NASA FY95 Budget Request: Space Science
CORRECTION: FYI #18 stated that the Space Science budget would increase from 22.4% of the total NASA budget to 24.3% under the fiscal year 1995 request. These percentages apply to the total of NASA’s science programs, not Space Science alone.
The Space Science budget would receive an increase of $44.1 million (2.6%), bringing it to $1,766.0 million, or 12.4% of the total NASA budget. Of this amount, Physics and Astronomy would receive $1,058.7 million (down $8.9 million), while Planetary Exploration would receive $707.3 million (up $53.0 million). Selected highlights from NASA’s background material for the FY95 space science budget are quoted below:
CASSINI: “The Cassini mission to Saturn has made great progress towards launch scheduled for 1997 following recent program and spacecraft restructuring to reduce costs and improve mass and schedule margins. The $255 million [down $11.6 million] being requested for FY 1995 will support all remaining Critical Design Reviews (CDR), spacecraft integration, instrument integration and testing and initiation of environmental testing. ... The Cassini mission, including the European Space Agency-provided Huygens probe, will investigate whether the icy moons have preserved a record of the formation of the early solar system as well as determine whether the necessary building blocks of the chemical evolution of life exist beyond Earth. The mission also will provide insight into why the large, gaseous outer planets have evolved much differently than the inner solar system bodies.”
AXAF: “The Advanced Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) program will enter a critical year of development starting in FY 1995. The funding request of $234.3 million [down $7.0 million] will support the Observatory Preliminary Design Review in November 1994, a Critical Design Audit of the optical bench assembly, delivery of all flight mirrors and initial mirror coating, and all instrument CDRs scheduled for completion during the fiscal year. AXAF will study the composition and nature of galaxies, stellar objects and interstellar phenomena as well as basic issues in theoretical physics. (The AXAF-Spectroscopy mission was terminated in FY 1994 as a result of Congressional action.)”
RELATIVITY MISSION: “A major test of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which could have profound implications on science’s understanding of the nature of the Universe, is the focus of the Relativity Mission. The schedule and internal funding allocation for the Gravity Probe-B and the Shuttle Test of Relativity experiment (STORE) program are being reevaluated in an effort to maintain a Gravity Probe-B launch date before the year 2000. The program request for FY 1995 is $50 million.”
GLOBAL GEOSPACE SCIENCE PROGRAM: "...No FY 1995 funding for GGS development has been requested at this time, pending the results from an ongoing program review.”
DISCOVERY PROGRAM: “NASA’s need for more frequent planetary missions embodying low-cost and quick design-to-flight is answered by the Discovery program. For FY 1995, $129.7 million has been requested. Two Discovery missions, initiated in FY 1994, are under development: The Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) Pathfinder and the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR). The Pathfinder mission, scheduled for a 1996 launch, is designed to demonstrate the technology, systems and mission design involved in landing a series of small surface stations and rovers on Mars. The FY 1995 funding request of $77.5 million supports final fabrication and assembly of spacecraft and instrument subsystems, all hardware deliveries and initiation of system level integration and testing at JPL.... NEAR will fly by a main belt asteroid following its 1996 launch before its rendezvous with the near-Earth asteroid Eros in 1998. The spacecraft will study Eros for a year. The FY 1995 funding request of $52.2 million supports completion of detailed design activities, fabrication of spacecraft and instrument subsystems with subsystem level testing conducted in parallel.”
MARS SURVEYOR: “One of the most important new activities for FY 1995 is the beginning of development of a new Mars Exploration strategy. Called the Mars Surveyor program, it consists of an orbiter and a series of small missions designed to resume the detailed exploration of Mars. The orbiter will fly a small science payload aboard a small industry-developed spacecraft. Following the orbiter will be a series of small communications orbiters and landers to make surface measurements of Martian climate and soil composition. Scheduled for a 1996 launch, the orbiter is designed to capture much of the data that would have been obtained by the Mars Observer. The FY 1995 budget request calls for $78.4 million to support initial instrument and spacecraft subsystem level fabrication and assembly, ground system hardware procurement and software development....”
EXPLORER PROGRAM: “Three Explorer missions are currently under development. Explorer investigations typically have highly specific objectives which do not require the capabilities of a major observatory. For FY 1995, $120.4 million has been requested to continue the development activities, including spacecraft and instrument integration for the X-Ray Timing Explorer (XTE); hardware fabrication and assembly of the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE); and final development activities and launch preparations for the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS).... “
MISSION OPERATIONS AND DATA ANALYSIS (MO&DA): “MO&DA funds are used to support the prime missions of science spacecraft and ongoing analysis of selected mission data sets. For FY 1995, $569.4 million is requested.
“In Planetary exploration, the Galileo operations and multimission support for other planetary missions will amount to $127.7 million [down $14.0 million].
“In Physics and Astronomy, the requested funds of $441.7 million [up $21.0 million] will support continuing operations and data analysis of the Hubble Space Telescope, Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer, International Ultraviolet Explorer, ROSAT, the Astro-D/ASCA missions, Pioneers 10 & 11, Voyagers 1 & 2, Ulysses, IMP-8, Geotail, SAMPEX and Yohkoh missions. The MO&DA funds also will support planning and development of instruments for future servicing missions and other critical components for the Hubble Space Telescope...”
[Additionally, RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS (R&A) funding for both components of the Space Science budget would remain level; with Physics and Astronomy receiving $71.1 million, and Planetary Exploration receiving $115.1 million.]
