Proposals due: 24 October 2008
This program solicits proposals for the acquisition and analysis of new scientific data from the Kepler mission, which will be the tenth mission to be launched under NASA's Discovery Program. Observations associated with the Kepler Guest Observer - Cycle 1 solicitation will begin immediately following the successful scientific commissioning of the spacecraft. During its 3.5-year prime mission, Kepler will continuously monitor a ~100 square degree field-of-view (FOV) in the Cygnus region, with the objective of photometrically detecting transits of Earth-size planets in the habitable zone. The instrument's high-precision photometry capability, with two available cadence modes (1 minute and 30-minute) is also sufficient for asteroseismology research and other variability analyses of both Galactic and extragalactic sources. Proposals submitted to this program should be for new observations only and should address areas of astrophysics outside of the exoplanet transit survey Key Project already planned by the mission.
Further information can be found at http://keplergo.arc.nasa.gov. The full announcement of opportunity is part of the NASA Research Announcement "Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) 2008" (NNH08ZDA001N) and can be found on the NASA research opportunity homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ (select "Solicitations" then "Open Solicitations" then "NNH08ZDA001N"). Questions about this program can be directed to the Kepler Guest Observer Office at keplergo@arc.nasa.gov
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