Abstract
Space agencies of countries such as Canada experience particular challenges with respect to the establishment and maintenance of a flourishing space physical sciences community. The Canadian Space Agency has developed a longterm plan that will allow a relatively large number of Canadian scientists and industry partners to contribute to space physical science, and that will also provide a continual flow of flight experiments. This plan has inherent flexibility, allowing it to be adapted and used by space agencies of countries with a similar population base and resource capability as Canada. The plan can be visualized as a pyramid, with conceptual studies forming the base, and flight experiments the peak. Conceptual studies are solicited through a yearly Announcement of Opportunity (AO) that supplies grants to top-ranked proposals. Feasibility studies, which follow naturally from successfully completed conceptual studies, are solicited in the same AO. Depending on the maturity and complexity of the scientific and technical requirements for a flight experiment, a research team can submit proposals for flight experiment AOs de novo (i.e. without previous CSA funding) or after a successful feasibility study. Announcements of Opportunity for flight experiment will be offeredb every two years, depending on the number of successful proposals undergoing implementation. Applicants to these AOs will be able to tailor proposals to appropriate categories; i.e. proposals that have low resource (e.g. upmass, crewtime) requirements will be assessed separately from proposals that have significant resource requirements. It is expected that this AO scheme, combined with strategic support of workshops and a strong network of collaboration among international partner agencies, will allow CSA to develop and sustain a vigorous space physical science community.
