The Explorer Program

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The Explorer Program Presentation to the Astrophysics Subcommittee Wilton Sanders Explorer Program Scientist Astrophysics Division NASA Science Mission Directorate November 19, 2013 1 Astrophysics Explorer Program • The Astrophysics and the Heliophysics Explorer Programs are separate. • Current Astrophysics Explorer Missions: - Operating (and will be included in the 2014 Senior Review) • Swift (MIDEX), launched 2004 November 20 • Suzaku (MO – partnered with JAXA), launched 2005 July 10 • NuSTAR (SMEX), launched 2012 June 13 - In Development • ASTRO-H (MO – partnered with JAXA), scheduled for launch in 2015 - In Formulation • NICER (MO), targeted for transportation to ISS in 2016 • TESS (EX), targeted for launch in 2017 • Future AOs - SMEX and MO in late summer/early fall 2014 for launch ~ 2020 - EX and MO NET 2016 for launch ~ 2022 2 2014 Astrophysics Explorer AO • Community Announcement released on 2013 November 12 that NASA will solicit proposals for SMEX missions and Missions of Opportunity. • Draft AO targeted for spring 2014, with Explorer Workshop ~ 2 weeks later. • Final AO targeted for late summer/early fall 2014, with Pre-Proposal Conference ~ 3 weeks after final AO release. Proposals due 90 days after AO release. • PI cost cap $125M (FY2015$) for SMEX, not including cost of ELV or transportation to the ISS. • MOs allowed in all three categories: Partner MO, New Missions using Existing Spacecraft, or Small Complete Mission, including those requiring flight on the ISS. • PI cost cap $35M for sub-orbital class MOs, which include ultra-long duration balloons, suborbital reusable launch vehicles, and CubeSats. Other MOs (not suborbital-class) have a $65M PI cost cap. • Two-step process. Step 1 selects 2-3 SMEX missions and 1-2 MOs for 1-year Phase A concept studies, funded at $1M for SMEX and $250K for MOs. After detailed review of the Phase A Concept Study Reports, Step 2 down-selects 1 SMEX and 1 MO for Phase B and subsequent phases. • More info at http://explorers.larc.nasa.gov/APSMEX/ 3 .

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Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 149
Table of Contents UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 FORM 10-K [ X] ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011 OR [ ] TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the transition period from to Commission File Number 1-16417 NUSTAR ENERGY L.P. (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter) Delaware 74-2956831 (State or other jurisdiction of (I.R.S. Employer incorporation or organization) Identification No.) 2330 North Loop 1604 West 78248 San Antonio, Texas (Zip Code) (Address of principal executive offices) Registrant’s telephone number, including area code (210) 918-2000 Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: Common units representing partnership interests listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Securities registered pursuant to 12(g) of the Act: None. Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes [X] No [ ] Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes [ ] No [X] Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.
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In-Flight PSF Calibration of the Nustar Hard X-Ray Optics
In-flight PSF calibration of the NuSTAR hard X-ray optics Hongjun Ana, Kristin K. Madsenb, Niels J. Westergaardc, Steven E. Boggsd, Finn E. Christensenc, William W. Craigd,e, Charles J. Haileyf, Fiona A. Harrisonb, Daniel K. Sterng, William W. Zhangh aDepartment of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2T8, Canada; bCahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; cDTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark; dSpace Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; eLawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA; fColumbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, New York NY 10027, USA; gJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA; hGoddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA ABSTRACT We present results of the point spread function (PSF) calibration of the hard X-ray optics of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). Immediately post-launch, NuSTAR has observed bright point sources such as Cyg X-1, Vela X-1, and Her X-1 for the PSF calibration. We use the point source observations taken at several off-axis angles together with a ray-trace model to characterize the in-orbit angular response, and find that the ray-trace model alone does not fit the observed event distributions and applying empirical corrections to the ray-trace model improves the fit significantly. We describe the corrections applied to the ray-trace model and show that the uncertainties in the enclosed energy fraction (EEF) of the new PSF model is ∼<3% for extraction ′′ apertures of R ∼> 60 with no significant energy dependence.
