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EXPLORATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM: 

FROM MERCURY TO PLUTO AND BEYOND 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND 

TECHNOLOGY 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

July 28, 2015 

Serial No. 114–34 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://science.house.gov 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY 

HON. LAMAR S. SMITH, Texas, Chair 

FRANK D. LUCAS, Oklahoma 

F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., 

Wisconsin 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

RANDY NEUGEBAUER, Texas 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois 

BILL POSEY, Florida 

THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky 

JIM BRIDENSTINE, Oklahoma 

RANDY K. WEBER, Texas 

BILL JOHNSON, Ohio 

JOHN R. MOOLENAAR, Michigan 

STEVE KNIGHT, California 

BRIAN BABIN, Texas 

BRUCE WESTERMAN, Arkansas 

BARBARA COMSTOCK, Virginia 

DAN NEWHOUSE, Washington 

GARY PALMER, Alabama 

BARRY LOUDERMILK, Georgia 

RALPH LEE ABRAHAM, Louisiana 

EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas 

ZOE LOFGREN, California 

DANIEL LIPINSKI, Illinois 

DONNA F. EDWARDS, Maryland 

SUZANNE BONAMICI, Oregon 

ERIC SWALWELL, California 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

AMI BERA, California 

ELIZABETH H. ESTY, Connecticut 

MARC A. VEASEY, Texas 

KATHERINE M. CLARK, Massachusetts 

DON S. BEYER, JR., Virginia 

ED PERLMUTTER, Colorado 

PAUL TONKO, New York 

MARK TAKANO, California 

BILL FOSTER, Illinois 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

July 28, 2015 

Page 

Witness List ............................................................................................................. 2 

Hearing Charter ...................................................................................................... 3 

Opening Statements 

Statement by Representative Lamar S. Smith, Chairman, Committee on 

Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives ..................... 13 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 14 

Statement by Representative Brian Babin, Chairman, Subcommittee on 

Space, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives ........................................................................................................... 15 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 15 

Statement by Representative Donna F. Edwards, Ranking Minority Member, 

Subcommittee on Space, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, 

U.S. House of Representatives ............................................................................ 15 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 17 

Witnesses: 

Dr. John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate, 

NASA 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 19 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 22 

Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator, New Horizons Mission, Southwest 

Research Institute 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 40 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 43 

Dr. Christopher Russell, Principal Investigator, Dawn Mission; Professor of 

Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California Los Angeles 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 98 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 100 

Dr. Robert Pappalardo, Study Scientist, Europa Mission Concept, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 112 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 114 

Dr. Robert Braun, David and Andrew Lewis Professor of Space Technology, 

Georgia Institute of Technology 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 118 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 120 

Discussion ................................................................................................................. 130

Appendix I: Answers to Post-Hearing Questions 

Dr. John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate, 

NASA ..................................................................................................................... 154 

Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator, New Horizons Mission, Southwest 

Research Institute ................................................................................................ 169 

Dr. Christopher Russell, Principal Investigator, Dawn Mission; Professor of 

Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California Los Angeles ...... 174 
Page

IV 

Dr. Robert Pappalardo, Study Scientist, Europa Mission Concept, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA ........................................................................................ 179 

Dr. Robert Braun, David and Andrew Lewis Professor of Space Technology, 

Georgia Institute of Technology ..........................................................................

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 186 

Appendix II: Additional Material for the Record 

Statement submitted for the record by Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, 

Ranking Member, Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. 

House of Representatives .................................................................................... 198 
(1) 

EXPLORATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM: 

FROM MERCURY TO PLUTO AND BEYOND 

TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2015 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, SPACE, AND TECHNOLOGY, 

Washington, D.C. 

The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:04 a.m., in Room 

2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Lamar Smith 

[Chairman of the Committee] presiding. 
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The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:01 a.m., in Room 

2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Lamar Smith 

[Chairman of the Committee] presiding. 

Chairman SMITH. The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology will come to order. 

Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare recesses of 

the Committee at any time. 

Welcome to today’s hearing entitled ‘‘Exploration of the Solar 

System: From Mercury to Pluto and Beyond.’’ I’ll now recognize 

myself for an opening statement and then the Ranking Member. 

The exploration of our universe captures Americans’ interests, inspires us to pursue extraordinary goals, and keeps us on the forefront of scientific achievement. It also is what NASA was created 

to do. 

Since 1958, NASA has led the world in space exploration with a 

long list of firsts: NASA built, launched, and operated the first 

spacecraft to encounter another planet, the first spacecraft to leave 

our solar system, and the first spacecraft to take humans to the 

moon. 

Earlier this month, the New Horizons spacecraft achieved another American first by being the first spacecraft to reach Pluto. 

The photos and data sent back to Earth continue to capture the 

imagination of people around the world. These pictures show 

mountains of water ice, caverns deeper than the Grand Canyon, 

and evidence of geologic activity. And while we may not resolve debates about Pluto’s planetary status today, at least one thing is for 

certain: Pluto has a heart. And this is just the beginning. It will 

take up to 16 months for all of the data from the Pluto system 

flyby to be downloaded. 

NASA, the Southwest Research Institute, the Applied Physics 

Laboratory, and the New Horizons team deserve our appreciation 

for the successful mission to Pluto. 

NASA also has ongoing missions to explore Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the asteroid belt. The Dawn mission to Ceres and Vesta 

continues to transmit impressive images and important science. 

Juno is on its way to Jupiter, scheduled to arrive next year, and 

pave the way for a future mission to Europa. These missions are 

the result of investments made a decade ago or longer. 

It is crucial that NASA continue to explore our solar system. 

Planetary science teaches us about how our solar system works and 

provides clues about how it was formed. Planetary missions discover the locations of minerals and potential water sources on asteroids, comets, moons, and planets that could be used on human 

missions or extracted for use here on Earth. 

Space exploration also inspires the next generation of young people to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. 

Today, young students across the country are reading about New 

Horizons, looking at photographs of Pluto, and are excited about 

one day exploring the cosmos themselves and making new discoveries. 

Unfortunately, the Obama Administration’s past and present 

proposed cuts to planetary science and exploration at NASA have 

made it clear these endeavors are not its priority. The Administra-
14 

tion’s fiscal year 2016 request cut funding for planetary science by 

$77 million from fiscal year 2015 levels. 

Our Committee’s NASA Authorization Act for fiscal year 2016 

and 2017 restores these crucial funds to the science and exploration 

accounts. Funding levels requested by the Obama Administration 

would slow the rate at which we can develop, build, and launch 

new missions like New Horizons. This Committee’s bill, and the 

funding levels approved in the House, would allow NASA to keep 

planetary missions like New Horizons on track. So I urge the Administration to support this commonsense, balanced, and reasonable approach, which will keep us on the forefront of space exploration and discovery. 

I do thank our witnesses for being here today. We look forward 

to their testimony in just a minute. 

[The prepared statement of Chairman Smith follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN LAMAR S. SMITH

The exploration of our universe captures Americans’ interests, inspires us to pursue extraordinary goals, and keeps us on the forefront of scientific achievement. It 

also is what NASA was created to do. 

Since 1958, NASA has led the world in space exploration with a long list of firsts: 

NASA built, launched, and operated the first spacecraft to encounter another planet, 

the first spacecraft to leave our solar system, and the first spacecraft to take humans to the Moon. 

Earlier this month, the New Horizons spacecraft achieved another American first 

by being the first spacecraft to reach Pluto. 

The photos and data sent back to Earth continue to capture the imagination of 

people around the world. These pictures show mountains of water ice, caverns deeper than the Grand Canyon, and evidence of geologic activity. 

And while we may not resolve debates about Pluto’s planetary status today, at 

least one thing is for certain: Pluto has heart! 

And this is just the beginning. It will take up to 16 months for all of the data 

from the Pluto system flyby to be downloaded. 

NASA, the Southwest Research Institute, the Applied Physics Laboratory, and the 

New Horizons team deserve our appreciation for the successful mission to Pluto. 

NASA also has ongoing missions to explore Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the asteroid belt. The Dawn mission to Ceres and Vesta continues to transmit impressive images and important science. 

Juno is on its way to Jupiter, scheduled to arrive next year, and pave the way 

for a future mission to Europa. These missions are the result of investments made 

a decade ago or longer. 

It is crucial that NASA continue to explore our solar system. Planetary science 

teaches us about how our solar system works and provides clues about how it was 

formed. 

Planetary missions discover the locations of minerals and potential water sources 

on asteroids, comets, moons, and planets that could be used on human missions or 

extracted for use here on Earth. 

Space exploration inspires the next generation of young people to pursue careers 

in science, technology, engineering, and math. 

Today, young students across the country are reading about New Horizons, looking at pictures of Pluto, and are excited about one day exploring the cosmos themselves and making new discoveries. 

Unfortunately, the Obama Administration’s past and present proposed cuts to 

planetary science and exploration at NASA have made it clear these endeavors are 

not its priority. The Administration’s Fiscal Year 2016 request cut funding for planetary science by $77 million from Fiscal Year 2015 levels. 

Our Committee’s NASA Authorization Act for FY16 and FY17 restores these crucial funds to the science and exploration accounts. 

Funding levels requested by the Obama administration would slow the rate at 

which we can develop, build and launch new missions like New Horizons. This Committee’s bill, and the funding levels approved in the House, would allow NASA to 

keep planetary missions like New Horizons on track. 
15 

I urge the Administration to support this common sense, balanced, and reasonable 

approach, which will keep us on the forefront of space exploration and discovery. 

I thank the witnesses for being here today and look forward to hearing their testimony. 

Chairman SMITH. And I’m going to yield the balance of my time 

to the gentleman from Texas, the Chairman of the Space Subcommittee, Bruce Babin. 

Mr. BABIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Space exploration is a challenging endeavor that distinguishes 

the United States as a global leader, supports innovation and economic growth, and inspires the next generation to build, explore, 

and to discover. 

The success of the Dawn mission to the asteroid Ceres and the 

New Horizons mission to Pluto demonstrate the national importance of space exploration and planetary science. Unfortunately, 

year after year, the Obama Administration has consistently cut 

funding and deprioritized NASA space exploration and planetary 

science. It is imperative that Congress continue to reject the Administration’s cuts and support a well-funded exploration program. 

My congratulations to Dr. Stern, NASA, and the New Horizons 

team on a successful mission to Pluto, and I thank all the witnesses for being here today and look forward to their testimony. 

And I yield back the balance of my time, Mr. Chairman. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Babin follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE

CHAIRMAN BRIAN BABIN

Space exploration is a challenging endeavor that distinguishes the United States 

as a global leader, supports innovation and economic growth, and inspires the next 

generation to build, explore, and discover. 

The success of the Dawn mission to the asteroid Ceres and the New Horizons mission to Pluto demonstrate the national importance of space exploration and planetary science. 

Unfortunately, year after year, the Obama Administration has consistently cut 

funding and deprioritized NASA space exploration and planetary science. It is imperative that Congress continue to reject the Administration’s cuts and support a 

well-funded exploration program. 

My congratulations to Dr. Stern, NASA, and the New Horizons team on a successful mission to Pluto. I thank the witnesses for being here today and look forward 

to their testimony. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Babin. 

The gentlewoman from Maryland, Ms. Edwards, the Ranking 

Member today, is recognized for her opening statement. 

Ms. EDWARDS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank 

you to the witnesses. Good morning. And I appreciate being able 

to sit here on behalf of our Ranking Member, Congresswoman 

Eddie Bernice Johnson, who’s on travel out of the country today 

with the President. 

I want to join the Chairman in welcoming our witnesses in today’s hearing. And we have such a distinguished panel so I truly 

do look forward to your testimony. 

I believe we live in rather extraordinary times. We could see 

from the successful flyby of Pluto just two weeks ago and the announcement last week that an Earthlike planet had been discovered in the habitable zone of another star’s solar system are just 

the most recent examples of the tremendous accomplishments that 
16 

have been made in planetary science and space exploration in recent years. 

And it’s quite notable that all of the solar system exploration 

missions that NASA has undertaken over the past half-century 

have raised as many exciting new research questions as they’ve answered. That is the nature of space exploration and it’s why it’s so 

important for this nation to continue to support it. 

The New Horizons mission to Pluto is also a reminder of how 

challenging solar system missions really are. The nine-year flight 

to Pluto was preceded by years of design and engineering work to 

produce the spacecraft and instruments and the trajectory that 

made New Horizons a success. 

I do want to salute the entire New Horizons team for their dedication and hard work over these many years and I’m sure that Dr. 

Stern will have much more to stay about the work that went into 

making the mission a success, but I also want to acknowledge and 

take note of the significant role played by Dr. Tom Krimigis and 

the Maryland-based Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. 

You can tell we’re very proud of APL and the development and execution of the New Horizons spacecraft and mission. They and the 

entire Pluto mission team can take pride in what has been accomplished. 

Mr. Chairman, the Nation is making great progress in the exploration of our solar system. However, that progress has been made 

possible in large part by the investments in technology development that our predecessors had the foresight to fund. Frankly, it’s 

now our turn as Members of Congress to show the same vision and 

I hope we will, by the time this year’s funding battles get resolved, 

show that kind of commitment. We owe it to the dedicated scientists and engineers represented here today to do that. 

Yet progress in solar system exploration is not just a question of 

funding. Those funds will need to be invested judiciously to ensure 

that NASA has the right technological capabilities in the years 

ahead. In addition, there will need to be clear and thoughtful 

prioritization of research objectives because there really is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to exciting new potential mission concepts. That’s where the Decadal Surveys of the National 

Academies can continue to play a very useful role. 

