SIRTF - Key Projects and Community Participation

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Session 25 -- SIRTF
Display presentation, Tuesday, 31, 1994, 9:20-6:30

[25.02] SIRTF - Key Projects and Community Participation

M. Bicay, R.Gehrz (U. Minnesota), L.Caroff (NASA/HQ), M. Jura (UCLA), J.L.Pipher (U. Rochester), M.Werner (JPL), E.Young (U. Arizona)

SIRTF - the Space Infrared Telescope Facility - will be an observatory for the entire scientific community, but the modes of community participation may be somewhat different from those used on previous astrophysics missions. The limited lifetime of the mission demands the development of a highly efficient observing program that will maximize the scientific return. To achieve this goal, the SIRTF scientific program will probably consist largely of Key Projects - large scale targeted and unbiased spectroscopic and imaging surveys - supplemented by General Observer and Archival Research opportunities. Possible forms of community participation in the SIRTF program include:

1. Planning and preparation through collaboration in the definition of community roles and in the definition of the structure of the Key Projects Program.

2. Collaboration in SIRTF's Key Projects. Key Project investigations and investigators will be chosen by peer review several years before launch. Investigators will work with the instrument and operations teams in defining and perparing for their observations.

3. Participation in the General Observer Program. Selected General Observers will bear much of the responsibility for planning their observational programs and reducing the data.

4. Archival Research. We anticipate starting the archival research program during the mission while the spacecraft is still operating and adding data to the archive.

The poster will describe these modes of participation in greater detail and serve as a focal point for discussion of the community's role in SIRTF.

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