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Building Nustar's Mirrors
20 | ASK MAGAZINE | STORY Title BY BUILDING NUSTAR’S MIRRORS Intro Many NASA projects involve designing and building one-of-a-kind spacecraft and instruments. Created for particular, unique missions, they are custom-made, more like works of technological art than manufactured objects. Occasionally, a mission calls for two identical satellites (STEREO, the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, for instance). Sometimes multiple parts of an instrument are nearly identical: the eighteen hexagonal beryllium mirror segments that will form the James Webb Space Telescope’s mirror are one example. But none of this is mass production or anything close to it. nn GuisrCh/ASA N:tide CrothoP N:tide GuisrCh/ASA nn Niko Stergiou, a contractor at Goddard Space Flight Center, helped manufacture the 9,000 mirror segments that make up the optics unit in the NuSTAR mission. ASK MAGAZINE | 21 BY WILLIAM W. ZHANG The mirror segments my group has built for NuSTAR, the the interior surface and a bakeout, dries into a smooth and clean Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, are not mass produced surface, very much like glazed ceramic tiles. Finally we had to either, but we make them on a scale that may be unique at NASA: map the temperatures inside each oven to ensure they would we created more than 20,000 mirror segments over a period of two provide a uniform heating environment so the glass sheets years. In other words, we’re talking about some middle ground could slump in a controlled and gradual way. Any “wrinkles” between one-of-a-kind custom work and industrial production.
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Nustar Observatory Guide
NuSTAR Guest Observer Program NuSTAR Observatory Guide Version 3.2 (June 2016) NuSTAR Science Operations Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, Greenbelt, MD nustar.caltech.edu heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/nustar/index.html i Revision History Revision Date Editor Comments D1,2,3 2014-08-01 NuSTAR SOC Initial draft 1.0 2014-08-15 NuSTAR GOF Release for AO-1 Addition of more information about CZT 2.0 2014-10-30 NuSTAR SOC detectors in section 3. 3.0 2015-09-24 NuSTAR SOC Update to section 4 for release of AO-2 Update for NuSTARDAS v1.6.0 release 3.1 2016-05-10 NuSTAR SOC (nusplitsc, Section 5) 3.2 2016-06-15 NuSTAR SOC Adjustment to section 9 ii Table of Contents Revision History ......................................................................................................................................................... ii 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 NuSTAR Program Organization ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 2. The NuSTAR observatory .................................................................................................................................... 2 2.1 NuSTAR Performance ........................................................................................................................................................................................................
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Observational Artifacts of Nustar: Ghost-Rays and Stray-Light
Observational Artifacts of NuSTAR: Ghost-rays and Stray-light Kristin K. Madsena, Finn E. Christensenb, William W. Craigc, Karl W. Forstera, Brian W. Grefenstettea, Fiona A. Harrisona, Hiromasa Miyasakaa, and Vikram Ranaa aCalifornia Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd, Pasadena, USA bDTU Space, National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Elektronvej 327, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark cSpace Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA ABSTRACT The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), launched in June 2012, flies two conical approximation Wolter-I mirrors at the end of a 10.15 m mast. The optics are coated with multilayers of Pt/C and W/Si that operate from 3{80 keV. Since the optical path is not shrouded, aperture stops are used to limit the field of view from background and sources outside the field of view. However, there is still a sliver of sky (∼1.0{4.0◦) where photons may bypass the optics altogether and fall directly on the detector array. We term these photons Stray-light. Additionally, there are also photons that do not undergo the focused double reflections in the optics and we term these Ghost Rays. We present detailed analysis and characterization of these two components and discuss how they impact observations. Finally, we discuss how they could have been prevented and should be in future observatories. Keywords: NuSTAR, Optics, Satellite 1. INTRODUCTION 1 arXiv:1711.02719v1 [astro-ph.IM] 7 Nov 2017 The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), launched in June 2012, is a focusing X-ray observatory operating in the energy range 3{80 keV.
