The Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey is conducted by the National Academy of Sciences as an independent survey on the status of Planetary Science in the United States with the goal of developing a strategy to further the field in the upcoming decade. This upcoming survey covers the decade of 2023 – 2032. Science white paper submissions are due by July 15th, mission concept white papers on August 15, and all other white papers are due September 15th.
I am leading three white papers for the survey and invite signatories from the planetary science and astrobiology community! Below are draft abstracts of the planned white papers. If you’d like to endorse these white papers, please fill out the form found at the provided link after the author list. The form also includes a link to the current draft of the white paper.
Gracias!
The Importance of Ground-Based Radar Observations for Planetary Exploration
Ground-based planetary radar observations have enabled and continue to facilitate the exploration of our solar system through characterization of planets and their moons. This includes spacecraft landing-site characterization, e.g., for Viking (Tyler et al., 1976; Simpson et al., 1978) and most recently InSight (Putzig et al., 2017) at Mars, and improved target astrometry, such as for Europa (Brozović et al., 2020). The power of radar for planetary geology is its ability to sense subsurface features buried beneath regolith, such as cryptomare on the Moon (Campbell and Hawke, 2005), and surface features obscured by a dense atmosphere, e.g., Venus (Campbell & Burns, 1980) and Titan (Campbell et al., 2003). New analytical and modeling techniques (e.g., Virkki & Bhiravarasu, 2019) as well as laboratory-based insights for radar analysis (e.g., Taylor & Rivera-Valentín, 2019), along with improvements to existing facilities (see white paper Lazio et al., 2020), motivate a renewed interest in radar studies of planetary surfaces. With a broad fleet of spacecraft exploring the solar system, synergies with ground-based radar studies allow for an improved understanding of planetary processes (see white paper Kofman et al., 2020). In the absence of orbital assets, ground-based radars are a uniquely capable way of continued high-resolution (few-meter to kilometer scale) studies of planetary surfaces. Fundamentally, we emphasize that ground-based planetary radar infrastructure must continue to be supported (see white paper Taylor et al., 2020), including further upgrades to existing facilities. Here, we discuss several community-identified priority science questions that ground-based radar studies are particularly suited to help resolve in the next decade.
Authors:
Edgard G. Rivera-Valentín, Patrick A. Taylor, Carolina Rodriguez Sanchez-Vahamonde
Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association
Anne Virkki, Dylan Hickson, Flaviane Venditti, Noemí Pinilla-Alonso, Maria Womack
Arecibo Observatory, University of Central Florida
Michael Nolan, Ellen Howell
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona
Bruce Campbell
Center for Earth and Planetary Studies, Smithsonian Institution
Donald B. Campbell
Department of Astronomy, Cornell University
Jennifer Whitten
School of Science and Engineering, Tulane University
Catherine Neish
Planetary Science Institute & The University of Western Ontario
Marina Brozović
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Heather Meyer
Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University
Jean-Luc Margot
Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California Los Angeles
The submitted white paper can be found HERE
The Water Cycle on a Salty Mars: Science and Exploration Strategies for Understanding Present-day Atmosphere-Regolith Interactions
Characterizing the dynamics of the present-day Martian water cycle is paramount to understanding climatic processes, water ice stability, habitability, and the potential for in-situ resource utilization. The wealth of data now available from orbiters and in situ measurements strongly suggest that the regolith is an important component of the water cycle. However, the environmental payloads of past, ongoing, and scheduled lander Mars missions were not designed to investigate atmosphere-regolith water vapor exchange processes, and thus important constraints are missing in order to resolve the near-surface water cycle. Indeed, the detection of hygroscopic salts further increases the regolith’s role because salts lead to temperature- and relative humidity-dependent water vapor sinks and sources in the shallow subsurface that compete for water on diurnal and seasonal timescales. While extensive laboratory studies on these processes have been conducted, the majority have not fully replicated current surface conditions on Mars. Therefore, there are significant gaps in our current knowledge of the Martian water cycle, particularly salt-facilitated atmosphere-regolith exchange processes. In order to further Mars exploration in the next decade, laboratory studies are needed that investigate the thermodynamics, with an emphasis on the kinetics, of atmosphere-regolith exchange processes under Mars-like diurnal and seasonal conditions. Such work may require technology development in order to attain appropriate conditions. Furthermore, environmental instrumentation on future Mars landers are needed that make high fidelity measurements of the near-surface absolute water vapor content. Because liquescence, either through melting or deliquescence, is an astrobiologically relevant water vapor sink, synergy between experimental research, mission science, and numerical modeling is needed to understand the biologic suitability of brines on present-day Mars and its implications for planetary protection.
