AAS ACTION ALERT 2004-01

SUMMARY

This Action Alert calls upon AAS members to contact their members of congress to repair the cuts to the Sun-Earth
Connection Division (SEC) of the Office of Space Science in
the President's FY 2005 budget submission. (Subsequent
Action Alerts will focus on other critical areas: SEU,
explorer class missions, etc.)

While the proposed cuts are intended to support the
proposed exploration vision set forth by the President,
they will severely limit the Division's ability to support
exploration of the moon and Mars. The proposed changes to
the SEC are not consistent with NASA's previous long range
plans as described in the Decadal Survey, and the
implications of these changes should be carefully
considered. We all recognize that these proposals are
coming at a time when the federal budget is extremely
tight. However, the proposed cuts will limit our ability
to make new discoveries about the workings of the Sun-Earth system, at the time when those discoveries are most needed
to support the proposed exploration initiative.

We are asking that congress restore funding for programs
within the SEC Division that have been cut: the Explorer
line, the Solar-Terrestrial Probe line, the sub-orbital
program and associated Guest Investigator and SR&T programs.

THE PROBLEM

The effect of the President's budget on the SEC is most
easily seen at the top level:

                                      2005     2006     2007    2008
FY 2004 SEC Request     959     1111    1169     1216
FY 2005 SEC Request     746       781      788      958

This table shows the difference in SEC funding over four
years and is available online at :

http://www.nasa.gov/about/budget/archive_FY04_budget.html
(click on "View Budget Summary Table") http://www.nasa.gov/about/budget/
(click on "Agency Summary Table")

The detailed cuts are to the Explorer line (which includes
all of the SMEX and MIDEX programs), S-T Probe mission
line, delays of new starts, flat funding of the sub-orbital program and associated cuts to guest investigator programs, SR&T and mission operations.

Under the President's FY 2005 budget request to Congress,
the Sun-Earth Connection theme is slated to receive a
reduction of 9.5 million to a proposed funding level of
$746 million overall. This is a $200M (20%) cut from last year's requested SEC budget. The previous budget was
consistent with the detailed planning processes of the
Roadmap and Decadal Survey, the present budget derails
those plans.

Full budget details are available at http://www1.nasa.gov/about/budget/.
(click on "Sun-Earth Connection" for specific information)

BACKGROUND

The goal of Sun-Earth Connection Division of OSS is to
"Understand the Sun, the heliosphere, and planetary
environments as a single connected system."

To accomplish this goal the SEC Roadmap set forth three
science objectives that were incorporated into the NASA
Strategic Plan:

(1) Explore the fundamental physical processes of space
plasma systems;

(2) Understand the changing flow of energy and matter
throughout the Sun, heliosphere and planetary environment;

(3) Define the origins and societal impacts of variability
in the Sun-Earth connection. It is recognized that in order
to satisfy the NASA goal, progress must be made in each of
the above science objectives. The SEC has a vital role to
play in improving our understanding of the space
environment and developing the scientific underpinnings of
space weather.

The proposed plan recognizes the importance of the SEC
Living With a Star (LWS) program, but suffers in that the
effects of space weather cannot be addressed without
continued scientific progress in all areas of the SEC
program. In complex interconnected systems, continuous
improvements in forecasting can only occur as a result of
increased scientific understanding. The SEC concept of two
mission lines (LWS and Solar-Terrestrial Probe) is designed
to address the dual requirements for immediate improvements
and sustained development.

The ability to understand the Sun, the heliosphere, the
near-Earth environment as well as accurately forecast space
weather has significant value for the American people and
their space infrastructure. This message should be brought
to the attention of legislators in defense of a robust SEC
funding portfolio.

REQUESTED ACTION

AAS members -- especially SPD members -- are requested to contact both their own members of Congress and the specific
key appropriations committee members listed below to
request that these significant decreases, which threaten
the science research necessary to continue to improve our
solar predictive capability required to support the
President's exploration initiative and continue a balanced
program of scientific exploration, be restored at least to
their FY 2004 levels. We must help members of Congress help
us, and except for a few specialists, this portion of the
budget is relatively hidden. A sample letter is included
below after the addresses of the key appropriations
committee members.

WHO TO CONTACT

Please write your own members of Congress.

