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Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society
92
SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS: A SCIENCE FOR A TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
committee concluded that its replacement, NASA’s Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) program,
has an important role to play in maintaining solar and space physics graduate support at historic GSRP
levels, and with a strong link between graduate students and NASA mission research.
Recommendation: A suitable replacement for the NSF Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling
summer school should be competitively selected, and NSF should enable opportunities for focused community workshops that directly address professional development skills for graduate students.
Recruitment and Public Outreach
Solar and space physics is for the most part taught at the graduate level, and opportunities to learn
about the discipline are limited at the precollege and undergraduate level. One exception is NSF’s Research
Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. As detailed in Appendix D, “Education and Workforce
Issues in Solar and Space Physics,” approximately 50 percent of the graduate students surveyed at the
NSF-supported summer 2011 GEM-CEDAR and SHINE meetings reported an undergraduate research
experience in the solar and space physics field akin to the REU. Another successful program has been Los
Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL’s) post-baccalaureate program to provide recent college graduates
the opportunity to explore research experiences in solar and space physics.
Recruitment starts even earlier, however. Appendix D notes that graduate students interviewed at
GEM, CEDAR, and SHINE meetings often cited a childhood interest in space and astronomy that first grew
through a high school physics course and subsequently into trying out astronomy research as an undergraduate. It is the goal of the community of NASA-supported, discipline-focused education and public
outreach (EPO) professionals (e.g., the Heliophysics Education and Public Outreach Forum) to connect the
scientists, missions, and results of the solar and space physics research community with active partners in
the world of K-12 education, in order to raise the visibility of the field and to develop a diverse solar and
space physics workforce.
In summary, a thriving field of solar and space physics requires continued outreach to the general
public and in particular to students who will become the next generation of space scientists. The survey
committee endorses the NASA requirement that 1 percent of heliophysics mission budgets be devoted to
BOX 4.6 A TRAINED SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS WORKFORCE
A key to the success of the U.S. space program as a whole, and to solar and space physics in particular, is
the availability of experimentally oriented scientists and engineers who have been trained with spaceflight
hardware. Yet there has been a steady erosion of that workforce, not only at NASA but also across the entire
country, and this fact has been decried from many quarters. Several recent National Research Council reports 1
make this case most emphatically. Other technical industries have been able to compensate somewhat by tapping the pool of highly trained immigrants and foreign students, and they have often outsourced work abroad.
But spacecraft are ITAR-sensitive items, and so this pool is not available to NASA or to its outside partners, even
to universities, because of the constraints of the regulations. All of the space programs at NASA, DOE, NOAA,
and DOD feel this shortage acutely. The situation is likely to deteriorate even further if no mitigating actions
are implemented.
1 National Research Council, Revitalizing NASA’s Suborbital Program: Advancing Science, Driving Innovation, and Developing a Workforce,
2010; National Research Council, An Enabling Foundation for NASA’s Space and Earth Science Missions, 2010; National Research Council, NASA
Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities: Restoring NASA’s Technological Edge and Paving the Way for a New Era in Space, 2012 (all published
by the National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.).
Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society
92
SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS: A SCIENCE FOR A TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
committee concluded that its replacement, NASA’s Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF) program,
has an important role to play in maintaining solar and space physics graduate support at historic GSRP
levels, and with a strong link between graduate students and NASA mission research.
Recommendation: A suitable replacement for the NSF Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling
summer school should be competitively selected, and NSF should enable opportunities for focused community workshops that directly address professional development skills for graduate students.
Recruitment and Public Outreach
Solar and space physics is for the most part taught at the graduate level, and opportunities to learn
about the discipline are limited at the precollege and undergraduate level. One exception is NSF’s Research
Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. As detailed in Appendix D, “Education and Workforce
Issues in Solar and Space Physics,” approximately 50 percent of the graduate students surveyed at the
NSF-supported summer 2011 GEM-CEDAR and SHINE meetings reported an undergraduate research
experience in the solar and space physics field akin to the REU. Another successful program has been Los
Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL’s) post-baccalaureate program to provide recent college graduates
the opportunity to explore research experiences in solar and space physics.
Recruitment starts even earlier, however. Appendix D notes that graduate students interviewed at
GEM, CEDAR, and SHINE meetings often cited a childhood interest in space and astronomy that first grew
through a high school physics course and subsequently into trying out astronomy research as an undergraduate. It is the goal of the community of NASA-supported, discipline-focused education and public
outreach (EPO) professionals (e.g., the Heliophysics Education and Public Outreach Forum) to connect the
scientists, missions, and results of the solar and space physics research community with active partners in
the world of K-12 education, in order to raise the visibility of the field and to develop a diverse solar and
space physics workforce.
In summary, a thriving field of solar and space physics requires continued outreach to the general
public and in particular to students who will become the next generation of space scientists. The survey
committee endorses the NASA requirement that 1 percent of heliophysics mission budgets be devoted to
BOX 4.6 A TRAINED SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS WORKFORCE
A key to the success of the U.S. space program as a whole, and to solar and space physics in particular, is
the availability of experimentally oriented scientists and engineers who have been trained with spaceflight
hardware. Yet there has been a steady erosion of that workforce, not only at NASA but also across the entire
country, and this fact has been decried from many quarters. Several recent National Research Council reports 1
make this case most emphatically. Other technical industries have been able to compensate somewhat by tapping the pool of highly trained immigrants and foreign students, and they have often outsourced work abroad.
But spacecraft are ITAR-sensitive items, and so this pool is not available to NASA or to its outside partners, even
to universities, because of the constraints of the regulations. All of the space programs at NASA, DOE, NOAA,
and DOD feel this shortage acutely. The situation is likely to deteriorate even further if no mitigating actions
are implemented.
1 National Research Council, Revitalizing NASA’s Suborbital Program: Advancing Science, Driving Innovation, and Developing a Workforce,
2010; National Research Council, An Enabling Foundation for NASA’s Space and Earth Science Missions, 2010; National Research Council, NASA
Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities: Restoring NASA’s Technological Edge and Paving the Way for a New Era in Space, 2012 (all published
by the National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.).