Advancing Space Exploration

Many new opportunities for fundamental, paradigm-shifting discoveries that may cross the conventional boundaries of scientific disciplines await.

If the United States is to remain collaborative and competitive in this research environment over the coming decade, investment in the next generation of BPS researchers will be as important as financing research activities.

Supporting the Biological and Physical Sciences Community

A healthy and sustainable BPS workforce is vital to develop innovative breakthroughs and engage in space-related activities that will grow the economy and uphold national

leadership during the next decade. Global circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and economic instability pose challenges to the growth and strength of the workforce.

Many of the impressive research outcomes in BPS research have come from the gradual rebuilding, resourcing, and coordination of the U.S. academic space science research community with NASA-employed scientists; divisions of other government agencies that share scientific goals; industry entities that serve as technical solution providers, research collaborators, or sponsors; and the international community of space explorers, including those whose partnerships have sustained ISS operations and access for BPS experiments.

Much work remains to ensure that NASA’s funding levels and investments are sufficient to train, engage, and maintain workforce spanning multiple disciplines, career stages, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Broadening Participation

The persistent and troubling concerns of underrepresented groups in BPS research requires further work to broaden participation at all levels of the research enterprise. NASA should ensure that diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility are integral to the nation’s space exploration science priorities. This should include instituting a requirement

of documented progress in diversity among NASA-sponsored research teams seeking multiyear funding or multiple sponsorship requests over the coming decade. This inclusivity should be intentionally broad in concept, with respect to visible and less visible characteristics of historically underrepresented groups in BPS research and leadership.

Access to Space

Access to spaceflight and the wide range of platforms where BPS research is undertaken—including remote environments on Earth, suborbital flights, Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars—is essential for building a strong BPS program. The NASA BPS Division should work with the Space Technology Mission Directorate to coordinate funding opportunities and provide access to space platforms, particularly for research that informs technology development for space exploration.

While the ISS has been a critical platform for BPS research, it is nearing retirement and will be replaced by new capabilities before the end of the decade. New innovations from the private sector have reduced launch costs and opened new opportunities for space exploration. In this shifting landscape, the nation’s BPS research will depend on the development of commercial space platforms.

NASA should actively engage and collaborate with commercial spaceflight firms to ensure that national science needs are met. NASA should establish an office or mechanism for commercial sponsorship and collaboration with government research agencies and academia.

Open Science

Investment by NASA and the U.S. government in open science—curated, maintained databases and physical repositories—has been critical to the ability to gain more insight and value from each research project than could be achieved by only the original investigator team.

Findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable access principles for research data and artifacts will also become increasingly important. Continued emphasis on open science encourages the research community to use existing data for improved (or reduced) design of experiments and offers the potential to build the space science research community beyond those investigators who are directly funded to generate such data. NASA should continue to expand the investment in open

and shared computational infrastructure to support storage, analysis, and dissemination of its biological and physical data, while ensuring linkage to the original and archived samples.

Responsible Research and Partnerships

Space exploration in the next decade will be undertaken in a landscape of conflicting national and corporate interests. More than 70 space agencies exist around the world, dominated by nations that are technologically advanced or with a well-financed military presence, and more are predicted to join this group. Moreover, private space entrepreneurship is expected to grow, and companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin are developing private human spaceflight and venturing into research and development.

Sustaining national leadership and advancement of human knowledge for a thriving and economically robust society serve as key motivators for the growth of a diverse and ethical BPS community. As the BPS mission continues to expand, many rapidly developing considerations pose ethical challenges that need to be addressed. While space exploration is motivated by scientific discovery, it also is motivated by resource extraction and allocation, geopolitical and strategic considerations, and the need to ensure the public trust.

NASA should continue to facilitate appropriate international partnerships on behalf of the BPS community that requires access to space. NASA should work with appropriate government agencies to establish clear guidelines for international collaborations within BPS, with the goals of advancing U.S. leadership in BPS research, fostering responsible partnerships with other space programs, and enabling U.S. access to other nations’ ground-based and space research assets.

It is critical that the BPS Division, and NASA as a whole, work to build public trust and ensure that space exploration moves forward in a transparent, responsible manner where the benefits are shared. This includes expanding efforts to communicate to the public about the value of BPS research.

“Sustaining national leadership and advancement of human knowledge for a thriving and economically robust society serve as key motivators for the growth of a diverse and ethical BPS community.”