The Planetary Society, American Geophysical…
Residence Science, Home & Know-how Committee
Home & Aeronautics Subcommittee
Senate Commerce & Science Committee
Home Subcommittee
To the Members of the Residence and Senate:
We, the undersigned, write to the authorizing committees throughout the Residence and Senate with the subsequent request to assist a key NASA science mission and bolster U.S. administration in space exploration.
The Venus Emissivity, Radio science, InSAR, Topography And Spectroscopy (VERITAS) mission is coping with a necessary juncture. NASA has indefinitely delayed the launch date1 and eradicated program enchancment outlays for FY 2024 and previous. That’s through no fault of the enterprise, and on account of unrelated points in numerous missions.
VERITAS is a key a part of our nation’s sturdy and quite a few space exploration approach. The Nationwide Academies of Sciences lists VERITAS as a “Step Zero” mission throughout the 2023-2032 Decadal Survey for Planetary Science, referring to it explicitly as part of a “balanced combination of small, medium, and massive missions”2 throughout the Actually helpful Program. Congress has routinely ordered NASA to utilize the Decadal Survey as a data in earlier reauthorizations, most not too way back throughout the 2022 reauthorization included throughout the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act.
With out VERITAS, the USA will miss a unprecedented various to information the vanguard of scientific exploration of Venus, along with how its native climate and ground modified from a habitable to uninhabitable setting. In its place, totally different space organizations, along with plans for orbiters by the China Nationwide Home Administration (proposed 2026 launch3) and the European Home Firm (proposed early 2030s launch4), would possibly end up important Venus exploration throughout the coming a very long time.
The impetus for the delay comes due to findings of an Unbiased Overview Board (IRB) report discovering out last yr’s unfortunate delay of 1 different NASA mission, Psyche, which was delayed by one yr. We acknowledge that the IRB report acknowledged workforce and institutional factors on the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) that will impression future missions. Earlier to the stand down, VERITAS was on schedule, on worth vary, and making wonderful progress within the course of a 2027 launch date.
By delaying VERITAS indefinitely, NASA hampers the flexibleness of the U.S. to “permit the Discovery Program to proceed to assist missions that sort out high-priority science goals.”5 It moreover damages our relationship with allies, who had devoted over $90 million worth of instrumentation and assist to the mission.
We urge the Committees to direct NASA to launch VERITAS no later than November 2029 — a two-year delay — throughout the anticipated NASA reauthorization legal guidelines. A company dedication to a launch date helps NASA plan and worth vary the enterprise accordingly, reassures our worldwide and industrial companions, and affirms the USA’ dedication to important the world in planetary exploration.
Congress has repeatedly acted in a bipartisan technique to promote NASA’s trendy and world-leading planetary exploration program, and we’re grateful for this assist. We hope that Congress will act to ensure the continuation of that administration, and the way in which ahead for the VERITAS mission, by along with it on this yr’s NASA reauthorization legal guidelines.
Respectfully,
The Planetary Society
American Geophysical Union
School of Alaska Fairbanks
Tulane School
Mount Holyoke Faculty
School of Arizona
Geological Society of America
1nasa.gov/press-release/as-psyche-mission-moves-forward-nasa-responds-to-independent-review
2 Planetary Science Decadal Survey, internet web page 22-5
3https://www.space.com/china-venus-mission-details
4https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/
5 Planetary Science Decadal Survey, internet web page 22-23
Post Comment