For several decades I have been calculating a metric to assess the scientific contributions from NASA programs. Back in 1992 as a NASA employee, I led some teams that explored a variety of measures (including the number of highly cited refereed papers, quantity of data returned, etc.). Ultimately, we selected and started using a metric based on Science News because it was comprehensive, independently derived, and it correlated strongly with other, more precise metrics that were also much more difficult to calculate (such as tracking trends in the highly cited refereed technical papers). This metric has many applications, one of which is to illustrate the profound contributions made by one government agency. The usual distribution is just an email I send out to a distribution list of a hundred or so people; I figured I would share it here as well so the DailyKos audience can see some of your tax dollars at work.
A summary of 2009 results is below the fold:
I am quoting my annual email (sent out this morning)
This is the eighteenth annual calculation of the Science News metric, which can be used to measure NASA contributions to worldwide scientific discovery and technological achievement. This metric runs through the 37-year period from 1973 to 2009, and covers all fields of science.
NASA’s 8.7% contribution to worldwide scientific discoveries in 2008 is the fifth-highest in the 37 years covered by the Science News metric
Most NASA science continues to come from extended missions, with only 2.3% from spacecraft now in their prime mission (see analysis, below)
Hubble produced 1.1% of discoveries following the final servicing mission
Discoveries include some of the oldest galaxies and development of a new technique which may result in 100 new exoplanets in archived HST data.
Fermi was the most productive prime mission, with 0.8% of discoveries
Confirming that supernovae are indeed the source of high-energy cosmic rays and showing that positrons are produced in lightning storms on Earth.
Space Science contributions at 6.2%
Chance simultaneous flyovers of the two poles by the IMAGE and ISTP-Polar satellites showed anisotropy between the northern and southern aurorae.
MESSENGER mapped previously unknown parts of Mercury.
IBEX and Cassini found that neutral atoms, instead of being isotropic in the solar system, are actually confined to a narrow ribbon.
The Spitzer Space Telescope found the largest planetary ring in the solar system around Saturn, extending outside of the orbit of its moon Phoebe
NASA Earth Science had 1.7% of discoveries, highest total in a decade
GRACE found increased irrigation has greatly depleted groundwater in northern India.
Landsat data used to determine that substituting plant-derived biofuels for fossil fuels will not diminish greenhouse gas emissions if those biofuels are grown at the expense of tropical forests.
Multiple satellite data sets used by researchers to understand Antarctic warming and the effects of aerosols on climate models
NASA’s Exploration Directorate produced 0.8% of discoveries
LCROSS and LRO contributed to the discovery of water on the Moon, both in reservoirs in permanently shadowed basins, and in a thin layer all over the surface.
A zircon collected by Apollo 17 suggests that the lunar surface solidified 4.4 billion years ago, far earlier than previously thought.
NASA’s non-mission science produces 1.5% of world-wide science
NASA Astrobiology discoveries included the existence of plumes of methane in the Martian atmosphere and that organisms during the Late Heavy Bombardment might have survived the impact-induced environmental stress by gravitating to the thermal vents created by the impacts.
Other non-mission science contributions include the use of a DSN antenna as a radio telescope to find the first evidence of lightning on Mars
Most NASA science continues to come from extended missions
Most NASA discoveries in 2009 (4.9%) came from spacecraft which were operating beyond their prime mission lifetimes; 1.5% came from non-flight project science, and only 2.3% came from spacecraft in their prime mission phase. The 2.3% prime mission science came from 2008 prime contributors MESSENGER and Fermi, as well as GRACE, IBEX, LRO and LCROSS
2006 2007 2008 2009
Prime Science 2.0% 1.9% 2.4% 2.3%
Extended Mission Science 6.6% 4.5% 5.5% 4.9%
Non Mission Science 2.4% 2.3% 1.3% 1.5%
Total Science Return 10.9%* 8.4%* 9.2%* 8.7%
* Totals are accurate; elements do not add up due to rounding
The Science News metric measures NASA contributions to worldwide scientific discovery and technological achievement. The metric is calculated by analyzing the "most important stories" from the annual year end issue of Science News, a range of accomplishments that go from archeology to biomedicine to materials science, etc. For each "most important story", we analyze the source of the data used for the analysis (and where multiple NASA and non-NASA instrumentation collects the data we give proportional credit as appropriate). This metric runs through the 37-year period from 1973 to 2009, and covers all fields of science. The analysis was performed by Greg Davidson and Dr. Luke Sollitt.
For information on past usage, just google "Science News metrics"
ON REC LIST FOR FIRST TIME, THANKS ALL