[FPSPACE] Principal-Investigator-Led Missions in the Space Sciences

[LARRY KLAES]

Principal-Investigator-Led Missions in the Space Sciences

Committee on Principal-Investigator-Led Missions in the Space Sciences, 
National Research Council

132 pages, 6 x 9, 2006

Principal Investigator-Led (PI-led) missions are an important element of 
NASA s space science enterprise. While several NRC studies have considered 
aspects of PI-led missions in the course of other studies for NASA, issues 
facing the PI-led missions in general have not been subject to much analysis 
in those studies. Nevertheless, these issues are raising increasingly 
important questions for NASA, and it requested the NRC to explore them as 
they currently affect PI-led missions. Among the issues NASA asked to have 
examined were those concerning cost and scheduling, the selection process, 
relationships among PI-led team members, and opportunities for knowledge 
transfer to new PIs. This report provides a discussion of the evolution and 
current status of the PIled mission concept, the ways in which certain 
practices have affected its performance, and the steps that can carry it 
successfully into the future. The study was done in collaboration with the 
National Academy of Public Administration.

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11530.html