4
Workshops, Symposia, and Other Special Projects

In 2019, the Space Studies Board (SSB) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held two forums, completed work on the publication from one workshop, and began the planning process for two more workshops. These activities do not result in recommendations.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT OF NASA’S INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM

In late 2018, the Workshop on the Continuous Improvement of NASA’s Innovation Ecosystem was held in Washington, DC. The workshop was requested by the NASA Office of the Chief Technologist with the goal of identifying actionable and implementable initiatives that could build on NASA’s current innovation culture to reach a future state that will ensure the agency’s continued success in the evolving aerospace environment. The prepublication version of the committee’s report, Continuous Improvement of NASA’s Innovation Ecosystem: Proceedings of a Workshop, which summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop, was delivered to NASA on July 16, 2019, and publicly released the following week. The final report was released at the end of October. This workshop was done in collaboration with the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board. The summary from this publication can be found in Chapter 5.

Membership

Daniel L. Dumbacher, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (chair)

Steven J. Battel, NAE, Battel Engineering, Inc., and University of Michigan

Martin J. Curran, Corning, Inc.

Janice Fraser, Bionic Solution

Linda A. Hill, Harvard Business School

Fred Kennedy, III, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Anne S. Miner, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Mona M. Vernon, Thomas Reuters Labs

Daniel B. Ward, Dan Ward Consulting, LLC

Staff

Sandra J. Graham, Senior Program Officer

Sarah Brothers, Associate Program Officer (through August 2019)

Dionna Wise, Program Coordinator

SCIENCE OPPORTUNITIES ENABLED BY GATEWAY: A WORKSHOP

NASA requested that SSB form an planning committee to plan a workshop on “Science Opportunities Enabled by Gateway,” facilitating an expert dialog on issues related to the science that can be supported by NASA’s planned Gateway platform.

Membership was approved for the planning committee, and a meeting was held on June 10-11, 2019, in Washington, DC. The committee heard talks from Jacob Bleacher and Ben Bussey of NASA on the current Gateway plan and design, and the results of the NASA 2018 Gateway workshop. The majority of the meeting was devoted to understanding issues affecting Gateway, determining the key questions and major focus areas that should be included the workshop, and developing a structure for the workshop. The committee worked closely with Michael New and Steve Clark of NASA SMD as it considered these issues during the meeting. After considering the various conflicting meetings at NASA and in the community, a date of November 4-5, 2019, in Irvine, California, was set for the workshop.

However, in consultation with NASA, it was agreed in August that the committee would stand down to allow for expected NASA re-planning efforts that would affect schedule and science capability plans for Gateway. NASA subsequently determined that the opportunities for science on Phase 1 Gateway would be very limited, so workshop planning activities were halted. The committee’s work is now concluded.

Membership

Harlan E. Spence, University of New Hampshire (chair)

John-David F. Bartoe, Independent Consultant

Robin M. Canup, NAS, Southwest Research Institute

Brett W. Denevi, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Robert J. Ferl, University of Florida

John M. Grunsfeld, Endless Frontier Associates, LLC

Daniel E. Hastings, NAE, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Michael Manga, NAS, University of California, Berkeley

Barbara Sherwood Lollar, University of Toronto

Erika B. Wagner, Blue Origin, LLC

Paul D. Wooster, SpaceX

Staff

Sandra J. Graham, Senior Program Officer

Gaybrielle Holbert, Program Assistant

SPACE WEATHER OPERATIONS AND RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE WORKSHOP

Following discussions with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS), NASA (Heliophysics Division), and NSF (Geospace Section), the SSB established a planning committee for the Space Weather Operations and Research Infrastructure Workshop that will consider options for continuity and future enhancements of the U.S. space weather operational and research infrastructure. The workshop will identify gaps and future needs for space weather products and services and, in response to the sponsor, NOAA, will give particular attention to the Space Weather Follow On program (SWFO) and options for future observing architectures.

Nominations for the planning committee for the “Space Weather Operations and Research Infrastructure Workshop” were completed during the fourth quarter of 2019. An in-person meeting of the planning committee is scheduled for February 27-28, 2020, in Washington, DC, with the workshop likely to occur during May to July 2020.

Membership

Mary K. Hudson, Dartmouth College (co-chair)

Janet G. Luhmann, University of California, Berkeley (co-chair)

Daniel N. Baker, NAE, University of Colorado, Boulder

Anthea J. Coster, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tamara L. Dickinson, Science Matters Consulting

Mark Gibbs, United Kingdom Meteorological Office

Janelle V. Jenniges, U.S. Air Force

Conrad C. Lautenbacher, GeoOptics, Inc.

William Murtagh, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Mark A. Olson, North American Electric Reliability Corporation

Larry J. Paxton, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

Tuija Pulkkinen, NAS, University of Michigan

Pete Riley, Predictive Services, Inc.

Ronald E. Turner, ANSER (Analytic Services Inc.)

Staff

Arthur A. Charo, Senior Program Officer

Gaybrielle Holbert, Program Assistant

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES-NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES FORUM FOR NEW LEADERS IN SPACE SCIENCE

The Forum for New Leaders in Space Science, a cooperative activity between the National Academies and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is designed to provide opportunities for a highly select group of young space scientists from China and the United States to discuss their research activities in an intimate and collegial environment. Participants in the 9th and 10th forums—focusing on planetary science and Earth observation from space—were selected by an international organizing committee in March 2019. Eight young researchers (<40 years old) based in the United States and a like number of their counterparts from Chinese institutions met twice to discuss their research at the 9th Forum in Huairou, on the northern outskirts of Beijing, on May 15-16, 2019, and the 10th Forum in Washington, DC, on October 28-29, 2019. Also participating in the meetings of the 16 young researchers are a smaller number of more senior members of the relevant U.S. and Chinese scientific communities.

New Leaders in Space Science—Ninth and Tenth Forums

Megan Ansdel, University of California, Berkeley

Hao Cao, Harvard University

Federica Coppari, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Chuanfei Dong, Princeton University

Lauren Edgar, U.S. Geological Survey

Zhenguang Huang, University of Michigan

Devin Schrader, Arizona State University

Pengfei Yu, University of Colorado

Hitesh Changel, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS

Ren Huazhong, Peking University

Cheng Jie, Beijing Normal University (9th Forum only)

He Jieying, National Space Science Center, CAS

Tang Shilin, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, CAS

Lin Wenming, Nanjing University of Information Sciences and Technology

Yang Xiaofeng, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, CAS (9th Forum only)

Liu Yang, National Space Science Center, CAS

Senior Participants—Ninth and Tenth Forum

Shi Jiancheng, Aerospace Information Research Institute, CAS

William B. McKinnon, Washington University

Steven W. Running, University of Montana

Dong Xiaolong, National Space Science Center, CAS

Lin Yangting, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS

Staff

David Smith, Senior Program Officer, SSB

Anesia Wilks, Senior Program Assistant, SSB (through May 2019)

Gaybrielle Holbert, Program Assistant, SSB (from June 2019)

Colleen N. Hartman, Director for Space and Aeronautics