13 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Excerpts from The Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan: Origins, Evolution, and Destiny of the Cosmos and Life

Originally published in 1997; reprinted from Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program, Volume V: Exploring the Cosmos, published in 2001; also available at NASA (Web site)

On August 7, 1996, the U.S. space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, made an historic announcement: Scientists from the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and from Stanford University in California had found evidence of life on the planet Mars. They made this discovery after analyzing a meteorite (the solid part of a meteor that makes it through the atmosphere to strike Earth's surface) that NASA scientists had found in Antarctica and taken to Houston in 1984. The meteorite had broken away from Mars fifteen million years ago after a comet or an asteroid struck the planet. Traveling through space for millions of years, the meteorite entered Earth's atmosphere and landed at Antarctica about thirteen thousand years ago. At first scientists thought the meteorite had come from the Moon. In 1993, after analyzing its chemical composition, they determined that it had originated on Mars.

Upon further examination, the NASA and Stanford scientists found that the meteorite contained microscopic evidence of living matter: carbonate globules (small spheres of a form of carbonic acid, a weak, unstable acid present in solutions of

carbon dioxide in water), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs; a group of more than one hundred chemicals formed during the incomplete burning of organic [derived from living things] substances), magnetite globules (small, naturally magnetic spheres of the mineral iron oxide), and microscopic fossil-like structures. Carbonates are found in both living and non-living forms on Earth. But living matter is produced when a carbonate is combined with bacteria. Since the PAHs, magnetite, and fossil-like structures in the meteorite appear to have been created by ancient bacteria, scientists concluded that life may have existed on Mars. Similar evidence had been found in the 1970s, when NASA had sent Viking landers to Mars. (A lander is a spacecraft designed to land on a celestial body.) The landers carried experiments that tested the planet's soil for organic matter, but the results were inconclusive. One experiment detected no organic matter, while another found positive evidence. Scientists had been debating the issue of life on Mars ever since the Viking excursions. Yet the debate continued, even after the discovery of organic materials in the meteorite.

In conjunction with the NASA announcement in 1996, President Bill Clinton (1946–; served 1993–2000) called for continued exploration of Mars. As reported in an online MarsNews.com article, the president said, "I am determined that the American space program will put its full intellectual power and technological prowess behind the search for further evidence of life on Mars." The Office of Space Science (OSS), which designs and administers NASA's scientific missions, had begun working on a long-range plan, called "The Origins Initiative," earlier that year. The Origins Initiative included new space science missions as well as the continuation of existing programs.

In preparing the plan, scientists, engineers, educators, and communications specialists developed "Roadmaps" for the four areas within the OSS—Structure and Evolution of the Universe, Astronomical Search for Origins, Solar System Exploration, and Sun-Earth Connection. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) had also compiled reports on these topics. The Roadmaps and the NAS reports were used in an NAS workshop and a symposium chaired by Vice President Al Gore (1948–). President Clinton then made a request to Congress for funding of the Origins Initiative, which would lead to the launch of about three times more space science missions from 2000 through 2004 than had been launched from 1990 through 1994. The Origins Initiative plan, officially titled The Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan: Origins, Evolution, and Destiny of the Cosmos and Life, was published in November 1997.

Things to remember while reading excerpts from The Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan: Origins, Evolution, and Destiny of the Cosmos and Life:

• A goal statement for the Origins Initiative appears in the opening section of The Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan: "[The Origins Initiative is] aimed at following the 15-billion year chain of events from the birth of the Universe at the Big Bang; through the formation of the chemical elements, galaxies, stars, and planets; through the mixing of chemicals and energy that cradled life of Earth; to the earliest self-replicating [producing a copy of oneself] organisms and the profusion of life."
• The excerpts from The Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan focus on scientific and educational objectives. The document also includes details about goals, procedures, schedules, and funding, which are not reprinted here.
• The plan includes missions for 2000 through 2004, or three to seven years in the future. At the time it was unusual for NASA to look ahead more than five years. The OSS director, Wesley Huntress (1942–), told a Physics Today magazine reporter that NASA was taking a new approach "so we can see where our near-term missions are leading us."

