Mission News
Steve Ritz, Bob Naeye, and Julie McEnery
Recent activities have been highlighted by the rework and retest of spacecraft electronics and the completion of solar array development testing. A successful Pre-Environmental Review was held on April 11-12. The integrated spacecraft will soon undergo more than four months of environmental testing, starting with Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) testing, at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, in Gilbert, AZ.
Pictures of the observatory may be found here: http://glast.gsfc.nasa.gov/public/resources/images/
Due to complications of schedule with other planned launches from Cape Canaveral and other program considerations, the GLAST launch will occur no earlier than December 14. The mission team is considering the options and implications for a launch delay of up to a few months.
There was a Users Group telecon on 20 April. The next face-to-face meeting will be at Goddard on June 4-5.
The next Guest Investigator Workshop will be held in Los Angeles in May (http://gamma1.astro.ucla.edu/glast_2007/). Similar workshops were held near Washington, DC in January (http://glast.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/resources/workshop07/) and in Chicago in April (https://www.hep.anl.gov/glast_workshop/index.html). Additional workshops are being planned, including one in Cambridge, MA.
A workshop on VLBI in the GLAST Era was held on April 23-24 at Goddard.
The announcement for the first NASA-funded GLAST Guest Investigator (GI) Cycle has been amended. As you know, this program provides an opportunity for people at U.S. institutions to obtain financial support for GLAST studies. The GI program includes funding opportunities for (1) analysis of publicly released data, (2) correlated GLAST-related multi-wavelength observations, (3) GLAST-related theory, and (4) GLAST-related analysis methodology. The opportunity is open to LAT team members, but please note that the proposals can not be based at all on the access to the proprietary year-one LAT data. Proposals are now due September 7, with optional NOIs due on July 13. See http://glast.gsfc.nasa.gov/ssc/ for more details.
The MOU between GLAST and NRAO is complete and in signature cycle. The agreement provides up to 10% observing time on NRAO facilities (Greenbank, VLA, VLBA) to be awarded as part of the GLAST GI program. This is a great development for GLAST and NRAO science! Once the agreement is signed, we'll post it on the GSSC site and send out an announcement with details. There is also a press release being drafted. We're also exploring the possibility of a similar agreement with NOAO.
There will be a review of the GBM Instrument Operations Center on May 10 in Huntsville. Representatives from the LAT ISOC will attend.
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GLAST Public Affairs
GLAST public affairs telecons have restarted and now occur on a biweekly basis. Rob Gutro (GSFC) moderates these telecons, which focus on coordination of press-related activities. Participants include representatives from across the mission.
Rob Gutro is working on a Public Affairs Plan, which will describe public affairs and outreach efforts, written materials, press events, communications to NASA employees, creating and updating a website, and more.
Robert Naeye (SP Systems/GSFC) wrote a press release about the Pre-Environmental Review and environmental testing. It was issued on April 11. More press releases will be issued in the months ahead to inform the media about the mission and its schedule of milestone events.
Among various other activities to promote the mission, Rob Gutro and Robert Naeye are compiling a GLAST Science Writers Guide. The Guide is intended to be a handy source of basic GLAST information for journalists, and it is being based on successful Guides from other missions. A set of "Mission Messages" will be included in the Guide.
Work is continuing on animations of the spacecraft and other animations supporting anticipated science results.