Quantifying the scientific impact and timeliness of NASA's science missions. Note: these results are preliminary and subject to revision.
This scatter plot assesses the proportionality between financial input and scientific output by comparing each mission's share of the total portfolio cost against its share of total refereed citations or publications. The 1:1 diagonal represents a baseline of neutral efficiency; missions situated significantly above this line demonstrate a "bibliometric yield" that exceeds their relative capital consumption, identifying high-efficiency programs, in regards to citation/publication numbers, within the given set.
Distribution of highly-cited papers (i100 or i10 index) across missions, ordered by cost. Shows which missions or cost categories produce the most influential research outputs.
Share of 100+ citation papers within each division, grouped by cost bin or program.
A summary of mission outcomes, distinguishing between successfully completed operations and premature failures. This view provides a high-level assessment of the portfolio's overall success rate and historical risk profile across different divisions.
This analysis investigates the relationship between mission/program expenditures and the production of highly influential research (defined here as papers with ≥ 100 citations, the i100_index). It helps determine if larger financial investments correlate with a higher frequency of "blockbuster" results, or if high-impact science is equally distributed across mission classes.
This metric tracks the time elapsed between major mission milestones (like Launch) and the publication of the first highly cited result. It helps set expectations for the "incubation period" of different missions, showing how long it takes for mission activities to result in major scientific findings.
A timeline displaying the volume of refereed publications over the first ten years, measured from each mission's start of scientific operations. This visualizes the "shape" of a mission's productivity, highlighting the difference between short-duration missions that peak immediately versus long-term observatories that generate sustained output over time.
Productivity and impact of space science missions as a function of their mass, with cost encoded by color. Productivity is parameterized as the number of reviewed papers per year since start of operations per $M. Impact is measured by the Research Impact Quotient (Riq) normalized for cost. The diamond marks the average of CubeSat missions (<15 kg), with error bars spanning the range. Adapted from Fiore & Elvis, 2025.