New Worlds, New Horizons A Midterm Assessment (2016) / Chapter Skim
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2 Programmatic Context
2 Programmatic Context
Pages 29-44
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From page 29... ...
These include the overall fiscal landscape and developments in three components of the overall program: ground-based activities, space-based activities, and activities with close connection to physics, such as particle strophysics, a gravitation, and cosmic microwave background (CMB) studies.
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From page 30... ...
Relative to the budget assumptions adopted by NWNH, which were more optimistic than the budget guidance given to the survey committee by the agen cies, the actual budgets of the NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences (NSF-AST) and the NASA Astrophysics Division (NASA-APD)
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From page 31... ...
NASA-APD budget guidance to the survey committee was that the budget would remain flat in real-year dollars through the decade, implying a decrease in real pur chasing power at the rate of inflation.6 The sum of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and APD budgets has roughly tracked this assumption during the first half of the decade (although it is projected to flatten in real-year dollars in the second 6 NRC, 2010, New Worlds, New Horizons, p.
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From page 32... ...
NOTE: FY, fiscal year; JWST, James Webb Space Telescope; NASA-APD, NASA Astrophysics Division; NWNH, New Worlds, New Horizons; WFIRST, Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope. SOURCE: Figure adapted from a presentation by P
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From page 33... ...
However, the late-breaking schedule delay and associated budget increase of JWST have delayed the availability of funding for new initiatives by about 4 to 5 years. For DOE, NWNH based its budget assumptions on the 2009 High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP)
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From page 34... ...
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) on the Blanco 4-m telescope, located at the Cerro Tololo Inter- merican Observatory in Chile, represents a major advance in weak-lensing A measurements of cosmic structure, and the Dark Energy Camera that DOE built for DES is one of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory's (NOAO's)
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From page 35... ...
The European Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Japanese Subaru telescopes continue to be upgraded with instrumentation programs significantly more ambi tious than those of any U.S.
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From page 36... ...
FINDING 2-4: The completion and successful operation of ALMA are a remarkable success and the culmination of significant investment by NSF through the MREFC program. While NWNH recommended investment in a new millimeter survey telescope, CCAT, to complement ALMA, there has been no new funding to enable CCAT to proceed past an initial design stage (see Chapter 3)
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From page 37... ...
As of this writing, the United States does not have significant participation in these large international radio astronomy initiatives. SPACE-BASED ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS Despite schedule delay and cost increase, JWST is now on track with a late 2018 launch to deliver science capabilities that will very much exceed those of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
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From page 38... ...
Its widefield X-ray instrument provides large-area X-ray timing capability, restoring a capability previously provided by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer. In Decem er 2015, China launched the Dark Matter Particle Explorer, the first Chi b nese space mission for astronomy and astrophysics and one of a series of planned space science missions.
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From page 39... ...
PARTICLE ASTROPHYSICS, GRAVITATION, AND THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND NWNH noted that LISA would provide insight into the early growth of black holes and the cosmological history of galaxy formation and test general relativity with exquisite precession. The potential for transformative discoveries was high lighted: "It would be unprecedented in the history of astronomy if the gravita tional radiation window being opened up by LISA does not reveal new, enigmatic sources."10 Gravitational wave detection is currently being pursued through four main efforts: ground-based interferometers (led by Advanced LIGO [Laser Inter ferometry Gravitational-wave Observatory]
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From page 40... ...
The NSF Major Research Instrumentation program funded a proto type SCT [ chwarzschild-Couder Telescope] in 2012 designed to perform near S the theoretical limit for a Cherenkov Telescope.
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From page 41... ...
The CALET, a JAXA led electron calorimeter, joined AMS on the ISS in 2015, and in 2017 ISS-CREAM should also be deployed on the ISS to study cosmic rays at higher energies. Rare heavy primaries are currently being studied through the NASA balloon program with Super-TIGER.
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From page 42... ...
DOE and NSF's Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5) , a subcommittee of HEPAP, has recommended exploring a larger role for DOE in next-generation CMB experiments, drawing on the unique fabrication capabilities at the DOE national laboratories to implement a "Stage IV" CMB effort named CMB-S4.12 THE GOAL OF A BALANCED PROGRAM A central and recurring theme of NWNH is "balance," and, although it is articulated as a guiding principle more than 30 times throughout the document, not all readers interpret balance in a consistent manner.
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From page 43... ...
It was recognized that the skill sets required for astronomy research have application to non-astronomy employment, and NWNH recommended that the American Astronomical Society and the American Physical Society "should make both undergraduate and graduate students aware of the wide variety of rewarding career opportunities enabled by their education, and be supportive of students' career decisions that go beyond academia."19 17 NRC, 2010, New Worlds, New Horizons, p.
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From page 44... ...
One encouraging result is that the rate of advancement from graduate student positions to tenure-track faculty positions is becoming more equal for women and men. However, critical issues remain, as highlighted by mul tiple recent news items about sexual harassment in academic research institutions.
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