Looking towards the future of space astronomy in Canada

by Matt Dobbs and Mark Halpern

Canada plays a active role in space astronomy.  Now is the time for new initiatives if we wish for this role to continue and to expand. With this article we would like to publicize opportunities in Space Astronomy and invite Canadian astronomers to become involved in defining our future role.

The Canadian Space Agency is making contributions to the major missions Herschel, Planck, and the JWST which are currently being constructed and commissioned. We have an ongoing role in the medium sized FUSE, launched in 1999, and in UVIT. Canada has been very innovative performing astronomy with small payloads.  BLAST just completed a successful flight and the small satellite MOST is a flagship Canadian mission currently in operation.

While these missions establish a proud foundation for Canadian space astronomy, it has been many years since we have been involved through the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) in any new Space Astronomy missions. The time is ripe for new initiatives in Canada and the landscape that will allow this to happen is developing. We wish to publicize recent and upcoming opportunities for new initiatives in Space Astronomy and invite Canadian astronomers to involve themselves in this process.

It should be noted that no line item exists in the CSA budget for a space astronomy mission, and as you read the list of opportunities below you will not find an explicit call for large missions. But historically such a line item has never existed in advance of good ideas maturing and gaining a consensus in the community.   Even so, the CSA has committed roughly $100M to Planck, Hershel and JWST in the current long range plan in astronomy, half of the full value in the LRP. With strong ideas, a developed mission concept, and community consensus, the astronomy community will be in a good position to lobby the CSA and federal government for the resources necessary to achieve its goals. The next Canadian Astronomy long range plan is roughly 2 years away.  It will be a good forum for moving towards consensus. The interim period should be a time when many ideas flourish and even the unlikely crazy ones are explored.

Here is a list of opportunities in Space Astronomy.

• The  CSA has awarded several "Discipline Working Group" (DWG) grants. These small (~$10K/year) grants are meant to allow groups to travel to develop their ideas for future missions and build communities interested in space astronomy. Five such grants were awarded – some formalities remain before the contracts are finalized. The rules of the DWG grants allow new members to be added. Contact the DWG chairs if you are interested in any of these.
• Cosmic Microwave Background (Chair Matt Dobbs <Matt.Dobbs@mcgill.ca>)
• Far Infrared      (Chair Michel Fich <fich@uwaterloo.ca> )
• Wide Field Imager (Chair Henk Hoekstra <Hoekstra@uvic.ca>)
• UV Spectroscopy   (Chair Laurent Drissen <ldrissen@phy.ulaval.ca> )
• High Energy Astrophysics (x-ray, gamma-ray)   (Chair Vicky Kaspi <vkaspi@physics.mcgill.ca>)
• The CSA has committed to fund design studies for Canadian contributions as a part of any successful response to the  European Space Agency Cosmic Visions call for proposals.  There are several Canadian groups involved in this process.
• A small missions Announcement of Opportunity (AO) from the CSA is currently posted on MERX (9F007-07AOSM). Small payloads missions include balloon flights and low-cost satellite missions (nano-sats) typically in the $2M range. As examples, BLAST and MOST were funded under this program. The submission deadline is August 24, 2007 and Letters of Intent are due June 29, 2007. The small missions AO is expected to be bi-annual.
• The CSA has committed to release a micro-satellite / small-satellite concept studies announcement of opportunity in fall 2007. These contracts would likely provide funding at the level of roughly $150K for one year to explore mission concepts. A micro-satellite / small-satellite mission opportunity is expected     to follow.

If the science you want to do requires instrumentation in space, use these opportunities to make it happen!

(  Note that the CSA has chosen to post all of its AOs on the MERX website, consistent with the Office of Public Works policy. This means that to read the AOs you need to register for MERX (www.merx.com). All of the CSA opportunities can be downloaded for free from MERX after you have registered. Unfortunately, in order to register on MERX  you must enter credit card information even though  there is no charge for any of the relevant CSA material.  This is an awkward feature of listing these opportunities in a system which also handles the government's commercial transactions.  The JCSA has complained to the CSA about the awkwardness of this system and we are searching for an alternate way to disseminate this material - but for the time being there is no way around it. We hope that the CSA will work with Public Works to fix this flaw soon. )

Matt Dobbs and Mark Halpern

on behalf of the Joint Committee on Space Astronomy (JCSA)

[ The JCSA acts as an advisory body for space astronomy to the CSA and CASCA. We have a mandate to convey the concerns of the scientific community to the CSA. If you have concerns or comments about space astronomy in Canada you can contact any of the committee members, refer to http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/sciences/committees-jcsa.asp ]