Thus scientific research may be served by both crewed and robotic missions that concentrate on the timely acquisition of information and scientific and technical knowledge, and these objectives are compatible with all aspects of the civil space program. Furthermore, these objectives should determine how access to space is achieved and how scientific research in space is ultimately conducted. This report examines some of the issues involved in setting priorities within the scientific research in space program and, to the degree that it is relevant, within the entire space program. Priorities, in the sense used here, are rankings in a preferential ordering or agenda, possibly multidimensional, that governs allocation of resources to activities or initiatives. A system of priorities appropriate for scientific research in space or for the entire space program would be more sophisticated than a simple rank ordering.
Priorities are intimately related to basic assumptions about purpose and motivation.
For the space program and for space research, such assumptions may determine events more powerfully than judgments based on scientific merit or national values or shaped by the imperatives of changing economic and political conditions. The contemplation of priorities that might produce an effective agenda for space research, or for the entire space program, must include examination of fundamental assumptions and the opportunities and constraints consequent upon them. The U.S. space program the totality of the national efforts in space research, applications, and engineering and technology for activities in space. The human spaceflight program those components of the space program that involve the flight of humans in space vehicles. Space research Scientific activities concerned with phenomena in space, or utilizing observations obtained in, or from, space, including the use of information derived from space to advance other activities.