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 NASA OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS 

 WASHINGTON, D.C. 

 Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Rollout 

 "Science Mission Directorate Budget Briefing" 

 Speakers: 

 DR. EDWARD J. WEILER, 

 Associate Administrator, Science Mission Directorate 

 DR. MICHAEL H. FREILICH, 

 Director, Earth Science Division, 

 Science Mission Directorate 

 DR. JON MORSE, 

 Director, Astrophysics Division, 

 Science Mission Directorate 

 DR. JIM GREEN, 

 Director, Planetary Science Division, 

 Science Mission Directorate 

 Moderated by DWAYNE BROWN, 

 Office of Public Affairs, NASA 

 5:00 p.m., EDT 

 Thursday May 7, 2009 

 NASA Headquarters 
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 P R O C E E D I N G S 

 MODERATOR: Good afternoon, and welcome to the 

Science budget telecon. Again, my name is Dwayne Brown 

with NASA Public Affairs. 

 We have a hard cut-off to allow for the next NASA 

telecon. So we will get into the Q&A session very shortly. 

 Dr. Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for the 

Science Mission Directorate, will have a brief opening 

statement, and then we will open it up for questions. 

 With Dr. Weiler are his budget and division 

chiefs, and if they need to address a specific question, 

they will first identify their name and title and address 

the respective question, and the Q&A portion will be 

delegated by the operator. 

 So, with that, Ed? 

 DR. WEILER: Good afternoon, everybody. We are 

here today to talk about the President's fiscal '10 and 

out-year budget, and I would like to start by saying that 

we are very pleased with this budget because it represents 

about a $1.2-billion increase over the years fiscal '09 

through fiscal '13. So, over those five years, we are 

seeing an extra $1.2 billion over the budget we had last 
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year. 

 This increase is entirely in the Earth Science 

arena. We have four divisions here in the Science Mission 

Directorate, Earth Science, Astrophysics, Heliophysics, and 

Planetary. The $1.2 billion is spread over those five 

fiscal years in the Earth Science arena. 

 With that extra money, many things will be 

accomplished. First and foremost is the so-called 

foundational Earth Science missions. These are missions 

that the National Academy Decadal assumed would be there 

and flying, before we start flying the so-called Decadal 

priorities. 

 So our first priority with this money will be to 

get these in good budget shape on realistic budget footing 

and schedules. That is what we call a 70-percent confident 

level. All these missions will be brought to the 

70-percent confidence level in budget and schedule, and 

they include things like the Glory Mission, an aerosol 

mission, the Global Precipitation Mission, the LDCM 

Mission, Landsat follow-on mission, and the NPOESS 

Preparatory Project Mission. 

 In addition to this, we are maintaining the 
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ability to, at some point, put the thermal infrared scanner 

instrument on the Landsat Mission. We will also be issuing 

an announcement of opportunity for a new program called 

Venture Class, which is also a very high Decadal priority, 

and this is a new program that will do complementary 

science, fill in gaps where the Decadal missions don't 

necessarily do all they should do, and it includes things 

like small airborne instruments, large airborne 

instruments, and even small satellite mission. That will 

be the first for that program, and it will come out this 

summer. 

 In addition, last but not least, we will be 

accelerating two of our highest priority Decadal missions 

called SMAP, which is the Soil Moisture Mission, and ISAT 

will be accelerating them about one year for a planned 

launch date hopefully in late 2013 or early 2014 for the 

SMAP mission, and late 2014 or early 2015 for the ISAT-2 

mission. 

 Actually, we are also providing some start-up 

funds for studies on the other Tier 1 missions, Destiny and 

CLARREO. 

 Across the board, we have established 70-percent 
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confidence-level budgets in all our programs. Our goal is 

to have executable programs within cost and schedule. In 

addition to that, we are supporting an announcement of 

opportunity for instruments for a New Frontiers mission. 

