SOFIA Science Utilization: The US Science Instrument Program

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is NASA's and DARA's premier observatory for infrared and submillimeter astronomy into the next century. A Boeing 747-SP aircraft will carry a 2.5 meter telescope designed to make sensitive infrared measurements of a wide range of astronomical objects. The observatory will fly at and above 12.5 km where the telescope can collect radiation at wavelengths of 0.3 micrometers to 1.6 millimeters. The observatory typically flies above 99% of the earth's water vapor which blocks ground-based measurements over most infrared and submillimeter wavelengths (20 - 300 micrometers). As part of NASA's privatization program to lower costs and improve efficiency, the SOFIA program - development and operations - has been contracted out to a team led by the University Space Research Association, USRA. This team has been selected by NASA to design, assemble, test, and operate SOFIA. USRA heads up a team which includes United Airlines, Raytheon E-Systems, Sterling Software, University of California, th Institute, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Contract management will be performed by NASA staff at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. The SOFIA telescope will be provided by DLR/DARA in Germany. Germany's space agency DARA (now under DLR) is funding the design and construction of the telescope in cooperation with NASA. The telescope will be built by MAN GHH, MAN Technologies and Kaiser Threade of the Federal Republic of Germany. During operation, German scientists will have 20 percent of the flying observatory's telescope time. DARA will also provide 20 percent of the operations support through on-site staffing, telescope maintenance and other provisions. The SOFIA Science and Mission Operations Center (SSMOC), to be operated by USRA, will be located in hanger N211 at NASA Ames Research Center, the traditional home of NASA's airborne astronomy program. This facility will be fully operational by 2001, in time for the first year of operations starting in GFY 2002 (October 1, 2001). During the development, the USAR SOFIA Science Center will be located at Moffett Field and will be coordinating the U.S. science community's participation in the SOFIA development effort. The development of the science instruments to be attached to the SOFIA telescope will be the responsibility of the U.S. and German science communities. In the U.S.A., science instruments will be designed and built at U.S. universities and national centers through a USRA peer review process

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See papers presented at World Aviation Congress _® & Exposition, October 1997, Anaheim, CA, USA, Session: Science Aircraft Ii

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