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Beyond the Atmosphere:
Early Years of Space Science
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- CHAPTER 9
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- ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
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- [120] Most important
for space science were relations with the National Academy of
Sciences and the Space Science Board. It was assumed without
question that NASA would look to the Space Science Board for
advice on scientific questions. Accordingly NASA joined the
National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense in
providing funding for the board. In the fall of 1959, when time
approached for the National Science Foundation to renew the annual
contract with the board, Dryden sent to Alan Waterman, director of
NSF, a work request that NASA would like to see incorporated in
the new contract.14 The contents of the request, a copy of which was
sent to the National Academy the same day it went to NSF, had been
discussed in advance between the author and Hugh Odishaw,
executive director of the Space Science Board.
15 NASA sought assistance from the board on (1)
long-range planning, (2) specific planning for the separate
scientific disciplines, (3) international programs, and (4) the
handling of space science data and results. The first two were
straightforward, but care was taken to emphasize planning, and
NASA took this opportunity to turn back an incipient interest on
the part of the board in getting into operational matters like the
review and selection of experiments for space science
missions.
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- A major point under (3) concerned U.S.
representation on the international Committee on Space Research
(COSPAR). At the invitation of Lloyd Berkner, who was then
president of the International Council of Scientific Unions, the
author had convened the organizing meeting of COSPAR in London 14
November 1958. Subsequently the question arose as to whether
America's permanent representative should come from NASA. The
Academy thought not, and Dryden and the author agreed. It was
traditional and appropriate that the country's representation on
international scientific, as opposed to political, bodies should
fall under the aegis of the Academy of Sciences. NASA supported
this view and further agreed to pay America's annual subvention to
the Committee on Space Research.
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- The final item in the work request on data
and results was fuzzy, not at all clear at the time. Since the
Academy had been involved during the [121] International Geophysical Year with the
operation of world data centers, which archived and distributed
data and information derived from the IGY science program, it was
thought that the Academy might continue this function for the
national space program. After all, there had been a Data Center on
Rockets and Satellites, so what could be more direct than to have
that center expand its responsibilities? There were subtleties to
the problem, one of which surfaced in a meeting 9 December 1959,
held at Boulder, Colorado. Hugh Odishaw asked if NASA would
support a center devoted to data from all upper-atmosphere and
solar research, not just those obtained from rockets and
satellites.16 NASA representatives equivocated and, after
prolonged discussion with the Academy, established the Space
Science Data Center at the Goddard Space Flight
Center.17 Although the new organization did undertake to
archive a great deal of data that were not obtained from space
experiments, in general such data were selected because they would
increase the value of the space data.
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- During the period that NASA was developing
its working relations with the Space Science Board, the agency was
also feeling its way toward some mechanism to provide broader and
closer contacts with the scientific. community than could be
expected from the Space Science Board alone. For the most part
unaware of the extensive and skillful use NACA had made of
committees to keep in touch with thinking outside the agency, NASA
space scientists began to move in a similar direction. Internally
a Space Sciences Steering Committee was established in April 1960,
with responsibility for recommending space science programs and
projects to the director of spaceflight programs, Abe Silverstein.
The steering committee also recommended the selection of
experiments and experimenters for space science
missions.18 Subcommittees were formed for the scientific
disciplines.19 Unlike the steering committee, however, which
consisted solely of NASA employees, about half the members of the
subcommittees were outside scientists. From this group of
disciplinary subcommittees the NASA advisory structure in space
science evolved over the years. Advisory committees became a major
element in NASA's relations with the scientific community and in
planning and conducting the space science program. This subject
will be discussed in detail in chapter 12.
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