Board on Physics and Astronomy

In response to a request from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Energy, the Space Studies Board and the Board on Physics and Astronomy have organized an assessment of the NASA Beyond Einstein Program. The assessment will be carried out by an NRC committee whose charge and membership are outlined below. The committee will conduct a series of meetings at which it will hear briefings on the relevant science and the projects. Most of the meetings will be open to the public. In addition, the committee will organize a series of regional town hall meetings to provide an opportunity for committee members to brief the community on the progress of the study and to receive the community’s views on the issues before the committee. These meetings and their agendas will be listed below as they are scheduled.

The National Research Council's upcoming report "NASA's Beyond Einstein Program: An Architecture for Implementation" has been released to the public in pre-publication form on Wednesday, September 5th at 4 pm EDT via the National Academies Press website.

The committee held a public briefing on Thursday, September 6th, at the Keck Center of the National Academies, Room 100 (500 5th Street, NW, Washingon DC). The public briefing was also webcast in an audio-only format. The public briefing included time for the co-chairs of the committee and attending committee members to take questions from the public, both in person and via the webcast.

1. Assess the five proposed Beyond Einstein missions (Constellation-X, Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, Joint Dark Energy Mission, Inflation Probe, and Black Hole Finder probe) and recommend which of these five should be developed and launched first, using a funding wedge that is expected to begin in FY 2009. The criteria for these assessments include:

a. Potential scientific impact within the context of other existing and planned space-based and ground-based missions; and

b. Realism of preliminary technology and management plans, and cost estimates.

2. Assess the Beyond Einstein missions sufficiently so that they can act as input for any future decisions by NASA or the next Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey on the ordering of the remaining missions. This second task element will assist NASA in its investment strategy for future technology development within the Beyond Einstein Program prior to the results of the Decadal Survey.


Committee and Staff Members
Committee Membership	Charles F. Kennel, co-chair, Scripps Institution of Oceanography Joseph H. Rothenberg, co-chair, Universal Space Network Eric G. Adelberger, University of Washington Bill Adkins, Adkins Strategies, LLC Thomas Appelquist, Yale University David A. Bearden, The Aerospace Corporation James S. Barrowman, Independent Consultant Mark Devlin, University of Pennsylvania Joseph Fuller, Jr., Futron Corporation Karl Gebhardt, University of Texas William C. Gibson, Southwest Research Institute Fiona A. Harrison, California Institute of Technology Andrew Lankford, University of California, Irvine Dennis McCarthy, Swales Aerospace Institute, ret. Stephan S. Meyer, The University of Chicago Joel R. Primack, University of California Lisa Randall, Harvard University James S. Ulvestad, National Radio Astronomy Observatory Clifford M. Will, Washington University Michael S. Witherell, University of California, Santa Barbara Edward L. Wright, University of California Los Angeles
NRC Staff	Donald C. Shapero, Director, BPA Marcia Smith, Director, SSB Pamela Whitney, Senior Program Officer Brian D. Dewhurst, Senior Program Associate Carmela Chamberlain, Program Associate David B. Lang, Research Associate
	To view biographies of committee members, visit this site.

See the Space Studies Board Web site for information regarding upcoming committee meetings and Town Hall meetings.

• SSB’s Beyond Einstein Program Assessment Committee website

• Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium

• Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos: Eleven Science Questions for the New Century

• Beyond Einstein: From the Big Bang to Black Holes

• A 21st Century Frontier for Discovery: The Physics of the Universe

To send comments or suggestions to the committee, please send e-mail to beyondeinstein@nas.edu.

The committee is pleased to acknowledge support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Energy.