The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has released its 2024 Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey, produced by a steering committee that was co-chaired by Robyn Millan, the Margaret Anne and Edward Leede '49 Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy.
The National Academies' decadal surveys bring together leading experts to identify a field's most compelling science challenges for the next decade and beyond. These assessments prioritize questions for the next decade, taking into account research and technology infrastructure, interagency coordination, and international cooperation. They also provide recommendations for programmatic directions and priorities for government investment in research and facilities.
Millan was selected to lead the survey in 2022, with Stephen Fuselier, executive director of the Space Science Directorate at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.
The Dec. 5 report, titled The Next Decade of Discovery in Solar and Space Physics: Exploring and Safeguarding Humanity's Home in Space, presents a vision for solar and space physics to advance understanding of physics in space; comprehend the nature of the complex interactions between Earth, the sun, and the surrounding space environment; safeguard Earth from the harmful effects of space weather; and support human space exploration.
The authors propose that NASA funding roughly double from $879 million annually to $1.65 billion over the next decade, in support of two large missions: a spacecraft to orbit the poles of the sun, and a constellation of more than two dozen satellites around Earth to understand the sun's interaction with Earth's space environment and it;s magnetic field.
"We've got great science and to do this program that we put forward is going to require investment," Millan said in Space News. "We've seen other divisions of NASA grow at this same level that we're recommending when they're proposing to do really high-priority and exciting science."
The report also urges the National Science Foundation to upgrade a network of ground telescopes to observe seismic ripples on the sun and advocates for more coordination among researchers and institutions, including a potential new name for the heliophysics field.
"We do great science. You don't need a name for that. But what it could do is benefit us by raising the visibility of the field," Millan said in Science Magazine. "When you're an astrophysicist or an astronomer, I think most people know what that means. NASA uses heliophysics. I think most people don't know what that means."
The report was co-sponsored by NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
