SPECIAL NOTICE
A -- PLANNED LETTER OF INVITATION FOR MEMBERSHIP ON THE SCIENCE DEFINITION TEAMFOR WFIRST - WIDE-FIELD INFRARED SURVEY TELESCOPE
- Notice Date
- 10/5/2010
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters Acquisition Branch, Code210.H, Greenbelt, MD 20771
- ZIP Code
- 20771
- Solicitation Number
- NNH11ZDA004J
- Archive Date
- 10/5/2011
- Point of Contact
- Dr. Rita Sambruna, Program Scientist, Phone 202-358-2166, Fax 202-358-3096, Email Rita.M.Sambruna@nasa.gov
- E-Mail Address
-
Dr. Rita Sambruna
(Rita.M.Sambruna@nasa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science MissionDirectorate (SMD) intends to release a letter of invitation for membership on the ScienceDefinition Team (SDT) for the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).OVERVIEW OF THE WFIRST SDT OPPORTUNITYIt is anticipated that the WFIRST Dear Colleague Letter will invite applications formembership on the Science Definition Team for the WFIRST mission, a strategic missionsponsored by NASAs Astrophysics Division, recommended as the top priority large projectby the National Research Councils Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics, entitledNew Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics (the Astro2010 Decadal Survey,available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12951). WFIRST will be awide-field near-infrared space telescope capable of performing imaging and spectroscopicsky surveys with multiple goals including gravitational microlensing surveys forexoplanets, large-area sky survey and deep surveys for research in dark energy, and otherextragalactic and galactic research programs.The members of the WFIRST SDT will provide NASA with scientific assistance duringpreliminary concept definition (Pre-Phase A) activities. Near-term activities of the SDTmembers will focus primarily on assessing the scientific approach to investigating thegoals of the WFIRST space mission as outlined by the Astro2010 Decadal Survey.Participation in the WFIRST SDT will be open to all qualified and interested individuals.THE WFIRST MISSIONAs envisaged by the Astro2010 Decadal Survey, WFIRST will be a 1.5-meter-classwide-field-of-view near-infrared-imaging and low-resolution-spectroscopy space telescope. WFIRST will be capable of addressing fundamental questions about the nature of darkenergy. It will employ three distinct techniques measurements of weak gravitationallensing, supernova distances, and baryon acoustic oscillations to determine the effectof dark energy on the evolution of the universe. An equally important goal of themission will be to open up a new frontier of exoplanet studies by monitoring a largesample of stars in the central bulge of the Milky Way for changes in brightness due tomicrolensing by intervening planetary systems.WFIRST will also be used to support avigorous guest investigator program of additional extragalactic and galactic researchusing its near-infrared capabilities.DETAILS OF THE PLANNED REQUESTNASA anticipates releasing a Dear Colleague Letter that invites applications formembership on the WFIRST SDT. The Letter will request that each application should be nomore than two pages in length.The application should describe the applicants currentresearch activities, including participation in major collaborations relevant to thegoals of WFIRST. Specific areas of expertise should be described, including topics inmicrolensing and surveys for exoplanets, dark energy observations and theory, figure ofmerit forecasting for dark energy and exoplanet surveys, focal plane instrumentation, andinfrared sky survey science relevant to WFIRST. SDT members are expected to beknowledgeable in observational and/or theoretical astrophysics in the fields relevant todefining and focusing the scientific objectives of the WFIRST mission.NASAs charge to the SDT will be to provide science requirements, investigationapproaches, key mission parameters, and any other scientific inputs needed to support thedesign of an optimized space mission concept satisfying the overall goals of the WFIRSTmission as outlined by the Astro2010 Decadal Survey. Justification for conducting theWFIRST investigations from space and an assessment of how such investigations willcomplement existing and planned domestic and international ground and space facilitieswill be included in the SDTs report. Additional details will be described in the DearColleague Letter and associated SDT charter.All meetings of the WFIRST SDT will be open, all reports and other output of the WFIRSTSDT will be made publicly available, and the WFIRST SDT will be disbanded prior to anyfuture Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for participation in the WFIRST mission includingprovision of instruments.The following schedule describes the anticipated major milestones of NASAs DearColleague Letter for application to the WFIRST Science Definition Team. These dates aresubject to change. Dear Colleague Letter released: Mid-October 2010Application Due Date: Release + 1 monthSelections Announced (target):Release + 2 monthsThe issuance of this Community Announcement does not obligate NASA to issue the DearColleague Letter and solicit applications. Any costs incurred by prospectiveinvestigators in preparing submissions in response to this Community Announcement areincurred completely at the submitter's own risk. The WFIRST SDT Dear Colleague Lettermay contain provisions that differ from this announcement, in which case those in theLetter will take precedence.Questions or comments about this Community Announcement on the WFIRST SDT Dear ColleagueLetter may be addressed to the NASA WFIRST Program Scientist:Dr. Rita Sambruna,Astrophysics Division, Science Mission Directorate, National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration, Washington, DC 20546-0001; E-mail: Rita.M.Sambruna@nasa.gov; Phone:202-358-2166. Comments should be provided to Dr. Sambruna within 1 week of thisannouncement in order to be considered in the Letter. The character string 'WFIRST SDT'(without quotes) should be included in the subject line of all transmissions.
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- Record
- SN02305945-W 20101007/101005234203-c0385caf8aef4c8722ded14ed0d4a927 (fbodaily.com)
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