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SOFIA Status

SOFIA Status. Erick Young SOFIA Science Mission Operations SSSC May 11, 2011. SOFIA Since Last SSSC Highlights. Completion of Envelope Expansion SOFIA Early Science FORCAST Short Science GREAT Short Science Basic Science German Science Demonstration Time

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SOFIA Status

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  1. SOFIA Status Erick YoungSOFIA Science Mission Operations SSSCMay 11, 2011

  2. SOFIA Since Last SSSC Highlights • Completion of Envelope Expansion • SOFIA Early Science • FORCAST Short Science • GREAT Short Science • Basic Science • German Science Demonstration Time • Instrument Announcement of Opportunity • Upcoming Call for Proposals

  3. SOFIA Development • Envelope expansion flights are complete. Airplane cleared to 14 km, Mach 0.85 • Operation with Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums (RVSM) approved

  4. SOFIA Early Science • Short Science has 3 flights each with FORCAST and GREAT to allow the instrument teams to get on the sky at the earliest possible opportunity. • FORCAST flew in Dec 2010GREAT flew in April 2011 • Basic Science is a series of 15 flights (12 US & 3 German) that was open to the astronomical community • US time was openly competed via a call for proposals • German time will be used by the GREAT consortium • Began May 5, 2011 • German Demonstration Science Time • 3 Flights openly competed in the German Community • Results announced in April 2011 • Observations are being scheduled now

  5. Page 5 FORCAST Short Science

  6. SOFIA Recent Highlights • Envelope expansion flights are complete. Airplane cleared to 14 km altitude, Mach 0.85 • First Light Flight on June 25, 2010. • Delivery of GREAT instrument in October 2010. • Announcement of Basic Science ResultsNovember 19, 2010. • Initial Science Flight November 29, 2010. • Release of Draft Announcement of Opportunity for 2nd Generation Instruments.

  7. SOFIA Recent Highlights • Envelope expansion flights are complete. Airplane cleared to 14 km altitude, Mach 0.85 • First Light Flight on June 25, 2010. • Delivery of GREAT instrument in October 2010. • Announcement of Basic Science ResultsNovember 19, 2010. • Initial Science Flight November 29, 2010. • Release of Draft Announcement of Opportunity for 2nd Generation Instruments.

  8. SOFIA Recent Highlights • Envelope expansion flights are complete. Airplane cleared to 14 km altitude, Mach 0.85 • First Light Flight on June 25, 2010. • Delivery of GREAT instrument in October 2010. • Announcement of Basic Science ResultsNovember 19, 2010. • Initial Science Flight November 29, 2010. • Release of Draft Announcement of Opportunity for 2nd Generation Instruments.

  9. Comet Hartley 2 • Supporting NASA/EPOXI mission • Filled in SED at wavelengths otherwise inaccessible • Will address significance of the discovery of large ice chunks in comparison to large dust grains SOFIA image 1’ field EPOXI images

  10. Technical Results from First Science • Image Stability was very good. Allowed near diffraction limited imaging at 37 microns. FWHM ~3 arcsec at 11 mm • Image stability was ~1.2 arcsec RMS • Infrared Sensitivity is what was expected.

  11. Successful Short Science with GREAT • German heterodyne spectrometer • Dual Channel • 1.25 – 1.50 THz • 1.82 – 1.92 THz • Flights on April 5, 12, & 14 • German journalist Thomas Bührke flew on the 2nd GREAT Short Science Flight. • Article has already appeared in Die Welt (4th largest newspaper in Germany) • Tom Costello of NBC visited SOFIA during Short Science • Anticipate stories on the Today show and NBC Nightly News.

  12. Short Science 2

  13. GREAT Initial Results • Line mapping of M17 star formation region • High rotational level CO at 1.5 THz • Ionized Carbon fine structure line at 1.9 THz • On-the-Fly mapping mode is much more efficient that what has been achieved on Herschel

  14. Basic Science • Proposal Review Conducted in October 2010 • Selected Proposals announced in November 2010 • Flights began 5 May 2011 2 out of 18 Completed!

  15. Layout of Basic Science Scheduling of 3 additional US flights will be finalized later.

  16. Basic Science Scheduling Results • Basic Science was very much a learning experience • The time was advertised in the CFP as shared risk. • Uncertain instrument efficiencies, sensitivities, and scheduling efficiencies made definitive time allocations problematic • Not surprisingly (in retrospect), the operational overheads were larger than originally anticipated. • The limited Basic Science observing window complicated the scheduling problem. • TAC was asked to triage proposals in “Must Do”, “Do If Possible”, and “Don’t Do” in addition to producing a rank ordered list • Schedulers were given instructions to favor completion of “Must Do” programs as opposed to giving marginal times to all proposers

  17. Basic Science Scheduling Results - 2 • Bottom Line is that we did well in getting in almost all of the TAC “Must Do” programs scheduled • The scheduling rate for “Do If Time” proposals was disappointingly low. • Presentation by Ravi Sankrit this afternoon will go into more detail

  18. Example FORCAST Science 81-0013 Johnathan Tan Peering to the Heart of Massive Star Birth The program consists of FORCAST imaging of massive protostars at 11, 19, 24, 31 and 37 microns. They will examine how the MIR SED varies along the outflow axes, and they will compare these observations to detailed radiative transfer calculations of massive protostars G35.20-0.74 observed at 18 micron with TRECS with 15 GHz contours overlaid. Note dust emission is only detected on near side because of extinction.

  19. Example GREAT Science 81-0014 David Neufeld Search for interstellar mercapto radicals (SH) with SOFIA The plan is to observe the 1.383 THz (ground-state) transition of SH toward six bright submillimeter continuum sources - Sgr B2 (M), W49N, W51, G34.3+0.1, G29.96-0.02 and G10.6-0.4 (W31C) Complements previous studies of H2S and SH+, which indicate that the abundances of sulfur-bearing hydrides are much greater than the predictions of standard chemical models. S+ + H2 SH+ + H – 0.85 eV S + H2 SH + H – 0.83 eV SH+ + H2 􀀂H2S++ H – 0.65 eV

  20. Upcoming Events of Note • Announcement of Opportunity for 2nd Generation Instruments • The Draft Announcement of Opportunity was released last year for public comment • Comment period is now closed and NASA HQ is finalizing the AO • Expect release later this summer • Anticipated selection late this year with funding in 2012. • Call for Observing Proposals • Probable release in October 2011 • Instruments expected: • FORCAST – (GRISMS in shared risk mode) • GREAT • HIPO • FLITECAM – (GRISMS in shared risk mode)

  21. A Busy 2011 • April 2011 GREAT Early Science Flights • May 2011 FORCAST Basic Science Flights • June 2011 Observatory Engineering Flights • June 2011 Occultation Campaign • July 2011 GREAT Basic Science • Aug 2011 Upgrades to Airplane Systems • Sept 2011 Deployment to Cologne Air Show • Oct 2011 Call for Proposals

  22. http://www.sofia.usra.edu

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