As Members of Congress, we all may have our own favorite destinations and missions, but it’s important that the scientific community be at the forefront to determine priorities that address the 

most compelling scientific questions while ensuring that the Planetary Science program remains an appropriate balance across research fields. In the meantime, today’s hearing is a wonderful opportunity to hear about some of the exciting results from missions 

now underway, as well as those being contemplated, and I truly 

cannot wait to hear from our witnesses. 

And I would say just in closing a reminder to us that this work, 

as you all have described, is difficult, it’s complex, and the last 

thing that you need are Members of Congress meddling in the scientific work. And so I look forward to hearing from you about what 

is going on now and what the prospects are. And I would like us 

as Members of Congress to step aside, make sure that we provide 

you the resources that you need, and expect that we may not know 
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the value of that for 50 years in the running. And I am indeed okay 

with that. 

Thank you, and I yield. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Edwards follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SUBCOMMITTEE ON SPACE

RANKING MINORITY MEMBER DONNA F. EDWARDS

Good morning. I want to join the Chairman in welcoming our witnesses to today’s 

hearing. We have a distinguished panel, and I look forward to your testimony. 

Mr. Chairman, we live in extraordinary times. The successful flyby of Pluto just 

two weeks ago and the announcement last week that an Earth-like planet had been 

discovered in the ′′habitable zone′′ of another star’s solar system are just the most 

recent examples of the tremendous accomplishments that have been made in planetary science and space exploration in recent years. 

And it’s notable that all of the solar system exploration missions that NASA has 

undertaken over the past half-century have raised as many exciting new research 

questions as they have answered. That is the nature of space exploration, and why 

it is so important for this nation to continue to support it. 

The New Horizons mission to Pluto is also a reminder of how challenging solar 

system missions really are. The nine year flight to Pluto was preceded by years of 

design and engineering work to produce the spacecraft and instruments and the trajectory that made New Horizons a success. 

I want to salute the entire New Horizons team for their dedication and hard work 

over those many years. 

I’m sure Dr. Stern will have more to say about the work that went into making 

the mission a success, but I would like to note the significant role played by Dr. 

Tom Krimigis and the Maryland-based Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory 

in the development and execution of the New Horizons spacecraft and mission. They 

and the entire Pluto mission team can take pride in what has been accomplished. 

Mr. Chairman, this nation is making great progress in the exploration of our solar 

system. However, that progress has been made possible in large part by the investments in technology development that our predecessors had the foresight to fund. 

It is now our turn as Members of Congress to show the same vision, and I hope 

that we will by the time this year’s funding battles get resolved. We owe it to the 

dedicated scientists and engineers represented here today to do so. Yet progress in 

solar system exploration is not just a question of funding. Those funds will need to 

be invested judiciously to ensure that NASA has the right technological capabilities 

in the years ahead. 

In addition, there will need to be clear and thoughtful prioritization of research 

objectives, because there really is an ‘‘embarrassment of riches’’ when it comes to 

exciting new potential mission concepts. That is where the Decadal Surveys of the 

National Academies can continue to play a very useful role. 

As Members of Congress, we all may have our own favorite destinations and missions, but it is important that the scientific community be able to determine priorities that address the most compelling scientific questions while ensuring that the 

planetary science program maintains an appropriate balance across research fields. 

In the meantime, today’s hearing is a wonderful opportunity to hear about some 

of the exciting results from missions now underway as well as those being contemplated, and I can’t wait to hear from our witnesses. 

Thank you, and I yield back. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Ms. Edwards. 

And let me introduce our panel today. Our first witness is Dr. 

John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator for the Science Mission 

Directorate at NASA. Prior to his appointment as Administrator, 

Dr. Grunsfeld was Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science 

Institute where he managed science programs for the Hubble Space 

Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope as well. Dr. Grunsfeld 

also has served as NASA Chief Scientist, Chief of the Computer 

Support Branch in NASA’s Astronaut Office, and Chief of the 

Extravehicular Activity Branch. 
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Dr. Grunsfeld has flown aboard five space shuttle flights, including the Atlantis, Discovery, and Columbia logging over 58 days in 

space and more than 58 hours of spacewalk time. He is the recipient of many awards, including the NASA Constellation Award. 

Dr. Grunsfeld earned his bachelor of science degree in physics 

from MIT, his master’s of science degree in physics from the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of 

Chicago. 

Dr. Alan Stern, our next witness, is the Principal Investigator for 

the New Horizons mission at the Southwest Research Institute, 

which has a facility in my hometown, San Antonio, Texas, and in 

Boulder, Colorado. Before working at the Institute, Dr. Stern was 

Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at 

NASA. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Challenger 

Center for Space Science Education and was Director of the Florida 

Space Institute and Chief Scientist and Mission Architect for American Express. 

Among other accomplishments, Dr. Stern has been awarded the 

von Braun Aerospace Achievement Award of the National Space 

Society and Smithsonian magazine’s American Ingenuity Award. 

Dr. Stern holds two bachelor’s degrees in physics and astronomy 

and master of science degrees in planetary atmospheres and aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He has 

a Ph.D. in astrophysics and planetary science from the University 

of Colorado at Boulder. 

Our third witness today is Dr. Christopher Russell, Principal Investigator for the Dawn mission and Professor of Geophysics and 

Planetary Physics at the University Of California Los Angeles. Dr. 

Russell is also Principal Investigator of the Magnetic Fields Investigation on the Magnetospheric and Multiscale Mission and Lead 

Investigator for the Magnetometer for the InSight Mars lander. 

Dr. Russell has received the American Geophysical Union’s 

Macelwane and Fleming Medals and COSPAR’s Science Award and 

even has an asteroid named after him, Asteroid 21459, Chris Russell. At least I am jealous of that. You too? 

Dr. Russell earned his bachelor of science degree from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. from the University of California 

Los Angeles. He has published over 1,500 scientific papers, receiving over 44,000 citations. 

Our next witness, Dr. Robert Pappalardo, is a Study Scientist for 

the Europa Mission Concept at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

He has previously served as the Project Scientist for the Cassini 

Equinox Mission at Saturn and is Study Scientist for Jupiter Europa Orbiter. Prior to working for NASA, he was an Assistant Professor of Planetary Sciences in the Astrophysical and Planetary 

Sciences Department at the University Of Colorado at Boulder. He 

also was an Affiliate Member of the Galileo Imaging Team where 

he worked to plan many observations of Jupiter’s icy satellites. 

He is the recipient of honors, including NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal, the NASA Group Achievement Award, and the JPL Mariner Award. 

He received his bachelor of arts in the geological sciences from 

Cornell University and his Ph.D. in geology from Arizona State 

University. 
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Our final witness today is Dr. Robert Braun, David and Andrew 

Lewis Professor of Space Technology at the Georgia Institute of 

Technology. Dr. Braun is also the Founding Director of the Georgia 

Tech Center for Space Technology and Research. Dr. Braun has 

served as NASA Chief Technologist. He also has served as a member of the Mars Pathfinder Design and Landing Operations Team 

and as part of the development teams for the Mars Microprobe, 

Mars Sample Return, and Mars Surveyor 2001 projects. He is the 

Editor-in-Chief of the AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets and 

is the author or coauthor of over 275 technical publications. 

He is the recipient of many awards, including the 1999 AIAA 

Lawrence Sperry Award and two NASA Exceptional Achievement 

Medals. 

Dr. Braun received his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Penn State, his master’s degree in aeronautics from 

George Washington University, and his Ph.D. in aeronautics and 

astronautics from Stanford. 

As the Members can see, this is an exceptionally qualified panel 

of experts. They have wonderful backgrounds, wonderful expertise 

in all kind of areas, and we welcome you all today. 

And, Dr. Grunsfeld, we’ll begin with you. 

TESTIMONY OF DR. JOHN GRUNSFELD, 

ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR, 

SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE, NASA 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. Well, thank you very much for the opportunity 

to appear today, and I want to say right off the bat that you are 

all team members in this great enterprise. 

For of the last 50 years, we have been on an epic journey of discovery, true exploration, and the results have been extraordinary. 

Two weeks ago, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft made an historic 

flyby through the Pluto system. This capstone event celebrates the 

fact that in the last 50 years the United States has been the first 

to visit each of the planets, and now the dwarf planet Pluto in our 

solar system. 

Our NASA Planetary Science program leads the world in the exploration of the solar system, and I’d like to take you on a short 

journey through that solar system. 

[Slide.] 

This is an image. Many of us forget that the sun is the center 

of our solar system. From yesterday from our Solar Dynamics Observatory, Mercury, from the MESSENGER spacecraft, we discovered a new world through the MESSENGER mission. 

[Slide.] 

Venus from the Magellan spacecraft, 1990, launched from the 

space shuttle. 

[Slide.] 

The Earth, the Earth is in fact a planet from our new Discover 

mission a million miles from Earth. 

[Slide.] 

Mars, I had to get a Hubble Space Telescope picture in there 

taken from the Hubble. 

[Slide.] 
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Ceres in the main asteroid belt, the largest dwarf planet in the 

asteroid belt from the Dawn mission. You’ll hear about that. 

[Slide.] 

Jupiter from Galileo arrived 1995, also launched from the space 

shuttle. 

[Slide.] 

Saturn from Cassini still exploring. 

[Slide.] 

Uranus from Voyager 2. 

[Slide.] 

Neptune from Voyager 2. 

[Slide.] 

And the capstone Pluto, as we’ve just seen from the New Horizons July 14. And as you can see from this last image, Pluto has 

not disappointed the scientific community or the public. 

In April, the NASA MESSENGER mission hit the surface of 

Mercury as planned after a stellar four-year mission. A key science 

finding of the mission is compelling evidence that Mercury harbors 

water ice and other volatile materials in its permanently shadowed 

craters. 

On Mars we have the Curiosity rover. It’s already shown us that 

Mars is a highly evolved, dynamic planet that once could have supported microbial life and has the potential to support human life 

in the future. 

Future missions to Mars include the InSight mission, which will 

launch in 2016, providing our first look into the deep interior of 

Mars and the NASA Mars 2020 Rover, which will be the first to 

acquire geologic samples for potential future return. 

The Dawn mission, as you’ll hear, is currently studying the 

dwarf planet Ceres, which is the largest object in the main asteroid 

belt. Dawn has the distinction of being the first spacecraft to orbit 

a dwarf planet. 

Asteroids and other small bodies continue to be objects of importance for NASA to study, and we’re currently developing a very 

ambitious mission for a robotic asteroid rendezvous and sample return dubbed OSIRIS–REx, which is planned to launch next year. 

On the way to Jupiter, as you’ve heard, is our Juno mission, 

which will arrive next year, the biggest planet in our solar system. 

The mission will investigate our largest planet’s composition, atmosphere, belts, and magnetic field. Jupiter is host to a collection 

of amazing moons, several of which are larger than our own moon. 

Europa, which you’ll hear about, may harbor a salty ocean underneath a thick crust of ice with the potential to harbor life. NASA 

is working on a mission that will send a highly capable spacecraft 

to investigate this fascinating world. 

At Saturn, Cassini spacecraft recently observed the moon 

Enceladus emitting sheets of water or plumes from features on the 

surface. These plumes may come from subsurface lakes that could 

represent safe harbors for microbial life. In 2017 the Cassini mission will be sent on a brand-new mission. As it runs out of fuel, 

it will orbit Saturn and then enter the Saturnian atmosphere, a 

dramatic and fitting end for a transformative planetary explorer. 

While we have no current plans to visit Uranus and Neptune, 

the James Webb Space Telescope, which will launch in October 
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2018, promises to provide extraordinary science by observing these 

giant ice planets in unparalleled spectroscopic detail. 

And still further out, Voyager 1 and 2 continue to operate as part 

of Voyager’s Interstellar Mission. The two Voyagers hold records as 

the longest-operating and the most distant spacecraft ever built by 

humankind. 

The United States has been the first nation to successfully reach 

every planet from Mercury to Pluto with the space probe but our 

study of the solar system does not stop at Voyagers or New Horizons. We continue to seek fundamental science questions, including 

whether we are alone in the universe. NASA will probe deeper into 

this question by studying solar systems around other stars, 

exoplanets, using Hubble, Spitzer, Kepler, and launching in 2017 

the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. 

This great journey into the unknown continues and there is still 

much to be learned. With your support, our future missions will advance along this path of exploration, discovery, and innovation for 

generations to come. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Grunsfeld follows:] 
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Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Dr. Grunsfeld. 

And, Dr. Stern. 

TESTIMONY OF DR. ALAN STERN, 

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR, 

NEW HORIZONS MISSION, 

SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE 

Dr. STERN. Well, thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity for New Horizons to appear today to discuss NASA’s exploration of the Pluto system. 

I’d like to start, if I may, by introducing Glen Fountain, who’s 

our Project Manager, and several members of our team who came 

downtown. If they would stand up, I would appreciate it. Twentyfive hundred Americans worked to make us all proud and they are 

representatives of that team. 

Well, if I can have the first time step in the view graph. 

[Slide.] 

