UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

Although it is possible that NASA's Earth Science program "might get somewhat smaller in the new administration, it is not at all obvious to me that is going to happen," said Michael Freilich, NASA Earth Science Division director. "I am actually optimistic the benefits will be recognized as they have in the past."

"You have earned tremendous credibility from your work over the years," Freilich said through a two-way internet link that allowed him to interact with people at the town hall from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, where he was awaiting the launch of NASA's Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System. "You earned that credibility by being good scientists, by being logical, attacking problems and letting the data speak for themselves. We don't do policy in NASA. We provide the information for all the policymakers to draw their own conclusions."

Even if NASA's Earth science program shrinks, scientists should focus diligently on their work instead of "spending time pining for what could have been," Freilich said.

Zurbuchen also emphasized the importance of producing high-quality research. "Let's behave like scientists and deal with absolute ethics with our science," he said. "At the end, history will judge us by whether we did the right thing."

Funding for NASA's Earth science program has traditionally waxed and waned with changing administrations. Funding as a percent of NASA's overall budget declined sharply from 2001 to 2006, the early years of the George W. Bush presidency, dipping from about 11 percent of NASA's budget to six percent. It was not until NASA's first Earth science decadal survey published in January 2007 declared that the space agency's Earth-observing satellite system "was in danger of collapsing" that funding began to rise, Freilich said.

Since 2007, NASA's Earth science budget has climbed back up to comprise about 10 percent of the agency's budget, nearly $1.93 billion in 2016. With the money appropriated since 2007, NASA has "truly revitalized our space-based Earth-observation system," Freilich said.

NASA has 19 major Earth science missions flying on satellites and instruments mounted on the International Space Station. The space agency plans to launch about 20 Earth science missions between late 2016 to 2023, including small satellites, cubesats and space station instruments. "We will continue launching several missions per year on average," Freilich said. [50 Years of Presidential Visions for Space Exploration]

No Ordinary Time

NASA's Earth Science Division also is working with other U.S. government agencies to identify Earth-observation data they are interested in acquiring in 2017 through a new program, Interagency Satellite Needs-Collection Process, led by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

"We have embraced that process," Freilich said, noting that agencies have submitted requests for 77 data products that NASA might be able to obtain from Earth-observation satellites. "Perhaps subtle changes to our programs could address the needs of other federal agencies," Freilich said. "In a time of transition, demonstrating that we do support other agencies is of paramount importance."

That type of comment was a clear indication that this was no ordinary town hall, which traditionally is a relatively well-attended meeting of scientists keeping tabs on NASA's Earth science portfolio. This year, many scientists claimed seats in the meeting room before the previous session ended. By the time Freilich began to speak, every seat was filled and latecomers lined the walls. [In Photos: NASA's 16 Best Earth Photos from Space by Astronauts]

Scientists in the room clearly recognize their work could be affected by the incoming administration, which includes cabinet nominees skeptical of climate change and a space policy adviser, Robert Walker, former chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee, who has publicly questioned the value of NASA's Earth science work.

While NASA officials did not mention any names or specific threats to the future of the agency's Earth science program, Zurbuchen preached unity. "United communities are a lot harder to beat," he said Dec. 13, during NASA's Planetary Science Town Hall. "Lets stick together and stick up for each other. Together our narrative is a lot stronger than any small narrative any one of us could come up with in a small segment of the community."

Since it is not clear how NASA programs will fare in the coming years, it is natural for scientists to feel worried, Zurbuchen said. Nevertheless, he is operating under the assumption that "when everything is said and done, we will have a community that does Earth science."

"Earth is a planet that is worthy of scientific investigation and discovery," Zurbuchen said. "The research not only teach us about nature, but it also affects our lives directly on a daily timescale, a yearly timescale or beyond."

NASA's Earth science research also ties in with much of the agency's other work. "When we are thinking about other planets or the early solar system, the Earth is an important part," Zurbuchen said. "The instruments that we are flying elsewhere were invented to look at the Earth first."

Instead of speaking in general terms about the benefits of NASA's Earth science program, Zurbuchen told scientists to point to concrete contributions of their work. On Nov. 29, for example, Louisiana experienced severe thunderstorms and tornadoes while wildfires broke out in Tennessee. Space-based sensors developed by NASA helped firefighters battle the Tennessee blazes and assisted forecasters in Louisiana.

Pointing to that type of vivid example helps people understand the value of Earth science instruments such as the the Geostationary Lightning Mapper developed by NASA and flying on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R. "That instrument is on that GOES-R spacecraft because NASA invests in these kinds of instruments and matures them until the day when they change our lives," Zurbuchen said.

Zurbuchen told SpaceNews that his emphasis on making NASA's scientific work concrete is not a reaction to the changing presidential administration, but rather a reflection of his background.

