Space Science & Astrobiology

1. Space Science & Astrobiology Division Strategic Plan- “Year In Review” Opening Remarks Thursday, February 28, 2019 Location: B152, Room 171

2. 2019 Strategic Planning Retreat - Introduction • Welcome – Glad you are here ! • Thank you for all your work this past year and the effort you put into the work before the retreat, your work today, and in the next week • Today’s all-day retreat will use your insights, discussions, and outcomes in the creation of our Division’s 2019 Strategic plan

3. 2019 Strategic Planning Retreat - Introduction • Last year we worked together to develop our 2018 Strategic Plan – It focused and aligned our Division & laid out our core capabilities. • The Strategic Plan is a living document– This year, we want to examine our alignment with the agency’s goals and priorities, review our scientific capabilities, and provide an open forum for discussion and reevaluation of the Division’s strategic plan. • NASA wants and needs interdisciplinary group work to accomplish its goals. Capabilities provide this mechanism and value to the Agency.

4. Survey Data • Strengths of 2018 Strategic Plan • Increased communication and collaboration with researchers across the division • Provided the opportunity to create cross discipline teams • Focused attention on what we do as a division, so we can share it with others (other Directorates, Center Management, HQ) and work toward a greater goal • Used the plan to support focus on ISFM work packages. • Catalyzed teamwork that is leading to ideas for proposals • Opportunities/Challenges this past year • Not all work was represented in the plan and left some feeling their work was not as valued by the division • There needs to be more refinement; focus on implementation, and specific tangible goals

5. Schedule & Goals 9:15 – 11:15 team presentations (5 slides, 15 min each) Goal: To Recap our Division Capabilities and the Year’s progress The Road to a Capability – Jeff H. Afternoon Plan – Stacy and Sarah Goal: To facilitate productive, strategic conversation and multidisciplinary thinking Lunch – 12:15– 1:00 1:00 – 2:30 First break out session - ~10 groups 2:45-4:15 Second break out session - 5 groups Goal: Develop science and technology strategies aligned with our capabilities and the Agency Needs 4:15 – Five groups report out

6. Strategic Planning Retreat Outcomes • Discuss and develop 3-4 main science and /or technology goals that Division capabilities can address. What • science and technology gaps and/or • mission support areas and/or • agency aligned research needs • do your goals support. Consider Agency direction and alignment as discussed in the various documents made available for review. • List one action that we collectively, within the SS Division, need to focus on/implement to enable strategic performance of your science over the next few years. • List the most striking thing that came up from the afternoon conversations.

7. BACKUP SLIDES

8. Science Gaps: Realizing NASA’s Life Detection Goals • Additional incorporation of biological understanding into the field • Improved capability to predict the expression of photosynthesis in different stellar-planetary environments • Evaluation of potential new biosignatures, both surface and gaseous, and consideration of their false positives • Characterizethe physical and chemical properties of biogenic small volatile gases • Model fundamental abiotic processes under planetary conditions different than our own • Development 3-D general circulation models (GCMs) for exoplanets, esp. to simulate biosignatures • Expansion of coupling of 1-D planetary models with different stellar inputs • Accounting of all model uncertainties

9. Science Gaps: Realizing NASA’s Exoplanet Program Goals 1. Spectral characterization of atmospheres of small exoplanets 2. Modeling exoplanetatmospheres 3. Spectral signature retrieval 4. Planetary system architectures: occurrence rates for exoplanetsof all sizes 5. Occurrence rates and uncertainties for small planets (eta-Earth) 6. Yield estimation for exoplanet direct imaging missions 7. Improve target lists and compilations of stellar parameters for exoplanet missions in operation or under study 8. Mitigating stellar jitter as limitation to sensitivity of dynamical methods to detect exoplanetsand measure their masses and orbits 9. Dynamical confirmation of exoplanet candidates and determination of their masses and orbits 10. Precursor surveys of direct imaging targets 11. Understanding the abundance and distribution of exozodiacal dust 12. Measurements of accurate transiting planet radii

10. Science Gaps: NAS Exoplanet Science Strategy • Understand the formation and evolution of planetary systems as a product of star formation • Characterize and explain the diversity of planetary architectures, compositions, and environments • Protoplanetary disks, young planets, planet systems, and planet-star separations • Determine masses, radii, and (density) atmospheres of planets • Identify potentially habitable planetary environments • Connect these to the planetary systems in which they reside • Distinguish signatures of life vs. non-biological processes • NASA: WFIRST: microlensing & coronagraphs, JWST, RCNs (theory, lab, observations) • NSF: TMT/GMT - high resolution optical/IR spectrographs

11. Capabilities and Teams

12. Missions and Mission Support Instrumentation