--Michael King
EOS Senior Project Scientist
NASA has renamed the Mission to Planet Earth enterprise the Earth Science Enterprise. The Earth Science Enterprise is one of four strategic enterprises of the Agency, and is responsible for a long-term, coordinated research effort to study the total Earth system and the effects of natural and human-induced changes on the global environment. The Earth Science Enterprise is pioneering the emerging discipline of Earth system science, with a near-term emphasis on global climate change. As before, its goals are to expand scientific knowledge of the Earth system using NASA's unique vantage points of space, aircraft, and in situ platforms, thereby creating an international capability to forecast and assess the health of the Earth system; to widely disseminate information about the Earth system; and to enable the productive use of Earth science results and related technology in the public and private sectors.
The title "Mission to Planet Earth" originated ten years ago in a report on future directions for the U.S. civil space program by a commission led by former astronaut, Dr. Sally Ride. The term and concept of looking at the Earth as NASA looks at other planets were furthered by the 1990 Report of the Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program, prepared by a team of experts chaired by Dr. Norman Augustine. Since that time, NASA has organized its activities into four strategic enterprises, including, in addition to the Earth Science Enterprise, Human Exploration and Development of Space, Aeronautics and Space Transportation, and Space Science.
NASA has selected Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, Boulder, CO, to provide the satellite system for the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-1), now scheduled for launch in July 2001. Along with placing only the second delivery order under the Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) procurement method, NASA has chosen to rename the Laser Altimetry-1 mission ICESat-1 to more accurately denote its primary purpose of monitoring the elevation of glacier ice, clouds, and terrestrial vegetation. (See press release: Ball Aerospace To Provide ICESat Spacecraft.)
On February 1, George Morrow was appointed EOS PM-1 Project Manager, replacing Marty Donohoe, who retired in early December. Prior to this assignment, Mr. Morrow served as Deputy Associate Director of Flight Projects for Hubble Space Telescope (HST), assisting in the overall management of HST hardware development, servicing activities, and ongoing operations. Prior management assignments included Deputy Project Manager for HST Flight Systems and Servicing and HST Observatory Manager. His technical expertise lies in battery systems, and he led the design, fabrication, and test efforts for flight Nickel-Cadmium and Nickel-Hydrogen battery systems for all Goddard Space Flight Center projects, including the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, Landsat, Cosmic Background Explorer, Gamma Ray Observatory, Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, and HST. The PM-1 spacecraft and instruments are now in development and on schedule for launch in December 2000.
Dr. Byron Tapley has been named chair of the EOS Investigators Working Group (IWG) Science Executive Committee, replacing Dr. Eric Barron who has chaired this committee since January 1994. Tapley's many contributions to the Earth Observing System include serving as Principal Investigator of one of the Interdisciplinary Science Investigations as well as Principal Investigator of the ESSP proposal for Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE). I would like to welcome Byron Tapley as chair of this committee, and express my sincere thanks to Eric Barron for his excellent leadership over the past four years.
Dr. Ghassem Asrar, EOS Program Scientist in the Office of Earth Science, has been selected as Associate Administrator of Earth Science, succeeding Mr. William F. Townsend, who served as Acting Associate Administrator of the Office of Earth Science for the past year and a half (see the press release on page 13). Dr. Asrar is a well-established scientist with expertise in biosphere/atmosphere interactions and remote sensing of land surfaces from space, and is widely regarded by the Earth science community. I look forward to working with him during the next several years as we launch and analyze results from the EOS satellites and other Earth Science initiatives that have been under development for the past 10 years.