Authors:
Edgard G. Rivera-Valentín, Germán Martínez, Kennda Lynch, Justin Filiberto
Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association
Vincent F. Chevrier
Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, University of Arkansas
Raina V. Gough, Margaret Tolbert
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado
Jennifer Hanley
Lowell Observatory
Alejandro Soto, David Stillman
Southwest Research Institute
Katherine M. Primm
Planetary Science Institute
The submitted white paper can be found HERE
Who is missing in Planetary Science?
The planetary science workforce surveys (White et al., 2011; Hendrix et al., 2020) have shown that the demographics of the field are not representative of the national population. Underrepresented minorities in the field include women, Latinx / Hispanics, and Black / African Americans. Currently, women are underrepresented by 21.8% ± 8.3%, Latinx / Hispanics by 71.5% ± 5.4%, and Black / African Americans by 89.8% ± 3.7% with respect to the National Civilian Labor Force (NCLF). We show that this level of underrepresentation of Black / African Americans and Latinx is below expectations from a small random sample. Although the field has made some improvements, particularly in regard to the representation of women and Latinx / Hispanics, which have increased by 12.7% ± 4.3% and 3.8% ± 1.0% respectively, no change has occurred for Black / African Americans over the last nine years (0.3% ± 0.6%).
Generally, planetary scientists follow either the physics/astronomy or geosciences educational tracks (White et al., 2011; Hendrix et al., 2020). Thus, here we also study the demographics of graduates from these fields. Since 2000, geosciences have seen an increase in the representation of women by 0.88% ± 0.18% per year, while representation in physics has only grown by 0.33% ± 0.15% per year. In the same time, Latinx / Hispanic representation in geology and physics has increased by 0.21% ± 0.05% and 0.13% ± 0.06% per year, which is below the national growth of the Latinx community (0.32% per year). However, no change has occurred for Black / African Americans in either field over the last 18 years (0.03% ± 0.04%).
Other surveyed demographics included Asian Americans / Pacific Islanders and American Indians / Alaskan Natives who account for 12.9% ± 1.4% and 1.0% ± 0.4% of planetary scientists, respectively. Asian Americans / Pacific Islanders in planetary science are represented at 2.15 ± 0.24 times their representation in the NCLF. American Indians / Alaskan Natives are represented at 1.00 ± 0.42 times their representation in the NCLF; thus, analysis is inconclusive on whether this population is underrepresented. In planetary science, 12.6% ± 1.6% of the workforce identifies as lesbian/gay/bisexual, 0.8% ± 0.4% as transgender, and 1.1% ± 0.4% as gender non-binary, compared to a 2017 Gallup poll, which found that 4.5% ± 0.1% of the U.S. identified as LGBT. While Asian Americans / Pacific Islanders, American Indians / Alaskan Natives, and LGBT individuals may not be underrepresented, this does not imply they do not face systemic discrimination or other challenges related to their identities.
In this white paper, we identify trends in underrepresentation in the planetary sciences and related fields in order to inform diversity and inclusion initiatives for the coming decade. Furthermore, we provide recommendations to promote and develop an inclusive planetary science environment that acknowledges the long history of systemic oppression and discrimination of minority groups in the U.S. and in science. Further details and motivation for these recommendations follow in an accompanying white paper by Rathbun et al. (2020a).
Authors:
Edgard G. Rivera-Valentín
Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association
Julie Rathbun
Planetary Science Institute
James Tuttle Keane
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Christina Richey
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Kennda Lynch
Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association