Background

At the university level, the number of opportunities for students to conduct hands-on science and to participate in rocket and balloon launches has dramatically declined since their peak in 1968 at the height of the Apollo program. Today most graduate students have few opportunities for hands-on training. Instead, the vast majority of science PhD students analyze data obtained from instruments they have never seen. USRA member universities have expressed that expansion of Hands-on Training programs for graduate and undergraduate students was the single most pressing issue for their research and education programs.

This lack of hands-on experience is jeopardizing the ability of the nation to maintain a vigorous presence in space into the future, regardless of whether we are in space for reasons of commerce, exploration, national defense, or scientific research. This deficit leads not only to a loss of capability, but also to escalating costs of many of the space systems vital to the nation’s security and industrial competitiveness.

Action

To address this issue, the Issues and Programs Committee (IPC) set forth an ambitious plan of engaging NASA and Congress to highlight the importance of more funding for these programs. To provide context for the magnitude and interest of this issue to the national academic community, the IPC prepared a resolution in support of the Hands-on Initiative and submitted it for a vote to the Council of Institutions (COI). This resolution was adopted by the COI in a unanimous vote at their March annual meeting.

For additional information on this initiative, please read USRA's white paper, "Educating the Next Generation of Space Scientists and Engineers" and USRA's position paper, "Sustain American Excellence in the Aerospace Sciences with Increased NASA Funding for Hands-on Training of Tomorrow's Space Scientists".