Astronet Roadmap

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Astronet Roadmap The ASTRONET Infrastructure Roadmap Draft report, 5 May 2008 ii DISCLAIMER This first public draft of the ASTRONET Roadmap is released by the Working Group for consideration by the community before the Roadmap Symposium in Liverpool on June 16-19, 2008, in order to stimulate further thought and input on the contents. Inputs from the community before, during, and shortly after the symposium will be taken into account by the Working Group in preparing the final version of the roadmap. In its present form, therefore, the draft does not represent the views of any of the partner agencies in ASTRONET. The final Roadmap report will be subject to approval by the ASTRONET board before publication. iii Table of Contents Executive Summary................................................................................................................................1 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................2 1.1 Context ......................................................................................................................................2 1.2 Astronomy in Europe Today .....................................................................................................4 1.3 About this Document ..............................................................................................................13 2 Approach and Scope.......................................................................................................................15 2.1 Mandate and Organisation of the Task....................................................................................15 2.2 Interrelationships.....................................................................................................................17 2.3 Boundary Conditions and Information Gathering...................................................................19 2.4 Evaluation ...............................................................................................................................20 3 High energy astrophysics, astroparticle astrophysics and gravitational waves (Panel A).............22 3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................22 3.2 Commentaries on the high priority projects............................................................................24 3.2.1 Ground-based, near-term (-2015) ....................................................................................24 3.2.1.1 Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA)...........................................................................24 3.2.1.2 KM3NeT....................................................................................................................27 3.2.1.3 A comment concerning the future of Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic-Ray facilities ......29 3.2.2 Space-based, near-term (-2015) .......................................................................................29 3.2.2.1 Simbol-X ...................................................................................................................29 3.2.3 Space-based, medium-term (2016-2020).........................................................................31 3.2.3.1 XEUS: X-ray Evolving Universe Spectroscopy (XEUS)..........................................31 3.2.3.2 Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA).............................................................33 3.2.4 Continuing Missions ........................................................................................................36 3.2.4.1 XMM-Newton ...........................................................................................................36 3.2.4.2 INTEGRAL ...............................................................................................................37 3.2.4.3 Other facility continuations and technology preparation...........................................38 3.3 Conclusions.............................................................................................................................38 4 UVOIR and radio/mm astronomy (Panel B) ..................................................................................40 4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................40 4.2 Commentaries on the high-priority projects............................................................................44 4.2.1 Ground-based, near-term (-2015) ....................................................................................44 4.2.1.1 Development of wide-field, multiplexed spectrographs for 8m-class telescopes......44 iv 4.2.2 Ground-based, medium-term (2016-2020) ......................................................................46 4.2.2.1 The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT).................................................46 4.2.2.2 The Square Kilometer Array (SKA)..........................................................................49 4.2.2.3 Timeline for E-ELT and SKA decision process - Recommendation.........................52 4.2.3 Space-based, near-term (-2015) .......................................................................................53 4.2.3.1 GAIA Data Analysis and Processing.........................................................................53 4.2.4 Space-based, medium-term (2016-2020).........................................................................55 4.2.4.2 EUCLID (formerly DUNE and SPACE)...................................................................55 4.2.4.3 PLATO – Planetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars .............................................57 4.2.4.4 Space Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) .......................58 4.2.5 Space-based, long-term (2020+)......................................................................................59 4.2.5.1 DARWIN and FIRI....................................................................................................59 4.3 Continuing Facilities ...............................................................................................................62 4.3.1 2-4m-class Optical Telescopes ........................................................................................62 4.3.1.1 Background................................................................................................................62 4.3.1.2 Science Vision ...........................................................................................................63 4.3.1.3 Towards a pan-European Organization of SMFs ......................................................63 4.3.1.4 Situation in the US.....................................................................................................64 4.3.2 8-10m-class Optical Telescopes.......................................................................................64 4.3.3 Millimetre and Sub-millimetre Telescopes......................................................................68 4.3.4 Radio Observatories.........................................................................................................69 4.4 Conclusions.............................................................................................................................70 5 Solar telescopes, solar system missions, laboratory studies (Panel C)...........................................72 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................72 5.2 Commentaries on the high-priority projects............................................................................74 5.2.1 Ground-based, medium-term (2016-2020) ......................................................................74 5.2.1.1 European Solar Telescope (EST)...............................................................................74 5.2.2 Space-based, near-term (-2015) .......................................................................................76 5.2.2.1 ExoMars.....................................................................................................................76 5.2.3 Space-based, medium-term (2016-2020).........................................................................78 5.2.3.1 Cross-Scale ................................................................................................................78 5.2.3.2 MARCO POLO .........................................................................................................79 5.2.3.3 Titan and Enceladus Mission (TANDEM) ................................................................81 5.2.3.4 LAPLACE .................................................................................................................82 5.2.4 Space-based, long-term (2020+)......................................................................................84 v 5.2.4.1 Probing Heliosheric Origins with an Inner Boundary Observing Spacecraft (PHOIBOS)...............................................................................................................................84 5.2.5 Ongoing space missions with probable applications for mission extensions...................85 5.2.5.1 Cluster........................................................................................................................85 5.2.5.2 STEREO ....................................................................................................................86
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