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Collision Avoidance Operations in a Multi-Mission Environment
AIAA 2014-1745 SpaceOps Conferences 5-9 May 2014, Pasadena, CA Proceedings of the 2014 SpaceOps Conference, SpaceOps 2014 Conference Pasadena, CA, USA, May 5-9, 2014, Paper DRAFT ONLY AIAA 2014-1745. Collision Avoidance Operations in a Multi-Mission Environment Manfred Bester,1 Bryce Roberts,2 Mark Lewis,3 Jeremy Thorsness,4 Gregory Picard,5 Sabine Frey,6 Daniel Cosgrove,7 Jeffrey Marchese,8 Aaron Burgart,9 and William Craig10 Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450 With the increasing number of manmade object orbiting Earth, the probability for close encounters or on-orbit collisions is of great concern to spacecraft operators. The presence of debris clouds from various disintegration events amplifies these concerns, especially in low- Earth orbits. The University of California, Berkeley currently operates seven NASA spacecraft in various orbit regimes around the Earth and the Moon, and actively participates in collision avoidance operations. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory provide conjunction analyses. In two cases, collision avoidance operations were executed to reduce the risks of on-orbit collisions. With one of the Earth orbiting THEMIS spacecraft, a small thrust maneuver was executed to increase the miss distance for a predicted close conjunction. For the NuSTAR observatory, an attitude maneuver was executed to minimize the cross section with respect to a particular conjunction geometry. Operations for these two events are presented as case studies. A number of experiences and lessons learned are included. Nomenclature dLong = geographic longitude increment ΔV = change in velocity dZgeo = geostationary orbit crossing distance increment i = inclination Pc = probability of collision R = geostationary radius RE = Earth radius σ = standard deviation Zgeo = geostationary orbit crossing distance I.
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Astrophysics
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Astrophysics Committee on NASA Science Paul Hertz Mission Extensions Director, Astrophysics Division NRC Keck Center Science Mission Directorate Washington DC @PHertzNASA February 1-2, 2016 Why Astrophysics? Astrophysics is humankind’s scientific endeavor to understand the universe and our place in it. 1. How did our universe 2. How did galaxies, stars, 3. Are We Alone? begin and evolve? and planets come to be? These national strategic drivers are enduring 1972 1982 1991 2001 2010 2 Astrophysics Driving Documents http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/documents 3 Astrophysics Programs Physics of the Cosmos Cosmic Origins Exoplanet Exploration Program Program Program 1. How did our universe 2. How did galaxies, stars, 3. Are We Alone? begin and evolve? and planets come to be? Astrophysics Explorers Program Astrophysics Research Program James Webb Space Telescope Program (managed outside of Astrophysics Division until commissioning) 4 Astrophysics Programs and Missions Physics of the Cosmos Cosmic Origins Exoplanet Exploration Program Program Program Chandra Hubble Spitzer Kepler/K2 XMM-Newton (ESA) Herschel (ESA) WFIRST Fermi SOFIA Planck (ESA) LISA Pathfinder (ESA) Astrophysics Explorers Program Euclid (ESA) NuSTAR Swift Suzaku (JAXA) Athena (ESA) ASTRO-H (JAXA) NICER TESS L3 GW Obs (ESA) 3 SMEX and 2 MO in Phase A James Webb Space Telescope Program: Webb 5 Astrophysics Programs and Missions Physics of the Cosmos Cosmic Origins Exoplanet Exploration Program Program Program Missions in extended phase Chandra Hubble Spitzer Kepler/K2 XMM-Newton (ESA) Herschel (ESA) WFIRST Fermi SOFIA Planck (ESA) LISA Pathfinder (ESA) Astrophysics Explorers Program Euclid (ESA) NuSTAR Swift Suzaku (JAXA) Athena (ESA) ASTRO-H (JAXA) NICER TESS L3 GW Obs (ESA) 3 SMEX and 2 MO in Phase A James Webb Space Telescope Program: Webb 6 Astrophysics Mission Portfolio • NASA Astrophysics seeks to advance NASA’s strategic objectives in astrophysics as well as the science priorities of the Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
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The Highenergy Sun at High Sensitivity: a Nustar Solar Guest
The High-Energy Sun at High Sensitivity: a NuSTAR Solar Guest Investigation Program A concept paper submitted to the Space Studies Board Heliophysics Decadal Survey by David M. Smith, Säm Krucker, Gordon Hurford, Hugh Hudson, Stephen White, Fiona Harrison (NuSTAR PI), and Daniel Stern (NuSTAR Project Scientist) Figure 1: Artist©s conception of the NuSTAR spacecraft Introduction and Overview Understanding the origin, propagation and fate of non-thermal electrons is an important topic in solar and space physics: it is these particles that present a danger for interplanetary probes and astronauts, and also these particles that carry diagnostic information that can teach us about acceleration processes elsewhere in the heliosphere and throughout the universe. Such non-thermal electrons can be detected via their X-ray or gamma-ray emission, their radio emission, or directly in situ in interplanetary space. To date, the state of the art in solar hard x-ray imaging has been the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), a NASA Small Explorer satellite launched in 2002, which uses an indirect imaging method (rotating modulation collimators) for hard x-ray imaging. This technique can provide high angular resolution, but it is limited in dynamic range and in sensitivity to small events, due to high background. High-energy imaging of the active Sun is technically easiest in the soft x-ray band (see, for example, the detailed and dynamic images returned by the soft x- ray imager on Hinode, as well as the corresponding telescopes on Yohkoh and GOES), but these x-rays are generally emitted by lower-energy thermal plasmas.
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The Future of X-Rayastronomy
The Future of X-rayAstronomy Keith Arnaud [email protected] High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center University of Maryland College Park and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Themes Politics Efficient high resolution spectroscopy Mirrors Polarimetry Other missions Interferometry Themes Politics Efficient high resolution spectroscopy Mirrors Polarimetry Other missions Interferometry How do we get a new X-ray astronomy experiment? A group of scientists and engineers makes a proposal to a national (or international) space agency. This will include a science case and a description of the technology to be used (which should generally be in a mature state). In principal you can make an unsolicited proposal but in practice space agencies have proposal rounds in the same way that individual missions have observing proposal rounds. NASA : Small Explorer (SMEX) and Medium Explorer (MIDEX): every ~2 years alternating Small and Medium, three selected for study for one year from which one is selected for launch. RXTE, GALEX, NuSTAR, Swift, IXPE Arcus, a high resolution X-ray spectroscopy mission was a finalist in the latest MIDEX round but was not selected. Missions of Opportunity (MO): every ~2 years includes balloon programs, ISS instruments and contributions to foreign missions. Suzaku, Hitomi, NICER, XRISM Large missions such as HST, Chandra, JWST are not selected by such proposals but are decided as national priorities through the Astronomy Decadal process. Every ten years a survey is run by the National Academy of Sciences to decide on priorities for both land-based and space-based astronomy. 1960: HST; 1970: VLA; 1980: VLBA; 1990: Chandra and SIRTF; 2000: JWST and ALMA; 2010 WFIRST and LSST.
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Nustar Ground Systems and Operations Approach – Lessons Learned
University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory NuSTAR Ground Systems and Operations Approach – Lessons Learned Manfred Bester, Bryce Roberts, Mark Lewis, and William Marchant Space Sciences Laboratory University of California, Berkeley © 2013 by The Regents of the University of California. Published by The Aerospace Corporation with permission. GSAW 2013 1 Los Angeles, CA, March 18-21, 2013 Outline • Introduction • NuSTAR CONOPS • Ground Systems Design • Components & Interfaces • Integration & Test Support • Voice Communications • Support Challenges • Lessons Learned • Summary GSAW 2013 2 Los Angeles, CA, March 18-21, 2013 Mission & Science Operations History at SSL CHIPS 2003-2008 FAST 1996-2009 RHESSI since 2002 UCB/SSL successfully operated 10 NASA Explorer spacecraft over a period of more than 20 years. THEMIS since 2007 NuSTAR since 2012 EUVE 1992-2001 GSAW 2013 3 Los Angeles, CA, March 18-21, 2013 Operations Facilities at SSL Multi-mission Operations Center Berkeley Ground Station 11-m S-band antenna and equipment racks GSAW 2013 4 Los Angeles, CA, March 18-21, 2013 NuSTAR – A New NASA X-ray Observatory Pegasus XL Launch Instrument • Kwajalein Atoll, June 2012 •Two hard X-ray telescopes • Orbit 620 × 639 km at •Deployable mast 6° •Focal length 10 m •Laser metrology Spacecraft •Three-axis attitude control •Single string, total mass < 400 kg Concept of Operations Mission System • Long pointed observations Malindi TDRSS Singapore of survey fields Hawaii • 50-100 specific science targets Mission Operations Center (UCB)