Excerpts from The Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan: Origins, Evolution, and Destiny of the Cosmos and Life

A. Introduction: We humans are players in the greatest drama of all, the story of cosmic Origins, Evolution, and Destiny. Now, for the first time, we truly have the opportunity to seek scientific answers to questions as old as humanity itself:

• How did the Universe begin? How did life on Earth arise?
• What fate awaits our planet and our species?

We have begun to assemble answers to these grand questions using remarkable new tools on Earth and in space. But, more importantly, our understanding is growing through the intellect and imagination of men and women who look up and wonder, who devise new means of gathering information that lead to the formulation and testing of theories to explain what it all means. This is a Golden Age of discovery as exciting and significant as the time when humans turned their first telescopes to the heavens.

In the past few years, we have seen faint folds in the fabric of the Universe, the most ancient ancestors of all the galaxies, stars,

From the Big Bang to Biology

Some 15 billion years ago, matter itself came into being in the aftermath of the Big Bang, the event when space and time began. Mysterious forces sculpted the formless sea of particles, leading first to structure in the Universe and then giving birth to galaxies and stars. Some massive stars lived short lives of violent intensity and died in colossal supernova explosions. Theirdeath throes scattered heavy elements produced in their interiors intointerstellar space. Our home planet condensed from a cloud enriched with iron andsilicon. Our lifeblood and the tools of our civilization are made of elements forged in supernovas long ago.

The early years of Earth were scenes of incredible violence as comets,asteroids, and eruptionstilled the cooling surface and built and blew away oceans and atmosphere. But within just a few hundred million years the first living organisms emerged: Life, it seems, is remarkably hardy and its origin on Earth seems to have occurred surprisingly quickly. In the nearly 4 billion years since, life on our planet has made its home in astonishingly extreme environments and diverse places, habitable so long as there is even a trace of water and usable energy.

And, so we humans, made of star-stuff, descendants of one common ancestor, cousins to all life on Earth, children of ages of evolution and adaptation—now equipped with tools of glass and metal and plastic and silicon to extend our sense beyond our ordinary grasp—are able to look out at the Universe around us and know our solar neighborhood, our intimate relationship to galaxies and stars, and our deep connection to the cosmos.

and planets that surround us. We have used telescopes on the ground and in space to discover disks of gas and dust surrounding young stars—nurseries of potential worlds—and to discern evidence for giant planets orbiting nearby stars. We have found living creatures in extreme environments previously not thought capable of sustaining life—the dark depths of Earth's oceans and the dry valleys of the Antarctic. We have studied meteorites from Mars, one of which shows evidence of the presence of ancient water and the chemical building blocks of life, and—possibly—tiny, fossilized microbes. Our spacecraft have returned images of what may be ice floes above a liquid water ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa, and made us wonder if life may begin on moons as well as planets. We have seen a comet collide with Jupiter and studied asuper-nova from its initial explosion to an expanding gas cloud. We have learned that Earth's climate,biosphere, and the workings of our entire technological civilization are profoundly

influenced by the behavior of our varying Sun, a star we can study close-up. We have detected giantblack holes that may be as massive as a billion suns at the center of our galaxy and in other galaxies, turning centuries of theory into fact.

We have seen bursts ofgamma rays from distant reaches of space and time, momentarily more powerful than a million galaxies. Our understanding of the Universe has been altered forever.

We have learned much, but many questions remain to be answered. How could an ordered Universe emerge from a formless beginning? Is life in our solar system unique to Earth, or might there be evidence of past or present life on other moons and planets? Can weforecast space weather by better understanding the forces that drive our Sun? In so doing, can we better protect our astronauts and the orbiting satellites on which our global communications depend? Can we develop the scientific base of information necessary to save Earth from an incoming asteroid like the one we believe ended the epoch of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago? Will a "Big Crunch" follow the Big Bang, billions of years from now, or will our Universe expand endlessly?

