NASA MEPAG Memo: Mars-related NRC Decadal Survey White Papers

The following message is sent on behalf of Jack Mustard, MEPAG Chair.

To Members of the Mars Science Community,
 
The NRC’s Decadal Survey has called for white papers of up to 7 pages in length of relevance to planetary exploration (http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ssb/SSEdecadal2011.html). They have also strongly encouraged the involvement/support of multiple members of the community in each white paper to reflect important consensus positions, rather than the submission of multiple single-authored documents. Given the practicalities of the large number of Mars scientists, at the MEPAG meeting last week we agreed to the following strategy to support this process:

• The MEPAG web site (http://mepag.jpl.nasa.gov/decadal/index.html) will be used to help make the set of Mars-related white papers under preparation by different sectors of the Mars community known, and available to the community for review and consideration.
• It is most appropriate to list as authors of these documents the folks who substantively contribute to a document’s formulation.
• Members of the community are invited to endorse the white papers as “signatories”. The signatory list will either be carried on the cover sheets of the various white papers, or if too long, will be maintained in a separate supporting file (e.g. on the MEPAG web site). It is of course permitted and encouraged for members of the community to endorse more than one white paper – these documents cover independent aspects of Mars exploration. The NRC’s deadline for white paper submission is September 15, 2009, so your action on this will be needed by about September 1.
• We are working on setting up a web-based process to help collect and manage the signatory lists. We will send more information on this shortly.
• Some formal MEPAG white papers will be presented under the authorship of the MEPAG Chair on behalf of the entire organization – for these, signatories will not be requested.

For credibility, please read the paper (not just title!) before endorsing.
 
Sincerely,
Dr. Jack Mustard, MEPAG Chair