That AO is on the street now for Planetary Science. We 

have the funds to support an AO, an announcement of 

opportunity, for the Discovery Planetary missions. That 

will be later this year, probably toward the end of this 

year. 

 In addition to all that, we will be selecting two 

small explorers in the areas of Astronomy or Heliophysics, 

Heliospheric Physics. We plan to make those selections and 

announce them to you probably sometime in early to mid 

summer. 

 And last but not least, the budget certainly 

supports what is on my mind right now, and that is in four 

days, we are launching the last servicing mission to 

Hubble, a plan for launch around 2 o'clock in the afternoon 

on Monday. 

 With that, I will stop, and Dwayne, you can take 

over. 

 MODERATOR: Okay. Operator, let's go ahead and 
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open it up for questions. We have a number of media on the 

line. So, Operator, I would like to have whoever is in the 

queue ask one question, and then we will go through the 

entire queue. If we have enough time, we will go for a 

second round. 

 You may go ahead and facilitate the Q&A, please. 

 TELECONFERENCE OPERATOR: Thank you, sir. 

 Once again, at this time, if you would like to 

ask a question, please press Star, then 1. You will be 

promoted to record your name. You may also withdraw your 

request by pressing Star, then 2. 

 Our first response comes from Seth Borenstein of 

the AP. Your line is open. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Seth Borenstein at AP. Ed, 

thanks for doing this. 

 I think I have asked this before, but you are 

getting yet more money. You have a satellite, GORSAB [ph], 

DSCOVR, Triana, whatever you want to call it, and its many 

different -- well, it is actually built and just sitting 

around. Has there been any plans on actually using what 

the taxpayers have paid for, or is there reasons not to 

launch it? Explain the thinking here. 
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 DR. WEILER: The so-called "DSCOVR" spacecraft is 

sitting in storage at Goddard, as it has been for about 

four or five years now -- actually seven years. I have 

been corrected. It was not given high priority in the 

Decadal, National Academy Decadal Survey. We within SMD 

use those Decadal Surveys basically as our bibles in terms 

of where we get our priorities of science missions. 

 However, the Air Force and NOAA have expressed 

some interest in this program because they have 

responsibility for space weather, for instance. That is 

worrying about the radiation environment in space and solar 

storms, et cetera. They gave us a small amount of money to 

do a study to look at the satellite, basically to take it 

out of its crate literally, and test it to see if it were 

still a viable spacecraft, and that has been done, and, 

yes, indeed, it is a viable spacecraft. We have provided 

them what it would cost to refurbish the spacecraft and get 

it up to speed for launch because, obviously, it would 

still have to go through another thermal vacuum test, just 

to be sure that the parts haven't aged, et cetera. We 

stand ready if NOAA or the Air Force would like to cover 

the refurbishment cost and the launch cost to help them 
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launch this satellite, but in terms of science priority, it 

does not have any Decadal priority. 

 Freilich, he is our division director, Dr. Mike 

Freilich. Have I missed anything you would like to add? 

 DR. FREILICH: The one thing that I would add is 

in the FY -- this is Mike Freilich, Division Director of 

Earth Science. 

 In the FY09-enacted budget, we were allocated 

approximately $9 million to, in fact, refurbish the two 

Earth Observation Instruments on DSCOVR, the EPIC camera 

and the NISTAR radiometer, and we are doing that. 

 TELECONFERENCE OPERATOR: Our next question is 

from Todd Halvorson of Florida Today. Your line is open. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Hey, Todd Halvorson of Florida 

Today for Ed or one of his guys there. 

 I was just wondering, and this is probably a line 

item in the budget that I haven't seen yet, but how much 

money you have to operate Hubble over the next five years. 

 DR. WEILER: I believe it goes down to about a 

hundred -- how much, Jon? What's, for instance, the FY10 

budget? 

 DR. MORSE: This is Jon Morse, Astrophysics 
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Division Director. 

