NASA said it will end financial support for a network of independent advisory groups that for decades have helped guide the agency’s planetary science research, a move that limits formal channels for outside scientific input and reduces public visibility into agency operations.
The decision was communicated late Friday in a letter from Louise Prockter, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, to leaders of the volunteer-led groups. Prockter praised their role in fostering collaboration and consensus across the research community but said presidential executive orders and budget constraints meant the agency could no longer fund their activities, including annual in-person meetings, travel and websites.
“These groups have fostered collaboration, built consensus, and strengthened ties,” Prockter wrote in the letter, according to people familiar with its contents, adding that financial realities made continued support unsustainable.
NASA currently has eight such planetary advisory groups, each focused on a specific area of the solar system, including Mars, Venus, the Moon and small bodies such as asteroids. The groups meet several times a year, largely virtually, and are open to the broader scientific community. Briefings from NASA officials during these meetings have often served as early public disclosures of mission developments, scientific findings or operational challenges.
Amy Fagan, a planetary scientist at Western Carolina University and chair emeritus of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG), said group leaders had been warned for months that funding was at risk. “Those were tears for the community and what it will lose, but also tears for our headquarters colleagues faced with having to make this decision,” Fagan said, adding that researchers are exploring ways to keep the groups operating without NASA funding. “We are a scrappy bunch, and we will find a way for our communities to carry on.”
The advisory groups have also played a role in shaping NASA decisions during periods of uncertainty. In 2022, when delays to the Psyche mission created budget pressure that threatened the Venus-bound Veritas mission, NASA sought informal input from the groups. According to Victoria Hamilton, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute and chair of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), the groups unanimously supported continuing Veritas, which was later reflected in NASA’s budget request. “That kind of direct insight is going to be much more difficult for NASA to obtain now,” Hamilton said.
Beyond robotic missions, the groups have helped define scientific priorities for human exploration. LEAG has contributed to shaping science goals for the Artemis programme to return astronauts to the Moon, while MEPAG has maintained a long-running list of Mars science priorities, including research suited to future human missions.
NASA told the groups in February 2025 to pause activities while the Lunar and Planetary Institute, which administers the grants, reviewed compliance with executive orders, including the termination of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Group websites were temporarily taken offline and later restored after references to DEI were removed.
Prockter said NASA may still fund planetary science workshops through competitive grants, but researchers warn that this could slow feedback and pit communities against one another. “That’s the opposite of efficiency,” Hamilton said.
Similar advisory groups operate across NASA’s other science divisions, including exoplanet research and Earth science, raising questions about whether the funding decision could extend beyond planetary science.
