White Paper on the Value of Participating Scientist Programs
A white paper has been posted to the LPI website, regarding the value of Participating Scientist (PS) programs within NASA’s planetary mission portfolio. The paper, led by LPI Director Louise Prockter and coauthored by representatives of the NASA Analysis and Assessment groups (including Jeff Johnson and Serina Diniega of MEPAG), is based on data collected from surveys of the planetary science community and mission leadership. Overwhelming support was found for PS programs, which provide significant value in increasing intellectual and demographic diversity among mission science teams. The white paper’s authors conclude that greater consistency in timing, funding, and approach could make PS programs even more effective and useful to NASA; as a result, they make eight recommendations, including that PS programs should be included on every planetary mission.
The paper is available at:
Additionally, a link to this paper is included on the MEPAG webpage, under Mars Community Announcements:
