Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s

NASA, NSF, and DOE should implement a cross-agency working group to establish a consistent format and policy for regularly collecting, evaluating, and publicly reporting demographic data and indicators.

NASA, DOE, and NSF should consider including diversity -- of project teams and participants --in the evaluation of funding awards to individual investigators, project and mission teams, and third-party organizations that manage facilities.

The astronomy community should, through the American Astronomical Society and in partnership with other major professional societies, work with experts from other experienced disciplines (such as archaeology and social sciences) and representatives from local communities to define a Community Astronomy model of engagement that advances scientific research while respecting, empowering, and benefiting local communities.

NASA, NSF, DOE, and professional societies should ensure that their scientific integrity policies address harassment and discrimination by individuals as forms of scientific misconduct.

Racial/ethnic diversity among astronomy faculty remains abysmal. Funding agencies should increase incentives for improving diversity among astronomy and astrophysics faculty, such as increasing the number of awards that invest in the development and retention of early-career faculty and other activities for members of under-represented groups.

NASA, NSF, and DOE should reinvest in professional workforce diversity programs at the division/directorate levels. “Bridge” type programs to provide support across academic transitions in the higher-education pipeline and into the professional ranks are especially promising.

NASA, NSF, and DOE should implement undergraduate and graduate “traineeship” funding to incentivize department/institution-level commitment to professional workforce development, and prioritize interdisciplinary training, diversity, and preparation for a variety of career outcomes.

NASA and NSF should continue and increase support for postdoctoral fellowships that provide independence while encouraging the development of scientific leaders who advance diversity and inclusive excellence.

Mega satellite constellations will more significantly affect work in astronomy and astrophysics in the future. The NSF should work with the appropriate federal regulatory agencies to develop and implement a regulatory framework to control the impacts of satellite constellations on astronomy.

To ensure that the skies remain open to radio astronomy, NSF, in partnership with other agencies as appropriate, should support and fund a multi-faceted approach to the avoidance and mitigation of radio-frequency interference.

Human-induced climate change will be one of the greatest challenges of this century. The astronomy community can minimize its impact on climate by reducing travel-related carbon emissions. Examples include remote observing, hybrid conferences, and virtual conferences.

Over the last decade, there has been a growing imbalance between funding for facility operations and maintenance, and supporting the work of scientists. To support science performed by individual investigators, NSF should increase funding for Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Grants by 30 percent over five years. This will have the effect of restoring proposal success rates to a healthy competitive level.

Low funding rates at both NASA and the NSF have affected the ability to carry out theoretical investigations, which are crucial for interpreting essentially all signals received from space. NASA’s Astrophysics Theory Program should resume an annual cadence, and receive a 30 percent funding augmentation over 5 years.

Laboratory experiments are crucial for measuring the parameters needed to interpret data from distant astrophysical objects, such as characterizing exoplanet atmospheres. NASA and NSF should convene a panel of experts to identify what laboratory data is needed to support next generation observatories; identify the resources that can be brought to bear to satisfy those needs; and consider new approaches for building the requisite databases.

Proposal success rates are an important indicator of program balance, particularly when aiming to give first-time early-career proposers a realistic chance of success. NSF, NASA, and DOE should release data on proposal success rates on an annual basis, and they should track metrics that allow them to statistically analyze what is being supported.

Researchers observing through NSF ground-based facilities must apply for separate funding to support data analysis. This is inefficient and causes delays, hampering the scientific output of the most powerful facilities. NSF should establish a mechanism for funding data analysis and production of high-level data products for large principal investigator-led programs on MREFC-scale astronomical facilities.

Astrophysical questions increasingly transcend traditional wavelength, division, and agency boundaries, and there is a growing need for data use across multiple archives. NASA and NSF should explore mechanisms to improve coordination among U.S. archive centers and to create a centralized nexus for interacting with the international archive communities.

Although community-based projects have done much to fill the needs for up-to-date data pipelines and software for ground-based telescopes, NSF could help to provide foundational support for these efforts. The NSF and stakeholders should develop a plan to address how to design, build, deploy, and sustain pipelines for producing science-ready data across all general-purpose ground-based observatories.

NASA should increase funding levels for the Detector Development and Supporting Technology components of the Astrophysics Research and Analysis Program. Current funding levels are too small to advance technologies to acceptable levels for incorporation in future Explorer, suborbital, and SmallSat missions.

NASA should continue funding for the Strategic Astrophysics Technology Program, and should expand proposal calls to include intermediate level technology maturation targeted in strategic areas identified for the competed Probe class missions.

Looking to the coming decade, the need to support advanced technologies is even greater than it was a decade ago. NSF should restore the Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation Program to $14 million a year (FY20)—the same level of support it had in 2010—and further increase it to a target level of $20 million a year (FY20) by 2028.

Pathways to improving the balloon program include increasing the number of flights, achieving higher float altitudes, making the program accessible to more PIs, and exploring methods for supporting new PIs. NASA should undertake an external review of the balloon program to establish a framework for accomplishing these goals.