Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011head...12.3206u&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, HEAD meeting #12, #32.06
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The COSPAR President on April 20, 2010 appointed the "Future of Space Astronomy” Working Group under the aegis of Commission E, with the aim to analyze the difficult situation of space astronomy over the next two decades and recommend ways to improve the prospects.
Having assessed the scientific needs and the current plans of the main space agencies worldwide, the WG has identified some major concerns about the lack of a secured future for Space Astronomy. In fact, astronomers today have access to an impressive set of space missions and ground-based observatories that gives them nearly continuous coverage of the electromagnetic spectrum from the gamma-ray to the radio regions. But the picture becomes concerning and critical in the next 10 - 15 years, when current space astronomy missions will have ended and new missions will be much less numerous. Astronomy is a difficult observational science requiring continuous and simultaneous access to the full electromagnetic spectrum to explore our complex Universe and to pursue answers to fundamental scientific questions. The history of space astronomy, especially the past three decades, has demonstrated clearly the importance and benefits of access to the gamma-ray, X-ray, UV-optical, near IR and far-IR spectrum from space.
So far the only planned observatory class missions, proposed to NASA-ESA-JAXA are JWST (2018), WFIRST/EUCLID (2018-2020), Athena (ex IXO, 2022) and LISA. The latter two under re-scope in an ESA alone scenario with a cost <1B€.
We will present the main WG outcome with a number of recommendations and, finally, suggest a road map for the next decades.
*WG membership: Pietro Ubertini (Chair), Italy, Neil Gehrels (Co-Chair), USA, Ian Corbett (IAU liason), UK, Paolo De Bernardis, Italy, Marcos Machado, Argentina, Matt Griffin, UK, Michael Hauser, USA, Ravinder K. Manchanda, India, Nobuyuki Kawai, Japan, Shuang-Nan Zhang, China, Mikhail Pavlinsky, Russia
Space Astronomy* Cospar WG on Future of
Ubertini Pietro
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