Potential Projects
Background: The core team members should note that the
ideas discussed below are meant to be starting point and
better still to annoy you so that you can contribute some
stunning ideas.
Radio Astronomy:
The electromagnetic spectrum below the ionospheric plasma frequency
(which varies between 2 and 10 MHz)
cannot be probed by ground-based radio telescopes. Radio Astronomy
Explorer 1 (RAE-1, RAE-A) was launched on July 4, 1968.
The major discovery was unexpected: the Earth itself
is the most powerful source of emission
in the band 0.2-9.2 MHz, due to both man-made and natural reasons
(what is now called as Auroral Kilometric Radiation, AKR).
As a result, the next mission was changed to have a lunar orbit (using
the moon to shield the spacecraft from Earth).
RAE-2 (RAE-B) was a 323 kg satellite launched on June 10, 1973.
It had four 230-m long X-shaped antenna elements which made it one
of the largest spececraft ever built. "Explorer 49 was placed into
lunar orbit to provide radio astronomical measurements of the
planets, the sun, and the galaxy over the frequency range of 25 kHz
to 13.1 MHz. Since the spacecraft's design used gravity gradient
booms, the lumpy lunar gravity field made for some interesting
problems for the mission scientists." (from wiki). The satellite
orbited the moon in a 682-mile orbit around the moon. See instrumentation paper and for
initial results.
A potential goal for LIM is a renewed exploration of the 0.1
to 2 MHz (pulsars, warm ionized medium and the Galactic synchrotron
radiation) as well as a study of AKR (in particular to see if the
Parkes ``Sparker'' events which have now been established to be of
terrestrial origin have a low frequency cutoff that is detectable).
A future project would be to consider interferometry. Low frequency
interferometry does not demand quality station keeping (though
having two spacecraft is quite expensive).
NIR/Optical Astronomy Imaging
A 0.5-m telescope in space has two advantages: lower background
(especially in the near IR) and diffraction limited imaging
(0.2 at V band and 0.6 arcseconds at H band). A field of view
of a few arcminutes is easily achieved with exiting HgCdTe detectors
(sensitive from 0.5 to 1.6 microns).
Precision Photometry on Demand
A constellation of satellites which search for transits on demand by
radial velocity or other indicators. The satellite is pretty simple.
Ground-space coordinated science
Space camera follows the FOV of a ground based program (e.g. PTF, ASKAP).
An interesting target is identified. The satellite (smaller FOV)
moves to that particular sub-field and undertakes long observations.
Applications: shock outburst.
Blue+UV Astronomy
Access to UV (below the atmospheric cutoff) requires a space telescope.
Furthermore, a 50-cm telescope has a diffraction limited resolution
of 0.1 arcseconds which is quite exquisite.
X-ray Wide Field Monitors
The dream machine is some of sort of LOBSTER with a FOV of
several steradians and 1 mCrab in 100 s. This project is driven
by several goals: XRFs, LIGO events, shock breakouts, ....
However, other (less expensive) designs are perhaps more realistic
(RMC, Coded-aperture masks etc).
One could realize the FOV by having a constellation of satellites
with each satellite having say a FOV of 0.5 steradians.
Short Hard Bursts
The localization of short hard bursts continues to be a challenge.
Perhaps a Burstman appraoch (launching a few CsI detector on
interplanetary trajectories) is the only way to go.
Near Earth Asteroids
Search for NEOs inwards of Earth's orbit.
Another idea is to launch a low frequency (and low power) radar and
use ground based facilities to probe NEOs (including searching for
caverns inside asteroids).
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