Current
Technology Needs

Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plans have generally looked 5 years into the future and undergone a major review and revision every 3 years. In 1997, we were challenged by the NASA Administrator to include a broad perspective of space science over the next 20–25 years. We have accordingly maintained a focus on a 5-year horizon (2000–2004) to support upcoming budget decisions, but we addressed this period in the context of much longer range goals.

To complete the plan, the OSS Board of Directors chartered a series of four mission roadmaps—one for each OSS science theme area. These roadmaps—developed by groups that included scientists, engineers, technologists, educators, and communicators of science—address science goals, strategies for achieving those goals, missions to implement these strategies, and technologies to enable the missions. In addition, each mission roadmap is accompanied by a technology roadmap describing the development activities needed to support the science program. Technology needs derived from these roadmaps represent the aggregate OSS customer needs, specifically driving the core and focused technology programs, and adding to the requirements being satisfied by the multi-Enterprise cross-cutting and flight validation programs and to those supplied by outside review bodies, such as those from the recent National Research Council report on "Space Technology for the New Century" (National Academy Press, 1998). Table 1 lists the current high-priority needs, integrated from these sources, being addressed by the OSS technology programs. The four OSS science theme roadmaps may be viewed at http://spacescience.nasa.gov/admin/themes.htm

The OSS technology program includes an integrated response to the needs noted in Table 1, spanning the five technology development activities described above in Section III, "Technology Program Organization." The specific needs in each mission area are detailed in Table 2, followed by Table 3, which maps the current efforts across each of the five program areas.