Decadal Planning Team

Last updated April 09, 2021

The NASA Decadal Planning Team (DPT) and its successor, the NASA Exploration Team (NExT), were influential behind-the-scenes efforts to develop a major new direction for the space agency early in the 21st Century.

DPT was quietly chartered in spring, 1999, by then-NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, in coordination with the White House Office of Management and Budget, and led jointly by the NASA Headquarters Offices of Human Spaceflight and Space Science. It was created to generate and assess internally for NASA's most senior leadership innovative concepts and options that merged human and robotic space exploration. Specifically, the team developed options that could achieve major scientific goals over the subsequent 20 years using advanced technologies and taking advantage of the capabilities that astronauts made available on site.

Origins

Through the 1980s and 1990s, NASA was often criticized for having relatively unimpressive and uncompelling long-term plans for human spaceflight, although the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope programs were notable engineering and management achievements. At the same time, NASA's science programs – especially, the space sciences – were widely regarded as successful examples of long-range planning and execution: the robotic Mars and outer Solar System missions, as well as the space astronomy programs. As a consequence, NASA Administrator Goldin, working with Agency senior leadership, created the Decadal Planning Team of about a dozen senior scientists, engineers, astronauts, and managers from its headquarters and all its centers. The activity was led from the start by Dr. James B. Garvin and Ms. Lisa Guerra.

In contrast with numerous earlier – and subsequent – long-range planning teams that NASA chartered, the DPT avoided identifying a specific, overriding destination for human spaceflight (e.g., the Moon, Mars, asteroids, Lagrangian points). Instead, the DPT emphasized (mainly) technological ‘’capabilities’’ that would be required for humans to travel throughout the inner Solar System to achieve multiple goals. The DPT was unique in NASA’s history in advocating the concept that specific destinations were not terminal venues, but rather should be treated primarily as ‘’stepping stones’’ -- sites for limited testing and demonstration before moving on to other locations of greater interest. Such a ‘’go anywhere, anytime’’ philosophy and emphasis on a long-range commitment to enabling technologies remain controversial among many space advocates who instead urge national declarations of long-term human occupation specifically of Mars or the Moon.

In addition, the DPT adopted scientific exploration and new discoveries as the primary justification for NASA and modeled the space agency’s mission on the goals that President Thomas Jefferson established for the Lewis and Clark Expedition almost exactly two centuries earlier. As such, the DPT remains the space agency’s most ambitious strategic planning effort to combine explicitly NASA’s science programs with human spaceflight. This philosophy has remained controversial with both scientists and human spaceflight advocates.

NASA exploration team

In early 2001, DPT expanded and became the NASA Exploration Team (NExT), which also reported directly to the agency’s most senior leadership and was led by Mr. Gary Martin. NExT had the additional responsibility to turn concepts and recommendations into specific mission designs, management plans, and priority technology investment strategies. Martin's appointment as Space Architect was announced in a NASA press release on October 11, 2002.^[1]

The two teams were kept internal to the space agency and were almost unknown within NASA and by the media. This avoided likely and distracting influences from multiple external interest groups: aerospace industry, Congress, the “space press,” and academia. As such, neither DPT nor NExT were widely known, although their work presaged and significantly influenced the processes that led to President George W. Bush’s 2004 Vision for Space Exploration (VSE). The pioneering work of the DPT and NExT became more widely known when Goldin was succeeded as NASA Administrator by Sean O'Keefe in 2002. The position of Space Architect Office was then established to even further expand the work of the DPT and NExT, moving it into the mainstream of NASA programs. Mr. Martin became the first Space Architect, although the position was abolished by incoming NASA Administrator Dr. Michael D. Griffin.

Although not widely known at the time, the Decadal Planning Team, the NASA Exploration Team, and the Space Architect's office prepared NASA leadership to coordinate its participation in developing the VSE during late 2003.

Related Research Articles

Space exploration Discovery and exploration of outer space

Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. While the exploration of space is carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration though is conducted both by unmanned robotic space probes and human spaceflight. Space exploration, like its classical form astronomy, is one of the main sources for space science.

Dennis Anthony Tito is an American engineer and entrepreneur, most widely known as the first space tourist to fund his own trip into space. In mid-2001, he spent nearly eight days in orbit as a crew member of ISS EP-1, a visiting mission to the International Space Station. This mission was launched by the spacecraft Soyuz TM-32, and was landed by Soyuz TM-31.

The Constellation program is a cancelled crewed spaceflight program developed by NASA, the space agency of the United States, from 2005 to 2009. The major goals of the program were "completion of the International Space Station" and a "return to the Moon no later than 2020" with a crewed flight to the planet Mars as the ultimate goal. The program's logo reflected the three stages of the program: the Earth (ISS), the Moon, and finally Mars—while the Mars goal also found expression in the name given to the program's booster rockets: Ares. The technological aims of the program included the regaining of significant astronaut experience beyond low Earth orbit and the development of technologies necessary to enable sustained human presence on other planetary bodies.

