Jan 15 2007
From The Space Library
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released a study conducted over two years, examining the United States’ Earth-observing satellite missions. The study, Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond, was the first 10-year plan to recommend a path forward that would restore U.S. leadership in Earth science and prevent the collapse of the U.S. system of Earth- science satellites. The report recommended that, to accomplish this goal and to rebuild the aging network of environmental spacecraft, the U.S. government should fund 17 Earth-observing-satellite missions between 2010 and 2020. To fund these missions, NASA would need to resume spending US$2 billion per year on Earth science, and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would need to maintain funding levels at US$1 billion each year. According to the report, NASA’s budget for Earth science had decreased 30 percent since 2000, while NOAA had experienced major cost overruns and schedule delays in its primary mission to study weather and climate. Without reinvestment, the number of NASA’s satellites monitoring the Earth’s climate could decrease by 2017 from 25 to 7, leaving the United States without scientific information to analyze severe storms and to determine changes in the Earth’s climate.
Brian Berger, “Report Urges Reinvestment in U.S. Earth Science Satellites,” Space.com, 16 January 2007, http://www.space.com/aol/businessmonday_070122.html (accessed 4 March 2010); Marc Kaufman, “Cutbacks Impede Climate Studies,” Washington Post, 16 January 2007; National Research Council, Space Studies Board and Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2007), http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11820#toc (accessed 5 November 2009).
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