NASA ADVISORY COUNCIL PLANETARY SCIENCE ADVISORY COMMITTEE March 1-2, 2021 Virtual Meeting Washington, DC MEETING REPORT _____________________________________________________________ Amy Mainzer, Chair ____________________________________________________________ Stephen Rinehart, Executive Secretary Table of Contents Opening and Announcements, Introductions 3 PSD Status Report 3 ESSIO Update 6 Astrobiology Update 7 Planetary Defense Coordination Office 8 Mars Exploration Program/Mars Sample Return 9 Decadal Survey Update 12 Research and Analysis Program Update 15 Inclusion Diversity Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) Update 17 General Discussion 19 Analysis Group Updates MExAG 21 VEXAG 21 LEAG 21 SBAG 22 MEPAG 22 OPAG 23 MAPSIT 24 ExMAG 24 ExoPAG 24 General Discussion 25 Findings Discussion 26 Appendix A- Attendees Appendix B- Membership roster Appendix C- Agenda Appendix D- Presentations Prepared by Joan M. Zimmermann Zantech, Inc. 2 March 1, 2021 Opening and Announcements, Introductions The Executive Secretary of the Planetary Science Advisory Committee (PAC), Dr. Stephen Rinehart, opened the meeting, welcomed members of the committee, took roll, and introduced PAC Chair, Dr. Amy Mainzer. PSD Status Report Dr. Lori Glaze, Director of the Planetary Science Division (PSD), presented a status of the division, first remarking on the COVID “anniversary”—it has been one year since NASA initiated work in a virtual environment. Dr. Glaze noted that challenges associated with COVID limitations persist, especially in terms of impact to early career (EC) scientists (networking opportunities missed, potential impact of reduced levels of productivity). She noted that the impact is not uniform, and that it would behoove the community to watch where the challenges occur and react accordingly. Dr. Glaze encouraged EC scientists to reach out, contact their mentors, and try to identify gaps in order to address them. The Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) budget appropriations bill was passed at the end of December 2020, and it shows continued strong support for science, which overall has done extremely well at $7.3B, an amount that exceeded the official request. PSD received $40M above the original request ($2.7B), which supports Decadal Survey language regarding Mars Sample Return (MSR), the Europa Clipper, Planetary Defense goals, the Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) and the Near Earth Object Survey Mission (NEOSM). Europa Clipper has been given permission to use a non-Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle. The distribution of funding is still to be determined as NASA goes about getting its Operating Plan (OP) approved. Included in the PSD fleet are a number of Commercial Lunar Payload Service (CLPS) missions. There are now up to five CLPS launches planned, at a cadence of about two launches per year. This is a great achievement and an exciting time for lunar exploration within PSD. The latest and biggest news, however, is the flawless landing of the Perseverance rover at Mars on 18 February, which beamed to Earth a series of absolutely amazing video images of the rover landing, parachute deployment, and spacecraft maneuvering to reach its landing site near Jezero Crater. The rover managed to touch down only 1.7 miles away from its target, which is near a fractured unit believed to contain olivine. The hazard map that characterizes the landing site (a river delta) shows how well terrain-relative navigation (TRN) worked to identify the small safe areas for landing. Color images thus far being transmitted are breathtaking, while rover checkout continues. In upcoming weeks, the rover team will deploy its “helicopter” drone technology demonstration, after which the rover will begin its sample-caching mission in earnest. The broadcast of the rover landing had about 4.2M peak viewers, with more than 20M views on YouTube cited during the last week of February. The Perseverance landing also elicited heavy Web traffic, and notable social media mentions from the President and First Lady of the United States, and former President Barack Obama. Dr. Glaze offered lauded the entire rover team for doing an outstanding job under difficult conditions. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will execute a final flyby of the asteroid Bennu on 7 April to image the asteroid, including the sampling site, after which it will image the body for a full 4.3-hour rotation period, and then depart from Bennu on 10 May, to return to Earth in 2023. The Lucy mission is on track for a first NASA mission to the Trojan asteroids; the Assembly, Test, Launch and Operations (ATLO) phase is progressing well, and the spacecraft’s pre-environmental review has been passed. Lucy’s launch window opens in October 2021, to arrive at the Trojan asteroid region in August 2027. 