NASA selects 19 proposals to bring volunteers into research
NASA has selected 19 proposals to expand volunteer participation in space and Earth research. The projects span searches for planets, monitoring of space weather and observations of lakes and Antarctic habitats. 12 selections belong to a seed-funding programme and seven to Science Activation, which connects communities with NASA data and expertise.
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Two programmes share the selections
NASA, the United States space agency, selected 19 proposals through its Science Mission Directorate to bring more volunteers into research. 12 come through the Citizen Science Seed Funding Program, which helps researchers develop public-participation projects. Seven belong to Science Activation, a programme connecting communities with agency data, experts and scientific activities. The two groups share an emphasis on participation but sit within separate funding programmes.[1], [2]
The 12 seed proposals still face checks on programme fit, finances and compliance before completing the grant process. The seven NASA Science Activation projects are part of a broader cohort of 24 proposals advancing towards awards. First-year funding of 23.5 million dollars applies to that entire cohort, rather than to the seven citizen-science projects alone.[2]
Volunteers would search for planets and comets
At the American Museum of Natural History, Jacqueline Faherty leads a proposal to search for free-floating planets and brown dwarfs using SPHEREx, NASA’s near-infrared sky-survey observatory. Bernard Gaudi at Ohio State University leads Planet Hunters Roman, which would look for planets through the bending of starlight in observations from the Roman space telescope. These proposals give volunteers different astronomical signatures to identify.[1], [2]
Ariel Graykowski at the SETI Institute, which studies the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, proposes a worldwide network of small telescopes. Its observers would follow comet outbursts and moving Solar System objects. Another selected task involves classifying galaxy-merger images. These are planned observing and classification roles, with research results to follow implementation.[1]
Earth observations would check satellite data
On Earth, participants would collect lake-level observations to help validate measurements from NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite. Other teams plan to track changes in Antarctic wildlife habitats. Alaska magnetometers, instruments measuring magnetic fields, would monitor disturbances in Earth’s magnetic environment; a separate proposal would turn plasma-wave data into sounds for volunteers to classify. Lunar iron mapping also appears among the selected tasks. NASA cites one billion classifications on the earlier Zooniverse volunteer platform as background to the new selections.[1]
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