The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engages the United States' science community, sponsors scientific research, and develops and deploys satellites and probes in collaboration with NASA's partners around the world to answer fundamental questions requiring the view from and into space.
The Science Mission Directorate also sponsors research that both enables, and is enabled by, NASA's exploration activities. The SMD portfolio is contributing to NASA's achievement of the Vision for Space Exploration by striving to:
Understand the history of Mars and the formation of the Solar System. By understanding the formation of diverse terrestrial planets (with atmospheres) in the Solar System, researchers learn more about Earth's future and the most promising opportunities for habitation beyond our planet. For example, differences in the impacts of collisional processes on Earth, the Moon, and Mars can provide clues about differences in origin and evolution of each of these bodies.
Search for Earth-like planets and habitable environments around other stars. SMD pursues multiple research strategies with the goal of developing effective astronomically-detectable signatures of biological processes. The study of the Earth-Sun system may help researchers identify atmospheric biosignatures that distinguish Earth-like (and potentially habitable) planets around nearby stars. An understanding of the origin of life and the time evolution of the atmosphere on Earth may reveal likely signatures of life on extrasolar planets.
Explore the Solar System for scientific purposes while supporting safe robotic and human exploration of space. For example, large-scale coronal mass ejections from the Sun can cause potentially lethal consequences for improperly shielded human flight systems, as well as some types of robotic systems. SMD's pursuit of interdisciplinary scientific research focus areas will help predict potentially harmful conditions in space and protect NASA's robotic and human explorers.
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The ScienceMissionDirectorate (SMD) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engages the United States' science community, sponsors...
NASA science spacecraft. Flagship missions exist within all four divisions of NASA's ScienceMissionDirectorate (SMD): the astrophysics, Earth science, heliophysics...
Observing System; advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the ScienceMissionDirectorate's Heliophysics Research Program; exploring bodies throughout the...
established in January 2016 within NASA's Planetary Science Division of the ScienceMissionDirectorate. Its mission is to look for and catalogue near-Earth objects...
Administrator for NASA's ScienceMissionDirectorate. Appointed to the position in February 2023, she is therefore NASA's head of science. She previously served...
Research Institute's Space Science and Engineering Division until becoming Associate Administrator of NASA's ScienceMissionDirectorate in 2007. He resigned...
list of NASA missions, both crewed and robotic, since the establishment of NASA in 1957. There are over 80 currently active sciencemissions. Since 1945...
Associate Administrator for the ScienceMissionDirectorate at NASA. Prior to this, he was Professor of Space Science and Aerospace Engineering at the...
Enterprises. The program is managed by the Heliophysics Science Division of NASA's ScienceMissionDirectorate. LWS is composed of three major components: scientific...
resources. The program is managed by NASA's ScienceMissionDirectorate by Doug McCuistion of the Planetary Science Division. As a result of 40% cuts to NASA's...
NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (NSSDCA) serves as the permanent archive for NASA space sciencemission data. "Space science" includes astronomy...
Survey". www.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2024-04-24. "Water Cycle | ScienceMissionDirectorate". science.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on 2018-01-15. Retrieved...
2022. Retrieved 21 October 2022. "Interplanetary Low Tide". ScienceMissionDirectorate. 3 May 2000. Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved...
2022. Retrieved August 8, 2022. "NASA Mission To Study Mysterious Lunar Twilight Rays". ScienceMissionDirectorate. September 3, 2013. Archived from the...
continue mission activities that were already defined, or to start new activities. For US probes and satellites, NASA relies on the value of the science as...
Apollo 12 Mission Report (PDF). Houston, Texas: NASA Manned Spacecraft Center. p. 5–4. "Apollo 12 Lunar Module / ALSEP". NASA Space Science Data Coordinate...
series of missions focused on studying the Sun-Earth system. It is part of NASA's Heliophysics Science Division within the ScienceMissionDirectorate. Understand...
Center (JSC). It serves as the JSC focus for support to the HQ ScienceMissionDirectorate. ARES scientists and engineers also provide support to the human...
Missions Program Office is a division of NASA headquartered at the Marshall Space Flight Center, formed by the agency's ScienceMissionDirectorate (SMD)...
Program | ScienceMissionDirectorate". "Space chemistry | Science & Technology in Action". Wikimedia Commons has media related to Space science. Institute...
executive for the Earth Science Division of NASA Headquarters' ScienceMissionDirectorate. She was awarded the 2022 Award for Science from the U.S. Council...
facility. There, AFRC houses and operates several of NASA's ScienceMissionDirectorate aircraft including SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared...
its national security mission. The Science and Technology Directorate is led by the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Science and Technology, who...
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