Obama Nasa Team Sizina Up Extra Earth Science Missions

摘要

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's transition team is asking NASA what it would need to make a bigger dent in a slate of Earth science missions identified two years ago as priorities but left largely unfunded amid the U.S. space agency's competing priorities.rnAmong a long list of questions the Obama team sent NASA in late November was a request for options for funding more of the 17 missions identified in a 10-year plan for space-based Earth observation completed by a National Research Council panel in 2007 at NASA's request. Since publication of the decadal survey, "Earth Science Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond," NASA has been funded to tackle just a few of those missions by the end of the next decade.rnSpace industry officials say Earth science missions are likely to gain stature in the Obama administration, considering Obama's pledge to invest in alternative energy sources and place a greater emphasis on addressing climate change.