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We review some key issues pertaining to NASA's Research and Analysis programs, and offer recommended actions to mitigate or resolve these issues. In particular, we recommended that NASA increases funding to support a healthy selection rate…
Canada is beginning to plan its next chapter of space exploration that includes sending humans back to the Moon and onwards to Mars. This includes understanding humanities place in space and who will benefit from our exploration. As part of…
Astronomical data are gathered through a very large number of heterogeneous techniques and stored in very diversified and often incompatible data repositories. Moreover in the e-science environment, it is needed to integrate services across…
After an introduction to the ESA Herschel Space Observatory including a mission overview, science objectives, results and productivity we examine the process and outcomes of the announcements of observing opportunities (AOs). For Herschel,…
The Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics (Athena) is the X-ray observatory large mission selected by the European Space Agency (ESA), within its Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme, to address the "Hot and Energetic Universe"…
The ESA Gaia mission, to be launched during 2013, will observe billions of objects, among which many galaxies, during its scanning of the sky. This will provide a large space-based dataset with unprecedented spatial resolution. Because of…
The Research Data Alliance is an international organization which aims at building the technical and sociological bridges that enable the open sharing of scientific data. It is a remarkable forum to discuss all the aspects of scientific…
The Gaia space project, planned for launch in 2011, is one of the ESA cornerstone missions, and will provide astrometric, photometric and spectroscopic data of very high quality for about one billion stars brighter than V=20. This will…
Current research focuses on designing fast trajectories to the trans-Neptunian object (TNO) (90377) Sedna to study the surface and composition from a close range. Studying Sedna from a close distance can provide unique data about the Solar…
Policy Brief on "AstroInformatics, Recommendations for Global Collaboration", distilled from panel discussions during S20 Policy Webinar on Astroinformatics for Sustainable Development held on 6-7 July 2023. The deliberations encompassed a…
Policy Brief on "Regional and Global Collaborations in Astronomy", distilled from the corresponding panel that was part of the discussions during S20 Policy Webinar on Astroinformatics for Sustainable Development held on 6-7 July 2023.…
Human landing, exploration and settlement on Mars will require local compute resources at the Mars edge. Landing such resources on Mars is an expensive endeavor. Instead, in this paper we lay out how concepts from low-Earth orbit edge…
Kepler is a NASA mission designed to detect exoplanets and characterize the properties of exoplanetary systems. Kepler also includes an asteroseismic programme which is being conducted through the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium…
The European Space Agency (ESA) has a clear mission to go forward to the Moon in preparation of human presence on Mars. One of the technologies looked at to increase safety and efficiency of astronauts in this context is Augmented Reality…
After the successful landing of the Mars Science Laboratory rover, both NASA and ESA initiated a selection process for potential landing sites for the Mars2020 and ExoMars missions, respectively. Two ellipses located in the Mawrth Vallis…
Astronomy is one of the most data-intensive of the sciences. Data technology is accelerating the quality and effectiveness of its research, and the rate of astronomical discovery is higher than ever. As a result, many view astronomy as…
With announcing their "Parastronaut Feasibility Project", the European Space Agency ESA promises to make every reasonable effort to send astronauts with disability to space. This could spark hope in the 15% of all people who live with some…
NASA regards data handling and archiving as an integral part of space missions, and has a strong track record of serving astrophysics data to the public, beginning with the the IRAS satellite in 1983. Archives enable a major science return…
LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, due to launch mid-2035, is a large class space mission by the European Space Agency (ESA). In partnership with NASA and ESA-member states, ESA is on track to launch what is expected to be the…
Will it be possible in the future to realize large, complex space missions dedicated to basic science like HST, Chandra and JWST? Or will their cost be too great? Today's space scene is completely different from that of even five years ago,…