Nov. 7, 2012

Astronomy expert Jonathan Lunine to guide the future of human space flight

A Cornell space scientist has been tapped to help decide whether, when and why Americans will next fly in outer space.

Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences, will co-chair a new National Research Council (NRC) committee that will undertake a study on the future of the human spaceflight program, the NRC announced.

He will co-chair the study with former U.S. Secretary of Defense Bill Perry, a professor at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation.

The study will review the long-term goals, core capabilities and direction of the U.S. human spaceflight program and make recommendations to enable a sustainable program 2014-23 while considering its likely evolution 2015-30, according to the NRC.

When making its recommendations, the committee will consider previous policies; public and stakeholder input; the needs of government, industry, the economy and the public good; prior studies; and current technical capabilities. And it will identify a set of high-priority "enduring" questions, from scientific problems to engineering, cultural and social science issues, which human space exploration will address.

Congress requested the study by passing the 2010 NASA Authorization Act. That legislation directed NASA to contract the NRC to conduct the study, which officially got under way in August. NRC officials have indicated that the study will take nearly two years to complete.

Lunine, who is director of Cornell's Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, has done work that spans planetary science, theoretical astrophysics and astrobiology. He is interested in how planets form and evolve, what processes maintain and establish habitability and what kinds of exotic environments, such as methane lakes, might host chemistry sophisticated enough to be called "life." He pursues these interests through theoretical modeling and participation in spacecraft missions.

These include his work with the radar and other instruments on Cassini, the mass spectrometer data from Huygens, and as co-investigator on the Juno mission launched in 2011 to Jupiter. He is on the science team for the James Webb Space Telescope, focusing on characterization of extrasolar planets and Kuiper Belt objects. Lunine is also principal investigator for a study led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to potentially send a probe into Saturn's atmosphere in 2023. And he has contributed to mission concept studies for space-based astrometry and microlensing missions.

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Astronomy expert Jonathan Lunine to guide the future of human space flight