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| FYI: Science Policy News from AIP |
| THIS WEEK |
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| What’s Ahead |
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| A composite image of the April 8 partial solar eclipse over the Washington Monument. (Bill Ingalls / NASA) |
NIH Advocate Becomes Top House Appropriator as FY25 Cycle Heats Up
The fiscal year 2025 budget cycle is ramping up with new leadership atop the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) became chair of the committee last week after Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) stepped down from the role ahead of her planned retirement at the end of the year. Cole is a long-time advocate for biomedical research, supporting sustained budget increases for the National Institutes of Health during his time as the top Republican on the appropriations subcommittee for NIH.
In the Senate, leadership of key science appropriations panels is unchanged. Notably, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) is remaining as chair of both the full Appropriations Committee and the subcommittee that oversees the Department of Energy, the latter of which she initially filled on an interim basis after the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) last year. Murray’s interest in the subcommittee stems in part from her state being home to the Hanford Site, which formerly produced plutonium and now receives billions of dollars from DOE each year for environmental remediation efforts.
The House and Senate committees are now holding hearings to review the president’s budget request before advancing their own spending proposals. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is testifying before the House panel on Wednesday. Policy committees are also delving into the budget request, with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm testifying before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday. Granholm is also appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday along with Jill Hruby, the head of DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Hruby and other NNSA leaders are also testifying at a separate hearing by the same committee later that day.
NASA Delays Mars Sample Return Plans, Seeks New Ideas
On Monday, NASA released its response to last year’s independent review of its Mars Sample Return mission. Rather than settle on a well-defined mission design, the agency has left the specifics undetermined while pushing back the target launch date for its Sample Return Lander from 2028 to 2035, with samples expected to arrive back on Earth in 2040. NASA anticipates that it expects a revised mission architecture would cost the agency between $8 billion and $11 billion, in line with the findings of the independent review. Under its new schedule, design work on the lander and the ascent vehicle will proceed at a “low level” for a time in parallel with a review of ideas solicited from outside the agency that could help lower costs or shorten the mission timeline. NASA indicated it plans to spend $310 million on MSR in fiscal year 2024, just above the $300 million minimum set by Congress, and that it will only request $200 million for fiscal year 2025. In a statement, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson remarked, “The bottom line is, an $11 billion budget is too expensive, and a 2040 return date is too far away.”
While NASA is seeking “out-of-the-box options” for the mission, particularly the ascent vehicle, the agency has identified some expected features of revised mission plans. For instance, it anticipates that the Perseverance rover, which is currently caching samples on Mars, will return to the floor of the Jezero Crater once it completes sample collection and enter a “quiescent” state to await the arrival of the lander, and that it may resume science investigations after delivering samples. Plans no longer call for two sample-retrieval helicopters to be carried on the lander, though NASA has left open the possibility that one could still be included for redundancy. The lander itself is now set to be powered by a radioisotope power source rather than solar power to increase its resilience. The European Space Agency’s component of the project, a spacecraft that will make a round trip back to Earth, would launch in 2030 and remain in Mars orbit until NASA’s component of the mission transfers its samples to the spacecraft.
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| In Case You Missed It |
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| A model of a lunar rover that Japan will build and operate as part of an expanded collaboration with the U.S. announced on April 10. (Bill Ingalls / NASA) |
US and Japan Deepen S&T Collaborations During State Visit
The U.S. and Japan announced new plans for cooperation on a range of issues, including in science and technology, during Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to the White House last week. The initiatives were detailed in a joint statement by Kishida and President Joe Biden and in an accompanying fact sheet.
Among them, the countries signed a lunar exploration agreement through which Japan plans to build and operate a pressurized lunar rover while the U.S. pledged to reserve two spots for Japanese astronauts on future Artemis missions, with one potentially becoming the first non-American to land on the Moon. The countries also signed a partnership agreement that aims to accelerate the commercialization of fusion energy through complementary research programs, facilities development, and regulatory standards. The partnership will build on existing research and exchange programs as well as the Biden administration’s recent strategy for promoting new partnerships in fusion. The two countries also reiterated their commitment to reducing the use of highly enriched uranium in civilian applications and welcomed news that HEU has been successfully removed from the Japan Materials Testing Reactor Critical Assembly.
AI, quantum science, and semiconductors were also major topics of discussion, with coordination plans announced for quantum technology standardization and supply chains, a shared R&D roadmap and workforce development program for semiconductors, and shared standards for the responsible development of AI, among other initiatives. Japan and the U.S. also signed a memorandum of understanding on global innovation, committing to deepen ties between entrepreneurs and expand technology investment opportunities.
