[photo credit: NASA]
The Community Science (Ad ASTRA) Workshop runs Sept. 1 through 3 in Baxter Lecture Hall on the Caltech campus, and Wednesday, Sept. 2, is its capabilities day. NASA’s Astrophysics Division organized it with the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech to gather community input on which future large, strategic astrophysics missions the agency should consider.
Rhonda Morgan of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory opens the technology program at 8:50 a.m. on NASA’s strategic technology gaps. Talks follow on the Moon as an astrophysics platform, larger launch capability, mission disaggregation and satellite communications. Caltech’s Nemanja Jovanovic speaks at 11 a.m. on photonics for future observatories, and JPL’s Matt Shaw on quantum sensors at 11:40 a.m. Eight afternoon breakout tracks, from radio to gamma ray to multiple-aperture concepts, take up what capabilities each science question requires and what technology gaps, development paths and timescales stand in the way. A synthesis panel chaired by Goddard’s Francesca Civano closes the day at 5:30 p.m.
NASA says the outcomes will help the agency prioritize mission concepts.
Need to know: The Community Science (Ad ASTRA) Workshop meets Wednesday, Sept. 2, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., the middle day of three running Sept. 1–3. It is held in Baxter Lecture Hall on the Caltech campus in Pasadena, with breakouts in the Chen, Broad, Moore and Linde buildings and posters in Dabney Hall. Attendance is free and limited to professionals actively engaged in the field; in-person and virtual registration are both closed. Caltech visitor parking is available on campus. Plenaries stream by Zoom webinar to those who completed the separate sign-up. Questions: furlan@ipac.caltech.edu.
