Exploration

[More] NASA Sluggishness on Strategic Roadmap Committee Disclosure

By Keith Cowing

NASA Watch

January 24, 2005

Editor’s note: NASA posted the charters for these Roadmap committees today. It would seem that all of these charters had approval dates of 23 December 2004 – exactly one month ago.

Editor’s note: There are a number of NASA Strategic Roadmap meetings this week, next week, and in the weeks ahead. Last week I made note of the fact that, with one exception, none of the membership rosters for the dozen or so committees had been released. Nor had any meeting agendas or committee charters been released by NASA other than short notices posted in the Federal Register. NASA PAO sent me membership lists for 4 of these committees but many more remain unknown. PAO also told me that the membership rosters would be posted on the official Roadmap website last week. This has not happened. Yes, someone created a new page of each of these committees, but these pages all say “More Information Coming Soon…” when it comes to any information about the committees.

I can help. I typed in four of the committee rosters off of a fax last week (see below). Someone@nasa could copy them and post them on the NASA site. I also have the short descriptions of the commitees from the Federal Register online (also below) Hey, its a start.

Editor’s note: The following NASA Strategic Roadmap meetings occur in less than a week:

– NASA Robotic and Human Lunar Exploration Strategic Roadmap Committee Meeting (24-25 Jan) [membership]
– NASA Universe Exploration Strategic Roadmap Committee Meeting (25-26 Jan) [membership]
– NASA Earth Science and Applications From Space Strategic Roadmap Committee Meeting (26-27 Jan) [membership]

The following meetings occur in less than two weeks:

– NASA Solar System Exploration Strategic Roadmap Committee Meeting (3-4 Feb) [membership]
– NASA Exploration Transportation System Strategic Roadmap Committee Meeting (3-4 Feb)

Yet when you go to the official NASA website for this Roadmap effort the only committee whose membership has been Editor’s note: The following NASA Strategic Roadmap meetings occur in less than a week:

The following meetings occur in less than two weeks:

– NASA Solar System Exploration Strategic Roadmap Committee Meeting (3-4 Feb) [membership]
– NASA Exploration Transportation System Strategic Roadmap Committee Meeting (3-4 Feb)

Yet when you go to the official NASA website for this Roadmap effort the only committee whose membership has been publicly announced is the Exploration of Mars Strategic Roadmap Committee which held its meeting on 4-5 January.

Who is on these committees? You’d think that someone at NASA would know since the attendees have to be making travel plans. Update: NASA PAO provided me with four membership lists. I am sorry for the delay in posting them, but they were faxed to me and I had to type them in by hand. PAO told me they’d be posted on Wednesday but that hasn’t happened.

publicly announced is the Exploration of Mars Strategic Roadmap Committee which held its meeting on 4-5 January.

According to the Roadmap website, Roadmap committee charters were approved December 30; First meetings are to occur in January 2005; Strategic Roadmaps mid-term status reviews will be held in March; Roadmaps will be submitted for NRC review on April 15; NRC reviews will be received on June 1; and all Roadmaps will be complete by July 31. Committees developing the Space Shuttle and Education Roadmaps will be meeting on a “later schedule”.

The NASA Robotic and Human Exploration of Mars Strategic Roadmapping Committee met on 4-5 January at JPL. Meeting dates and committee membership have yet to be announced for these Roadmap Committees:

– Search for Earth-Like Planets
– International Space Station
– Space Shuttle Return
– Sun-Solar System Connection
– Aeronautical Technologies
– Education
– Nuclear Systems

With the Exception of the NASA Robotic and Human Exploration of Mars Strategic Roadmapping Committee, none of the charters for these commitees have been publicly released by NASA – although short descriptions did appear with the announcement of each committee in the Federal Register.

Notice of Establishment of a NASA Advisory Committee (Federal Register notices 9 December 2004):