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S.D. Horner, M.E. Germain (USNO), T.P. Greene (NASA Ames), F.H. Harris, H.C. Harris (USNO), M.S. Johnson (NRL), K.J. Johnston, D.G. Monet, M.A. Murison (USNO), J.D. Phillips, R.D. Reasenberg (SAO), P.K. Seidelmann, S.E. Urban (USNO), R.H. Vassar (LMMS ATC)
The Full-sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer (FAME) is a NASA MIDEX mission scheduled for launch in 2004. It will perform an all sky, astrometric survey with unprecedented accuracy. FAME will determine the positions, parallaxes, proper motions, and photometry of ~40,000,000 stars with visual band magnitudes 5 < V < 15.
For bright stars, 5 < V < 9, FAME will determine positions and parallaxes accurate to < 50 microarcseconds, with proper motion errors < 50 microarcseconds/year. For fainter stars, 9 < V < 15, FAME will determine positions and parallaxes accurate to < 500 microarcseconds, with proper motion errors < 500 microarcseconds/year. FAME will also collect photometric data on these 40,000,000 stars in four Sloan DSS colors.
FAME will enable a wide range of scientific investigations using its large, rich database of information on stellar properties. It will:
* Calibrate the zero point of the extragalactic distance scale to 1%
* Determine absolute luminosities of a wide range of spectral types
* Detect a meaningful statistical sample of companion stars, brown dwarfs, and giant planets
* Enable studies of the kinematics of our galaxy, including the effect of dark matter in the disk
* Characterize stellar variability of a large sample of stars at the 0.1% level
* Define a rigid optical reference frame for future scientific endeavors
FAME is evolved from design concepts from the Hipparcos mission, using current CCD technology to observe more and fainter stars. Like Hipparcos, FAME has a compound mirror consisting of two flats angled relative to each other. The compound mirror feeds the two fields of view separated by the ``basic angle'' into a common telescope. The two fields of view are used to control the growth of stochastic errors in determining the relative separations of stars.
FAME is a joint development effort of the U.S. Naval Observatory, the Naval Research Laboratory, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space Advanced Technology Center, and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Funding for FAME is provided by the NASA Office of Space Science through the Explorer program managed by Goddard Space Flight Center. Additional funding has been provided by the U.S. Navy.
http://www.usno.navy.mil/fame
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.usno.navy.mil/fame. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: shorner@usno.navy.mil