The purpose of this grant was to enable the Principal Investigator (P.I.) to travel to and participate in the meetings and activities of the NASA SOFIA Science Working Group (SSWG), and to spend time working on some of the associated technical issues relating to the SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) project. The SOFIA Science Working Group was established to help develop the plans and specifications for the next-generation airborne observatory ("SOFIA"), which is now under development. The P.I. was asked to serve on the SSWG due to his experience in airborne astronomy: he has developed several astronomical instruments for the Kuiper Airborne Observatory NASA's previous airborne astronomy platform (which was decommissioned in 1995 in preparation for SOFIA). SOFIA, which will be a 747 SP aircraft carrying a 2.7 meter diameter telescope, is a joint project sponsored by NASA and DLR (the German space agency), and is now under development by a consortium including Universities Space Research Association (USRA), Raytheon, Sterling Software, and United Airlines. Further details on the SOFIA project can be found on the internet at http: //sofia. arc. nasa. gov. Rather than develop the SOFIA observatory in-house, NASA decided to privatize the project by issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP). The respondents to this RFP were consortia of private organizations which together had the required facilities and expertise to be able to carry out the project; the winner was the group led by USRA. One of the main roles of the SSWG was to help develop the technical specifications for the SOFIA observatory. In particular, the SSWG provided advice to NASA on the specifications that were written into the RFP, particularly those which had an important impact on the scientific productivity of the observatory. These specifications were discussed at the meetings of the SSWG, which were held primarily at NASA/Ames (in California) and at NASA Headquarters (in Washington DC). Apart from these meetings, members of the SSWG were expected to perform more detailed analyses of the impact of certain parameters and specifications on the performance of astronomical instruments. The SSWG ended its activities with the selection of the USRA team in January 1997.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Sofia Science Working Group


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    1997-01-01


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English


    Keywords :


    SOFIA Science Working Group

    Zmuldzinas, J. | NTRS | 1997


    SOFIA Science Working Group

    Stacey, Gordon J. | NTRS | 1997


    SOFIA Update and Science Vision

    Smith, Kimberly | NTRS | 2017


    SOFIA Science Utilization: The US Science Instrument Program

    Becklin, E. E. / Davidson, J. A. / Casey, S. C. | SAE Technical Papers | 1997


    SOFIA science utilization - The U.S. Science Instrument Program

    Casey, S. / Davidson, J. / Becklin, E. | AIAA | 1997