Virtual Town Halls for Roman’s Core Community Surveys Begin Aug 26

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will devote a majority of the first five years of the mission to surveys that are being defined by the science community. This includes Roman’s Core Community Surveys (CCSs), which serve to meet Roman’s mission-level science requirements for investigating the nature of dark energy and the fate of the universe, and the demographics of exoplanets. The CCSs consist of the Galactic Bulge Time-Domain Survey (GBTDS), High Latitude Time-Domain Survey (HLTDS), and High Latitude Wide Area Survey (HLWAS). The primary goal for the definition of each of the CCSs is to maximize the science performed with Roman’s infrared surveys.

To define the details of each survey (e.g., field selection, filter selection and depth, observation cadence, etc), a definition committee has been formed for each of the three CCSs comprised of members of the community. The committee membership was selected to ensure that the breadth of interests of the scientific community in using Roman’s CCSs was well represented. The committees have been charged with assessing community input, investigating various observational strategies to maximize the science return of the surveys, and producing a recommendation for multiple survey options (such as a minimal, nominal, and optimal survey definition). The committees are expected to deliver a report summarizing the recommended survey options, including a discussion of the scientific tradeoffs, the time required, and the observational constraints of each option to the Roman Project at NASA Goddard by November 1, 2024 for dissemination to the Roman Observations Time Allocation Committee (ROTAC). The ROTAC will review the input of the committees and make a recommendation to the Roman Project by January 2025 on the implementation of the surveys and the amount of time to be dedicated to each survey.

The CCS definition committees would like to have community feedback and input on the survey options and strategies they are considering. Each CCS committee will hold two virtual town halls spread over two weeks, in late August / early September, to give a progress report and hear from the community. There will also be an opportunity for online feedback submission. The times of the town halls aim at maximizing attendance over different time zones.

Dial-in Info: 

Webex link: https://nasaenterprise.webex.com/nasaenterprise/j.php?MTID=mc21600f4a19d761d3ccebeac0b77ec67

Meeting number (access code): 2821 833 2150
Meeting password: sBVgvmR@337 (72848671 when dialing from a phone or video system)

Schedule:

Mon Aug 26
    -7pm EDT: GBTDS - Daniel Huber

Wed Aug 28
    -10am EDT: HLTDS - Brad Cenko

Thu Aug 29
    -7pm EDT: HLWAS - Ryan Hickox

Tue Sep 3
    -7pm EDT: HLTDS - Masao Sako

Wed Sep 4
    -10am EDT: GBTDS - Jessie Christiansen

Thur Sep 5
    -10am EDT: HLWAS - Ryan Hickox

If you have any questions, please email help@stsci.edu with the subject title “Question about Roman CCS Town Halls."

We look forward to having you join us in the coming weeks.

On behalf of the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope’s Project Scientist Team at NASA Goddard’s Project Science Office (PSO), the Science Support Center (SSC) at IPAC, and the Science Operations Center (SOC) at STScI.

Roman's Next Community Forum Aug 28

Announced from Goddard:

Hi Roman Space Telescope Enthusiasts,

We have out next community forum planned for next Wednesday (8/28) at 4pm eastern time. This month we are focusing on the Wide Field Instrument. WFI arrived at Goddard a couple of weeks ago having completed all instrument-level testing and is moving on toward payload integration.

We will have a detailed update on the testing that was performed on the instrument, and the data that was collected. Additionally, we will have a presentation from the Calibration Working Group.

Detailed discussions and analysis of the data collected from the Wide Field Instrument during the ground test campaigns occur at the weekly Calibration Working Group meeting. To signup to join this and the other working groups use this link.

Slides from previous forums are posted to the forum website.

Below is the WebEx information for this meeting. We hope to see you there.

https://nasaenterprise.webex.com/nasaenterprise/j.php?MTID=mbdb9e0e552be33ff67ae0979fdfc7ae5

New Pictures of Roman's Wide Field Instrument 

New pictures are now posted of Roman's WFI in Goddard's clean room!