In the decade ahead we have the opportunity to address many of these exciting and engaging issues, developing missions to gain new answers and enrich the story. There will be twists and turns along the way, unexpected discoveries that will show us the Universe is not quite the way we thought. And there will almost certainly be difficulties. Developing new tools to extend the frontiers of the known is always challenging. But a coherent, practical, and affordable strategy is feasible…. NASA's Space Science Enterprise can provide more precise answers to fundamental questions about the formation and evolution of the Universe and how the Sun influences Earth, the history of planets and satellites in our solar system, and the occurrence of life either in our tiny region of space or in the larger neighborhood of our Galaxy….

B. Fundamental Questions … Science Objectives: Detailed Space Science planning begins with a set of Fundamental Questions. These questions—challenging and exciting to scientists and non-scientists alike andamenable to scientific progress—form the basis for our scientific program over the next several decades. To address these Fundamental Questions, the Space Science Enterprise—guided by the National Academy of Sciences, and in conjunction with the space science community—has laid out … detailed Science Objectives—scientific investigations that can be accomplished within the next 5–6 years through one or more space missions and ground-based programs….

Fundamental Questions

1. How did the Universe begin and what is its ultimate fate?
2. How do galaxies, stars, and planetary systems form and evolve?
3. What physical processes take place in extreme environments such as black holes?
4. How and where did life begin?
5. How is the evolution of life linked to planetary evolution and tocosmic phenomena?

• 6.How and why does the Sun vary and how do the Earth and other planets respond?
• 7. How might humans inhabit other worlds?…

Science Objectives

1. Observe the earliest structure in the Universe.
2. Observe the emergence of stars and galaxies in the very early Universe.
3. Observe the evolution of galaxies and theintergalactic medium.
4. Measure the amount and distribution ofdark and luminous matter in the ancient and modern Universe.
5. Test theTheory of General Relativity.
6. Identify the origin of gamma-ray bursts and high-energycosmic rays.
7. Studycompact objects and investigate howdisks andjets are formed around them.
8. Study the formation and evolution of the chemical elements and how stars evolve and interact with theinterstellar medium.
9. Measure spaceplasma processes both remotely andin situ.
10. Observe and characterize the formation of stars,protoplanetary disks, and planetary systems, and detect Neptune-size planets around other stars.
11. Measure solar variability and learn to predict its effect on Earth more accurately.
12. Study the interactions of planets with thesolar wind.
13. Characterize the history, current environment, and resources of Mars, especially the accessibility of water.
14. Determine the pre-biological history and biological potential of Mars and other bodies in the solar system.
15. Determine whether a liquid water ocean exists today onEuropa, and seek evidence of organic or biological processes.
16. Investigate the composition, evolution, and resources of the Moon, small bodies, and Pluto-like objects across the solar system.
17. Complete the inventory and characterize a sample of near-Earth objects down to l-km diameter.
18. Reconstruct the conditions on the early Earth that were required for the origin of life and determine the processes that govern its evolution.
19. Investigate the processes that underlie the diversity of solar system objects….

The NASA Strategic Plan mandates that we "involve the education community in our endeavors to inspire America's Students, create learning opportunities, enlighten inquisitive minds," and "communicate widely the content, relevancy, and excitement of NASA's missions and discoveries to inspire and to increase the understanding and the broad application of science and technology…."

To realize this potential more fully, we have developed a comprehensive, organized approach to making education at all levels and the enhanced public understanding of science integral parts of Space Science missions and research programs. We will work closely with the space science and education communities to develop a variety of

long-term partnerships between educators and space scientists and to ensure that the information, ideas, and materials emerging from the Space Science program are developed in a variety of formats useful to educators and understandable by the public….

Education and Public Outreach Objectives

1. Have a substantial education and outreach program associated with every Space Science flight mission and research program.
2. Increase the fraction of the space community directly involved in education at the pre-college level and in contributing to the broad public understanding of science.
3. Develop a presence in every state in the U.S. to serve as a focal point for encouraging and assisting scientists and educators to develop partnerships and, in so doing, contribute in a meaningful way to Space Science education and outreach.
4. Organize a comprehensive, national approach for providing information on and access to the results from the Space Science education and outreach programs.
5. Continue, and refine or enhance where appropriate, programs dedicated to the development and support of future scientists and engineers.
6. Provide new opportunities for minority universities in particular and for underserved/underutilized groups in general to compete for and participate in Space Science missions and research programs.