Next one, there you go, there’s a picture of our spacecraft and a 

cartoon drawing both on the left and of course our launch on an 

Atlas V back in 2006. I want to say just a little bit about this 

spacecraft. It only weighs about 1,000 pounds. It is an amazing testament to the technology developed in NASA. We didn’t send two 

of these like in the grand days of Mariner and Pioneer and Voyager, one lone spacecraft across three billion miles of space. It carries seven scientific instruments so sophisticated that all seven 

combined weigh less than just the camera on the Cassini Saturn 

Orbiter. All seven together, when all operating, draw 28 watts, less 

than half a light bulb, and yet they represent thousands of times 

the power of the instrumentation built in the 1970s for Voyager. 

If I can have the next time step. 

[Slide.] 

This is the epic journey that we just completed. We launched 

from Florida in January of 2006, the fastest spacecraft ever 

launched, nine hours to the orbit of the moon, about 10 times faster 

than Apollo, only 13 months to reach Jupiter. Compare that to 6– 

1/2 years for Galileo, 4–1/2 years for Cassini. At Jupiter, we conducted a very successful scientific flyby and flight test and hit the 

window to target us for a Pluto encounter this summer. Following 

the Jupiter flyby, we spent eight years crossing 2–1/2 billion miles 

of space to the farthest shore that humankind has ever explored. 

Now, I have to say it took 26 years to go from the first of Mariner mission to Venus all the way to Neptune and it was another 

26 years before we flew this mission. In 1990, the U.S. Postal Service issued a set of stamps commemorating the first missions to 

every planet. If I can have the next time step. 

[Slide.] 

The only one for Pluto they could come up with said ‘‘not yet explored.’’ We flew one of those stamps on New Horizons to Pluto and 

two weeks ago today we canceled it. So we really did it. This is an 

amazing team of people. And if I can have the next view graph, let 

me show you the Pluto system. 

[Slide.] 

This is their first trip to a binary planet, Pluto on the left, its 

large moon Charon on the right for scale. The diameter of Charon 
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is almost precisely the diameter of the State of Texas, by the way. 

Pluto is about the diameter of the United States. And you can see 

they’re very different. Charon has no atmosphere. It has no substantial volatiles on its surface. It’s much darker and less reflective. It’s not colored. How these two came to be is a mystery to us. 

Why they should have traveled together for so many billions of 

years and yet been so different is unknown, and that is part of the 

power and the attraction of planetary science because we are exploring the unknown. 

Next time step, please. 

[Slide.] 

Well, this is Charon up close as seen by New Horizons. You can 

see it’s a pretty battered world. It’s covered in water, ice. It’s got 

a strange, dark hole. You can see there that we informally call 

Mordor, large chasms. You’ve got to engage the public. 

Large chasms and these craters are going to tell us a lot about 

the population of the Kuiper belt. Perhaps I can answer more questions about Charon later. Let me show you the star of the show. 

Next time step, please. 

[Slide.] 

This is Pluto in false color on the right and accurate color on the 

left. This is one amazing world and we really don’t understand how 

a world of this complexity can have come to be and still be active 

today four billion years after its formation. We have a lot of work 

to do to understand this. I can show you some close-ups from the 

encounter. That’s the next time step. 

[Slide.] 

Here are just two of many close-ups to come. These are already 

on the ground. Both of those scenes are about 250 miles across. On 

the left is the Discovery image that gave us evidence for nitrogen 

glaciers, perhaps liquids flowing under those glaciers on Pluto, 400 

degrees below zero, absolutely amazing. And on the right—— 

Chairman SMITH. Dr. Stern, are these photos that no one has 

seen before? I understood we had a couple and these may be those. 

Dr. STERN. These are—these all came down last week—— 

Chairman SMITH. Last week. 

Dr. STERN. —and they had been released before, sir. 

Chairman SMITH. Okay. 

Dr. STERN. On the right is a mountain range which we informally have named for Tenzing Norgay. We often call Pluto the Everest of planetary exploration and we have named the two mountain ranges that we’ve discovered for Hillary and Norgay. These 

are about as tall as the Rockies. 

We are continually surprised by the data that’s coming down. 

There’s now evidence for an internal ocean in Pluto and perhaps 

another at Charon, evidence for global change, evidence for atmospheric hazes, and many other wonders. I have to say, with only five 

percent of the data on the ground, we all feel like we need to fasten 

our seatbelts for the remaining 95 percent. This is quite a ride scientifically. 

Now, if I can turn to the next view graph, I want to say that it 

was a tremendous public response to the flyby of Pluto. 

[Slide.] 
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This is a scene from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab 

where thousands of people came out to celebrate that encounter. 

[Slide.] 

But next view graph, I think even more importantly there’s the 

cover of the New York Times and below it little postage stamp images. I’m told that almost 450 newspapers put New Horizons and 

the exploration of Pluto on the front page the day after the flyby, 

that there were over 12 billion web hits, and I know that there 

were five television specials, one-hour-long specials made about 

this mission. People love exploration. That’s the takeaway that we 

get. They really love it when we go new places and make new discoveries and do bold things, and I think the viral response of the 

media and the public to New Horizons is a testament to that and 

what we can do in NASA in the future. 

Let me close with the next view graph. 

[Slide.] 

I was asked to say a word or two about a possible extended mission for New Horizons. The spacecraft is healthy and full of fuel 

and fully capable of flying a mission to explore further in the 

Kuiper belt. We have two potential targets, and working with 

NASA, we expect to choose between them later this summer. The 

National Academy of Sciences highly recommended this portion of 

the mission after Pluto through the Decadal Survey process and 

we’re going to propose it for funding to NASA next year when 

NASA makes that call for proposals. 

I’ll take my last chart and I want to show you an image. 

[Slide.] 

It’s of special significance not because of the scientific discovery 

of hazes in Pluto’s atmosphere that this reveals. I’m sure many of 

you remember the iconic Apollo image of Earth rise over the moon, 

which was so iconic because it proved that the astronauts were 

there. It was a view that you could only get from being in orbit 

around the moon. Well, this image is taken from the far side of 

Pluto looking back to the planets silhouetted by the sun. It is proof 

that we went there, that we are now on the far side of Pluto, and 

that our nation can do great things. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Stern follows:] 
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Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Dr. Stern, just fascinating. 

Dr. Russell. 

TESTIMONY OF DR. CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL, 

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR, DAWN MISSION, 

AND PROFESSOR OF GEOPHYSICS 

AND PLANETARY PHYSICS, 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES 

Dr. RUSSELL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for providing me an opportunity to review Dawn’s recent scientific discoveries, to explain 

their relevance, and to discuss future missions. I’d like to begin 

with a few words about Dawn itself. Dawn is the ninth mission in 

the NASA Discovery program. These missions are Principal-Investigator-led, they are relatively low cost, and are focused investigations selected by peer review from proposals submitted by planetary scientists. 

May I have the first graphic, please? 

[Slide.] 

This shows the Dawn spacecraft, an artist’s conception, at launch 

from Earth in 2007. Dawn has achieved several important firsts in 

space exploration. It’s the only spacecraft ever to orbit two extraterrestrial bodies beyond the Earth, and only to orbit an object in 

the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. 

Moreover, Dawn was the first scientific mission to use solar electric propulsion. Because electric propulsion thrusters accelerate the 

fuel over 10 times faster than chemical engines, smaller launch vehicles and smaller spacecraft can be used to do more exploration. 

This has enabled Dawn to visit the giant proto-planet Vesta, which 

was a fascinating world, closely related to the terrestrial planets, 

and more than typical asteroids—they’re—it’s more of a planet— 

and then to travel to Ceres to enter Ceres’ gravitational field and 

to begin to map this dwarf planet. 

By using the new technology of ion propulsion, we’ve accomplished more than we would have been—would have been possible 

with conventional technology and done so at 1/3 of the price. 

Can I have the next graphics, please? 

[Slide.] 

This shows how we map. We go into a high-altitude circular orbit 

and then move in closer and closer getting higher resolution. And 

on the right-hand side is a color picture made by stretching the 

color images that we got from the camera. 

We also—besides taking pictures, we measure in the visible and 

infrared spectra and look at gamma rays. We measure the gravitational field to get the mass distribution of the body and also look 

at the elemental composition. 

In 2012 Dawn completed its measurements of Vesta, which is the 

second-largest body in the asteroid belt, and then we validated the 

model of the solar system evolution that had been developed for 

meteorite evidence by validating that the meteorite evidence had 

been correct. 

We learned much about Vesta and we believe that Vesta was a 

precursor to the bodies that formed the Earth, that the bodies in 

the asteroid belt, many of them accumulated to form larger bodies. 
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The Earth’s core may have first been formed in smaller bits in 

Vesta-like bodies. 

Next graphic, please. 

[Slide.] 

This brings us to Ceres. We have a color map of the surface. This 

is stretched, but it shows the diversity of processes that must have 

been going on within Ceres. And on the right we have an elevation 

topography of a section of the surface and it’s much more muted 

than Vesta was, as if—that we have a lot of erosion on the surface, 

much like Mars. 

Then, we now are looking at Ceres from about 4,000 kilometers. 

We are now moving down to get higher resolution. 

Next graphic, please. 

[Slide.] 

This shows two of the more famous landmarks. This—the first on 

the left-hand side is the Occator crater with bright spots. We believe these are salt left by evaporating water, as occurs in the 

Earth’s deserts. This evaporation also makes a haze layer that we 

can occasionally see in the crater. We’ve got other features like— 

that look like pingos on the left—on the right-hand side. It’s a 

small mountain about three miles high. It’s got some dirt on it but 

it looks like it has ice coming down the sides. We are totally surprised by the Pluto observations that showed mountains on Pluto 

that were very much like this mountain that I show you here. 

We have two more orbital phases for Ceres. We’ll go down to as 

low as 200 miles above the surface, get gravity field measurements 

and the elemental composition, and then we will park the spacecraft in a stable orbit to protect it from crashing into the surface. 

Ceres is an object with potential biological interest. It’s got water 

and heat from the sun and the interior. The astrobiological community is very interested in Ceres. We’ve shown that Ceres is relatively easy to reach with a significant payload if you use ion propulsion. Ceres has a much lower gravitational field than Mars and 

the thrust needed to land is much less, so landing is very feasible. 

Rover missions, landers such as the upcoming InSight mission to 

Mars, are all possible and highly desirable. We believe that Dawn, 

with its small exploratory payload, has only scratched the surface 

so to speak of what could be done. 

I’d like to close with a brief but heartfelt thank you for you and 

your support of a strong space program. This support has brought 

a treasury of knowledge and a legacy for future generations. Thank 

you. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Russell follows:] 
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Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Dr. Russell. 

And, Dr. Pappalardo. 

TESTIMONY OF DR. ROBERT PAPPALARDO, 

STUDY SCIENTIST, 

EUROPA MISSION CONCEPT, 

JET PROPULSION LABORATORY, NASA 

Dr. PAPPALARDO. Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Edwards, 

and other Members of the Committee, I’m very happy to appear before you to discuss NASA’s Europa project. I note that I do so as 

an employee of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is a federally 

funded research and development center managed by the California 

Institute of Technology for NASA. 

Jupiter’s moon Europa is one of the most likely places to find 

current life beyond our Earth. For over 15 years, NASA has studied 

a variety of mission concepts to explore Europa and determine if 

it could be habitable. My own fascination with ice-covered moons 

of the outer solar system blossomed in 1985, with a seminar course 

at Cornell University taught by Carl Sagan entitled ‘‘Ices and 

Oceans in the Outer Solar System.’’ Though I was just an undergraduate, Sagan allowed me to audit this graduate course. In some 

sparkling moments, Sagan was as brilliant a teacher as one could 

imagine and inspired what would become my career. 

I joined my first Europa mission Science Definition Team back 

in 1998. Now, working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I’m 

the Project Scientist for the burgeoning Europa mission, serving as 

the interface between the engineering team and the recently selected science team. 

In the late 1990s, NASA’s Galileo mission to Jupiter produced 

strong evidence that Europa, which is about the size of Earth’s 

moon, has a global ocean beneath its frozen crust. This ocean could 

contain more than twice as much water as Earth. With abundant 

saltwater, a rocky seafloor, and chemical energy that could potentially be transported to the ocean by processes powered by tidal 

heating, Europa might have the ingredients necessary to support 

simple organisms. 

Europa’s rich and diverse geology and its probable subsurface liquid water ocean are both believed consequences of the strong tides 

that heat the interior and flex the surface to its breaking point. 

Europa’s chaotic terrains, which are regions of disrupted surface 

ice, display similarities to features in Antarctica, suggesting that 

they could be surface manifestations of shallow subsurface lakes. If 

that’s true, these lakes are possible abodes for life at Europa. 

Europa’s chaotic regions are commonly brownish-red in color with 

infrared signatures that are suggestive of salts, probably derived 

from the ocean below. 

NASA’s Europa mission plan calls for a spacecraft to be launched 

to Jupiter in the 2020s, arriving at the distant planet after a journey of several years. The current plan envisions a spacecraft that 

would have an expected lifetime of more than three years and 

would orbit the giant planet about every two weeks, providing 

many opportunities for close flybys of Europa. During these flybys, 

the spacecraft would achieve near global coverage, image the 
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moon’s icy surface at high resolution, and investigate its composition and the structure of its ocean and icy shell. 

NASA announced the instruments for the Europa mission’s scientific payload on May 26. The payload of nine selected science instruments includes cameras and spectrometers that will produce 

high-resolution images of Europa’s surface and determine its detailed composition. An ice-penetrating radar can determine the 

thickness of the moon’s icy shell and search for subsurface lakes, 

similar to those beneath Antarctica. 

