National Space Policy and Space Weather

Abstract

The new national space policy (www.ostp.gov), authorized by President George W. Bush on 31 August 2006, has been the cause of considerable discussion among space professionals. The policy statement is a broad umbrella that lays out the nation's objectives in space, from science to commercial to national security and intelligence. The policy appears to support numerous national space objectives that were contained in the previous (1996) policy statement of the Clinton administration. It also articulates in one location many of the pronouncements on space activities that have been promulgated since 2001. Some of the unhappiness expressed by members of the space and planetary science communities would seem to occur because words such as “Mars” and “Moon” do not appear explicitly. At the same time, neither do the words “space weather.” A focus on only specific words in this policy statement misses the point of such a document. In my opinion, space weather competence is essential to accomplishing some specific “goals” of the policy statement as well as specific “guidelines” contained in it. For example, both of the stated goals to “enable unhindered U.S. operations in and through space.” and to “implement and sustain an innovative human and robotic exploration program with the objective of extending human presence across the solar system” will require a much better understanding and prediction of the near-Earth and extramagnetosphere space environments–that is, space weather. Similarly, many of the “guidelines” for the national security, civil, and general space areas mentioned in the statement will require intensive support from space weather professionals. Space situational awareness (which includes the natural environment in which space assets operate), identified in the policy statement as a responsibility of the Secretary of Defense, is crucial for national security space activities as well as for national intelligence. The Director of National Intelligence is identified as responsible for providing “intelligence collection and capabilities to support space situational awareness for–civil space capabilities and operations, particularly human space flight activities.” Prediction and monitoring of space weather conditions will be critical to sustain human life beyond low-Earth orbit. In the civil arena, the secretaries of Commerce and Interior, as well as the Administrator of NASA, are all given responsibilities for science and applications that involve in situ or remote sensing space measurements The explicit statement that “the United States will study the Earth system from space and develop new space-based–capabilities to advance scientific understanding and enhance civil space-based Earth observation” makes clear that space weather, both the science and the applications, has an essential role in the future civil space arena of the United States. This 2006 national space policy statement by the president provides a real opportunity for major contributions to be made by space weather professionals and their organizations to key space objectives of the nation. They should seize the opportunities. Louis J. Lanzerotti is editor of Space Weather, a distinguished research professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a consultant at Alcatel-Lucent Technologies’ Bell Laboratories.