Space Studies Board

Many developments in technology—some of them extremely challenging—will be needed if the program recommended here is to be successful. Specific needs for each discipline are identified and discussed in the individual task group reports. The steering group endorses those recommendations.

This study focuses on large-scale scientific undertakings. These cannot be implemented unless a certain set of preconditions, listed below, are satisfied.

These undertakings must be built on a solid foundation of supporting research and technology. This foundation must include vigorous theoretical and ground-based laboratory studies. Scientific progress does not begin and end with the construction of flight hardware and the acquisition of data. Nor is it sufficient to confine theoretical analysis or laboratory support to preparation for specific missions or the interpretation of mission results. Theoretical and laboratory studies establish the framework in which data can be understood; they are not captives of specific missions, nor can they be started and stopped at will. Stable funding for these supporting activities will pay off handsomely.
For very similar reasons, small-scale, exploratory flight activities such as the present Explorer, Observer, Spartan, and suborbital programs must be allowed to flourish. The steering group foresees no qualitative change in the way progress is made in science. Thus, we will continue to require missions with short implementation times. These missions may be designed to answer questions of detail, exploit findings of larger projects, or attack targets of special opportunity. Furthermore, participation in space science by graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and young university faculty members requires projects that can be completed in one to three years. The steering group believes that progress in space science critically depends on the full participation of universities because that is where much of the reservoir of scientific talent resides. The university space science community functions best in a program that includes short-term, small-scale projects. Thus, in order to foster space science and to ensure the viability and participation of that community, the space science program should be structured to include such small-scale projects with ready access to space flight.
Balance in the research program must be maintained among groups at universities, industrial laboratories, and government centers in conducting space research.
The laboratories used for space research should be amply furnished with state-of-the-art equipment. Currently, the condition of equipment in most university laboratories can only be described as abysmal.
A generic requirement in most of the fields covered by this study is for detectors that are more advanced than those now available. Advanced programs for detector technology should be established and nurtured.
Computational facilities play an essential role in gathering, storing, and analyzing data. They also enable theorists to develop models and to test their models against experimental and observational data. Computer facilities in the space program must be maintained at a state-of-the-art level, with regard to both hardware and software.
As this report is being written, the nation's access to space has been severely curtailed. This situation accents the need for a sturdy, redundant system of acquiring access to space. Launch systems, delivery mechanisms, space platforms, and other such developments should never be looked upon as ends in themselves. Rather, they should be treated as tools to support well-defined objectives. The science objectives have been the subject of this report.

If the conditions set forth in this chapter are met, the steering group is confident that the nation will be prepared at the turn of the century to embark on the scientific program recommended in this report, and that the future of the national program in space will be as bright as its past. Some of the participants in this study were present when the space age in science began at White Sands 40 years ago. The program designed here, along with the achievements of the past four decades, is a legacy they leave to their children.