The mission also will carry a magnetometer to measure the 

strength and direction of the moon’s magnetic field to allow scientists to probe the thickness and saltiness of its ocean. A thermal 

instrument will scour Europa’s frozen surface in search of recent 

eruptions of water or warm ice, while additional instruments will 

sample tiny particles of water, dust, and plasma in the moon’s extremely thin atmosphere. 

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope observed water vapor above the 

south polar region of Europa in 2012, providing tantalizing evidence of water plumes. If plumes are confirmed, and if they can be 

linked to the subsurface ocean, they’ll allow us to interrogate the 

chemical makeup of Europa’s potentially habitable subsurface environment, while minimizing the need to drill into the ice. 

Just last month, NASA completed its first major review of the 

Europa flyby mission, which has now entered the development 

phase known as formulation. During the remainder of 2015 and 

through fiscal year 2016, the project will work to develop science 

requirements, mission architecture, planetary protection requirements, risk identification and mitigation plans, cost and schedule 

estimates, as well as payload accommodation for the instruments 

for the mission to Europa. 

In short, NASA is formulating a project that could lead to fundamental discoveries about Europa. This is will be both an ambitious 

and an exciting undertaking. Just as with that graduate Carl 

Sagan course I took at Cornell, this mission will be at the cutting 

edge of science and engineering and is sure to inspire the next generation. 

Thank you, and I look forward to any questions. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Pappalardo follows:] 
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Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Dr. Pappalardo. 

And, Dr. Braun. 

TESTIMONY OF DR. ROBERT BRAUN, 

DAVID AND ANDREW LEWIS PROFESSOR 

OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY, 

GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 

Dr. BRAUN. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Edwards, and members of the Committee, thank you for the invitation to share my 

views of the exciting future of America’s solar system exploration 

program here today. I’m the engineer at the table, and I must say 

it’s an honor to be seated here with some of the world’s planetary 

science luminaries. 

I’ve been a faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology since 2003, and judging by the passion and creativity of the 

students that I see every day on campus, I’m confident that the 

grandest era of space exploration lies ahead of us. 

I presently serve as Vice Chair of the National Research Council’s Space Studies Board and Chair of NASA’s Standing Review 

Board for the 2020 Mars Project. However, I’m here today as an 

individual and the views I express are mine alone. 

Planetary science is one of America’s crown jewels. These endeavors have consistently reminded people worldwide that the 

United States was not just founded as a bold and curious nation 

but continues to lead in discovering and exploring the richness of 

the worlds beyond our own for the betterment of all. 

Beginning more than 50 years ago with the Mariner 2 mission 

to Venus, the United States has consistently led the exploration of 

our solar system. Decade by decade we have designed, built, and 

operated a balanced portfolio of missions targeting destinations 

across the solar system. Today, as we celebrate successes like New 

Horizons’ visit to Pluto and Dawn’s mission to Vesta and Ceres, another U.S. spacecraft is on its way to Jupiter, two U.S. rovers trundle across the Mars surface, and U.S. orbiters at Mars and Saturn 

are returning tantalizing insights. And yet there are still so many 

questions to answer. 

We now know of a multitude of ocean worlds in our own cosmic 

backyard. This list obviously includes the Earth but also Jupiter’s 

moons Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto; Saturn’s moons Enceladus 

and Titan; and Neptune’s moon Triton. Enceladus and Europa 

maybe the two worlds in our solar system best suited to search for 

life as we know it, whereas Titan is likely the best place to search 

for life as we don’t know it. 

Accessing the water within these ocean worlds should be one of 

our next great planetary science quests, one with ramifications for 

understanding the emergence of life on Earth and the potential for 

life elsewhere. That’s why it’s surprising today, even considering 

the work being done towards the mission to Europa, that there are 

no planned missions in NASA’s planetary science portfolio to access 

the water in locales where we know it to exist. 

Because the transit times, distances, and radiation and surface 

environments of these ocean worlds differ so significantly from vistas we have previously been, new engineering capabilities and tech-
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nologies must be developed, particularly if we want to land, rove, 

or dive within the ocean worlds. 

Fortunately, many of the needed technologies, including advanced power systems, radiation protection, sensing, landing, navigation, and communication technologies were included in the 2015 

House Appropriations bill for NASA. Through these investments, 

the number and capability of missions to the outer planets is 

poised for growth. 

NASA has a successful track record in development of gamechanging technologies to enable planetary science. Were it not for 

the successful technology demonstration of solar electric propulsion 

by the Deep Space 1 mission in the late 1990s, Dawn would not 

likely have been selected as a discovery mission. This technology 

has since been commercialized to the benefit of the U.S. satellite 

industry. 

As a result of NASA’s high-efficiency solar cell technology investments, the Juno mission is now en route to Jupiter. It’s the first 

solar-powered spacecraft to travel beyond Mars, a region where nuclear power had previously been required. This technology is now 

making its way onto other science missions, including the Europa 

mission, and is affecting our solar power infrastructure here at the 

Earth. 

These examples demonstrate that development efforts, external 

to flight programs can be effectively used to retire new technology, 

risk, and cost. In fact, removing technology development risk from 

its flight programs has been cited numerous times by the Government Accountability Office as a means to better manage NASA’s 

spaceflight missions. 

Humanity should be proud. We’ve now completed a first investigation of each major celestial body in our own solar system. Now 

is the time to accelerate the pace and the scope of our nation’s 

solar system exploration program. Let’s sample the water of our 

solar system’s ocean worlds. To do so, we must couple our scientific 

drive with investments in the critical space technologies required 

to accomplish these goals. Underscoring our country’s scientific 

prowess, engineering creativity, and technological skill, this is a 

journey sure to inspire the world. 

Thank you again for the opportunity to be here today. I look forward to your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Braun follows:] 
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Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Dr. Braun. 

Now, I’ll recognize myself for questions. 

And, Dr. Grunsfeld, let me address the first one to you, and that is if Congress restored the proposed $70 million in cuts that the 

Administration has recommended for Planetary Science, what 

could you use that money for, that $70 million? 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. You know, one area that the Decadal Survey 

prioritizes—as do we—pretty highly is our Discovery and New 

Frontiers Program. As you know, the Pluto New Horizons mission 

was the first in our New Frontiers program and wildly successful 

I would say is an understatement. And we are just in the process 

now hopefully in September before the end of the fiscal year selecting investigations for the next Discovery program. 

Chairman SMITH. Right. Right. 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. And so we would be up to keep those on track 

and increase the cadence with—— 

Chairman SMITH. Okay. 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. —increased funding. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Dr. Grunsfeld. 

Dr. Stern, let me offer you a slow pitch over home plate, and 

what do you think is the greatest discovery of the many discoveries 

made by New Horizons so far? 

Dr. STERN. If you’ll allow me, Mr. Chairman, I’d like to suggest 

that there are two very important discoveries. One is scientific and 

that is the one that I alluded to, that it’s very clear that we do not 

understand the interior workings of small planets. Previously, we 

found many active bodies, satellites, for example, of the giant planets that showed activity after these many billions of years, but we 

always had an out scientifically in that they derive their energy in 

large measure from tidal heating, which is specifically a result of 

being in orbit around a giant planet and in a giant planet’s satellite 

system. 

Pluto is completely isolated. It does not generate any tidal energy 

with its interactions with Charon because they have reached tidal 

spin equilibrium. And yet somehow this world is active after 4–1/ 

2 billion years. And just like a small cup of coffee will cool off much 

more quickly than a big vat of coffee, small planets should cool off, 

and yet it has not. And this is a major challenge to the field of 

planetary science to understand how this could be, and it’s a demonstration that only could be made by going to Pluto, which New 

Horizons has now done. 

I want to say the other big discovery in my view is a level of public interest in exploration, which went completely viral. I think people really like frontiers and the United States is in a great position 

to extend soft power projection through just this kind of space program. 

Chairman SMITH. Yeah, I agree with you. I love to see the media 

coverage and it shows that people are fascinated by exploration. 

And I liked your turn of phrase a while ago, ‘‘the power and attraction of exploring the unknown.’’ I think that does appeal to people. 

Dr. Russell, NASA is tasked with the responsibility of cataloging 

our near-Earth objects with diameters greater than 140 meters. In 

what way does the Dawn mission help us understand both the risk 

and the possibilities of detecting those near-Earth objects? 
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Dr. RUSSELL. Dawn is far out of the line of fire so it does not 

really add very much to that particular objective. However, that— 

there are a lot of things that we are doing both by observations 

from the Earth and observations from space that will enable us to 

solve those particular problems. But Dawn is more in the area of 

what Dr. Stern just told us about, is trying to understand how 

those midsize bodies were formed and still are active today in the 

case of Ceres and a little bit in the case of Vesta, too. So we’re really looking at a spectrum of bodies in the solar system. 

Chairman SMITH. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Russell. 

Let me address my last question both to Dr. Pappalardo and Dr. 

Braun. And this question is asked not only on behalf of myself but 

on behalf of my Texas colleague John Culberson. I don’t know of 

any Member who has a greater interest in Europa than John does, 

as you probably know and probably have talked to him about it 

firsthand. 

But the planned mission to Europa is in part I think designed 

to try to detect any possible form of life. And, Dr. Braun, you mentioned the need to explore our ocean worlds. I think Europa offers 

one of the best possibilities of doing that. Dr. Pappalardo and Dr. 

Braun, how could that mission to Europa inform our understanding 

or enable us to perhaps ferret out any type of form of life there? 

Dr. PAPPALARDO. What we really are trying to get at at Europa 

first is, is it a habitable environment? We think it is. We want to 

understand the potential ingredients for life. Want to confirm an 

ocean, we want to understand the chemistry and whether that is 

conducive to life, and we want to understand is there an energy 

source for life in Europa’s ocean? And by that I don’t just mean 

tidal energy but is there a chemical imbalance that can allow for 

chemical reactions to power life? This mission wouldn’t really go to 

search for life exactly but to understand the habitability, kind of 

like the initial Mars rovers did. 

Chairman SMITH. Right. And, Dr. Braun? 

Dr. BRAUN. The Europa’s surface is planetary science 

Disneyland. And flying above it and studying it from above is like 

taking a three day drive across country from here to Disneyland 

and staying in the parking lot, right? 

So I believe strongly, you know, just like in our Mars exploration 

program we have had orbiters and we’ve had landers, and the two 

together have what’s advanced Mars science. So if we truly want 

to advance Europa’s science in the same way, it’s going to take a 

combination of flyby/orbiter and landed assets. Until we touch the 

surface, we won’t know. 

Chairman SMITH. Okay. Thank you both for your responses. 

And the gentlewoman from Maryland, Ms. Edwards, is recognized for her questions. 

Ms. EDWARDS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And thank 

you to the witnesses. 

I have to tell you I feel like highly undereducated here today, 

and I hope that the young people who are watching and listening 

and those who are here understand that today we have some of the 

most amazing planetary science minds available in the world, and 

it’s just a delight to be able to have you here with us today. 
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I’ve been very curious and looking at the lifecycle of projects and 

missions, because I think here in the Congress sometimes we deal 

with things that are very, very short-term and we’re thinking about 

the next appropriations cycle, a year or two years, and it occurs to 

me as you are talking about each one of these missions, that in fact 

going back to the recommendations that come out of the Decadal 

Survey and the work that actually precedes that so that something 

actually makes it on the list to the time that we do all of the work 

that it takes from a scientific perspective, from an engineering perspective to get a mission underway and then to look at the results 

and figure out what’s next, it’s a really long lifecycle. 

And I appreciate your sharing with us today because I think 

sometimes we don’t understand that it’s a long lifecycle and we 

have no idea sometimes at the end or the near end and what we 

may have been able to discover or predict at the beginning. And 

from a funding standpoint, and we’ve all talked about this, I think 

the Chairman has mentioned it as well, it becomes hard to project 

what it is that we believe we’re going to get for the dollar that we 

spend. 

And so I would like each of you, if you could, just take an opportunity, beginning with Dr. Grunsfeld, to talk to us about that 

lifecycle and about the recommendations that come out of the 

Decadal Survey and how that’s used and how we use the work of 

the Academies to inform what we’re doing even if we can’t see it 

for 25, 30, 50 years in the running. 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. Well, thank you very much. Certainly we rely 

very heavily at NASA and science on the community consensus 

that’s built in the process of developing the Decadal Surveys. And 

in the last couple of planetary science Decadal Surveys, we got 

really excellent advice. The Pluto mission was highly ranked and 

we’ve now achieved that and it’s continuing now into the Kuiper 

belt for—to make new discoveries. 

In more recent years, a Mars sample acquisition mission was the 

highest-rated objective, and of course we started that. That’s the 

Mars 2020 mission. And the second-highest priority in the flagshipclass missions was our Europa mission, to go and study Europa, 

and we’ve now started that, and then cadence in Discovery and 

New Frontiers, which we’ve talked about and research and analysis, and so we’re doing our best to try and select this year discovery missions to go on for the next phase. It’ll be a two-part competition. So we do rely on that and I think, you know, the report 

card is we’ve been doing a pretty good job. And the science has 

been really spectacular. 

Ms. EDWARDS. Thanks. 

Dr. Stern, maybe you could tell us. I understand that in the early 

2000s NASA actually canceled a previous mission concept in exploring Pluto because of anticipated costs and a New Horizons mission that actually almost never came to be. Can you tell us what 

turned that around? What are the lessons that we learned and 

what are your reflections had we not been able to go forward from 

that point? 

