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A Recap of Policy-Related Sessions at the 227th AAS Meeting
Heather BloemhardVanderbilt University
Whether you attended the meeting in person, monitored the meeting via social media, neither of the above, or both, a lot happened at the 227th meeting of the AAS in Kissimmee, Florida. If I had to summarize the entire list of policy-related town halls, sessions, and talks, then I would say this: The astronomical sciences are making progress in all aspects of science — including improving the overall inclusivity of the field and developing the resources/tools for our continued success. That said, there are still many ways that we can continue to make improvements.
Note that I wasn’t able to attend all of the sessions; if I’m missing key information from any session, please send it my way.
“A New Universe of Discovery”, a plenary talk by NSF director Dr. France Córdova
Other areas of focus for NSF are the role of citizen science, big data, and inclusion.
During the question period, Dr. Córdova addressed how the budget is balanced across NSF, with some specifics about the Astrophysics (AST) division; how NSF is working to improve inclusivity of the field; and how NSF will be addressing the proposal pressure problem.
Advocacy Town Hall with a Panel of CVD Participants
The panel included Nicole Sanchez, Chris Moore, Danny Dale, and Darcy Barron. We discussed why they decided to take time out of their schedule to travel to Washington, DC, to learn about advocating for their science and what the benefit was for them.
In this plenary talk, Dr. Press emphasized that there are some science topics where the public and scientists have very different opinions. Dr. Press suggests that the primary contributor is the difference between what can happen and what should happen. Science is a conversation about what can happen. Policy is a conversation about what should happen.
Dr. Press points to what he calls “catalyzing events” as areas where the conversations frequently collide. In topics like fire safety, building codes, and air/water pollution, science has been effective at taking part in both aspects of the conversation. In topics like vaccinations, climate change, and the sharing economy, science is making some headway but still has room to improve in the “should” conversation. In topics like nuclear power and GMOs, science is not yet making any headway in the “should” conversation.
Part of the complication in the “should” conversation is that “should” is a nuanced idea that is frequently a judgment call. Dr. Press suggests that scientists remember that science can be a methodology or a value system and that we need to differentiate between fact-based conclusions and value-based judgments while recognizing the value of both. Dr. Press’s first rule of science communication: “be less dismissive” of competitive value systems, but “be more assertive in reacting to threats to the integrity of science.”
Harassment in the Astronomical Sciences Town Hall
During this town hall, we heard from Christina Richey (chair of the AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy), Dara Norman (chair of the AAS Ethics Task Force), and Jim Ulvestad (director of NSF-AST, on behalf of Paul Hertz of NASA-SMD/Astrophysics and Kathy Turner of DOE-Science).
Christina discussed the results of the CSWA Survey on Workplace Climate in an abbreviated version of the presentation she made at the 47th meeting of the DPS (PDF). The main takeaway was that harassment is a significant area of concern for the field of astronomical sciences.
Dara provided the audience with a summary of the purpose and status of the Ethics Task Force. The goal of the task force is to revise and strengthen the ethics statement of the AAS. The community comments that were submitted are being considered and implemented. A draft statement will be sent to the AAS Council for comment within the next month. After the council comments are implemented, the draft statement will be posted for AAS members to comment on. The goal is to have a final draft of the revised ethics statement by the next Council meeting, in June.
Jim explained the agency perspective on issues of harassment; the slides are available as a PDF. In summary, federal agencies award grants to institutions that are required to ensure that individuals at the institution comply with the law. In an attempt to streamline the reporting process, each agency has an office that ensures institutions comply with the law (these are also the offices to whom reports should be submitted, and your program officer can help to navigate the process):
New Worlds, New Horizons Midterm Assessment (aka Astro Mid-Decadal)
This session was part update on the midterm assessment process and part comment period for the community. At the time of this session, the committee had no conclusions to offer. We anticipate conclusions to be made public in May 2016. One key issue that the committee must consider is the fact that the budget that was assumed for NWNH is very different than the reality.
WFIRST Science
The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope – Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets (WFIRST-AFTA) is a combined survey and coronagraph facility that will address cosmology, dark energy, and exoplanet questions. WFIRST-AFTA has been able to address any technology issues up front. The project has been moved into Phase A (NASA-speak for starting design and planning). This means that WFIRST-AFTA is on schedule for a 2024 launch. Several people spoke about the science drivers of WFIRST-AFTA, including improved supernova observations, microlensing observations of exoplanets, coronagraph observations of exoplanet systems and circumstellar disks, and studying galaxy evolution.
The NASA K2 Mission town hall described the status of the spacecraft, proposal opportunities, and the science of Kepler. The spacecraft is in very good health, with future key challenges being fuel and communications. K2's science program is more diverse than Kepler's, with a mix of exoplanet science, solar-system science, extragalactic science, asteroseismology, and stellar astrophysics.
Astronomy Education Board Forum
The AEB Forum focused on two topics: Title IX and the AAS Education Task Force. Most of the forum was spent in a group discussion on each topic.
The Education Task Force was created at the most recent AAS Council meeting and has identified four main tasks:
Review pre-K, K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate education, as well as public outreach, social-media activity, informal education, professional development, and astronomy education research.
Collect statistically meaningful data from AAS members about their education-related activities.
Develop a coordinated education strategy for the AAS, with clear goals and metrics for success.
Recommend a prioritized portfolio of education-related activities to the AAS Council.
During the discussion, there was general agreement that the tasks as laid out were ambitious and some suggestion that some of these data may exist in usable forms.
