology development; and advanced mission and instrumentation concept studies. While the R&A program is essential to the development and support of NASA's diverse set of space and Earth science missions, defining and articulating an appropriate scale for mission-enabling activities have posed a challenge throughout NASA's history. This volume identifies the appropriate roles for mission-enabling activities and metrics for assessing their effectiveness. Furthermore, the book evaluates 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. Collectively, these efforts will help SMD to make a good program even better.

The federal role in precollege science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education is receiving increasing attention in light of the need to support public understanding of science and to develop a strong scientific and technical workforce in a competitive global economy. Federal science agencies, such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), are being looked to as a resource for enhancing precollege STEM education and bringing more young people to scientific and technical careers. For NASA and other federal science agencies, concerns about workforce and public understanding of science also have an immediate local dimension. The agency faces an aerospace workforce skewed toward those close to retirement and job recruitment competition for those with science and engineering degrees. In addition, public support for the agency's missions stems in part from public understanding of the importance of the agency's contributions in science, engineering, and space exploration. In the NASA authorization act of 2005 (P.L. 109-555 Subtitle B-Education, Sec. 614) Congress directed the agency to support a review and evaluation of its precollege education program to be carried out by the National Research Council (NRC). NASA's Elementary and Secondary Education Program: Review and Critique includes recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the program and addresses these four tasks: 1. an evaluation of the effectiveness of the overall program in meeting its defined goals and objectives; 2. an assessment of the quality and educational effectiveness of the major components of the program, including an evaluation of the adequacy of assessment metrics and data collection requirements available for determining the effectiveness of individual projects; 3. an evaluation of the funding priorities in the program, including a review of the funding level and trend for each major component of the program and an assessment of whether the resources made available are consistent with meeting identified goals and priorities; and 4. a determination of the extent and effectiveness of coordination and collaboration between NASA and other federal agencies that sponsor science, technology, and mathematics education activities.

Great achievements by NASA and other space agencies have shown us what opportunities lie in the opening of the space frontier. A broad and vigorous science program in NASA is vital to full U.S. exploitation of these new opportunities. Today, science in NASA Centers is characterized by its breadth, relevance, and excellence. The NASA in-house science program and its links to university programs constitute a vitally important national resource. Maintaining excellence as a foundation for the future is a fundamental responsibility of NASA, one that requires constant attention and effort. This report by the NASA Center Science Assessment Team documents the current state of science within NASA and recommends actions to maintain a healthy program. NASA scientists have always played key roles in planning, guiding, and conducting national programs in space science. The review of Center science programs is intended to ensure that both NASA and the nation can depend on their continuing contribution in these roles. Unspecified Center...