Dr. STERN. Well, thank you very much for that question. It is 

true. There were a series of Pluto missions that were studied but 

never started in large measure because those missions got a little 
133 

bit out of control on cost and the agency had to make fundamental 

decisions about carrying—executing the remainder of the program. 

When the last of those was canceled in 2000, there was a tremendous public outcry, the planetary society, individuals in the public, 

big letter-writing campaign, and a very strong response from the 

advisory committees to the Science Mission Directorate and its 

predecessor, the Office of Space Science, which convinced the agency to instead compete the mission. And it was a result of that competition that New Horizons came to be. We proposed that as a 

team between the Southwest Research Institute and the Applied 

Physics Lab of Johns Hopkins University. 

However, the funding that enabled the build and flight of New 

Horizons only came as a result of a recommendation from the 

Decadal Survey that this should be number one on the runway for 

medium-priority missions and so-called new frontiers missions that 

Dr. Grunsfeld referred to. 

So in my view the Decadal Survey process is very important but 

it’s also very impressive how well it works within the political and 

policy sphere as well because when that mission was recommended 

as a top priority, it did unlock the funding that made this possible. 

And as you can tell both from the standpoint of public interest, as 

well as the general good feeling in the public about our being able 

to accomplish important things in our time, as well as the science 

that’s coming out of New Horizons, none of those three things 

would have been possible had it not been for that Decadal Survey 

and the competitive process that we were able to win as a result. 

Ms. EDWARDS. Thank you very much. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Ms. Edwards. 

The gentleman from Oklahoma, Mr. Lucas, is recognized. 

Mr. LUCAS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Dr. Stern, I represent the northwest half of Oklahoma, and while 

we live on a very watery planet, water is always an issue of great 

importance in my neck of the world. Discuss for me a moment this 

appearance—it appears that we have a mountain of ice water perhaps on Pluto. I mean from my perspective and from the perspective of my constituents, with a long enough timeline, anything’s 

possible if you have water. Talk for a moment about the significance of this find. 

Dr. STERN. Sure, happy to. Well, let me start by saying, you 

know, prior to the arrival of New Horizons, the vast imagery that 

we were able to obtain was using the Hubble Space Telescope, and 

thank you, Dr. Grunsfeld for making that possible. Those images 

had a resolution of several hundred miles per pixel. We’re now in 

the ballpark of several hundred meters and New Horizons has data 

on board that are still substantially better. 

The very first medium-resolution images that we returned just 

days after the flyby revealed steep topography on the surface of 

Pluto, those mountains. Now, the primary chemical constituent on 

the surface of Pluto is molecular nitrogen, condensed—the same 

stuff that we are breathing right now. That’s a very soft material 

and it can’t support strong topography. The inference of the steep 

topography is there must be a much stronger material that can 
134 

support mountain building and construction, and water ice is really 

the only plausible candidate for that in the Pluto system. 

We’ve known for a long time that probably 1/3 of Pluto’s entire 

mass is water ice. What this has taught us is that that ice is very 

close to the surface and that the nitrogen and the other things that 

we’ve observed spectroscopically are just a frosting of the near if 

you will on the top, and the water lies right below. 

Mr. LUCAS. That said, you mentioned, too, the continuing mission 

of New Horizons. Based on the fuel system in it, how long will the 

vehicle be viable as it continues? How many years would you guess 

the viability of New Horizons to be? 

Dr. STERN. Well, New Horizons is very healthy. We have a spacecraft that features completely redundant avionics propulsion system and other features so that it’s very reliable. And we’re not 

using any of the backup systems. Our primary limitation on New 

Horizons is a result of the radioactive decay of plutonium that powers the spacecraft from an electrical standpoint. Currently, that device is generating about 200 watts of power, and it’s decaying at 

the rate of about 3–1/2 watts per year, which is exactly as predicted. New horizons can operate from that device for about 20, 

possibly a little longer, years into the mid- or late 2030s. 

Our extended mission by contrast would involve a flyby of the 

Kuiper belt building block of planets like Pluto in 2019, so well 

within our capability. 

Mr. LUCAS. One last question, and I direct it to the whole panel. 

We talk about the great success of putting landers on the various 

planets and the potential to address the potential oceans that 

might be under Europa and other planets. Discuss for a moment 

the protocols that we use so that we don’t seed planets as we go 

along so to speak so that we don’t take things with us when we 

get there. 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. So we have—I don’t want to speak to much requirements-ese, but we have actually a Planetary Protection Program and documents and a Planetary Protection Officer that reviewed the missions, and it’s particularly important for missions 

like Europa, for our Mars Landers, we’re having a discussion now 

about the cleanliness of Mars, Curiosity’s wheels so that we might 

go to someplace that, you know, potentially has signs of liquid 

water, and so we analyze that in great detail. We clean the spacecraft and we try and do our best not to send Earth life to places 

that, you know, it might be able to take hold. It’s a big deal for 

us. 

Mr. LUCAS. And in a water world, even a greater issue, correct, 

Doctor? 

Dr. PAPPALARDO. Yes. So for Europa, the plan is to bake the 

spacecraft, to heat the spacecraft and its components to a temperature that would kill off any microorganisms that might be on 

board, and the same for the instruments. And that of course has 

to be done in a way that is safe for the instruments, that it doesn’t 

damage them, and then we protect the spacecraft and keep it clean 

before launch. 

Mr. LUCAS. Thank you very much, gentlemen. 

I yield back my time, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Lucas. 
135 

The gentleman from Colorado is recognized for his questions. 

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Thanks, Mr. Chair. 

And, gentlemen, we applauded the New Horizons flyby of Pluto. 

The applause really goes to all of you. I mean I know personally 

I’m just very proud of what NASA’s been doing and about the exploration of our solar system and hopefully someday our Universe. 

And the comments that all of you have made about us being explorers in our hearts and, you know, as part of our DNA as Americans, 

I think as humans. And just thank you for being at the forefront 

of all of this. 

I’m basically speechless in terms of asking you the right questions. I’m very happy that a couple of you have solid connections 

to Colorado and to the University of Colorado. That’s one of my favorite things. 

I guess the question I’d like to ask is, as we do these things, do 

you have students, do you have people following in your footsteps? 

Because this seems to be moving at greater and greater speeds as 

we’re going farther and farther with our exploration or more focused with our exploration. So, Dr. Pappalardo, Dr. Braun, why 

don’t I start with you guys and then I’m going to work to the other 

end. 

Dr. PAPPALARDO. Sure. Absolutely. I have a laboratory of several 

interns, summer interns right now back at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who’s hopefully watching this on the web and who are extremely excited about Europa. There are some folks who have come 

here today from the Air and Space Museum who are interns who 

are very excited about it. 

The students who are in elementary school today will be in graduate school at the time that this mission is probably arriving at 

Europa, and those are the folks that this mission is really for. 

Those are the folks we want to inspire and get involved as the next 

generation of explorers. 

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Thank you. Dr. Braun? 

Dr. BRAUN. Yeah, if I could add to that, as a faculty member in 

the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech, I can tell you with certainty that these kinds of missions, whether they’re at Mars, 

whether Europa or Pluto, they’re a natural draw to more and more 

students in engineering and in science. They inspire young people 

into educational paths and careers—— 

Mr. PERLMUTTER. They even inspire lawyers like myself. 

Dr. BRAUN. Well—— 

Mr. PERLMUTTER. So—— 

Dr. BRAUN. —we can get one or two of those as well, but we want 

more and more engineers and scientists—— 

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Okay. 

Dr. BRAUN. —if that’s okay. But there’s no doubt that at Georgia 

Tech and at universities around the Nation that people are—that 

young people are watching and that young people are inspired into 

our space program because of these types of feats, and that they 

lead frankly to economic national security and a large range of societal benefits as well. 

Mr. PERLMUTTER. Thank you. Thank you. 

Dr. Stern, it’s good to see you. I don’t even know where to start 

on the Pluto mission other than you—that mission started when I 
136 

started running for office nine years ago. In the process—let’s talk 

about the engineering, and, Dr. Braun, you’re welcome to chime in 

here, but the engineering is a marvel for me, the fact that basically 

the math, the science, the engineering all came together for you to 

hit a spot out there that’s like a millimeter across and me being 

able to hit it on that wall. I mean can you talk about that a little 

bit, those parts of the mission? 

Dr. STERN. Well, thank you very much, Congressman Perlmutter. 

The New Horizons mission is a technological marvel and in miniaturization in terms of the accuracy of the flight path that we had 

to hit, we had to fly through a 60 by 90 kilometer window after a 

3 billion mile journey. That’s about equivalent of throwing a ball 

from Los Angeles to New York and landing in—— 

Mr. PERLMUTTER. The strike zone. 

Dr. STERN. —a can of beans. And we were a little bit early arriving after 9–1/2 years. We arrived 91 seconds early, which is equivalent to L.A. to New York on a commercial airliner 4 milliseconds 

off schedule. It’s an amazing testament to the technology that’s 

been developed in terms of ground-based tracking, as well as the 

spacecraft technology that we can do these things and that we can 

miniaturize the instrumentation to this level and that the spacecraft can fly autonomously using hibernation techniques as an onboard intelligent pilot. All of those things and more are amazing 

aspects of the technology we develop. 

But most impressive to me is the fact that New Horizons was developed and flown in its entirety soup to nuts for 1/5 of the cost 

of the Voyager program on an inflation-adjusted basis. So we have 

really learned to do these things in NASA that are not only technologically impressive but get a lot more bang for buck than at the 

outset of the space program. 

Mr. PERLMUTTER. And my time has expired. I’ll yield back but, 

Dr. Russell, Dr. Grunsfeld, thank you, too. I’ll get to you next time. 

Thanks. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Perlmutter. 

The gentleman from Oklahoma, Mr. Bridenstine, is recognized 

for his questions. 

Mr. BRIDENSTINE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What an exciting 

testimony from all of you. I’m thrilled about it as a Member of this 

Committee. 

I wanted to ask Dr. Grunsfeld, I read in Space News recently 

about this cryogenic compressor assembly for the James Webb 

Space Telescope, and it’s been delayed and of course the costs have 

gone from 22 million to 150 million. I was wondering, can you shed 

light on how that happened and ultimately what the impact that 

will be for the James Webb Space Telescope? 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. Sure, I’d be happy to. First of all, I’d like to report that the cryocooler assembly has been delivered on dock to 

JPL. I think it was two days ago. I was just trying to remember. 

It might’ve been three days ago. And so it’s complete. It’s been delivered from Northrop Grumman to JPL. JPL will do the acceptance testing and then it will be delivered to the Goddard 

Spaceflight Center and integrated in with the rest of the assembly. 

When the—first of all, the James Webb Space Telescope is— 

we’ve talked about technological tour de force, you know, a number 
137 

of inventions that had to occur to be able to build the telescope and 

now they’re all complete was really phenomenal. This is a telescope 

that will go a million miles from Earth and will achieve a temperature, the actual optics and the instruments that’s roughly the temperature of Pluto, and it needs to do that to be able to see these 

very dim objects at the edge of our universe and to study 

exoplanets. 

One part of that was this very innovative cryocooler. The team 

that proposed it built an engineering unit, which was bolted together and showed that they can make a cryocooler to get these 

cold temperatures. What they failed to do was to demonstrate they 

knew how to manufacture one for flight, so it was bolted together 

instead of welded, some of the materials were different, and in the 

process of figuring out over, you know, the better part of a decade 

how to actually manufacture it for the flight unit, they encountered 

a lot more difficulties. 

Thank you very much to Congress for funding us appropriately 

to be able to afford, you know, the spending on that cryocooler in 

our reserves, and our unfunded part of the budget so that we can 

accommodate this problem. Other problems—you know, other assemblies went smoothly and so we applied our reserves on this, 

and it has since been delivered so we’re past that. That really was 

a difficulty in manufacturing. 

Mr. BRIDENSTINE. To ask on that point that you made regarding 

funding, it looks like funding for next year for the James Webb 

Space Telescope is being cut per the President’s budget request by 

$25 million. Is that—and of course the money is going other places. 

Is that a problem for this issue? Are we going to have more issues 

like this where we have unexpected costs that creep up? I just don’t 

want to put the James Webb Space Telescope at risk. 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. Yeah, me neither. It’s a very high priority for us. 

It’s going to make amazing discoveries. One of the things that the 

James Webb Space Telescope will be able to do is follow up on the 

Pluto New Horizons observations as it goes sailing off into the 

Kuiper belt. 

The President’s proposed budget is exactly what the project 

asked for, so that’s just the normal change in budget as they retire 

some of the development activities and go into integration and 

tests. So we actually asked for exactly what we need and we got 

that as a request. 

Mr. BRIDENSTINE. Okay. Well, that’s a—that was my major question. Thank you for answering, and thanks, Chairman. 

Chairman SMITH. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bridenstine. 

The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Babin, is recognized. 

Mr. BABIN. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

What a fascinating—probably the most fascinating committee 

meeting I’ve been to in my Congressional career so far. 

And, Dr. Grunsfeld, let me—let me just say congratulations to all 

of you for playing a part in this huge endeavor that we’ve just seen 

successfully into, actually kind of a beginning to. 

But, Dr. Grunsfeld, the Johnson Space Center, which I represent 

in Houston, is home to the Astromaterials Acquisition and 

Curation office. This office is responsible for the curation of extraterrestrial samples from NASA’s past and future sample return 
138 

missions. The mission—their mission includes the documentation, 

preservation, preparation, and distribution of samples from the 

moon, asteroids, comets, the solar wind, and the planet Mars. 

