Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s (2023) / Chapter Skim
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6 Technology Foundations and Small- and Medium-Scale Sustaining Programs
6 Technology Foundations and Small- and Medium-Scale Sustaining Programs
Pages 170-185
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From page 170... ...
Explorer mission, which was able to quickly capitalize and expand on the transit detection breakthroughs of Kepler to execute an all-sky census to identify potential James Webb Space Telescope targets. On the ground, the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA)
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From page 171... ...
Early and significant investments in technology directed at flagship missions and large NSF facilities provide a refined understanding of costs and risks prior to construction, and for space missions this reduces the likelihood and magnitude of cost and schedule overruns during development.1 NSF's Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation (ATI) and NASA's Astrophysics Research and Analysis (APRA)
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From page 172... ...
Technology from these programs has been incorporated into instruments such as the Gemini Planet Imager, the Magellan MagAO-X, and the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer. These instruments use concepts developed in laboratories to study young giant planets (below left)
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From page 173... ...
:039003, https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.6.3.039003. This page -- Left: Courtesy of the Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey Team.
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From page 174... ...
The APRA technology funding levels are also such that establishing a new laboratory effort is essentially impossible without significant supporting infrastructure provided by the host institution (i.e., leveraging an existing optics, electronics, or detector lab or using institutional start-up funds)
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There will, however, still be the need to mature technologies for the probe-class missions, as well as for strategic missions prior to their funding through the Great Observatories Mission and Technology Maturation Program. Recommendation: NASA should continue funding for the Strategic Astrophysics Technology Program, and should expand proposal calls to include intermediate-level technology maturation targeted in strategic areas identified for the competed probe-class missions.
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From page 176... ...
The research was supported by NASA's APRA program and NSF's ATI program, and made use of the NSF-supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Center facility at Cornell University. SOURCE: From Hanold et al., 2015, "Large Format MBE HgCdTe on Silicon Detector Development for Astronomy," Proceedings of SPIE 9609, Infrared Sensors, Devices, and Applications V, 96090Y, https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2195991.
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From page 177... ...
All of these programs emphasize scientific return in the near and long term, provide opportunities for immediate science (on the time scale of a graduate student education) , and build the foundation for future missions of all sizes.
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From page 178... ...
6.2.1.1.1 The Balloon Program The balloon program offers access to a near-space environment with a wide variety of options for duration and sky coverage. Its wide array of capabilities include single-day "conventional" flights and long duration balloon flights lasting up to 60 days in circumpolar flights around the Antarctic.
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From page 179... ...
Rockets are also crucial for maturing technologies and formally qualifying them for spaceflight. Because the pointing platforms are provided by NASA to the investigator teams, the barrier for entry is lower than for the balloon program, where groups typically must develop both the payload and pointing platform. This makes sounding rockets attractive for developing new PIs, and diversifying instrument development teams.
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From page 180... ...
The spacecraft can be commercially procured, meaning that, like the sounding rocket program and unlike the balloon program, teams can benefit from commercially provided infrastructure, and can focus on the instrument and science, potentially lowering the barrier to entry to new PIs and teams. Managing a SmallSat program can be challenging, and support provided by NASA could further increase the range of institutions participating in the program.
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From page 181... ...
Additional suggestions are presented in Appendix H, the report of the Panel on an Enabling Foundation for Research, and NASA is also sponsoring a National Academies study on "Increasing Diversity and Inclusion in the Leadership of Competed Space Science Missions." onclusion: The NASA-sponsored National Academies study "Increasing Diversity and Inclusion in the C Leadership of Competed Space Science Missions"7 will provide important advice toward broadening participation, and by implementing this advice NASA will strengthen the Explorers Program's overall success. 6.2.1.3 The Pioneers Program NASA began the Pioneers Program in 2020 as a means of bridging the gap between stand-alone Explorer missions and suborbital platforms.
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From page 182... ...
, designed to measure and characterize the universe from the cosmic dawn to the epoch of reionization, and the DSA that will pinpoint and study fast radio bursts.8 MSIP has also funded upgrades and new instrumentation on existing telescopes, such as the Keck Planet Finder precision radial velocity instrument, as well as community access to existing facilities such as the Large Millimeter Telescope and the Las Cumbres time-domain optical follow-up network. The program has therefore provided broad access across public-private partnerships, has included international collaborations, and has advanced both individualinvestigator–initiated programs, large survey projects, and archival research.
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From page 183... ...
are C vital to the enabling foundation of astronomy research. As evidenced by the number of compelling community white papers, and given the assessments of the PAG, OIR, RMS, and EFR panels, the survey committee recommends in Chapter 7 expanding the midscale programs, including adding elements that ensure their responsiveness to decadal survey priorities.
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From page 184... ...
; Keck Planet Finder. Second row: Green Bank Telescope, which will use a laser scanning on 1405 MHz, 122.0703125 kHz channels, 131.072 μs sampling, two of 5.75 arcsec inner (6system polarizations, and incoherent summation of all antenna signals for FRB todiameter, arcsec outer)
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From page 185... ...
TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATIONS AND SMALL- AND MEDIUM-SCALE SUSTAINING PROGRAMS 185 MAPS LMT Keck Observatory AO Systems BICEP POLARBEAR/Simons Array, ACT, CLASS, and ALMA ACT CMB Detector Array BICEP/Keck and SPIDER CMB Detector Array Telescope Collaboration; HERA Partnership; Keck Planet Finder courtesy of California Institute of Technology; Green Bank Observatory/Associated Universities, Inc.; CHARA -- Steve Golden/Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy; LLAMAS -- adapted from Furesz et al., 2020, Proceedings of SPIE 11447, Ground-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII, 114470A, https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2562803; Evryscope -- Nicholas Law and the Evryscope Collaboration; DSA-10 -- ; MAPS -- Lori Harrison, Center for Astronomical Adaptive Optics, University of Arizona; LMT -- INAOE photo archive; Keck Observatory AO Systems -- Sean Goebel Photography; BICEP -- adapted from Moncelsi et al., 2020, Proceedings of SPIE 11453, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy X, 1145314, https:// doi.org/10.1117/12.2561995; POLARBEAR/Simons Array, ACT, CLASS, and ALMA -- Debra Kellner/ Brian Bloss; ACT CMB Detector Array -- Li et al., 2016, Proceedings of SPIE 9914, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and FarInfrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy VIII, 991435, https:// doi.org/10.1117/12.2233470; BICEP/Keck and SPIDER CMB Detector Array -- The BICEP/Keck Collaboration, adapted from Ade et al., 2014, Astrophysical Journal 792:62, https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/792/1/62, © AAS, reproduced with permission.
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