Aggressive Timeline Proposed for Next-gen Gravitational Wave Detectors
The U.S. should aggressively pursue the construction of a new gravitational wave observatory to remain competitive in the field, according to a March report commissioned by the National Science Foundation. NSF asked an advisory panel to chart a path to a ten-fold improvement in sensitivity over the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), particularly given that Europe might build a much more sensitive detector called the Einstein Telescope. The panel solicited detector concepts and subsequently concluded that the ideal approach is the “Cosmic Explorer” plan, which calls for the construction of a 40-km-long, L-shaped detector and possibly a second 20-km long detector if the Einstein telescope is not built. The panel also concludes that maintaining current-generation LIGO facilities “does not significantly contribute” to the science goals of this future network, with the potential exception of a LIGO variant currently under construction in India.
As a result, the panel recommends promptly phasing out the U.S. LIGO facilities when the Cosmic Explorer observatory comes online sometime between 2035 and 2040. The 40 km Cosmic Explorer observatory is estimated to cost around $1 billion and the 20 km observatory has a price tag of about $0.7 billion. Such an initiative responds to the call for a next-generation gravitational wave detection network in the latest decadal survey for astronomy and astrophysics. Astrophysicist Vicky Kalogera, who chaired the panel, presented the report to NSF last month and noted that it features a “rather aggressive” timeline. “Our European colleagues with the Einstein Telescope are ahead of us, and we would like to be coordinating for parallel observations,” Kalogera said.
Air Force Names New Director of Basic Research
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research announced this month that Kevin Geiss assumed the directorship on March 10. Geiss started his career in the Marines and later served in a variety of research positions in the Air Force and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He holds a master’s degree in chemistry and a doctorate in zoology, both from Miami University. AFOSR is part of the Air Force Research Laboratory and concentrates on basic research. The Air Force’s budget for basic research currently stands at $567 million.
Caregivers in STEM Need More Support, National Academies Report Argues
A report released this month by the National Academies calls for research institutions to increase unpaid leave and the availability of childcare resources for researchers. The report recommends that both private and public funders increase the flexibility of their grant start times, eligibility requirements, and delivery dates to accommodate caregivers. The report calls for Congress to expand the Family Medical Leave Act to require employers provide a minimum of 12 weeks of paid leave per year for bereavement and caring, including for elders. At present, the FMLA does not mandate the leave be paid.
Nuclear Fuel Recycling Options Weighed by House Panel
A hearing last week by the House Energy and Commerce Committee explored the potential for recycling spent nuclear fuel. Idaho National Lab Director John Wagner testified that the U.S. will have to pursue fuel recycling and reform its storage practices in order to triple its nuclear capacity by 2050, a goal set at the UN Climate Change Conference in December. Wagner called on Congress to revise the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act because the current framework provides no financial incentives for recycling, putting the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage relative to countries that have robust recycling programs, such as France, Russia, and China. Wagner also suggested that, with enough capacity, the U.S. could offer fuel recycling services to other countries in addition to meeting its own energy needs. He and other speakers highlighted the opportunity for recycling the high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel that many advanced reactor concepts plan to use. His written testimony offers a detailed timeline of U.S. policy toward fuel recycling, which has been significantly shaped by concerns that recycling technology could contribute to nuclear weapons proliferation. Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) expressed support for recycling, noting it could reduce U.S. reliance on foreign sources of nuclear fuel and increase competitiveness with Russia and China.
Former NIST and Army Research Lab Director John Lyons Dead at 93
The National Institute of Standards and Technology reported last week that former agency head John Lyons died on March 14 at the age of 93. Lyons spent the first part of his career as a chemist at the Monsanto Chemical Company, where he specialized in fire retardants. In 1973 he joined NIST, then called the National Bureau of Standards, to lead its new Center for Fire Research, and he became the first director of the bureau’s National Engineering Laboratory in 1978. President George H. W. Bush appointed Lyons director of the agency in 1990, shortly after Congress renamed it NIST and expanded its scope to cover research in support of industry in addition to standards and measurement. Lyons guided NIST through this transition before leaving the agency in 1993 with the changeover in presidential administrations. He then served as director of the Army Research Laboratory from 1993 to 1998, a period when the Army was consolidating its research facilities. He later was a distinguished research fellow at the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense University in Washington, DC.
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