Their contact information can be found by using the
AAS Zip-To-It tool available at:

http://www.aas.org/policy/aas.bios.html

In addition, please contact:

Sherwood L. Boehlert, Chair (R-NY) and
Bart Gordon, Ranking Member (D-TN)
House Committee On Science
2320 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-6371
Fax: 202-226-0113

The Honorable Senator Christopher S. Bond
Senate VA-HUD-IA Appropriations Subcommittee
United States Senate
274 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-2503
Phone: 202-224-5721
FAX: 202-224-8149

The Honorable Barbara A. Mikulski
Senate VA-HUD-IA Appropriations Subcommittee
United States Senate
709 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2003
Phone: 202-224-4654
FAX: 202-224-8858

The Honorable James T. Walsh
House VA-HUD-IA Appropriations Subcommittee
United States House of Representatives
2369 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-3225
Phone: 202-225-3701
FAX: 202-225-4042

The Honorable Alan B. Mollohan
House VA-HUD-IA Appropriations Subcommittee
United States House of Representatives
2302 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-4801
Phone: 202-225-4172
FAX: 202-225-7564

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Senator Sunspot,

President Bush has proposed a bold new space exploration
initiative in order to advance U.S. scientific, security,
and economic interests. The initiative is exciting and
potentially very worthwhile; however, the proposed
implementation has serious shortcomings for the broader
space science program. The program is very expensive and
would require significant new funds, but the President's
plan instead calls for diverting existing funds from
ongoing, critical research areas, which in addition to
their intrinsic merit, are critical for the success of the
exploration initiative itself. These areas have been given
high priority in extensive, formal planning studies
conducted by both NASA and National Academy of Science.
In particular, funding for the Sun-Earth Connections (SEC)
Division of NASA's Space Science Enterprise would be
reduced from the planned levels by 27 % over the next 4
years. Such a reduction is entirely inconsistent with the
motivations given by the President for his new initiative: science, security, and economics.

Research supported by the SEC Division is producing
fundamental scientific breakthroughs, while spectacular
new images of the dynamic Sun are awing the American public
and inspiring the next generation of scientists. But
perhaps even more importantly, great progress is being made
in solving the mysteries of "space weather." Space weather
refers to events on the Sun that disturb the space
environment and cause numerous problems for humans and
technological systems. These include the incapacitation of
satellites; the disruption of communication, navigation,
surveillance, and weapons guidance systems; and the downing
of electrical power grids. The impacts on the economy and
national security of our country are profound. In addition,
human exploration of the Moon and Mars is will be
jeopardized without the capability of predicting space
weather, since astronauts are susceptible to harmful and
even lethal doses of particle radiation when they are
outside the protective shield of the Earth's magnetic
field.

For these reasons, I encourage you to support the research program within NASA's Sun-Earth Connections Division. Vital progress in understanding and predicting space weather
requires healthy funding for all of SEC's programs:
including the Explorer line of small-to-medium-sized
missions, the Solar-Terrestrial Probes line of larger
missions, the sub-orbital program that helps develop new
instrumentation and brings young scientists into the field
and the associated research programs that fund the nearly
all of scientific return on the nations investment in space
research.

I want to offer my help to you and your office in any way I can. I am available to provide expert information and
advice on this matter and any matter related to solar
research or astronomy in general. If you would like a tour
of our facilities at any point, I can work with our
administration to coordinate your visit. Please do not
hesitate to contact me and I hope that with your help,
we can restore the funding necessary to support the
valuable solar research programs. The strategic planning
documents of NASA and the National Academy of Sciences can
be found at
http://spacescience.nasa.gov/admin/pubs/strategy/2003/index.html
and http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bpa/aanm.html).
Thank you for giving this matter your serious attention.

Sincerely,

Professor Sunz E. Ruptin
Greater Western Research College of Eastern North Dakota ___________________________________________________________

[Mailed to US members from aas.org at 3:55pm 24 FEBRUARY 2004]

To read previous AAS Informational Emails visit
www.aas.org/policy/InformationalEmails.html
To read previous AAS Action Alerts visit
www.aas.org/policy/ActionAlerts.html
Comments and questions to: mailto:marvel@aas.org
Changes of address to: mailto:address@aas.org