S T A R & P L A N E T TERRESTRIAL PLANET FINDER NEWSLETTER Number 9, November 1, 2004 CONTENTS 1. TPF Project news 2. A word of thanks 3. Second TPF/Darwin Conference - Online Proceedings 4. Reminder - AAS San Diego Special Session on TPF 5. Proceedings of Gillett symposium published 6. Results of reader survey 1. TPF Project news Finding planets, particularly our long term goal of detecting habitable planets, has become a fundamental part of NASA's new Vision for Space Exploration. In Newsletters 7 and 8, we described NASA's plans to fly two missions to accomplish the TPF science goals, and especially the recommendation by astrobiologists that we should obtain data at both visible and mid-IR wavelengths to characterize planets and to search for unambiguous signs of life. NASA has elected to start the TPF-Coronagraph (TPF-C) first, with a launch tentatively planned around 2015. In parallel with the development of TPF-C, NASA will support the technology needed for the formation flying mid-infrared interferometer, TPF-I, leading to either a NASA-led mission around 2019, or to a partnership with the ESA-led Darwin mission around 2015. This change in emphasis brings with it some organizational changes. Because TPF-C is moving to enter Phase A sometime in 2007, NASA has instructed the TPF project to disband the existing TPF-SWG so that NASA can solicit a Science and Technology Definition Team (STDT) for TPF-C. NASA will issue a 'Dear Colleague' Letter inviting scientists to apply for the STDT in early November. This group will spend an intensive year working with the project to develop the science requirements and a design reference mission for TPF-C in preparation for Phase A. In early 2005, NASA will issue a call for TPF-C instrument concepts as part of the ROSES Research Announcement. These instrument studies, plus the STDT report, will form the basis for the Announcement of Opportunity (AO) which will select the instruments, Science Team, and investigations for TPF-C. This AO is expected in approximately 2 years as TPF-C moves into Phase A. NASA remains strongly committed to the mid-IR Interferometer (TPF-I). Thus, the 'Dear Colleague' Letter will also solicit members for a TPF-I Science Working Group to help guide the scientific and technical development of TPF-I and ensure that we maintain a multi-wavelength approach to the overall scientific goals of TPF. Scientific collaboration with ESA's TE-SAT (Terrestrial Exo-planets Science Advisory Team) will continue. 2. A word of thanks The TPF Project would like to take this opportunity to thank the TPF-SWG for their efforts. The work of the TPF-SWG was absolutely critical to getting NASA to adopt this program and to obtaining the endorsement of TPF's scientific goals from the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics (CAA). We recognize how much work goes into the travel, the meetings and the writing assignments for a project like this. We should all feel very proud of making the vision of finding habitable planets an integral part of the nation's vision for space exploration. Thanks for your enthusiasm! 3. Second TPF/Darwin Conference - Online Proceedings Proceedings from the Second Terrestrial Planet Finder/Darwin International Conference "Dust Disks and the Formation, Evolution and Detection of Habitable Planets" are now available online at the TPF website: http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPFDarwinConf/ The Conference was held in San Diego, July 2004, and featured 50 oral presentations and over 100 poster papers. There will be no hardcopy proceedings; instead opted to make the presented papers available to a wide audience more rapidly using the WWW. There are a number of papers currently absent from the Proceedings; we will add them as they are made available by the authors. 4. Reminder - AAS San Diego Special Session on TPF As announced in the last Newsletter, there will be a TPF evening session at the next AAS Meeting, at 6pm on Monday, January 10, and will be followed after a short break by a session on TPF's sister mission SIM - the Space Interferometry Mission. The SIM session will feature upcoming opportunities for observing time with SIM. We have arranged for light hors d'oeuvres, so that attendees can stay for both evening sessions. There will be a lot of TPF news and announcements at this session. Topics will include: NASA's plans to fly two missions to achieve the science goals of TPF; opportunities for research on scientific problems related to TPF and the field of extra-solar planet research; and a solicitation for TPF instrument concept studies. Details on the sessions are at: http://www.aas.org/meetings/aas205/events.html#tpf 5. Proceedings of Gillett Symposium published Of interest to readers of this Newsletter is the Proceedings of a conference that was held in 2002 in Tucson, AZ, entitled "Debris Disks and the Formation of Planets: A Symposium in Memory of Fred Gillett". Proceedings will be published in November 2004 as ASP Conference Volume 324. Nearly-final edited versions of invited chapters, contributed papers and poster papers are available until ASP publication at: http://www.astro.ucla.edu/meetings/FredGillettSymposium/index.htm 6. Results of reader survey In the last Newsletter, we asked the question: "Is this Newsletter useful to you?" Thanks to everyone who responded with comments. In summary, most people liked the format, content, and frequency, so we will continue to produce it in the same style as before. Now that we have two missions, will there be two Newsletters? No. The scientific goals which bind the missions together will continue to be featured in this Newsletter. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Unwin, Editor stephen.unwin@jpl.nasa.gov You are subscribed to the list 'TPF-announce'. To unsubscribe from this list, please go to the 'TPF Newsletter' link on the TPF home page, where you can also top find back issues of the Newsletter: http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/Navigator/library/tpf_newsletter.cfm -- Send messages to mailto:tpf-announce@s383.jpl.nasa.gov Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to mailto:tpf-announce-request@s383.jpl.nasa.gov List archives are located at http://s383.jpl.nasa.gov/maillists/tpf-announce/maillist.html