The following outline is provided as an overview and topical guide to space science:
The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately 6.5 miles (10.5 km) northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC employs about 10,000 civil servants and contractors. Named for American rocket propulsion pioneer Robert H. Goddard, it is one of ten major NASA field centers. GSFC is partially within the former Goddard census-designated place; it has a Greenbelt mailing address.
Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that specializes in the study of the Sun. It intersects with many disciplines of pure physics and astrophysics.
STEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched in 2006 into orbits around the Sun that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth. This enabled stereoscopic imaging of the Sun and solar phenomena, such as coronal mass ejections.
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a NASA mission which has been observing the Sun since 2010. Launched on 11 February 2010, the observatory is part of the Living With a Star (LWS) program.
Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission began in February 2007 as a constellation of five NASA satellites to study energy releases from Earth's magnetosphere known as substorms, magnetic phenomena that intensify auroras near Earth's poles. The name of the mission is an acronym alluding to the Titan Themis.
Heliophysics is the physics of the Sun and its connection with the Solar System. NASA defines heliophysics as "(1) the comprehensive new term for the science of the Sun - Solar System Connection, (2) the exploration, discovery, and understanding of Earth's space environment, and (3) the system science that unites all of the linked phenomena in the region of the cosmos influenced by a star like our Sun."
The Van Allen Probes, formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), were two robotic spacecraft that were used to study the Van Allen radiation belts that surround Earth. NASA conducted the Van Allen Probes mission as part of the Living With a Star program. Understanding the radiation belt environment and its variability has practical applications in the areas of spacecraft operations, spacecraft system design, mission planning and astronaut safety. The probes were launched on 30 August 2012 and operated for seven years. Both spacecraft were deactivated in 2019 when they ran out of fuel. They are expected to deorbit during the 2030s.
The Solar Sentinels was a series of proposed space missions to the Sun. Solar Sentinels was proposed in 2006 in conjunction with other Sun missions, and another simpler proposal was submitted in 2008.
The Parker Solar Probe is a NASA space probe launched in 2018 to make observations of the Sun's outer corona.
Madhulika (Lika) Guhathakurta is an Indian-American astrophysicist and scientist with NASA's Heliophysics Science Division. She was the lead program scientist for NASA's Living With a Star initiative and serves as program scientist on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), Van Allen Probes, and Solar TErrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) missions. Lika was previously the program scientist on SPARTAN-201, a free-flying science instrument platform designed to study velocity and acceleration of the solar wind and observe the Sun's corona. These missions were conducted as part of the larger STS-56, STS-69, STS-77, STS-87, and STS-95 mission objectives. She has worked as an educator, scientist, mission designer, directed and managed science programs, and has built instruments for spacecraft. Dr. Guhathakurta is known for her work in heliophysics where she has authored over 100 publications on the subject. She served as the NASA Lead Scientist for the North American Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017.
Global Geospace science program (GGS) is designed to improve greatly the understanding the flow of energy, mass and momentum in the solar-terrestrial environment with particular emphasis on geospace. GGS has primary scientific objective of its own:
The Heliophysics Science Division of the Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA) conducts research on the Sun, its extended Solar System environment, and interactions of Earth, other planets, small bodies, and interstellar gas with the heliosphere. Division research also encompasses geospace—Earth's uppermost atmosphere, the ionosphere, and the magnetosphere—and the changing environmental conditions throughout the coupled heliosphere.
Richard R. Fisher is an American astrophysicist who worked in academia and at NASA. He retired in 2012.
The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) is a heliophysics mission that will simultaneously investigate two important and coupled science topics in the heliosphere: the acceleration of energetic particles and interaction of the solar wind with the local interstellar medium. These science topics are coupled because particles accelerated in the inner heliosphere play crucial roles in the outer heliospheric interaction. In 2018, NASA selected a team led by David J. McComas of Princeton University to implement the mission, which is currently scheduled to launch no earlier than September 2025. IMAP will be a Sun-tracking spin-stabilized satellite in orbit about the Sun–Earth L1 Lagrange point with a science payload of ten instruments. IMAP will also continuously broadcast real-time in-situ data that can be used for space weather prediction.
NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes program (STP) is a series of missions focused on studying the Sun-Earth system. It is part of NASA's Heliophysics Science Division within the Science Mission Directorate.
Nicola Justine Fox is the Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Appointed to the position in February 2023, she is therefore NASA's head of science.
Solar Cruiser was a planned NASA spacecraft that would have studied the Sun while propelled by a solar sail. The mission would have supported NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes program by studying how interplanetary space changes in response to the constant outpouring of energy and particles from the Sun and how it interacts with planetary atmospheres. It was expected to launch as a rideshare payload alongside IMAP in February 2025. However, the spacecraft was not selected for further development and project closeout efforts concluded in 2023.
The Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey is a publication of the National Research Council produced for NASA, as well as other US government agencies such as NOAA and the National Science Foundation. It is produced with the purpose of identifying a recommended scientific strategy in the field of heliophysics for the following decade. Agencies such as NASA utilize the decadal survey in order to prioritize funding for specific missions or scientific research projects.
