Science Matters
First Carl Sagan Fellowships to be announced in February
On Sept 3rd 2008 UPI international reported on the Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships in Exoplanet Exploration. The awards will be worth approximately $60,000 per year, for a period of up to three years and the selections will be announced in February.
An astounding time for planetary discoveries
For a very nice, half-page article on the search for planets, with special emphasis on the recently reported discovery of methane see An 'Astounding Time' for Planetary Discoveries by Washington Post staff writer Marc Kaufman which appeared in the post Monday, March 24, 2008 on Page A5.
The author of the article, Marc Kaufman, and Sara Seager, of MIT and CIW, were online at noon on Monday, March 24 to discuss his article about new discoveries scientists are making about far away planets, and take questions.
Space News OpEd: We Must All Hang Together
By Craig Wheeler
Posted: January 30 2008
In this thoughtful and inspiring opinion piece Craig Wheeler discusses the meaning, for the NASA science community, of Michael Griffin repeating the Ben Franklin quote: "We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately." Dr. Wheeler notes that “Ben Franklin used his startling quote more than 200 years ago to rally the early states to defend themselves. The coming years likely will see a tightening of the federal budget. This will challenge all federal agencies. Those with supportive communities that work in unison will succeed. Those with divisive communities that scramble for funds while disregarding larger issues will fail. The space science community does not want to fail. We do not want NASA to fail. To succeed, we must all hang together, or we shall certainly all hang separately.�
To read the rest of this article, follow this link: Space.com Article
"Wielding a Cost-Cutting Ax, and Often, at NASA
By WARREN E. LEARY
Published: January 1, 2008
WASHINGTON - In Washington, it almost seems radical - completing government projects at their original budgeted cost. Yet at NASA, the new director of the space science division appears to be making headway at doing just that, creating some anguish among researchers and contractors along the way.
In his eight months on the job, the director, S. Alan Stern, has turned back almost a half-dozen requests for more money from projects experiencing cost overruns, he said. That has forced mission leaders to trim parts of their projects, streamline procedures or find other sources of financing."
To read the rest of the article follow this link: NY Times Article
Alan Stern was described by Time Magazine in its list of the 100 People Who
Shape Our World as a "conductor of a symphony of current and future space
journeys" to diverse destinations, and they describe the Science Mission
Directorate as a jewel. To find out more about how Dr. Stern is polishing
the jewel in NASA's crown follow the link to the full article:
Issues
The Science Mission Directorate realizes the need for ongoing and open communication with the science community. An email address was set up for that purpose the second week SARA was on the job, and nearly 500 messages have been received in the first five months. Additionally, the development of this website and frequent SARA site visits will further facilitate communication with the community. Based on your input, and conversations with the community during site visits, the following critical areas have made it to SARA's Top Five list.
- Communication to and from SMD
- Financial Processes including Grant/Contract Funding and Reporting
- Proposal Reviews (including panel fairness practices and processes)
- Research and Data Analysis Program Balance
- Civil Servant Science Workforce (Support and Strategic Use Of)
Following is an elaboration of each of the 5 focus areas:
1. Based on input already received by the Scientific Community, it has become apparent that one of the overarching areas needing improvement is communication between-both within SMD and with the Scientific Community regarding SMD scientific direction and process change. In the spirit of transparency, SMD intends to communicate freely and often regarding all issues that are open to public discussion. This will be accomplished in a variety of ways, including: recognizing the importance increasing the number of SARA (SMD) talks at science conferences; making SMD Reviews open to non-NASA partners when appropriate; conducting SMD site visits to universities, NASA field centers, and affiliates; and through input to professional society news letters and this website. View a schedule of SARA public speaking events.
2. We are assessing obstacles in the financial flow to determine how to simplify and facilitate the process of funding scientists. Improvements are being made which will reduce or eliminate bottlenecks that currently slow the funding flow. Predictable and dependable financial flow assures the timeliness of meeting science milestones, removing both frustration and inefficiency from the system.
3. The time it takes to receive word on proposal selection status will be reduced through process improvements within SMD. Program Officers have agreed to notify all proposers of their selection category status within 8 weeks of the date a panel meets. Knowing that your proposal was either definitely selected or not selected will help you plan your scientific life. Program Officers can fund those in the remaining "selectable" category up to the level of funding available. Another step that delays this process is the formulation of the panel itself. You can help by agreeing to serve when called upon.
4. One metric of the community's ability to help NASA achieve its science goals, is the percentage of proposals funded. Currently, some of the R&A programs within SMD have a very high proposal submittal to win ratio, implying that NASA is unable to benefit from a number of good ideas. As a general goal, we would like to increase our program accessibility to scientists with good ideas for achieving our goals. To do this requires more than simply improving the efficiency of our system. To increase scientist participation in strategic areas, SMD will need either increased overall R&A funding or a rescoping of the program to emphasize fewer strategic areas. In the near future, SMD will engage the community in discussions on various aspects of the R&A portfolio and the alignment of the program with Decadal Survey recommendations.
5. NASA's move to full cost accounting has placed in jeopardy some of the in-house enabling capabilities historically supplied by NASA centers. SMD is beginning a bottom-up evaluation of core capabilities needed to pursue community objectives. We need your help in identifying and prioritizing capabilities that have the most value for the Nation's science objectives. We'll begin catalyzing such discussions in subsequent newsletters