S T A R & P L A N E T TERRESTRIAL PLANET FINDER NEWSLETTER Number 4, August 19, 2003 CONTENTS 1. TPF Science, Technology and Design Expo 2. Second Terrestrial Planet Finder/Darwin International Conference 3. High Contrast Imaging Testbed, Telescope Front-End RFP 4. TPF Development of Technologies Solicitation Results 1. TPF Science, Technology and Design Expo Tuesday-Thursday, October 14-16, 2003 The Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) project invites you to attend and participate in the first annual TPF Science, Technology and Design Expo, at: Pasadena Convention Center 300 East Green Street Pasadena, California 91101 TPF is a major mission in NASA's Origins Science Theme with the goal of directly detecting and characterizing Earth-like planets around nearby stars. The project is in the advanced study phase with a plan to enter the mission system and definition phase (Phase A) in 2007. Current activities include a wide range of science investigations, technology development efforts and design studies. The purpose of this meeting is to report on the status of TPF including the project's progress over the past year and provide insight into future plans. This meeting is open to the entire TPF community including scientists, engineers, and technologists from industry, universities and the U.S. Government as well as our partners from the European Space Agency. Presentations will include oral and poster sessions on topics related to TPF science, system design and technology development work supported by the TPF Project. The Program Chair is Chris Lindensmith, phone: 818-354-6697, e-mail Christian.A.Lindensmith@jpl.nasa.gov. In the last TPF Newsletter, the Expo was referred to as the "TPF Annual Review" but we are calling it "TPF Expo" because this is not a formal review. At a formal review, there is very little audience involvement; the objective here is quite the opposite. So while the Expo is built around a series of presentations, we want every attendee to feel they have an opportunity for their opinions to be heard. For more details, including the agenda, registration, and travel info, please see the Expo web site: http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/expo03/ 2. Second Terrestrial Planet Finder/Darwin International Conference "Dust Disks and the Formation, Evolution and Detection of Habitable Planets" Mission Bay, San Diego, California July 26-29, 2004 Be sure to mark your calendars for July 2004! This is the second annual joint TPF/Darwin conference and follows the very successful Heidelberg meeting in April 2003. The main purpose of the conference series is to develop the field of extra-solar planet research with two primary, near-term goals: (1) involve the community in establishing high level goals for TPF/Darwin; and (2) address key areas of research relevant to TPF/Darwin that are important to the design and architecture of TPF/Darwin. The conference is hosted by the TPF and Darwin Projects, the Michelson Science Center, and the SIRTF Science Center. We have selected an excellent location! San Diego is a wonderful resort destination, and its summer weather is normally very predictable: dry, sunny, and warm, but not too hot. The meeting hotel is the Hyatt Regency Islandia, Mission Bay, close to the ocean and the famous Sea World marine wildlife park. We have made a web site for the conference, and we will add info as it becomes available: http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF_darwin/ http://islandia.hyatt.com/property/index.jhtml http://sandiego.org/ 3. High Contrast Imaging Testbed, Telescope Front-End RFP TPF invites your participation in the Terrestrial Planet Finder, High Contrast Imaging Testbed, Telescope Front-End. JPL has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) and invites your organization to submit a proposal for a Phase 1 Concept Study. Please visit the RFP web site for details: http://acquisition.jpl.nasa.gov/rfp/TPF-HCIT-TFE/ Please note the due dates: a "Notice of Intent to Propose" is due at JPL by 08/22/2003. A statement "Volume III, Past Performance" is due at JPL by 09/05/2003, and the remaining proposal volumes are due at JPL on 09/19/2003. 4. TPF Development of Technologies Solicitation Results Ten proposals have been selected for negotiation of contracts as part of the TPF Development of Technologies solicitation (proposals were due June 27, 2003): http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/tpf_techResults.cfm http://acquisition.jpl.nasa.gov/rfp/tpfdevtech/ * Thomas Bifano, Boston University Advanced Deformable MEMS Mirror Systems for the Terrestrial Planet Finder Mission * Phil Hinz, University of Arizona A Common-Path Phase Sensing Test Bed for TPF * Phil Hinz, University of Arizona Beamsplitter Development for TPF * N. Jeremy Kasdin, Princeton University Design and Control of Shaped Pupil Coronagraph for TPF * Richard Lyon, Goddard Space Flight Center Vector Optical Modeling for a Visible Light Coronagraph Approach to TPF * Manuel Martinez-Sanchez, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Contamination Studies on TPF Propulsion Candidates * David Miller, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Electromagnetic Formation Flight (EMFF) * David Miller, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Model Verification * Andrew Neureuther, University of California, Berkeley Vector Wavefront Simulation for TPF Coronagraph Performance Evaluation * Stephen Ridgway, National Optical Astronomy Observatory Study and Laboratory Demonstration of a Pupil Remapping Coronagraph for a Visible TPF -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Unwin, Editor stephen.unwin@jpl.nasa.gov You are subscribed to the list 'TPF-announce'. 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