Slides from the LPSC 2015 Session on the Community Response to NASA's Budget Request

The session featuring the planetary community response to the latest NASA budget request at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) this year went very well. We had the highest attendance ever—over 120 scientists, no small feat considering we were competing with lunch.

I provided a quick overview of the budget and what it means for planetary science at NASA, some background on the budget, and how the scientific community can better communicate their science to others in public policy and their local community. But the main feature of the event was a panel of the leaders of the three main planetary science professional societies: the Planetary Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union, the Division for Planetary Science of the American Astronomical Society, and the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America (for those of you who love acronyms, this same list can be abbreviated as the AGU PSS, AAS DPS, and the GSA PGD).

I want to thank the panelists for taking the time to attend this session: Drs. Makenzie Lystrup (DPS), Linda Elkins-Tanton (AGU), and Debra Buczkowski (GSA).

I've posted my slides from the session online [pdf] and embedded them below.

I also played an episode of our new series, The Space Advocate, which details how the NASA budget comes together every year:

Working to unify the professional and public communities is just one of the many efforts we make here at The Planetary Society to help build support for a stronger program of planetary exploration. These are long-term goals, but we're already seeing some impressive results.