Planetary Research and Analysis Programs are
the Foundation of our Solar System Exploration Enterprise
In solar system exploration we do not build and launch an
expensive spacecraft and then decide where we want to go and what
we want to do when we get there! Also we do not want to be
answering scientific questions that could be more easily and less
expensively done from groundbased facilities, laboratories or a
researcher's office.
Planetary research programs provide the foundation upon which our
nation's solar system exploration program is built. Having
committed to the robotic exploration of the solar system, these
programs are the 'homework' we do to determine what we can learn
about the population, history, and processes ongoing elsewhere in
order to identify those problems that can be best and most
cost-effectively addressed by actually going there.
Planetary research programs also provide the critical context
within which we learn from the data sent back by our spacecraft and
leverage additional knowledge from it. Far more than from the
immediate splash of new pictures and press releases, it is here
that the tax-payer reaps the benefit on their investment in our
robotic exploration program.
Just like an engineer will wring out a new car engine on a race
track, planetary scientists take our understanding and models of
how atmospheres work, how geological processes are manifest, how
things move, what kind of impact and radiation environment we live
in, and endless other questions that have practical consequences
when applied to our everyday lives, and wring them out on the race
track of the solar system - using spacecraft, groundbased
telescopes, laboratories and paper and pencil in an office.
These programs are also a principal source of funding for training
graduate students and postdoctoral scientists. They allow us to
maintain the critical skills and capabilities to continue American
leadership in solar system exploration.