The Space Studies Board will convene an ad hoc committee to examine the program elements of NASA's Planetary Science Division (PSD) Research and Analysis (R&A) programs, as they currently exist following restructuring, for their consistency with past advice from the Academies. In conducting its review, the committee will address the following questions:

1. Are the PSD R&A program elements appropriately linked to, and do they encompass the range and scope of activities needed to support the NASA Strategic Objective for Planetary Science and the Planetary Science Division Science Goals, as articulated in the 2014 NASA Science Plan?
2. Are the PSD R&A program elements appropriately structured to develop the broad base of knowledge and broad range of activities needed both to enable new spaceflight missions and to interpret and maximize the scientific return from existing missions?

In conducting its task, the committee will:

• Not examine the PSD R&A programs as they were prior to the restructuring;
• Conduct its review in the context of current budgetary realities that have differed from projections assumed prior to the release of the most recent planetary science decadal survey; and
• Not comment on the strategic science goals and objectives of PSD, SMD, or NASA.