Would you please explain how this facility will contribute to future 

planetary science missions going forward and how this unique and 

important capability will be maintained? 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. This astromaterials facility at the Johnson 

Space Center really is a national treasure. As you said, this is 

where our moon samples are kept, many meteorite samples; samples from comets will be, you know, stored there. Our OSIRIS–REx 

mission is going to perhaps return as much as 1.2 kilograms of 

samples. We are partnering with the Japanese on their sample return mission and we’ll have exchanges of materials. This is, you 

know, really our treasure trove of, you know, deep space samples. 

And our Mars 2020 Rover, which will be collecting samples, you 

know, eventually we hope to get those back to Earth and that’ll be 

the center of activity. And so it really is a science warehouse if you 

will. As much as the data that comes back from Pluto New Horizons will be stored on servers, you know, this is our central warehouse for that. 

Mr. BABIN. Right. Okay. Thank you very much. And I also have 

one more question for you if you don’t mind. NASA’s Space Launch 

System or the SLS will be the most powerful rocket in the world 

and will carry humans on exploration missions beyond Earth’s 

orbit. Given its tremendous lift capability, what advantages would 

SLS provide for planetary science and what types of missions 

might be enabled by SLS? Although today I’ve heard that we don’t 

need these huge machines as much as we have in the past with 

some of the lightening up of a lot of these instrumentation. But 

what is your thoughts on the SLS and what the capabilities of the 

future would be? 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. My view is that the Space Launch System will 

be transformative for science. And let me say that Pluto New Horizons, even though it was lightweight as much as the team could 

do, still required the largest Atlas rocket that could be built so— 

and to be able to get that speed and to zip out to Pluto. 

The mission to Europa, you know, we are currently designing the 

spacecraft to fit on any of a variety of launch vehicles, but we’re 

including the Space Lunch System in that trade space because the 

trip to Jupiter to get to Europa is a very long trip. On the biggest 

Atlas rocket, it would take just shy of eight years to get to Europa 

and zipping around the inner solar system, getting sling-shotted 

out. On the Space Launch System, it would be under three years. 

And this is one of those rare cases where time really is money because in that extra cruise time, you know, we have to maintain an 

engineering team and a science team and a spacecraft while it’s in 

cruise even if we hibernate it, you know, and that’s something that, 

you know, also delays the science. 

A large launch vehicle like the SLS with a large faring, the container that the spacecraft goes in, can also be enabling for things 

like deep space astronomy, launching a larger telescope, perhaps 

even launching telescope parts that astronauts could assemble to 

build a telescope that could search for atmospheres around nearby 

worlds. 
139 

Dr. STERN. And if I might, I don’t want my earlier remarks to 

be misconstrued, I really appreciated your question, but let me say 

that for a mission like New Horizons, which is a simple flyby, the 

first reconnaissance of that miniaturization really helps us, but for 

the next steps up when you want to do orbiters and landers and 

sample return like the ambitious missions that have been spoken 

about, you need to carry a lot of fuel. And there’s no way to lighten 

the fuel. You need it so you can come to a stop on that planetary 

service or an orbit, and SLS is going to really help us enable those 

kinds of deep space missions, including I hope one day a return to 

the Pluto system in the Kuiper belt. 

Mr. BABIN. Thank you, Dr. Stern. I appreciate you making an addition to that. I appreciate all the witnesses, very fascinating. 

Thank you so much. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Babin. 

The gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Johnson, is recognized for his 

questions. 

Mr. JOHNSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Dr. Grunsfeld, I represent the 6th District of Ohio, and although 

NASA Glenn is not in my district, being the only member from 

Ohio on the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, I’m very 

interested in what’s going on at NASA Glenn. And I know they’ve 

been involved in the past in the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope 

Generator program. There’s concern in the science community 

about the inventory of plutonium 238, as you know, the fuel which 

powers long-distance robotic spacecraft. Last year, NASA canceled 

the—its program to design the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope 

Generator that would use far less plutonium 238 per mission. So 

in place of this program, what is NASA doing to develop the next 

generation of nuclear power sources for exploring the outer planets? 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. Thank you. First of all, what we canceled last 

year was the flight portion of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope 

Generator, which—so a flight model to use on a mission. We’ve 

kept the technology funding so that they can continue to advance 

and do life-testing on the technology. What we determined is that 

the cost was growing for the flight unit very rapidly and it wasn’t 

clear that we’d converge. But we want to keep that technology 

going so we’re continuing to fund that. 

At the same time we’re working with the Department of Energy 

very closely on production of new plutonium 238. We have an existing stockpile and the new plutonium will be mixed with the old 

plutonium to create fuel for future missions. That could include discovering new frontiers. We have enough fuel currently on hand for 

our Mars 2020 mission. We’ve made the decision partly based on 

the great success of the Juno mission so far to go with solar. It’s 

actually a better match for the Europa mission, but we certainly 

are going to increase the production and maintain our capabilities 

for building our multi-mission radioisotope thermal generators. 

We’re also investing in technology that will allow the current fuel 

to be more efficient, new thermocouples to up the efficiency. And 

all of that work, all of what I described is being done at the Glenn 

Research Center. 
140 

Mr. JOHNSON. Okay. Now, staying on the budget theme for a 

minute, how does the fiscal year 2016 funding for NASA’s Planetary Science Division impact—you mentioned the New Frontier 

program. How does it impact the scheduling of the next New Frontiers competition? 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. The next New Frontiers competition we’re hoping—actually, Jim Green is here. I am—we’re hoping to put out a 

solicitation in roughly the next year. You know, the funding level 

in the fiscal year 2016 request doesn’t allow us to be particularly 

aggressive, and so that’s something that would then be launching 

sometime early in the next decade. 

Mr. JOHNSON. Okay. All right. And for any of the rest of you gentlemen, how have budget cuts to NASA’s Planetary Science Division impacted the scientific community, particularly the next generation of planetary scientists? Anyone have a concern? 

Dr. PAPPALARDO. Why don’t I say a word just for my colleagues 

who rely on the research and analysis program. There are a lot of 

young scientists who question whether they can stay in the field 

because of the kinds of cuts that have happened in planetary 

science. And then when we don’t see new missions coming along 

and finally Europa is coming along, we don’t see the kind of research programs that go along with those missions. So something 

like the Europa mission brings along with it a large cadre of 

science and some funding to do science and promote research in 

that area. But, yeah, I just want to raise a flag regarding that research and analysis program because there are a lot of excellent 

young scientists who feel like, well, maybe they should just leave 

this field. 

Mr. JOHNSON. Okay. Dr. Grunsfeld, back to you. NASA backed 

out of the ExoMars mission leaving Russia to partner with Europe. 

NASA’s InSight mission, as we know, is an American spacecraft 

but it carries mostly European instruments. How is the NASA’s 

Planetary Science Division strategically approaching international 

cooperation on future missions? 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. I think, you know, the first thing is that when 

we changed our participation in ExoMars 2016, the trace gas orbiter, and ExoMars 2018, their lander, you know, we at the time 

were providing a launch vehicle, some instruments, and a landing 

system. You know, in tight budgets, you know, it was decided that, 

you know, providing those capabilities really wasn’t advantageous 

to the United States. However, we’re still deeply involved in both 

missions and we’re providing a lot of support. We’re providing instruments, some technical capability for the trace gas orbiter, and 

we’re actually providing from the Goddard Spaceflight Center the 

Mars Organic Molecular Analyzer, which is the front end for the— 

the highlight instrument on the lander. And so we have U.S. scientists deeply involved in the ExoMars, both ’16 and ’18 opportunities. 

And we’re thrilled that the Russians have come on board, that 

it’s now a stronger partnership. About 90 percent of all of our planetary science missions have significant international partnerships 

and, you know, a good example is the Cassini spacecraft, which not 

only has scientists participating in multiple instruments but they 

provided a whole probe, the Huygens probe, which descended into 
141 

Titan’s atmosphere. The Mars 2020 mission, again, a lot of international partnership. 

Mr. JOHNSON. I’d like to go deeper but my time has over-expired. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you. 

Mr. JOHNSON. And, Mr. Chairman, I thank you for the indulgence. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you—— 

Mr. JOHNSON. I yield back. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. 

The gentleman from New York, Mr. Tonko, is recognized. 

Mr. TONKO. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to a very distinguished and impressive panel of witnesses. And thank you for 

reminding me and hopefully all of us of where vision, leadership, 

and tenacity can truly take us. 

Forty-six years ago the world watched as Neil Armstrong and 

Edwin Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins’ journey to the moon captured humanity’s imagination and inspired a generation to reconsider the possibilities of space exploration. In those years leading 

up to the moon landing, I watched with great interest as a high 

schooler the race between the United States and the Soviet Union 

for spaceflight supremacy. Hearing and learning about the work 

you do, the matters you study, and certainly all of us were captured by this and are in awe of what we will explore and learn in 

the coming years. 

Back with the space race of the ’60s, we had a young president 

who challenged the Nation to land on the moon, and we had a passionate resolve to use science and engineering to beat our rivals. 

And it’s been years of investing and innovating that enabled America to be a leader in this endeavor to be the first to land on the 

moon and to continue with space explorations. 

One of my biggest concerns is that, as a nation, we may be losing 

sight of what we can achieve in terms of space exploration and that 

in turn we may be missing opportunities to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. We must retain the will to explore, as well as the human infrastructure needed to make the proposed missions a reality. 

So for any of you, I would ask, do you believe that the public is 

aware of the many missions and discoveries that we’re making as 

a nation? And I would reference this basic New Horizons Pluto 

mission. Is there that growing interest that we saw in the ’60s in 

your opinion? 

Dr. STERN. Well, if I may answer that on behalf of my experience 

with New Horizons in recent weeks, I’ve seen a tremendous outpouring from the public both in talks that I’ve given like at the Intrepid Museum in New York this past weekend, as well as through 

email and social media, I’ve seen an enormous number of younger 

people, young people saying I’ve never seen anything like this; we 

can do great things in our time. It makes me feel good about our 

generation that we live in a time like this. And I’ve seen people actually tell me that they were moved to tears about the New Horizons flyby. I think we can inspire. And the program that’s coming 

in the future I think can equally inspire. 

Mr. TONKO. Thank you. And anyone else that wants to—— 
142 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. I would just say that when we landed the Curiosity mission on Mars almost three years ago, we had, you know, 

amazing response from the public. There were crowds in Times 

Square watching on the large screens. This is for an event that’s 

just a mission landing on Mars, not even the great science that 

came out afterwards. 

We—because of the power of social networking, we have the ability now to measure the response for events like Pluto New Horizons, like the Mars Curiosity landing, even just, you know, announcements from NASA of discoveries of a cousin system to our 

own solar system, a sun like our sun and a planet somewhat like 

our Earth, and we find, you know, that ridiculously large numbers 

of people are following this and worldwide, billions and billions of 

impressions, you know, the number of—the circulation times the 

number of stories that far exceeds the number of smart devices and 

computers and phones and things. It’s really quite remarkable. 

And what I think is most encouraging is that when we have an 

event like the flyby, that’s excitement, that’s exploration, that’s the 

human endeavor, and we get this great following. What I find most 

encouraging is that once the science starts coming out, the following is still there. The inspiration is working. 

Mr. TONKO. Well, you know, the—many are concerned about our 

under-producing the engineers we need for society here in the 

United States. A commitment for this to continue and to grow in 

the exploration area smacks of research investment amd human infrastructure development. What would you advise this Committee, 

this panel to do in regard to research investment and growing the 

scientists and engineers that we obviously will require? 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. Well, I’m very appreciative of the efforts of this 

Committee and of the Congress in supporting our basic research 

activities. This is fundamental research, you know, exploring the 

limits of human knowledge. But these are very hard things to do. 

Pluto New Horizons as a mission was a very hard mission to implement. When we try and do these very hard things, that’s when we 

push engineers, push scientists to expand their own frontiers, 

which advances our nation technologically, industrially. You know, 

these—this is one of the reasons why we do this and why it makes 

our nation so strong. A byproduct is it does inspire the Nation and 

the world, which is also something we want to do. 

Mr. TONKO. Thank you. I believe I’ve exhausted my time so I 

yield back, Mr. Chair. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Tonko. 

The gentleman from Louisiana, Mr. Abraham, is recognized. 

Mr. ABRAHAM. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And certainly thank 

you, gentlemen, for being here. I’m privileged to be among rocket 

scientists. 

I guess the question to you, Dr. Grunsfeld, is first. It’s nice to 

have a Planetary Science Division. And certainly this research and 

these flybys and all this wonderful discovery that the panel has 

brought to light today ignites excitement and it stimulates young 

people. What programs does NASA have from the K to 12 level not 

only for the educators but for the students themselves to continue 

that excitement and to get those engineers and scientists that you 

guys need? 
143 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. Well, I think any of us would be very hard 

pressed to go into a K through 12 classroom and not see evidence 

that, you know, NASA’s education programs and specifically the 

education programs that we support in the Science Mission Directorate that we don’t reach from the scientist to teachers, master 

teachers, pre-service, in-service teachers, to the students in the 

classroom. We do this through both formal programs and informal 

programs. 

And so this is part of the DNA if you will of scientists that are 

funded by NASA programs. Twenty years ago or so, you know, 

NASA sort of had to twist scientists’ arms to get involved in education. Now I find that young postdocs, graduate students, young 

professors, not only do they really want to involve themselves in 

the broader education effort, they want to do more than we can 

possibly fund and they do. And it really is this broader public engagement that our scientists are doing that’s part of the strength 

of the current science program at NASA. 