What happened next …

In The Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan, NASA gave top priority to missions that had already been approved and funded. Among them were the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility, the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, and the Mars Surveyor Program (now called the Mars Exploration Program; a series of NASA missions devoted to exploration of Mars).

Launched in 1990, the HST has become one of NASA's greatest accomplishments. The HST orbits Earth in outer space, taking pictures of stars, galaxies, planets, and vast regions previously unknown to humans. Since the space observatory is positioned beyond Earth's atmosphere, it receives images that are brighter and more detailed than those captured by telescopes based on land. Maintenance of the HST, however, is performed by astronaut crews who travel aboard space shuttles for service missions. In 2004, a year after the Columbia space shuttle disaster (see entry), NASA grounded its shuttle fleet. The final service mission to the HST was therefore canceled, leaving in doubt the future of the telescope, which was expected to continue operating until 2015. Supporters of the HST immediately began seeking ways to prolong the life of the largest, most successful astronomy project in history.

The Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility was sent into space in 1999. It was later renamed Chandra in honor of Indian American Noble Prize winner Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995). Positioned in Earth orbit, Chandra is a satellite observatory that detects X rays. Scientists hope to gain a better understanding of black holes, supernovas, dark matter, and the origins of life through analysis of X rays found by Chandra.

The Cassini-Huygens mission was launched in 1997. It is being conducted by the Huygens probe supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA), which is onboard the NASA spacecraft Cassini. The probe carries a robotic laboratory that it will use to observe the clouds, atmosphere, and surface of Saturn and its moon, Titan. After traveling billions of miles for seven years, Cassini reached Saturn in July 2004 and the Huygens probe began sending back images of the planet and its colorful rings.

The Mars Exploration Program has become one of NASA's most popular endeavors. Initiated in 1964 to explore Mars, the mission began with flybys by Mariner spacecraft to take pictures of the Red Planet. In the early 1970s NASA put spacecraft in orbit around Mars to conduct longer-term studies, and by the mid-1970s landers had been placed on the surface of Mars. In 1997 the Mars rover Pathfinder was the first vehicle to move around on the planet. Six years later NASA deployed two technologically advanced rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which were capable of traveling longer distances. In 2004 the rovers sent back pictures of craters, hills, and empty landscape, and they collected soil samples that may enable scientists to determine the existence of life on Mars.

NASA offers a variety of education programs for students and teachers around the country. In conjunction with its educational mission, the agency produces books, films, videos, DVDs, television and radio shows, and audio recordings on space science. NASA maintains numerous space science Web sites on the Internet, many of them featuring live images from outer space. The sites also provide information and activity links for students.

Did you know …

• In June 2000, the Mars Global Surveyor, an orbiter spacecraft, found evidence of water on Mars. Scientists regard this discovery as a significant step toward solving the mystery of whether life existed on the planet.
• The Chandra X-ray Observatory was instrumental in uncovering evidence that a gamma-ray burst occurred in Earth's Milky Way galaxy a few thousand years ago. A gamma-ray burst is one of the most dramatic events in the natural world.
• President George W. Bush (1946–; served 2001–; see entry) announced a major revitalization of NASA in a speech in January 2004. One of his goals was to send humans to Mars in the future.
• Since the grounding of the space shuttle fleet, scientists have been experimenting with robots that could replace humans on HST service missions.
• In 2004 NASA was operating more than thirty-five space science missions. Twenty more missions were in development, and twenty-five others were under study.

Consider the following …

• NASA operates many space science missions that are not widely publicized but yet make significant contributions to knowledge about the universe. Visit the NASA Space Science Missions Web site at http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/index.htm (accessed on August, 10, 2004). Browse the "Operating Missions" links and find a little-known mission that you think should receive more publicity. In a brief paper explain the reasons for your choice.
• Do you think it is important to determine whether life exists on Mars? Prepare a short speech in which you present your position on this subject to your science class.
• Space exploration has resulted in technology that we now take for granted, such as satellite communication, global positioning devices, the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine (device that use nuclear protons to take pictures of the interior of the body and the CAT (Computed Axial Tomography) scanner (medical device consisting of X-ray and computer equipment that produce three-dimensional images). Can you think of other examples? Make a list of items and identify the space science project or mission that created each of them.

