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Preface

The National Research Council commissioned the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee, a group of 15 astronomers and astrophysicists, to survey their field and to recommend new ground- and space-based programs for the coming decade. Support was provided by the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Energy, the United States Navy, and the Smithsonian Institution.


The survey committee's chair was appointed in February 1989 by the president of the National Academy of Sciences upon recommendation of a committee selected by the Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Resources. The chair sent a letter to all members of the astronomy section of the National Academy, to the chairs of all astronomy departments in the United States, and to other leading astronomers inviting nominations for individuals to serve on the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee. The committee members were selected by the Board on Physics and Astronomy and appointed by the National Research Council after extensive discussions by the chair with interested astronomers.


The survey committee established 15 advisory panels to represent different wavelength subdisciplines, as well as solar, planetary, theoretical, and laboratory astrophysics. The chairs of the subdiscipline panels helped the committee to select a broad and representative group of experts, totaling more than 300 people. The panel chairs were responsible, together with their panel members, for obtaining the views of a wide cross-section of the astronomy and astrophysics community and for preparing a paper on their discussions and findings. A member of the survey committee served as a vice-chair of each panel.


Ten panels had charges that reflected specific scientific areas, eight of them based on wavelength region and two (those of the Planetary Astronomy Panel and Solar Astronomy Panel) on particular subdisciplines with special needs. The committee asked these ten science panels to identify the most important scientific goals in their respective areas, to prioritize the new initiatives needed to achieve these goals, to recommend proposals for technology development, to consider the possibilities for international collaboration, and to discuss any policy issues relevant to their charge. The Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee served as an interdisciplinary panel to guarantee that scientific questions that did not fit conveniently into this organizational structure were handled appropriately on an ad hoc basis.

Four other panels were appointed to explore computing and data processing, policy opportunities, the benefits of astronomy to the nation, and the status of the profession. The working papers written on the first three topics were used by the committee as a basis for developing the chapters with corresponding subject matter (Chapters 5, 7, and 8, respectively) in the survey report. Data from the working paper titled "Status of the Profession" were used in preparing various chapters and Appendix B of the survey report and by other panels in preparing their papers. The Science Opportunities Panel, the fifteenth panel appointed by the committee, prepared a paper that the committee believed should be expanded and published separately as a popular book accessible to as large an audience as possible. An abbreviated and adapted version of this panel's paper appears as Chapter 2 of the survey report. The Lunar Working Group of the committee prepared a paper that appears as Chapter 6, "Astronomy from theMoon," in this report.


Members of the panels consulted widely with their colleagues to solicit advice and to inform other members of the astronomical community of the main issues facing the committee. Each panel held an open meeting at a session of the American Astronomical Society, and most of the panels held sessions at other professional gatherings, as well as at astronomical centers at different places in the United States. Each panel discussed with the relevant federal agency personnel the problems and issues of its particular area. These interactions with agency personnel provided valuable background to the discussions, although the panels were careful to preserve the independence and confidentiality of the National Research Council deliberative process.


The panel chairs presented their papers in oral and written form at the June and July 1990 meetings of the survey committee and were invited to participate with the committee in the initial attempts to generate a cohesive set of overall recommendations. The views of the participants were modified by the discussions that took place between the different advocates and experts. The committee based its final decisions and recommendations in significant part on the contents of the panel papers and on the discussions with the panel chairs.


The unrefereed working papers of the subdiscipline panels give technical details about many of the programs discussed in this report. They are contained in the separately published Working Papers: Astronomy and Astrophysics Panel Reports (National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1991) issued by the National Research Council. These papers were advisory to the survey committee and represent the opinions of the members of each panel in the context of their individual charges.

The committee is grateful to the many other astronomers, both in the United States and from abroad, who provided written advice or participated in organized discussions. In all, more than 15 percent of American astronomers played an active role in at least one aspect of this study. Appendix C lists the members of the subdiscipline panels.


Many other people too numerous to cite individually assisted in various aspects of the survey. The committee gratefully acknowledges Rebecca Elson as technical editor, Susan Maurizi as general editor, and Margaret Best and Phoebe Wechsler for their invaluable efforts in preparing the seemingly infinite number of drafts of this report. R. Riemer provided guidance and support to the committee in his capacity as staff officer. C. Beichman served effectively in dual roles as Executive Secretary and as a member of the committee. Finally, the survey's chair thanks Frank Press for generous doses of his wisdom and insight during the past two years.


JOHN BAHCALL
Chair
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Survey Committee