Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility

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Space Telescope European Coordinating
Facility Annual Review 2005 22 Feb 2005 R.
Albrecht
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ST-ECF Annual Review 2005 22 Feb 2005, Council
Room Agenda
1100 Introduction Project Status 1130 ECF
Core Tasks including s/w development and
calibration activities 1230 Lunch (catered)
1330 ECF Core Tasks continued including
archive, VO and public outreach 1430 ESA-ESO
coordination 1500 ESO science/technical
activities 1515 Discussion Executive Session
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HST Spacecraft Status Performing nominally, but
there are serious concerns Gyros 4(3)gyros
operational (out of 6) 2-gyro mode possible,
being tested at this time 1-gyro mode being
investigated Batteries Nominal degradation
Various strategies to lengthen the lifetime are
being explored
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HST Observatory Status "HST - Still producing
world class science" STIS failed last year
Spectroscopy restricted to ACS and NICMOS
spectral modes Increased use of the ECF
supplied spectral extraction S/W for these
instruments All other SI's performing
nominally Operations proceeding smoothly
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HST Project Status SM 4 Cancellation Jan
04 Robotic Servicing Mission investigated Q1
04 Go-ahead June 04 Request for Proposals
Aug 04 Contract to Lockheed Martin (330 M)
Oct 04 Contract to MDA, Canada (145 M) Jan
05 No budget in White House/NASA request Feb
05 NRC Study (Lanzarotti) Report Dec 04
Recommends Shuttle mission "Risk of failure
for robotic mission" "Increased risk to
astronauts minimal" "Has been done
before" Expected EOL without servicing mission
07-08
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Reactions Very strong public support for Hubble
in the US AAS supports manned mission IEEE-USA's
Committee on Transportation and Aerospace
Technology Policy supports SM Many pro-Hubble
editorials in the elite US media Members of
Congress (Mikulski, Brownback, Gordon, Udall,
others) speak out pro-Hubble Literally hundreds
of news items in Google, all of them pro-Hubble
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Quotes , one Senate source predicted that the
decision would go over like a lead balloon for
many lawmakers. Hubbles best days are ahead of
it, not behind it, said Sen. Barbara Mikulski,
D-Md. "The Hubble telescope in a week will
probably do better and more science than we will
do in the lifetime of the space station," said
Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich. Science Committee
Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., said his
panel will hold hearings on the matter. "The
crew risk of a single shuttle mission to Hubble
is very small," the chairman of the NCR
committee, Louis Lanzerotti, told lawmakers
Wednesday. http//www.savethehubble.org/ http//
www.savehubble.org/
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HST Cycle 14 Proposals Total 726, down 24 ESA
112 Orbits requested down 18 Archive research
proposals up 28 Total funding requested up
33 Breakdown by instrument ACS 62 NICMOS
22 WFPC2 14 FGS 2 ST-ECF staff will
support the TAC process as usual
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ST-ECF Status Given the decision to launch JWST
on an Ariane-5 the "additional activities" to
justify the continued 15 European time on HST
are no longer required In response the ST-ECF
will revert to the original size 7 ESA-funded
staff, and 7 ESO-funded staff. A set of core
activities, reflecting the current needs of ESA
and ESO, has been agreed on. A staff deployment
plan has been developed which addresses these
needs and implements the staff changes with
minimum pain for the staff members.
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Staff evolution Date ESA ESO Total Aug
04 13 10 23 Sep 04 12 10 22 Benvenuti Nov 04 12
8 20 Padovani, Pirenne Dec 04 12
7 19 Pettefar Sep 05 11 7 18 Fourniol Oct 05 10
7 17 Bristow Jan 06 9 7 16 Kerber Apr
06 nominal target Oct 06 7 7 14 Fiorentino,
Larsen

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ST-ECF Activities Highlights ACS Spectral
Extraction - Critical calibration programme for
ACS/UV-optical spectroscopy implemented -
aXe 1.4 extraction s/w, including drizzling to
combine multiple dithered spectra, delivered
Oct 04 - ACS spectral extraction concept and
procedures applied to FORS2 multi-slit
data Advanced Calibration - CCD detector model
software delivered May 04 - Calibration lamp
re-calibration delivered Nov 04 - STIS mode 1
re-calibration to be delivered Aug 05 - CRIRES
laboratory support package delivered Jan 05
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ST-ECF Activities Highlights (cont'd) Archive/Vi
rtual Observatory - Enhanced data products
WFPC2/ACS Associations - NEON Archive
School/Goods Archive - Metadata definition and
procedures - Science oriented search
engines Outreach - Produced 16
news/photo/video releases - HEIC Web site FITS
Liberator - HST DVD for HST 15th anniversary
- ECF material is in the news almost every day
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ST-ECF Activities Highlights (cont'd)
Organized ESO-ESA Coordination Working
Groups (Re)organised the ESO Faculty Started
participation in the SAMPO Project Chaired/partici
pated in ESO and ESA WGs and panels Science 29
papers in refereed journals
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Current Emphasis Support ACS and NICMOS Spectral
Mode Being coordinated with ScI Alignment of
HST and ESO archives in the framework of the VO
being coordinated with DMD, ScI, CADC, and
ESAC Retention of the STIS Advanced Calibration
Expertise being coordinated with ScI,
ESO-INS Coordination between the ESO and HST
Outreach Groups being discussed with
ESO-EPR/PAD
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Concern The move of the ECF to the MP area
solved the office space problem, but caused
isolation from the ESO science environment. Which
other groups will move?
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