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SIM Newsletter
" F R I N G E S "
Space Interferometry Mission Newsletter
Number 37, September 17, 2006
CONTENTS
1. Editorial
2. SIM PlanetQuest schedule update
3. Presentation to the NRC Astronomy and Physics Assessment Committee
4. Major paper published on planet detection with SIM
5. SIM Instrument Baseline Design Review
6. 4th International TPF/Darwin Workshop
1. Editorial
This Newsletter is written for a technical audience, but we know that many members of the public are keen to follow the details of missions that interest them. The distribution list has grown very large, a sign that there is wide interest in the mission. The purpose of this Newsletter to share any public news - good or bad - on all aspects of SIM PlanetQuest. As you will see below, there is excellent technical news, but some very distressing news on the schedule.
2. SIM PlanetQuest schedule update
The schedule news, if taken literally, is dismal. In Newsletter 36, we described the NASA decision to slip SIM PlanetQuest by 4 years (from 2011 to 2015) due to funding pressures outside of SIM - we had been geared up to fully support a 2011 launch. Now the project faces a further long delay. The NASA Administrator, Dr. Mike Griffin, announced on July 7 that NASA plans to return SIM to a "research and technology program". The implication is clear: SIM launch might not occur for at least a decade from now and perhaps many years later still.
The SIM technology program is complete. In fact, the SIM Project completed all of the NASA-mandated technology milestones over a year ago (see previous Newsletters). In Newsletter 35, we discussed how the SIM schedule supported (as recently as a few months ago) a launch in December 2011 - with a fully integrated plan, workforce, instrument design, and technology. The impact of this drastic change in direction is now starting to be felt: even though the SIM team is ready, the launch date is entirely determined by the funding profile defined by NASA Headquarters.
3. Presentation to the NRC Astronomy and Physics Assessment Committee
Shri Kulkarni and Mike Shao were invited to present the case for SIM at the August 14 meeting of the National Research Council (NRC) Astronomy and Physics Assessment (NAPA) Committee, in St Paul, MN. This committee was chartered to review NASA's implementation of the Academy's 2000 Decadal Review of astronomy and astrophysics. All of the major astronomy and physics missions made short presentations, and provided responses to seven specific questions posed in advance by the committee.
Shri reported that the discussion after the presentation was "mainly positive", with one member of the committee remarking how well the project was doing relative to the objectives established in the NRC's Decadal report. He also noted "One thing came out clearly: few people know the real capabilities of SIM". Those of us close to the mission understand the broad impact SIM will have on many areas of astrophysics, and the importance of interferometry for future large telescopes in space. But it does suggest that we must redouble our efforts the 'tell the story' to our science colleagues, add to wider audiences also. We hope to have these slides posted to the SIM PlanetQuest web site soon. And we are keen to work with those of you who share our excitement and want to help 'tell the story'.
4. Major paper published on planet detection with SIM
The ability of SIM to detect low-mass planets around nearby stars, and measure their masses, is well known to readers of this Newsletter. Results of a very detailed set of simulations of SIM's capabilities appear in the September 2006 issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (PASP), by Joe Catanzarite, et al.
Using actual star lists, a realistic observing scenario, and a detailed SIM performance model, Joe calculates the mass of the smallest detectable planet around each target star. For the 'best' 120 nearby stars, he finds SIM could reliably detect planets as low as 1 Earth mass around the closest 6 stars, 2 Earth masses around the closest 30 stars, and 5 Earth masses around every star in the 120-star list. Alternatively, if we concentrate on just the 'best' 60 stars, we could detect a 2 Earth mass planet around every one! These would all be in the 'habitable zone' around each target. Detectable masses for planets orbiting further out are lower still.
Read the journal article (September 2006) for all the details:
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/PASP/journal/available.html
5. SIM Instrument Baseline Design Review
In July 2006, the project held a three-day Instrument System Baseline Design Review, a project-initiated review to evaluate the progress in development of requirements and design in preparation for the Instrument Preliminary Design Review (PDR). The review board concluded that great progress had been made and the instrument would be ready for PDR within nine to twelve months.
6. 4th International TPF/Darwin Workshop
The 4th International TPF/Darwin Workshop has as its theme "Star-Planet Interactions and Implications for Habitability." It will be held jointly and in close coordination with the Cool Stars XIV Conference (CS14) in Pasadena CA, November 8-11, 2006. Abstracts for posters are being considered by the Scientific Organizing Committees for the two events.
Contributed and poster contributions for the TPF/Darwin workshop will be accepted until *September 22, 2006*; poster contributions will be accepted after this date until the available display space is filled.
http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPFDarwinConf3/
http://ssc.spitzer.caltech.edu/mtgs/cs14/
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Steve Unwin, Editor stephen.unwin'at'jpl.nasa.gov
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