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I hope this note finds you well as we kick off summer! While I hope you are able to take some time off to relax, there is still a great deal happening in the Helio community and I’m excited to share a number of updates with you.
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I want to start by highlighting our budget news as the President’s FY22 Budget Request was recently released. Heliophysics is proposed with a top-line of $796.7M, at the highest level in recent history. The request thus demonstrates the administration’s support of NASA, and especially SMD and Heliophysics. I am excited that this budget request sees the establishment of the Heliophysics Technology Program which brings Heliophysics in line with the other SMD divisions. The budget request also enables the continuation of strong support for the R&A program and the operating missions, as recommended by the National Academies. In addition to the support from the Administration for NASA’s Heliophysics program, I want to acknowledge the strong congressional support that Heliophysics continues to receive. Over and above our thriving portfolio of research and flight programs, this budget request also allows the selection of 1-2 Phase II DRIVE centers and at least one MidEx mission, continuation of the GDC mission and the kickoff for the DYNAMIC mission. With these proposed investments, Heliophysics is well on the way to address the recommendations of the previous decadal. We are getting ready for the new decadal, which will give the community the chance to define a strong and impactful future for the next decade and beyond. It really is a great time to be a Heliophysicist and we look forward to sharing more information with the community over the coming months.
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In mission news, I want to congratulate the IMAP and PUNCH teams on the successful completion of their PDRs! This is a significant step on the journey towards launch and I want to acknowledge all the teams’ hard work. KDP Cs will be held for both missions in July.
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We have also had a number of sounding rocket launches over the past few months including VIPER, EUNIS, and KiNET-X. KiNET-X, a geospace experiment studying how energy and momentum are transported between different regions of space that are magnetically connected, sparked significant public engagement. Each launch attempt saw more than 100,000 viewers with a peak of 132,000 viewers on the live stream from the Wallops Flight Facility. Local news covered the launch, with coverage extended to news outlets in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, and Bermuda, and nationally by Newsweek and NPR. Wallops added 80,000+ followers across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram in a week’s time, expanding the pool of people waiting to watch and learn about our future sounding rocket and scientific balloon flights. We are looking forward to more sounding rocket launches in the near future and continued engagement with the public!
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In other mission news, HERMES Interdisciplinary Science teams were recently selected. The successful teams proposed investigations that address HERMES science objectives using data products from HERMES and from other sources. Additionally, we have issued a Program Element Appendix soliciting proposals for Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC) Investigations. The solicitation calls for proposals for complete Principal Investigator (PI)-led science investigations requiring spaceflight instrument development. More information can be found in NSPIRES, Solicitation Number: NNH17ZDA004O-GDC.
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In order to learn more about how NASA Heliophysics can better support our early- and mid-career community, we recently held a number of roundtables and are working to synthesize all of the valuable information we received. This is just the first step, and we are grateful to everyone who was able to participate and provide feedback. We plan to continue holding these sessions and will reach out with more information as we continue to plan. If you are interested in being part of these roundtable discussions, please reach out to Kelly Korreck (kelly.e.korreck@nasa.gov).
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An annular eclipse occurred on Thursday morning, June 10. While it was not the most easily visible in the DC area, I do hope some of you were able to see it, as a partial eclipse was visible in parts of the eastern United States and northern Alaska, along with much of Canada and parts of the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. Some of our NASA photographers captured fantastic photos from the East Coast!
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I encourage you to check out some of our news features on our website, including pieces on SoloHI’s first observation of a CME, laboratory research on Alfvén wave acceleration of electrons, and a ‘Rosetta Stone’ solar eruption. New research from Parker Solar Probe has been released and includes discussion on magnetic switchbacks first discovered by Parker Solar Probe, the role of waves in heating solar plasma, solar angular momentum, the near-Sun dust environment, and the diversity of small energetic-particle events. Find out more here.
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It’s a great time to be a Heliophysicist.
#HelioRocks #Helio2050
Nicky
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P.S. If you know of others interested in receiving this email, please direct them here. Thanks!
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