Daniel Saul Goldin served as the 9th and longest-tenured Administrator of NASA from April 1, 1992, to November 17, 2001. He was appointed by President George H. W. Bush and also served under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Vision for Space Exploration 2004 US human space exploration plan

The Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) was a plan for space exploration announced on January 14, 2004 by President George W. Bush. It was conceived as a response to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the state of human spaceflight at NASA, and as a way to regain public enthusiasm for space exploration. It was replaced by the space policy of the Barack Obama administration in June 2010.

Michael Douglas Griffin is an American physicist and aerospace engineer who served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering from 2018 to 2020. He previously served as Administrator of NASA, the U.S. space agency, from April 13, 2005, to January 20, 2009. As NASA Administrator Griffin oversaw such areas as the future of human spaceflight, the fate of the Hubble telescope and NASA's role in understanding climate change. In April 2009 Griffin, who has an academic background, was named eminent scholar and a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

On June 3, 2004, thirteen of the United States' premier space advocacy groups, industry associations and space policy organizations teamed up to form an umbrella organization known as the Space Exploration Alliance. The primary purpose of the SEA is to support the White House's plan to refocus NASA's human space activities toward exploration beyond low Earth orbit.

A Mars Sample-Return (MSR) mission is a proposed spaceflight mission to collect rock and dust samples on Mars and then return them to Earth. Sample-return would be a very powerful type of exploration, because the analysis is freed from the time, budget, and space constraints of spacecraft sensors.

The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 is an act of the United States Congress that requires NASA to carry out a balanced set of programs in human spaceflight, in aeronautics research and development and in scientific research. It was signed by the then President George W. Bush and became Public Law 109-155 on December 30, 2005.

Outline of space exploration Overview of and topical guide to space exploration

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to space exploration:

DIRECT was a late-2000s proposed alternative super heavy lift launch vehicle architecture supporting NASA's Vision for Space Exploration that would replace the space agency's planned Ares I and Ares V rockets with a family of Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicles named "Jupiter".

A lunar outpost is a concept of a permanent or semi-permanent presence of humans on the Moon, a moonbase, by the United States space administration NASA. NASA has requested an increase in the 2020 budget of $1.6 billion, in order to make another crewed mission to the Moon by 2024, followed by a sustained presence on the Moon by 2028.

The Space Exploration Initiative was a 1989–1993 space public policy initiative of the George H. W. Bush administration.

Human mission to Mars Various proposed crewed mission concepts to Mars

A human mission to Mars has been the subject of science fiction since the 1880s, and of aerospace engineering and scientific proposals since the late 1940s. Plans include landing on Mars for exploration at a minimum, with some considering exploring its moons Phobos and Deimos. Longterm proposals have included sending settlers and starting terraforming the planet.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and space research.

The Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee was a group convened by NASA at the request of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), to review the nation's human spaceflight plans to ensure "a vigorous and sustainable path to achieving its boldest aspirations in space." The review was announced by the OSTP on May 7, 2009. It covered human spaceflight options after the time NASA had planned to retire the Space Shuttle. A summary report was provided to the OSTP Director John Holdren, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and NASA Administrator on September 8, 2009. The estimated cost associated with the review was expected to be US$3 million. The committee was scheduled to be active for 180 days; the report was released on October 22, 2009.

The space policy of the Barack Obama administration was announced by U.S. President Barack Obama on April 15, 2010, at a major space policy speech at Kennedy Space Center. He committed to increasing NASA funding by $6 billion over five years and completing the design of a new heavy-lift launch vehicle by 2015 and to begin construction thereafter. He also predicted a U.S.-crewed orbital Mars mission by the mid-2030s, preceded by the Asteroid Redirect Mission by 2025. In response to concerns over job losses, Obama promised a $40 million effort to help Space Coast workers affected by the cancellation of the Space Shuttle program and Constellation program.

The space policy of the United States includes both the making of space policy through the legislative process, and the implementation of that policy in the civilian and military US space programs through regulatory agencies. The early history of United States space policy is linked to the US–Soviet Space Race of the 1960s, which gave way to the Space Shuttle program. There is a current debate on the post-Space Shuttle future of the civilian space program.

The Artemis program is a U.S. government-funded international human spaceflight program that has the goal of landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon, specifically at the lunar south pole region, by 2024. The program is carried out predominantly by NASA, U.S. commercial spaceflight companies contracted by NASA, and international partners including the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the Australian Space Agency (ASA), the UK Space Agency (UKSA), the United Arab Emirates Space Agency (UAESA), the State Space Agency of Ukraine, and the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB). NASA is leading the program, but expects international partnerships to play a key role. Long-term goals include establishing an expedition team and a sustainable presence on the Moon, laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy, and eventually sending humans to Mars.

References

↑ "NASA'S FUTURE TECHNOLOGY ARCHITECT SELECTED". NASA.

External links

NASA Reveals New Plan for Moon, Mars, Outward (2002)
FAQ: Bush's New Space Vision (2004)
NASA's Future: The Vision for Space Exploration (2004)
Forging a vision: NASA's Decadal Planning Team and the origins of the Vision for Space Exploration (2005)

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "NASA'S FUTURE TECHNOLOGY ARCHITECT SELECTED". NASA.

[1]