 It is about $110 million for operations. That 

includes all the folks doing the ground system and the data 

analysis budget, and in the out years, the projected budget 

goes down to about the mid nineties or low nineties in its 

operations in the out years of the budget projection, but 

the FY10 budget is about $112 million. 

 DR. WEILER: But the bottom line is over the next 

five years through the operation, it is stable, fully fund 

science and operations, Todd, and beyond that, it would be 

subject to what we call "senior reviews." After five 

years, it would have to compete with other missions to 

continue that level of funding. 

 MODERATOR: Operator, can you repeat the queue 

instructions, before we take the next question, please? 

 TELECONFERENCE OPERATOR: Certainly, sir. 

 Once again, if you would like to ask a question, 

please press Star, then 1. You will be prompted to record 

your name. You may also withdraw your question by pressing 

Star, then 2. 

 Our next question is from Eric Hand of Nature 

Magazine. Your line is open. 
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 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Hi, Ed. This is Eric from 

Nature. 

 There was some vague mention in some of the 

top-level information passed out at the overarching budget 

rollout of OCO and what is going to happen to it. I was 

looking for some indication within the request that there 

would be money allocated for this. Can you explain why you 

had to be so vague about whether or not there would be a 

refly of OCO or not? 

 DR. WEILER: Okay. Eric, I will start out with 

the 100,000-foot answer, and then I will let Dr. Freilich 

take it a little lower. 

 After the tragic loss of OCO, because the shroud 

didn't come off of the rocket, you could have a knee-jerk 

reaction and start building a new one right away. We 

didn't do that. 

 Mike Freilich said let's reevaluate the 

situation, because OCO was selected and started eight years 

ago. It was, you know, a different world, a different 

technology. In the meantime, other satellites have gone 

up. 

 He wanted to do due diligence and go back to the 
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scientific community and have the question answered, does 

something like OCO's capability still make sense today, and 

what should we do. Basically, he has got that answer now, 

and, Mike, I would let you pick up from that. 

 DR. FREILICH: Okay. Thanks, Ed. Mike Freilich, 

Director of the Earth Science Division. 

 As Ed said, we got reaffirmation that, indeed, 

the measurements that OCO was designed to make are timely, 

given the other assets that are on orbit now and the 

national policy and scientific needs, and as you know, 

Eric, we have also been studying other possibilities for 

flight of OCO-like measurements, including a near 

identical, so-called "carbon copy" free-flyer mission, and 

a potential mission which combines the thermal infrared 

capability for the Landsat measurements and the OCO 

capability for carbon sinks and sources to fly in 

Constellation with the Landsat Data Continuity Mission. 

 The way the schedules are lining up, we are doing 

our due diligence and presenting to the agency and the 

administration our plans, and they were not yet ready, 

obviously, given the schedule for production of this 

budget. 
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 TELECONFERENCE OPERATOR: Our next question comes 

from Rachel Courtland of New Scientist. Your line is open. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Hi. I was wondering what the 

plans are for Cassini, whether you have a sense of whether 

you are going to be funding this mission or not. 

 DR. WEILER: Okay. I will pass that on to Jim 

Green, Dr. Jim Green, who is the Planetary Division 

Director, who is in charge of the Cassini Program. Jim? 

 DR. GREEN: Yes. This is Jim Green, the Director 

of the Planetary Science Division. 

 As you perhaps know, indeed, we have held a 

senior review for the Cassini extended mission, the second 

extension. Cassini currently is in its first extension. 

That will end in July of next year. That report has just 

been received here at NASA Headquarters, and so we will be 

evaluating that and then examining where it is appropriate 

to make the decision and announce what we will be doing in 

the extended, extended mission portion of it. 

 I will mention that that report is public. Let 

me put a couple parts to that together. It is designed to 

extend observations within the Saturn system, primarily of 

Titan, over the next seven years. This will allow 
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scientists to really look at how the seasons will be 

changing on Titan. We are observing exciting methane rain 

in the lakes that had been observed in the northern 

hemisphere begin to appear in the southern hemisphere. So, 

from a scientific point of view, the report is quite 

glowing. It is a very exciting mission, and we will, from 

a Headquarters perspective, be analyzing the results of 

that and then announcing our decision later this year. 