For More Information

Books

Burrows, William E. Mission to Deep Space: Voyager's Journey of Discovery. New York: Scientific American Books for Young Readers, 1993.

Davis, Lucile. The Mars Rovers. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004.

Fischer, Daniel. Mission Jupiter: The Spectacular Journey of the Galileo Spacecraft. Translated by Don Reneau. New York: Copernicus, 2001.

Goodwin, Simon. Hubble's Universe: A Portrait of Our Cosmos. New York: Viking Penguin, 1997.

Harland, David M. Mission to Saturn: Cassini and the Huygens Probe. New York: Springer-Praxis, 2002.

Mishkin, Andrew. Sojourner: An Insider's View of the Mars Pathfinder Mission. New York: Berkeley Books, 2003.

The Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan: Origins, Evolution, and Destiny of the Cosmos and Life. In Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program.Volume V: Exploring the Cosmos. Edited by John M. Logsdon. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2001; also available at NASA.http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codez/stratplans/1996/science.html (accessed on August 9, 2004).

Periodicals

Feder, Toni. "NASA Sets Ambitious Strategic Plan for Space Science." Physics Today (September 1997): pp. 59–60.

"HST, Keck Find a Galaxy from the 'Dark Ages.'" Astronomy (May 2004): p. 30.

Web Sites

"Cassini-Huygens: Mission to Saturn and Titan." Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA.http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm (accessed on August 10, 2004).

"Chandra X-Ray Observatory News." NASA.http://chandra.nasa.gov/ (accessed on August 10, 2004).

HubbleSite.http://hubblesite.org (accessed on August 10, 2004).

"Life on Mars?" MarsNews.com.http://www.marsnews.com/focus/life/ (accessed on August 10, 2004).

"Mars Exploration Rover Mission." Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA.http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/ (accessed on August 10, 2004).

"NASA's Mars Exploration Program." Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA.http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/ (accessed on August 10, 2004).

"Space Science Missions." NASA.http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/index.htm (accessed on August 10, 2004).

Other Sources

The Big Bang. World Almanac Video, 1999.

Exploding Stars and Black Holes. PBS Home Video, 1997.

Death throes: Final moments of death.

Interstellar space: Space among the stars.

Silicon: A nonmetallic element that is the most abundant in nature after oxygen.

Asteroids: Small celestial bodies found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Tilled: Plowed.

Super-nova: The explosion of a very large star.

Biosphere: The part of the world in which life can exist.

Black holes: Hypothetical celestial objects with a gravitational field so strong that light cannot escape from it; black holes are believed to be created in the collapse of a very massive star.

Gamma rays: Photons emitted by a radioactive substance.

Amenable: Agreeable to, open to.

Cosmic phenomena: What happens in the cosmos, or universe; also used to refer to the comets, solar eclipses, and meteor showers observable in our solar system.

How and why does the Sun vary: How and why does the Sun's brightness and energy output change.

Intergalactic medium: The foglike dust and gas between galaxies.

Dark and luminous matter: Dark matter is unknown matter that may constitute as much as 99 percent of the matter in the universe. Luminous matter is the matter in the universe that can be directly observed, such as stars, gas, and dust.

Theory of General Relativity: Theory stating that measurable properties will differ depending on the relative motion of the observer.

Cosmic rays: Streams of atomic nuclei that enter Earth's atmosphere from outer space at speeds approaching that of light.

Compact objects: Compact objects form when a star dies and leaves behind an extremely compressed interior.

Disks: Seemingly flat figures of a celestial body.

Jets: Streams of material coming from or appearing to come from a celestial object.

Interstellar medium: Dust and gas between the stars in a galaxy.

Plasma: An electrically neutral, usually hot, gas containing positively charged particles and some neutral particles.

In situ: Latin for "in place"; meaning' in its orginal location.

Protoplanetary disks: Disks of matter, including dust and gas, near a star from which plants may eventually form.

Solar wind: A continuous stream of charged atomic particles that radiates from the Sun.

Europa: A large moon of Jupiter.