Alan? 

Dr. STERN. Well, I’ll add—first of all, I’d like to echo everything 

that Dr. Grunsfeld said, but there are other aspects to this as well, 

and I’ll just highlight two. One are the role models that we can provide from the science teams when you have a viral event like New 

Horizons. Our science team contains scientists, you know, as young 

as in their mid-20s, brilliant scientists out of institutions like Stanford and MIT and other institutions that can go out into the classrooms and really connect. Those are role models. 

And then secondly, on New Horizons, we pioneered something 

very interesting. We are actually the first planetary mission to 

carry a student-built experiment to give the students in that instance an opportunity not just to learn about how planetary missions are done and how the science is done but to actually have a 

hands-on experience and ownership to fly something, in this case, 

across the entirety of our solar system and to make a little history. 

Mr. ABRAHAM. Okay. All right, thank you. Just a quick question 

and anybody can answer this. Going back to a previous question 

about international cooperation, what countries out there besides of 

course the United States are stepping up to the plate that will become leaders in exploration that you guys see coming down the 

pike? 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. I think in part because of the very strong cooperation that many countries have had with the United States, 

other countries, agencies of countries have been able to put together programs that are very strong and in particular the European Space Agency, as evidenced by the recent Rosetta mission and 

the Philae lander on a comet, you know, incredibly exciting, daring, 

and successful. So there’s no question that other countries aspire 

to have the kind of capabilities. 

I think one of the really important things is they aspire to do 

that but they also look to partner with us, and I think as long as 

they continue to do that, we’re in pretty good shape. 

Mr. ABRAHAM. Okay. Anybody else? No? Okay. 

Dr. Grunsfeld, when does NASA anticipate requesting funding 

for another flagship mission? When you guys see coming to the 

table again? 
144 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. Well, certainly, we’ve—you know, we’ve requested funding for the Europa mission—— 

Mr. ABRAHAM. Right. 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. —for the Mars 2020 mission. I think it’s going 

to be the next Decadal Survey that queues up the priority for what 

we do after that. In the meantime, and it’s already in our budget, 

we have some very exciting ideas for discovery class missions that 

are in the queue and we have, you know, certainly many ideas for 

New Frontiers missions. But I think with the Mars 2020 lander 

and the Europa mission, you know, our ticket is pretty full right 

now—— 

Mr. ABRAHAM. Good. 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. —and it’s pretty exciting. 

Mr. ABRAHAM. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. 

Chairman SMITH. And thank you, Mr. Abraham. 

It occurs to me I should have done it earlier but I want to recognize a colleague of ours who has joined us, John Culberson of 

Texas, a Member of the Appropriations Committee. And as I mentioned a while ago when I asked a question on his behalf about Europa, I don’t know if anyone in Congress who has a greater interest 

in that moon than Representative Culberson. So, John, I appreciate 

your being here today. This is indicative of his long-standing interest in space in general and Europa in particular, so thank you for 

being here. 

The gentlewoman from Oregon, Ms. Bonamici, is recognized. 

Ms. BONAMICI. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank 

you to the witnesses for being here. Good to see you, Dr. Grunsfeld. 

I apologize for not being here to listen to your testimony. I was 

in another hearing but I did review it before the hearing today. 

And I understand somebody already asked the question—I was in 

the Education Committee and I understand that somebody already 

asked the question about STEM education and the workforce. 

So I’m going to ask you, we were all fascinated by the recent 

photos of Pluto beamed backed by the New Horizons mission. It 

seems like we’re making some incredible discoveries about distant 

bodies in our solar system at a regular pace, and that’s really exciting for our country and our world. And although we continue to 

study our home planet to better understand and predict its 

changes, we’ve also learned that in some cases it’s important to 

study Earth from a distance in order to understand its processes 

and mysteries. So how does what we’re learning in the outer region 

of the solar system help us inform our understanding of Earth? Dr. 

Grunsfeld, would you please start? 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. Well, certainly. For all of our missions, we’re observing our solar system in a snapshot of time. And, you know, obviously we live on the Earth, we can go outside. When we’re not 

in rooms with all the shades closed, we can observe the Earth and 

we can try and understand the geology of the Earth in great detail 

over past times. We can look at tree rings, we can look at glaciers, 

we can really try and put the picture together. 

But studying how other planets evolve, and we usually have used 

Venus and Mars as sort of bounding cases of the direction Earth 

could have gone to try and understand the climates of other planets, the geology of other planets, and on Earth there’s really a 
145 

unique thing, which is as soon as life emerged on Earth, it started 

changing the geology, the atmosphere. You know, just microbial life 

had a really remarkable effect on the evolution of Earth. And so 

looking at planets like Venus and Mars, we don’t know if there was 

ever life on Mars or if there is today; that’s what we’re trying to 

find out. It gives us a lot of information. 

There’s also the question of fundamental questions. Where did 

we come from? How did the Earth get to be the way it is? And even 

studying planets like Mercury have helped us understand about 

the delivery of volatiles and organics. That’s why, you know, it’s 

really exciting, and I’d like to pass on if you don’t mind to Alan 

Stern—— 

Ms. BONAMICI. Of course. 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. —to talk about Pluto because, you know, we sort 

of imagine that Pluto would be a frozen, you know, somewhat dead 

planet and we’ve discovered that it still has geologic processes and 

is in some sense as the planet—talking planetary sciences—it’s still 

alive and will tell us something hopefully about how the solar system was assembled. 

Ms. BONAMICI. Dr. Stern? 

Dr. STERN. Well, thank you very much. And I have to say when 

the National Academies’ Decadal Survey process recommended 

Pluto New Horizons to the top of the queue, they pointed out two 

very important scientific problems that exploration of Pluto could 

shed light on regarding our own Earth. And let me outline those 

for you. 

One is that the Pluto system as a binary planet is believed to 

have been formed through the same giant impact mechanism that 

the Earth/moon system was formed. In fact, Pluto is the only place 

that we sent a spacecraft to and the only place we know of that 

we can reach with a spacecraft that can shed light as a second example of a satellite formation system like shaped the earth/moon 

system, very, very important. And if you have a chance to review 

the testimony that I made, I showed off the binary and what it can 

teach us about that just a little bit. 

Secondly, interestingly enough, Pluto is rapidly losing its atmosphere compared to most planets for a combination of reasons, one 

of which is that the upper atmosphere is pretty warm, and that 

speeds the escape. It turns out the escape process, which has a 

fancy name called hydrodynamic escape that Pluto is suffering 

from inn losing that atmosphere is precisely the mechanism that 

took place early in the history of the Earth when the Earth’s atmosphere was made of hydrogen and helium, which are poisonous, 

and which led to the development of the current-day atmosphere 

in part. 

This is not a mechanism that one can study anywhere else in the 

solar system on a planetary scale except at Pluto, so it’s a window 

back in time into the early evolution of the Earth’s atmosphere. 

And who would have thought that we had to go 3 billion miles to 

study fundamental aspects of the physics that have shaped our 

own planet? And yet we did. 

Ms. BONAMICI. That’s great. I’m going to try to sneak in another 

question real quickly. 
146 

Dr. Russell, now that Dawn has successfully proven the use of 

an ion propulsion engine for its planetary mission, what other potential science investigations could be enabled with this technology? 

Dr. RUSSELL. Well, the advantage of ion propulsion is that, although it works slowly, it can accomplish the transport of large 

amounts of mass. So if you were taking some fairly large mission 

to Mars, for example, then it would be a very efficient way of transporting that material. 

But just going back to the asteroid belt, there are a lot of other 

asteroids there and NASA’s discovery proposal queue is just full of 

asteroid missions and many of them are employing or proposing to 

employ electric propulsion. 

Ms. BONAMICI. Thank you very much. 

I see my time is expired. I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Ms. Bonamici. 

The gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Palmer, is recognized. 

Mr. PALMER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And this is for each member of the panel. Where do you need 

funding? And you don’t have all day. Where do you need help? 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. You know, of course the Administration has 

made its request and, you know, it funds all of the things that 

we’ve outlined in the Congressional Justification to Fund. You 

know, the place that we’re still lacking is in the cadence of these 

New Frontiers and Discovery programs. And of course, as you 

heard, research and analysis funding is always appreciated by the 

community. 

Dr. STERN. I’m here representing myself and I wanted to bring 

up exactly the two points that Dr. Grunsfeld just did, and that Dr. 

Pappalardo did earlier. The research and analysis programs are 

crucial to understanding the data that comes back because the ones 

and zeros themselves have no meaning. It’s only with the application of bright scientists working on those data that we can actually 

turn those ones and zeros into discoveries. 

And then secondly, the cadence of Discovery and New Frontiers 

missions could be increased with the application of more funding 

and very much to the benefit not just of the research enterprise but 

I believe to the benefit of the United States and its standing in the 

world. 

Dr. RUSSELL. And I would just like to second what Alan just said, 

exactly right. 

Dr. PAPPALARDO. And I’ll comment that the pace of Europa exploration depends on the pace of the funding. When we launch depends on the funding profile. And we can walk or we can crawl to 

get there. 

Dr. BRAUN. Yeah, so I’ll address that question as well but maybe 

with a slightly different angle. All of the missions that we’re talking about here today and all of the missions that we would like to 

do in the future hinge on technology readiness. And today, there 

is a very effective partnership that has emerged between the 

Science Mission Directorate at NASA and the Space Technology 

Mission Directorate at NASA in creating the technologies needed 

for future missions. 
147 

So one of the things that I think is imperative for Congress to 

recognize and to recall is that without the investments in technology to enable our future missions, those future missions won’t 

happen. And I can give you a list of four or five technology areas, 

some of which are actually included in the House Appropriations 

bill. 

Mr. PALMER. As exciting as these missions are, and they are tremendously exciting—I’m from Alabama. As the Chairman mentioned, we have the Marshall Spaceflight Center. There’s a lot of 

research going on in Huntsville and in Birmingham. As exciting as 

this is, though, I think one of the things that needs to be emphasized is the commercial and private sector benefit of what’s being 

done through the space program. I mean we’ve had tremendous advances in the quality of life because of these programs. 

How do you see these missions impacting that? Are there new 

technologies that you think will emerge out of this that are going 

to impact—that can be applied in the private sector that’s going to 

impact quality of life? I think that’s going to help sell a lot of this. 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. Well, there’s sort of a high ground and then 

there’s this specific ground. On the high ground, as I mentioned 

earlier, when we ask our contractors, our companies to build these 

detectors, to build the spacecraft, the propulsion systems, the 

power systems, we’re asking them to do things that no one has ever 

done before. And we push the engineers and the technicians and 

even the managers to do things that cause companies to be stronger. 

On the other hand, once we build these things, for instance, the 

ChemCam instrument on the Mars Curiosity rover, those developments are quickly turned around into things that are commercialized and used here on planet Earth, whether it’s to look for 

counterfeit drugs or new detectors for cameras that very quickly 

make it into cell phones, handheld devices for detecting explosives 

and chemical agencies, new detectors that are used in our defense 

industry. You know, and the list goes on. Almost every one of our 

scientific instruments is relatively quickly through the development 

cycle mapped to something that is either commercialized or has 

commercial benefit. 

Mr. PALMER. I have one last question quickly, and that is in regard to the near-Earth objects. Is there any plans for a manned 

mission to any of those? My understanding is that there’s some potential for a lot of benefit in terms of exploration of a near-Earth 

object. 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. So we have a mission in the Science Mission Directorate called OSIRIS–REx, which is a robotic mission to go out 

to a potentially hazardous asteroid that’s 500 meters across, grab 

some samples, and bring it back to Earth where, you know, humans will—scientists will analyze it. And also the Administration 

has proposed, NASA has proposed the Asteroid Redirect Mission, 

which is going to bring a near-Earth object into a lunar orbit where 

the Orion spacecraft and SLS will then deliver astronauts to interrogate the asteroid. 

Mr. PALMER. I see my time is expired. I don’t think that bell was 

acknowledging that, but thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Palmer. 
148 

The gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Moolenaar, is recognized. 

Mr. MOOLENAAR. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I also want to 

thank the panel for your presentation and just answering these 

questions. 

I want to go back. A number of people have brought up this topic 

of STEM education and the next generation and how, you know, 

planetary science can really inspire. And what strikes me—and my 

history may not be 100 percent accurate; you guys would know better than I do—but, you know, as I look through history, there was 

an issue of military competition or superiority with Sputnik where, 

you know, we were in a race with the Soviet Union. There was 

President Kennedy saying we wanted to land a man on the moon. 

There have been different commercial goals with space exploration. 

But it seems to me in every one of those cases there was sort of 

these unifying goals that got, you know, NASA and the country 

sort of rallying behind something. And then, you know, if you 

watch a movie like October Sky you see how students wanted to 

build rockets. And it really galvanized public support and private, 

you know, interest as well. 

If I had to ask each of you if there were three unifying goals 

right now when you think of space exploration, you know, I would 

think of things like, you know, military and defense applications, 

you know, commercial technologies, you know, origin-of-life questions, life beyond. Are there three that you can think of the really 

captivate sort of the mission that we’re on today if there were kind 

of unifying goals that everybody would say, yes, those are the 

goals? Or are they all different, and that’s one of the reasons it’s 

challenging to communicate maybe the priorities for the next generation? 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. Well, let me start off, and again, I’ll kind of take 

the high plane and then we’ll see where it goes, but what drives 

me as the head of science for NASA are really three questions. 