 TELECONFERENCE OPERATOR: Our next question comes 

from Irene Klotz of Reuters. Your line is open. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Thanks very much. 

 I don't know if this question is for you, Ed, or 

perhaps for Jim Green. 

 When you all had the announcement about the 

delays in the next Mars mission, you weren't certain at 

that time what were going to be the impacts to other 

programs because of the cost overruns, and I am wondering 

if you have a better sense of that now. 

 DR. WEILER: We kept the bulk of the impacts 

within the Mars program. We didn't go outside the Mars 

program at any great extent. What it means is that we no 

longer can do the full-up kind of mission we wanted to do 
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in 2016, and at that point, I also discovered that the 

European Space Agency, my counterpart over there, David 

Southwood, had his own 2016 mission that was starting to 

get more expensive than he could afford because it was 

getting more and more technical requirements, more and more 

instruments put on it. 

 So we are facing, in Europe and America, 

desirements of our science communities that could not be 

met with our individual budgets, but, lo and behold, we 

said, you know, maybe it is time that Europe and America 

should stop competing with each other on Mars and maybe do 

something really unique and work together for a common 

goal, and we are in the process right now of looking at 

architectures for not just the '16 mission but the '18 and 

'20 missions that would be a joint U.S.-European Mars 

program. 

 I personally feel this is the best way to get the 

kind of science done both our communities want to do, and I 

just feel that is the right way to go. 

 So, to answer your question the short way is that 

the primary impacts have been to the Mars program, but I 

think we even have a way around that if we can lose a 
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little bit of our ego and, you know, nationalism and maybe 

share a little bit more with other countries and try to do 

things together. 

 TELECONFERENCE OPERATOR: Our next question is 

from Todd Halvorson of Florida Today. Your line is open. 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Todd Halvorson of Florida 

Today with a couple, if I could, Ed. 

 Do you have a number of belly buttons you can 

give me for the number of people who are working on the 

Hubble project office these days, and can you also tell me 

what the budget has in it for the Spirit and Opportunity 

Rovers on Mars? 

 DR. WEILER: Okay. First of all, I am shooting 

from the hip in terms of numbers, but my guess in terms of 

how many people work Hubble servicing, it is probably -- 

Jon, a couple hundred? 

 DR. MORSE: Well, it's a couple hundred million, 

full development in FY09. 

 DR. WEILER: No. Belly buttons. 

 DR. MORSE: So whatever that translates. 

 DR. WEILER: A couple hundred. Okay. Jon is 

saying about a couple hundred. In one year? 
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 DR. MORSE: That is '09. 

 DR. WEILER: '09. Okay. So a couple hundred 

million divided by 300,000 is 700 people maybe. So it may 

be 700 people, Todd, but that is spread all over the 

country, not just in the project office and -- 

 MEDIA QUESTIONER: Spirit and Opportunity 

budgets. 

 DR. WEILER: Spirit and Opportunity is $20 

million. It is for both. So we are spending about $20 

million a year to operate both Spirit and Opportunity. 

 TELECONFERENCE OPERATOR: Once again, if you 

would like to ask a question, please press Star, then 1. 

One moment, please. 

 [Pause.] 

 TELECONFERENCE OPERATOR: At this time, I have no 

further questions. 

 MODERATOR: Okay. I would like to remind the 

media that replays of this telecon will run until May 22nd. 

 The number is 800-925-0568. 

 I would like to thank everyone for their time. 

If you need additional information, please call my office 

at 202-358-1726. 
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 Operator, you may end the call. 

 TELECONFERENCE OPERATOR: Thank you. This does 

conclude today's call. At this time, all parties may 

disconnect. 

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