3 The DART mission is currently experiencing technical challenges associated with the DRACO imager and solar array fabrication. The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) has conducted a risk assessment, and is now considering a secondary launch window, which opens in November 2021, and which supports an (unchanged) arrival date at Didymos, in September 2022. Within the SIMPLEX program, Q-PACE launched on 17 January; however, the spacecraft beacon has not yet been detected. The mission’s Principal Investigator (PI) is constructing a second ground station to continue attempts to contact the Q- PACE satellite. The CLPS payload, LunaH-Map, is scheduled for delivery in March 2021. Janus and Lunar Trailblazer passed their Key Decision Points-C (KDP-C) milestones, while Escapade is working toward its KDP-C. PSD recently completed the 2020 Senior Review for the Juno, and Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight), missions. The Juno team was approved to bring the spacecraft to its end-of-life in 2025. Juno’s final orbits will fly by three of Jupiter’s Galilean moons: Ganymede, Io, and Europa. There have been recommendations to support additional Juno Program Scientists. InSight was approved for a two-year extension; its focus will be on long- duration seismic data set, and operation of the weather station. Mole recovery efforts have been concluded. The InSight team got the mole beneath the surface of soil, but progressed no further. The solar arrays are now collecting a fair amount of dust, which will present a challenge for the Mars winter, but the team expects continued success in operations. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) lunar mission, working with the Exploration Science Strategy and Integration Office (ESSIO), just passed its KDP-C, thus has been confirmed and is moving to phase C. The Europa Clipper continues to move forward and is doing well, with the mission in the building hardware phase. The mission is completing its reporting on the December 2020 Critical Design Review (CDR), and working toward a launch readiness date in 2024, and acquiring a commercial launch vehicle (LV) via a competitive process. Instrument cost control is also going well. The top concern at present is COVID’s impacts on the work team, in addition to some minor technical issues that are also being worked. Within the Discovery program, Step-2 selections are expected in mid- July. Within the New Frontiers program, the Dragonfly mission to the Saturnian moon, Titan, is progressing to confirmation, and a New Frontiers 5 draft Announcement of Opportunity (AO) is under way. In the area of community initiatives, Decadal Survey panel meetings are going forward. SMD has also initiated a National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) study on Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in the Leadership of Competed Missions, and has also has requested of the NASEM Committee on Planetary Protection a detailing of criteria that will govern landing sites for robotic missions on Mars. Other community opportunities include the Next PI Launchpad workshop, which is scheduled for 14–25 June, to be held virtually and partly asynchronously. The Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) is also coming up, and will include a one-hour NASA Headquarters briefing on Thursday, 18 March. PSD is initiating a new Senior Review of the Planetary Data System (PDS) discipline nodes, and to date, the SMD ROSES Gaps request for information (RFI) has had all responses assessed. Major findings from the RFI can be found at [[https://science.nasa.gov/science-red/s3fs public/atoms/files/Sheth_RFI%20Gaps_APAC_Oct2020.pdf.]], while NASA works to respond to the findings. The Research and Analysis program (R&A) has been assessing COVID-19 augmentations and funded extensions; the absolute deadline is 5 March 2021. ROSES 2021 was released on 12 February— all PSD Data Analysis Programs (DAPs) will be assessed by a dual-anonymous peer review (DAPR) process. In addition, ROSES 2021 has No Due Date (NoDD) submissions in place for seven programs: Solar Systems Workings, Emerging Worlds, Exobiology, PICASSO, Laboratory Analysis of Returned Samples, Solar System Observations, and Planetary Data Archiving, Restoration, and Tools (PDART). Response to PAC findings 4 In response to PAC Finding 1 on the matter of the damaged Arecibo Observatory, NASA acknowledges the impact to the planetary science community, and plans to continue to use the Goldstone radar facility for tasks once served by Arecibo. Goldstone is a better pointing facility, but with a more limited range in comparison to Arecibo. NASA has completed some upgrades and repairs at Goldstone, which will be used to monitor and view NEOs. The loss of Arecibo also opens opportunities for NASA and the community to think about future planetary radar capabilities. Responding to PAC Finding 2 on R&A funding, which details its concerns about low selection rates, and deferred opportunities for certain programs, etc., NASA shares PAC’s concern about selection rates, and continues to regard selection rates as high-priority issue for PSD. PSD will continue efforts to improve transparency and identify valuable advice in this matter. Dr. Glaze noted that the ROSES NoDD effort is intended to provide flexibility for all in the selection process.