Community Participation in the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) Mission

Session 42 - SIRTF.
Display session, Thursday, January 08
Exhibit Hall,

[42.01] Community Participation in the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) Mission

R. D. Gehrz (U. MN), C. A. Beichman, M. D. Bicay (IPAC), C. A. Christian (STScI), D. P. Clemens (Boston U.), D. P. Cruikshank (NASA ARC), R. M. Cutri (IPAC), M. A. Greenhouse (NASA/GSFC), M. S. Hanner (JPL/Caltech), T. J. Jones (U. MN), R. B. Miller (JPL/Caltech), M. J. Rieke (U. AZ), H. A. Thronson Jr., E. J. Weiler (NASA HQ), M. W. Werner (JPL/Caltech), C. E. Woodward (U. WY)

Eighty percent of the observing time on SIRTF will be available to the general astronomical community through Legacy Project (LP), Guest Observer (GO), Target of Opportunity (ToO), and Director's Discretionary Observations (DDO) programs. We describe the organization of the community of potential SIRTF observers under the auspices of the SIRTF Community Task Force (CTF) and summarize the recent activities of the CTF and its Working Groups (WGs). The WGs enable the SIRTF Project to draw on broad community representation to explore issues related to the definition of the LP, GO, and ToO Programs. Additional WGs are studying SIRTF Solar System Science and Data Archiving and Analysis. Working documents of the CTF and white papers delineating the major issues currently before the WGs can be read on the SIRTF homepage at http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/SIRTF. An interactive forum on the homepage will enable the community to participate actively during the mission definition phase. Community members can use the time-estimator tool on the homepage to assist with planning for SIRTF observations. A current version of the SIRTF Science Activities Timeline (SSAT) is presented. The SSAT defines the schedule for community activities that are necessary to conduct the SIRTF mission through its design, development, construction, preflight testing, and flight phases. Major milestones to be described include a series of workshops to define the LP program, NASA Research Announcement (NRA) releases for the LP and GO Programs, and NRA releases for flight-phase data archiving and analysis activities. An estimate of the fractional distribution of SIRTF observing time among Guaranteed Time Observations (GTOs), LPS, GOs, ToOs, and DDOs during the flight phase is presented. Further information regarding community activities in support of this NASA mission can be found on the SIRTF-homepage.

If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to www.ipac.caltech.edu/SIRTF. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the the Web space for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back button on your browser.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: gehrz@ast1.spa.umn.edu

Program listing for Thursday