Where do we come from? You know, what is our origins? Where are 

we going? Where’s the universe going but also where are we going 

here on planet Earth? And then the final one, which, you know, for 

me is sort of the highest priority but I don’t want to pick favorites 

is are we alone? You know, and I think, you know, that’s one where 

people—not everyone but any, many people on planet Earth want 

to know. Are we alone in the universe? And we are on the cusp of 

being able to answer that question technologically because the investments we’re making in space technology are both on the 

ground and in space. 

Dr. STERN. Well, I’d speak to some other threads. In terms of the 

science, I think that there’s a vast interest in understanding our 

origins, which we do not only through the planetary program but 

through the astrophysics program, for example, as well in NASA’s 

Science Mission Directorate. Exploration I think is a very important theme but I think people in the public really are excited by 

exploration, as shown two weeks ago by the exploration of Pluto 

and the viral response that it got. That’s a very important way that 

we can motivate and excite people about just what we as humans 

can achieve. 

And finally, I’d like to speak to tech careers. All of us are in tech 

careers as scientists or engineers or technologists, and I know I see 
149 

this a lot in speaking about New Horizons, the other missions I’m 

involved in. Young people are really envious of careers in the space 

program. And from my understanding, although space excites lots 

of kids to go into tech careers, about 90 percent or something in 

excess of 90 percent end up in other aspects of the tech economy, 

which I think is just fantastic, that we are the attractors to fuel 

the economy of the mid-21st century, and yet we don’t need all 

those jobs to make the space program go, that it can go to fuel the 

internet and the biotech and other revolutions that we all want to 

see improve quality of life. 

Dr. BRAUN. Yeah, if I could add to that for a moment, I think 

both John and Alan spoke to the knowledge benefits that our space 

program provides and that is clearly what is most relevant to the 

hearing today. Economic benefits are strong. Alan just alluded to 

some of those. But let’s not leave out national security. Our ability 

to inspire people worldwide has international implications that are 

very helpful to this country. 

And there are really some very significant societal benefits. It’s 

hard to go anywhere in our society today and not be impacted by 

something that came from the space program whether it’s the 

clothing that you’re wearing while you’re skiing or nutrients that 

are in about 80 percent of the baby formula that our infants in this 

country are taking as supplements. So, you know, those are a number of other reasons. 

Dr. PAPPALARDO. If we have time, I’ll speak to the ‘‘are we 

alone?’’ question just for a moment. This is really a question that 

drives when I go out and talk with school kids. It really inspires 

them, really gets them interested. And if we think about its relevance for science, we have just one example of biology on our 

planet. It all works kind of the same way, uses the same amino 

acids and uses the same storage for energy. And if we, by exploring 

a place like Europa or other icy moons or Mars, could find an example of a different kind of life on the outer planets’ satellites, that 

would have to be an independent origin of life, whereas Mars there 

could be transfer between Earth and Mars that happened early in 

the solar system. It would be remarkable to see is it similar to life 

on Earth or is it completely different? Does it use different molecules? Does it have a different handedness of those molecules? It 

would really revolutionize the field of biology. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Moolenaar. 

You all might be interested in knowing that we have a hearing 

scheduled in September on that subject, ‘‘are we alone?’’ So we will 

follow up. We’ve had hearings before; we’re going to have another 

one in September. 

The gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Hultgren, is recognized for his 

questions. 

Mr. HULTGREN. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you all for being 

here. This is very important and actually exciting for us and important for us to be talking about these things, so I want to just thank 

you for your work. Thanks for being here today. 

I do especially want our kids to know that there is a future in 

science because by definition these are smart kids that would be 

interested in this and they will make the smart choice and avoid 
150 

these fields if we are not supporting it. And so it is so important 

for us to support it, science and space and exploration. 

Dr. Grunsfeld, you said it best in your written testimony so I’m 

just going to quote it again, and it doesn’t get said enough that 

‘‘space exploration is difficult, requiring our best and brightest engineers and scientists in order to succeed. And when we develop innovative probes to explore the solar system, we invent technologies 

which improve our lives here on planet Earth.’’ I also think the 

same can be said about all the other ‘‘big science’’ projects that 

we’re working on, be it at CERN or the North Pole or a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility trying to detect dark matter, which I had the pleasure of touring just a couple 

weeks ago. 

But again, for me a lot of this does go back to figuring out how 

we can get our kids to get into these fields. NASA does a lot of 

great work in the STEM fields, and frankly, I wish our other research agencies have the ability to get into the classroom more easily. If I were Administrator, I’d probably be pushing for a few days’ 

paid leave if my scientists wanted to go and help kids to build robots or visit a science class. If nothing else, we should be doing everything we can to help our scientists volunteer. They do this because they love it, not to make a buck. 

I would ask each of you if maybe you could share with the Committee as we’re closing up this hearing if there was a teacher or 

mentor or role model that convinced you that this is what you 

wanted to do, if you the kind of give a shout-out to that teacher 

or mentor. And when was it that you actually realized that this 

would be your path? Were you a kid? Were you in college? Were 

you a postdoc? And what do you think is maybe the most important 

time for kids to get exposure to this work? 

Dr. GRUNSFELD. Sure, I’ll go ahead and start. I actually—I really 

appreciate your comments. I have a belief that all children are born 

as scientists and—scientists and engineers. We crawl around and 

we try and figure out how does the world work? You know, in fact, 

we’re genetically programmed to do that. And so it’s up to parents, 

which are the largest demographic of decision-makers in our country, to make good decisions on, you know, the education of our children. And I’m just very lucky that I had two parents that were 

very nurturing and interested in science and nature. 

But in the third grade I was asked as part of my class south side 

of Chicago, Hyde Park, Mrs. Loeb, first biography I ever had to 

write. And she started in the front row and she started just assigning people for students to write about. So there was, you know, 

Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Babe Ruth, you know, and 

she got to me—I was in the second row—and without missing a 

beat she said Enrico Fermi and then just continued on down the 

line. And my heart just sank. I thought why didn’t I get somebody 

famous? Well, Enrico Fermi, an American Italian physicist who 

helped in the Manhattan project, it turns out—and I met her years 

later and thanked her and gave her actually a patch that I flew 

on the space shuttle and met with the students and subsequently 

flew a patch that the students designed on another space shuttle 

from the south side of Chicago. But she said it was totally random. 
151 

But Enrico—I grew up on the south side where Enrico Fermi 

taught and so I got to meet people that he interacted with. I got 

to ride my bike to the first atomic pile. And I was just fascinated 

by it all and I credit that with, you know, becoming an astronaut 

and a scientist and being here to talk to you about it. 

Mr. HULTGREN. That’s great. Any other? 

Dr. STERN. Well, if we’re taking this in order, I would say that 

I don’t remember ever wanting to do anything else in my life except be in the space business. You might say that that’s a fine line 

between in the groove and maybe stuck in a rut. But I always 

wanted to do this and I always strove to be able to do it. And my 

parents supported me very strongly in that. I had many teachers 

along the way. 

And what I’ve noticed in raising my own children is that when 

they’re interested in science and technology, oftentimes they go 

through this mid-period somewhere in middle school and the early 

parts of high school where a lot of kids drop out of their interests 

in science and tech, and personally my advice has always been to 

follow your heart and the rest will probably work itself out. 

My own mentor that I’d like to mention is a little counterintuitive, is much later in my life because I emerged from graduate 

school as an engineer and worked as an engineer in the space program but had a bent towards science that was recognized by my 

laboratory director, Dr. Charles Barth at the University of Colorado, and he kept slotting me into scientific positions, although an 

engineer, as project scientist for a satellite, project scientist for a 

sounding rocket, and he made me fall in love with science. So I 

went back to graduate school at age 30. And he believed in me. So 

it really made a difference. 

Dr. RUSSELL. And just a short— 

Mr. HULTGREN. Our time goes by too fast, but yeah, if you can 

just maybe give a quick shout-out to a teacher or mentor. 

Dr. RUSSELL. Yeah, right. I had a guidance counselor who was 

trying to push me into engineering but I knew deep down inside 

I wanted to be a scientist and I didn’t listen to her. 

Mr. HULTGREN. Good for you. 

Dr. PAPPALARDO. Tom Cramer on Long Island might be out there 

watching this webcast as well and inspired me in sixth grade, and 

as I mentioned in my testimony, Carl Sagan during my college 

years. 

And I want to point out the issue that when I taught elementary 

school science lab, there was such enthusiasm and excitement 

among the entire class, including the girls at that level, and we 

lose a lot of the girls when going to the junior high and high school 

levels, and I think that’s something we continue to need to work 

on. 

Dr. BRAUN. If I could just quickly add, I grew up in Maryland, 

in Rockville, Maryland, and my father was an engineer at the 

physics lab where New Horizons was flown from. And that was— 

he certainly inspired me to—you know, in an engineering direction. 

But when I was 11 years old, Viking landed on Mars and I was 

fortunate enough to be able to go to the Goddard Spaceflight Center to witness that landing. And there was a guy on TV, you know, 

TV screen jumping up and down, he had long hair, he was wearing 
152 

a very colorful shirt, he was some kind of engineer and, you know, 

he’s very proud of that moment of that first U.S. planetary lander. 

And I thought, boy, I want to be like him. And it turns out that 

guy was Gentry Lee at JPL, who I have since had the great fortune 

of getting to work with as a colleague. And he’s still as energetic 

as he ever was. 

Mr. HULTGREN. Well, thank you. 

Chairman, thanks for your indulgence. All of you I think certainly are providing some of that same inspiration and mentorship 

to young people today, and so I want to thank you for that. 

Quickly in closing, Dr. Rumsfeld, unfortunately—like you said, 

all of us are born engineers. I think I was unfortunately born a 

lawyer and so I think that’s a curse. But I wish I had your abilities 

but I share in it and want to champion what you’re doing. 

So thank you, Chairman, and I yield back. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Hultgren. 

Without any question, you all have made all of your mentors 

proud— 

Mr. HULTGREN. Absolutely. 

Chairman SMITH. —if you haven’t surpassed them, and so that’s 

nice to see. 

And without objection, the gentlewoman from Maryland, Ms. 

Edwards, is recognized for an extra minute. 

Ms. EDWARDS. Just a minute, I had a question, but I really actually wanted to point out—and none of you did—there was a recent 

news report that said the New Horizons—the New Horizons mission, there were—25 percent of the team that worked on New Horizons were women, and I think that that is something that we need 

to really celebrate. 

My recollection when the Curiosity rover landed, there was a 

team of women who were the team that developed one of the major 

instruments there. I think that we have the potential to inspire a 

new generation. And when I looked at that photo on NASA.gov— 

everybody go to it—that team of women right there in that photo, 

it gives me chills. 

Thank you very much, and I yield the balance of my time. 

Chairman SMITH. Thank you, Ms. Edwards. 

This has been a wonderful hearing. Thank you all for inspiring 

us, and we look forward to being in touch. And we are adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 12:02 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.] 
(153) 

Appendix I 

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS
154 

ANSWERS TO POST-HEARING QUESTIONS

Responses by Dr. John Grunsfeld 
155 
156 
157 
158 
159 
160 
161 
162 
163 
164 
165 
166 
167 
168 
169 

Responses by Dr. Alan Stern 
170 
171 
172 
173 
174 

Responses by Dr. Christopher Russell 
175 
176 
177 
178 
179 

Responses by Dr. Robert Pappalardo 
180 
181 
182 
183 
184 
185 
186 

Responses by Dr. Robert Braun 
187 
188 
189 
190 
191 
192 
193 
194 
195 

(197) 

Appendix II 

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL FOR THE RECORD
198 

STATEMENT SUBMITTED BY COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBER EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

Good morning. We have a distinguished panel of witnesses presenting testimony 

to the Committee this morning, and I want to welcome each of them to this hearing. 

NASA’s solar system exploration program has been very much in the news in recent days, especially as a result of the amazing flyby of Pluto that has already returned some stunning images of that faraway body. Those images have fascinated 

the public, and I know that there will more such photos sent back by the New Horizons spacecraft over the coming days and months. I look forward to seeing them. 

However, the mission to Pluto is just one of the exciting missions of discovery that 

NASA has undertaken to better understand our solar system and our place in it. 

Whether it is rovers on Mars, orbiters around Mercury and Saturn, or a spacecraft 

voyaging to multiple destinations in the Asteroid Belt, those missions remind us 

that we truly are in a golden age of solar system exploration. 

Yet, while I am proud of the preeminent role the United States has taken in solar 

system exploration, we are not alone in that quest. And in that regard, I am pleased 

that international cooperation in this area has been long standing and highly productive. For example, we have cooperated with Europe on a number of challenging 

missions, including the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and more recently the 

European Rosetta mission to a comet, for which the United States contributed a 

number of instruments. And we have worked with other nations as well on other 

missions. 

Mr. Chairman, it is not an overstatement to say that NASA’s planetary science 

program has been extraordinarily successful, and that fact is a tribute to the hard 

work and perseverance of NASA, its contractors, and the space research community. 

Yet, Congress also has a role to play in keeping NASA’s solar system exploration 

program robust-namely, we need to do our part by making sure NASA receives adequate and timely funding to support the development and operation of those challenging missions. And we need to make sure we are also providing the funding 

needed to develop the advanced technologies that will enable the future missions 

that will continue to rewrite the science textbooks. 

Well, we have much to discuss today, and thus I will yield back so that we can 

hear from our witnesses. Thank you. 

Æ