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Parker Solar Probe SWG Telecon February 5, 2020 Project Science Report Nour Raouafi Project Status Helene Winters Payload Status SB,JK,DM,RH Solar Orbiter H
Parker Solar Probe SWG Telecon February 5, 2020 Project Science Report Nour Raouafi Project Status Helene Winters Payload Status SB,JK,DM,RH Solar Orbiter H. Gilbert/C. St. Cyr SOC Activities Martha Kusterer Payload SE Telecon S. Hamilton/A. Reiter Theory Group M. Velli/A. Higginson Upcoming Meetings Nour Raouafi Science Presentations: DaviD Malaspina (LASP) & Karl Battams (NRL) Agenda • DCP 5 Information • DCP Type: Data Volume • Venus Flyby • Non-routine Activities & Science Priorities o WISPR o ISOIS o FIELDS o SWEAP • Modeling – Robert Allen • Coordinated observations. Parker Solar Probe Project Science SWG Telecon February 5, 2020 ApJS Special Issue (ApJ/SI) 50+ papers submitted as of Oct. 20, 2019 Early Results from Parker Solar Probe: Ushering a New Frontier in Space Exploration • Publication Date: February 3, 2020 • 48 papers accessible online • Few more papers still under review Corresponding authors: please speed up the reviewing process – Send me your submission info and the manuscript. • Print copies: Science Teams are you interested in ordering print copies of the special issue? 2/7/20 4 Nature Papers ADS not listing all the authors • ADS lists only three authors: the first two and the last one • The issue was addressed for the FIELDS and WISPR papers • But not for the SWEAP and ISOIS papers • ADS stated that that’s the information Nature sent to them • Corrections can submitted through http://adsabs.harvard.edu/adsfeedback/submit_abstract.php. 2/7/20 5 Future Publications • Let’s us know about your results in case we need to prepare for press releases • Animations take time to design and get ready • Please do not for the mission acknowledgements Parker Solar Probe was designed, built, and is now operated by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory as part of NASA’s Living with a Star (LWS) program (contract NNN06AA01C).
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NASA Selects Proposals to Study Neutron Stars, Black Holes and More 31 July 2015
NASA selects proposals to study neutron stars, black holes and more 31 July 2015 have returned transformational science, and these selections promise to continue that tradition." The proposals were selected based on potential science value and feasibility of development plans. One of each mission type will be selected by 2017, after concept studies and detailed evaluations, to proceed with construction and launch, the earliest of which could be launched by 2020. Small Explorer mission costs are capped at $125 million each, excluding the launch vehicle, and Mission of Opportunity costs are capped at $65 million each. Each Astrophysics Small Explorer mission will receive $1 million to conduct an 11-month mission concept study. The selected proposals are: The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), SPHEREx: An All-Sky Near-Infrared Spectral launched in 2012, is an Explorer mission that allows astronomers to study the universe in high energy X-rays. Survey Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech James Bock, principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California SA has selected five proposals submitted to its SPHEREx will perform an all-sky near infrared Explorers Program to conduct focused scientific spectral survey to probe the origin of our Universe; investigations and develop instruments that fill the explore the origin and evolution of galaxies, and scientific gaps between the agency's larger explore whether planets around other stars could missions. harbor life. The selected proposals, three Astrophysics Small Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) Explorer missions and two Explorer Missions of Opportunity, will study polarized X-ray emissions Martin Weisskopf, principal investigator at NASA's from neutron star-black hole binary systems, the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, exponential expansion of space in the early Alabama universe, galaxies in the early universe, and star formation in our Milky Way galaxy.
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