The Omnibus for fiscal year 2016 included a significant boost for WFIRST, but since that boost wasn’t reflected in the Astrophysics top line there will be “mild impacts” to the rest of the programs. Details won’t be available until the NASA operating plan is approved.
Beyond 2016, NASA is beginning to plan for the next decadal survey. They are initiating four large mission studies: Far IR surveyor, Large UV/Optical/IR surveyor, X-ray surveyor, and habitable exoplanet imaging.
NASA Decadal Mission Studies and STDTs
This was a splinter meeting sponsored by the NASA Astrophysics Division about the upcoming NASA Decadal Mission Studies and STDTs (Science and Technology Definition Teams) for each study. Paul Hertz explained that the studies' goal is to present the best possible information to the 2020 Decadal Study Committee for prioritization-the studies are not intended to be in competition. The four missions to be studied are: the far-infrared surveyor, the habitable exoplanet imaging mission, the large UV/optical/IR surveyor, and the x-ray surveyor. Each study will produce: a science case for the mission, a technology assessment, a design reference misison, and a cost assessment.
NASA is requesting self nominations from the community to serve on STDTs for each mission. STDTs will have a significant role and responsibility in the studies. Applications are solicited from the community at U.S.-based academic and research institutions, government laboratories, industry, and private individuals. Nominations are due to NASA by 1 February 2016.
This session highlighted the results from the Inclusive Astronomy meeting that was held in June 2015. Others have done a much better job summarizing the presentation than I could, and so I will simply link to the draft report of the findings/recommendations and the repository of presentations from IA. I encourage you to browse the report and consider which items you can take action on within your institution.
TMT Open House
The design for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is near the final stages for most major components and subsystems, with no major technical hurdles. There will be no TMT activities on the Maunakea summit for at least a year. They point to the website Maunakea and the Thirty Meter Telescope for more information. While the US federal government is not a partner of TMT, US astronomers, and others, are invited to participate in the International Science Development Team.
Preparing for JWST Town Hall
As was pointed out elsewhere at the meeting, the mirror for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is near completion, and testing will begin this year. Additionally, four of the instruments that will be on JWST are in the third and final cryo-vac test.
The Space Telescope Science Institute will be in charge of “maximizing the scientific return” of JWST. This requires users to understand the facility and its capabilities. To serve that goal, there will be an Early Release Science program, for which there will be a call for Letters of Intent this year. The expectation is that there will be ten to fifteen 25- to 75-hour programs selected by the TAC based on what science is most compelling. The main focus of this program is “preparing the community to maximize JWST’s scientific productivity.”
The future of NOAO includes ensuring that the facilities are viable for decades, which requires maintenance, modernization, and adaptation. The 2015 NRC report on Optimizing the US Ground-Based OIR Astronomy System is being used as a guide for how to accomplish this. NOAO is planning to facilitate the conversation and community-based decision process for the next priorities beyond LSST and GSMT.
A primary challenge for the division is that there is “no expectation for significant budget increases this decade.” While the top-line number for NSF is known, we won’t know the details until around February 2016. The budget for AST is dominated by facility costs; about 60% of the budget is spent on facilities. This means that proposal success rates are low, around 18%.
The highest two priorities of the decadal survey for NSF are LSST and the Mid-Scale Innovations Program (MSIP). NSF has made good progress on these priorities. The decadal survey also recommended that NSF increases the Astronomy and Astrophysics Grants (AAG) by $54 million. The budget reality has made this impossible.
The NSF Portfolio Review was charged with recommending a balanced program in response to the decadal survey priorities. Currently, NSF is studying the options for divestment; Jim pointed out that partnerships are an option for divestment. The argument for divesting from facilities is to free up funds for AAG and MSIP. In terms of the future for specific facilities: Green Bank Telescope, Very Long Baseline Array, McMath-Pierce, Dunn Solar Telescope, and Arecibo are all undergoing engineering studies. The KPNO 2.1-m is part of a Caltech-led consortium. The Mayall 4-m is slated for DESI and a collaboration with DOE. The WIYN 3.5-m will be partnering with NASA for the NN-EXPLORE program. The Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun (SOLIS) is moving off of Kitt Peak while the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) is being refurbished.
The extraordinary amount of data that LSST will collect means that they are very focused on big data. They have created a data-science fellowship program to supplement students’ graduate education with the skills needed. They are also hiring a postdoc.
Gemini Observatory Town Hall
The Gemini Observatory is two 8-meter telescopes and is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) on behalf of NSF. Both telescopes run four instruments and have an adaptive-optics system. Gemini science includes exoplanet imaging, exoplanet spectra, Kepler follow-up, and high-precision NIR photometry. There are three ways to propose for Gemini time: regular proposal, large and long programs, or fast-turnaround programs. There are also different observing modes: queue or classical observing, and priority visitors. The “bring one get one” program provides $2,000 in travel expenses for advisers to spend bringing a student with them for an observation. All of Gemini’s data is archivedin a cloud-based system, hosted by Amazon web services.
The Gemini Board has begun planning for the future beyond 2021 and and is looking for community input on the question of how to further improve the observatory.
Whether you attended the meeting in person, monitored the meeting via social media, neither of the above, or both, a lot happened at the 227th meeting of the AAS in Kissimmee, Florida. If I had to summarize the entire list of policy-related town halls, sessions, and talks, then I would say this: The astronomical sciences are making progress in all aspects of science — including improving the overall inclusivity of the field and developing the resources/tools for our continued success. That said, there are still many ways that we can continue to make improvements.