Before becoming NASA's associate administrator for science, Zurbuchen was a scientist whose research focused largely on solar and heliospheric physics. As a professor at the University of Michigan, he also established the Center for Entrepreneurship in the College of Engineering.

Entrepreneurs focus on solving a problem for a community in a way that changes lives, Zurbuchen said. When he looks at NASA programs, Zurbuchen said he wants to see the data showing how the agency's work is solving programs for farmers or helping other groups.

"That's how I look at the world," he said.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.

IN BRIEF

Most enthusiasm in exoplanet searches is reserved for so-called "Earth-like" planets —approximately Earth-sized worlds within their star's habitable zone.
But speculation about the life-bearing potential of some of the icy moons of the outer planets may help broaden this narrow, provincial outlook; and proposed missions to Jupiter's moon Europa aim to answer the question of whether there might be life beneath its icy mantle.

DEFINING THE HABITABLE ZONE

It’s one of the most pressing questions in science: is there alien life somewhere out there within the great wide demesnes of the universe—beyond the homely, terrestrial sort that we’re all familiar with?

We’re still searching for the answer, but it seems that each day brings word of some new exoplanetary discovery that may at last resolve the issue—our technology has evolved to the point where we can now detect Earth-sized (note the distinction between “Earth-sized” and “Earth-like”) exoplanets residing in the habitable zones of their parent stars.

But are we restricting ourselves—unnecessarily—with the fetters of a geocentric prejudice? The circumstellar habitable zone (HZ) merely represents that part of a planetary system where temperatures are conducive to the existence of liquid water—in other words, precisely where the Earth currently resides in the Solar System. Certainly, with everything being equal, a planet with these conditions in a star’s HZ would be habitable to terrestrial life as we know it—but whoever said that’s all we’re looking for? Furthermore, we know that the HZ isn’t static in time; as a main sequence star evolves, its temperature increases, and the zone of habitability sweeps further outward—which is something to consider for highly-evolved, red giant stars, as a recent study has shown.

The Sun’s habitable zone, as it is today (top); the habitable zone as it will be in about 7 billion years (bottom).

Credit: Wendy Kenigsberg/Cornell University

Putting aside the question of completely alien life, founded upon chemical organizations radically unlike anything we know, it’s not even clear that terrestrial-type life could only evolve upon an Earth-like planet within its star’s HZ. That’s where studying the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn becomes important.

Ever since the Voyager probes winged their way galaxy-ward, there’s been a great deal of speculation that Jupiter’s second moon, Europa, might harbor a warm, liquid ocean beneath its piebald shell of red-and-white ice; recent observations with the Hubble Space Telescope even suggest some of that water is escaping into space, in the form of geysers—akin to what we see on Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

THE ICE-COVERED OCEAN

The existence of such an ocean on Europa is attributable to the intricate celestial mechanics of the Galilean Moons; this remarkable dance—choreographed across billions of years between Io, Ganymede, Europa and the prodigious mass of Jupiter—has squeezed and warmed Europa’s mysterious innards through the action of tidal flexure. It’s a bit like what’s happened to twisted, volcanic little Io—only with a far happier and less Dantean result.

Now, it doesn’t necessarily follow that a motley assortment of marine monsters has evolved in Europa’s putative subglacial world-ocean—though we all prefer to believe that’s exactly the case. But there’s certainly reason enough to be hopeful.

Europa, the mysterious moon of Jupiter. Is there alien life lurking beneath all of that ice?

(Credit: NASA)

Life on Earth, for instance, needs water and a source of energy—the Sun, in most cases. But it’s also true that certain organisms, particularly in the deep oceans, derive their energy from purely non-solar sources; it’s even possible that the earliest life on Earth was of just such a type, at a time when the Sun’s radiation was far weaker than it is today.

A recent study has shown that an exothermic chemical reaction known as “serpentinization,” whereby saltwater reacts with rocky minerals to produce heat and hydrogen, may be as common on Europa as in terrestrial oceans. Furthermore, the blistering radiation of Jupiter may be enough to separate oxygen atoms from water molecules in the moon’s icy mantle, with the oxygen then cycling deep into the interior. If correct, it means all the ingredients for a thriving ecosystem are theoretically in place; all that’s needed is the spark of life—unfortunately, ascertaining the likelihood of that happening is beyond our statistical models.

But plans are already afoot to loft a space probe toward distant Europa, this time equipped with a chemical tongue so the probe can pass through any water ice geysers the moon is discharging and “taste” the composition of its inner ocean.

“Observations of Europa have provided us with tantalizing clues over the last two decades, and the time has come to seek answers to one of humanity’s most profound questions,” says John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

Regardless of what the probe discovers, it’s about time we start expanding our definition of what the “habitable zone” really means—in our own Solar System, as in the myriad exoplanetary systems swimming daily within our ken.