Living With a Star
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Living With a Star (LWS) is a NASA scientific program to study those aspects of the connected Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. LWS is a crosscutting initiative with goals and objectives relevant to NASA's Exploration Initiative, as well as to NASA's Strategic Enterprises. The program is managed by the Heliophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
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[edit] General
LWS is composed of three major components: Scientific investigations on spaceflight platforms study different regions of the Sun, interplanetary space, and geospace; an applied science program Space Environment Testbeds where protocols and components are tested; and a Targeted Research and Technology Program. All are described below.
[edit] Spaceflight Segment
The first two science missions are now in development: Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP). The SDO mission is currently scheduled for launch around August 2008.[1]
Science requirements and conceptual mission implementation have been defined for the Ionosphere-Thermosphere Storm Probes (ITSP) and the Solar Sentinels.
[edit] Space Environment Testbeds
SET uses existing data and new data from low-cost SET missions to achieve the following: Define the mechanisms for induced space environment and effects; reduce uncertainties in the definitions of the induced environment and effects on spacecraft and their payloads; and to improve design and operations guidelines and test protocols so that spacecraft anomalies and failures due to environmental effects during operations are reduced.
[edit] Targeted Research and Technology (TR&T)
With the 2001 inception of the LWS Program, new opportunities were created for a systematic, goal-oriented research program targeting those aspects of the Sun-Earth system that affect life and society. To provide immediate progress toward achieving the LWS goals, the Targeted Research and Technology (TR&T) component of the program was developed. The TR&T element has solicited five rounds of proposals seeking quantitative understanding and predictive capability throughout the system. TR&T has funded independent research awards, focused science topic panels, and strategic capability challenges to enable a cross-disciplinary, integrated, system-wide understanding of how the Sun varies, and how Earth and planets respond. The focused science topic panels are a novel approach to collaborative science, and initial results appear promising.
