Astronomy for the Next Decade:
The "Decadal Report" of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee (AASC) of the US National Research Council has been released in draft form. It has become customary in the USA to prepare such reports every ten years, and they are extremely important in setting NASA's astronomical priorities for the coming ten years. Other, non-space agencies supporting astronomy are included as well, such as e.g., the National Science Foundation (NSF) for most ground-based programs. Planetary exploration and Earth observation missions, however, are not included in the committee's purview.
The AASC includes 13 astronomers and astrophysicists under co-chairs Chris McKee and Joe Taylor. It established nine sub-panels to report on wavelength subdisciplines and other major areas, including over 100 members in all. These panels then made a great effort to collect wide community inputs.
Although program details (and of course acronyms) may change, still, the list of top priorities is likely to organize NASA and US efforts in astronomy for years to come. Besides new initiatives, the committee particularly calls for completion of recommendations of the 1991 AASC (the Bahcall Committee):
SIRTF, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (on schedule for launch in December 2001), at:
http://sirtf.caltech.edu/sirtf.html
ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (previously known as the MilliMeter Array, MMA) is an international project to build a VLA-style array of at least 64 movable 12-m antennas at nearly 5000 m altitude in Chile; the URL is:
http://www.alma.nrao.edu/info .
SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy, is a 2.5-m airborne IR telescope expected to begin flying in 2002. The URL is:
SIM, the Space Interferometry Mission, currently scheduled for launch in June, 2006, URL is:
http://sim.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html and
MAP, the Microwave Anisotropy Probe, to continue the pioneering work of COBE, the Cosmic Background Explorer. Planned launch is April, 2001, and the URL is
Evidently I cannot hope to recite more than a few superficial buzz phrases about each of the missions and plans mentioned in such a large-scale roadmap, laying out a decade of effort. Thus for now I will only be able to give minimal information and URLs so you can, I hope, take advantage of the huge resources of the World-Wide Web.
Major Initiatives:
Moderate Initiatives:
The highest priority space missions in this category is GLAST, the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, which is an enlarged and improved follow-up to EGRET, the Energetic Gamma-Ray ExperimenT on the late, lamented, Compton Observatory. GLAST will have greatly improved angular resolution and sensitivity over its predecessor. The energy range would be from 10 MeV to 300 GeV. A URL for GLAST is http://glast.gsfc.nasa.gov
LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, is a very ambitious gravity wave detector, a follow-on to LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory now about to come into operation. The prospects for LIGO to detect gravity waves are somewhat controversial, at least in its initial configuration; some good luck may be needed. However, there seems little doubt that LISA should see cosmic signals, unless our understanding of either gravity waves or astronomy is somehow very mistaken. LISA would use phase-locked lasers on three widely separated spacecraft to achieve a large sensitivity gain over LIGO. The committee recommends a co-operative effort with the European Space Agency, to keep the cost reasonable. I understand from Prof. Tom Prince of Caltech, the Project Scientist, that LISA will measure the distance between its three spacecraft with a precision equivalent to measuring the distance to the nearest star to the thickness of a human hair. The URLs are http://lisa.jpl.nasa.gov for LISA, and http://www.ligo.caltech.edu for LIGO.
A number of other, smaller or lower-priority projects also received the committee's blessing, but those are some of the highlights. We may hope for an exciting decade, with such as these in store.
Other News
A problem has disabled NIS, the Near Infrared Spectrometer on NEAR, the Eros-orbiter mission I've written about here a number of times. NIS was an important instrument because its 64-channel, 0.8 - 2.6 m , spectra with about a 0.5° field-of-view gave the best means of mapping the surface composition of Eros in detail. NIS was turned off on May 13, after it began drawing abnormally heavy current from the spacecraft. The problem recurred during a brief turn-on attempt on June 5, and there are no plans for further attempts. However, about 58,000 spectra have already been obtained. Data from the X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (XGRS) show that asteroid 433 Eros is not of Class S, from a geologically differentiated parent body similar to the stony-iron meteorites, something of a surprise. Type S had been widely expected at the beginning of the mission. Instead, it appears similar to the chondritic asteroids -- which helps to resolve the mystery of the asteroidal sources of the most common class of meteorites, the ordinary chondrites. These consist of a primitive, unmelted mixture of small globules, or chondrules, in a background matrix. Winter on Eros began on June 25, when the Sun crossed its equator and the asteroidal south pole was illuminated for the first time. On July 7 the spacecraft will descend to 35 km from the 50-km polar orbit which it has been in since late April.
Major news from Mars is rumored to be in store as I write. By the time you read this, it will should be old hat. However, Mars Global Surveyor has indeed been doing an amazing job, working away quietly, despite all the disappointment here over the fate of its later kindred