SIRTF and SOFIA Spaced out, or simply on a higher plane? John Storey UNSW

Outline Why get off the ground? Balloons, aircraft and satellites SOFIA SIRTF What Australia is contributing How can we compete? Conclusion

Why get off the ground? To see at wavelengths blocked by the atmosphere To achieve a lower infrared background To see all the sky To see the right bit of the sky at the right time.

For a background-limited observations, sensitivity goes as the square root of the background.

Why get off the ground? To see at wavelengths blocked by the atmosphere To achieve a lower infrared background To see all the sky To see the right bit of the sky at the right time.

For example, the 1977 discovery that Uranus has rings, via occultation measurements during a KAO expedition to Australia.

Outline Why get off the ground? Balloons, aircraft and satellites SOFIA SIRTF What Australia is contributing How can we compete? Conclusion

Balloons Have limited payload, duration, electrical power Do not carry passengers, therefore: –when something breaks, it can’t be fixed –are no fun, and furthermore –do not lend themselves to good chat-up lines Can only be launched in ideal weather Have a depressing tendency to crash. Despite this, some good science was done— particularly during the seventies.

Aircraft None of these disadvantages applies to aircraft. First, there was the NASA Learjet...

© J.W.V. Storey

Learjet observing was very “hands-on”...

Aircraft None of these disadvantages applies to aircraft. First, there was the NASA Learjet... Then came the Kuiper Airborne Observatory...

The Kuiper Airborne Observatory at NASA Ames

© J.W.V. Storey

Aircraft None of these disadvantages applies to aircraft. First, there was the NASA Learjet... Then came the Kuiper Airborne Observatory... And one day, there will be SOFIA.

SOFIA also doubles as a day-care centre...

Outline Why get off the ground? Balloons, aircraft and satellites SOFIA SIRTF What Australia is contributing How can we compete? Conclusion

Outline Why get off the ground? Balloons, aircraft and satellites SOFIA SIRTF What Australia is contributing How can we compete? Conclusion Jump to

Outline Why get off the ground? Balloons, aircraft and satellites SOFIA SIRTF What Australia is contributing How can we compete? Conclusion

Outline Why get off the ground? Balloons, aircraft and satellites SOFIA SIRTF What Australia is contributing How can we compete? Conclusion

Absolutely nothing.

© J.W.V. Storey The KAO at Richmond Air Force Base, 1983

In 1986, the KAO would begin using Richmond Airforce Base for regular visits to the Southern Hemisphere… …or would it?

Outline Why get off the ground? Balloons, aircraft and satellites SOFIA SIRTF What Australia is contributing How can we compete? Conclusion

Outline Why get off the ground? Balloons, aircraft and satellites SOFIA SIRTF How Australia is contributing How can we compete? Conclusion

One of Australia’s great competitive advantages in astronomy is our national involvement in Antarctica.

The Douglas Mawson Telescope is conceived as a 2 metre IR-optimised telescope..

…built and instrumented by Australia...

…and located at Concordia Station, Dome C, where it will be supported by French, Italian and US logistics... …in return for a share of the telescope time.

DMT

DMT

The DMT is the perfect complement to SOFIA and SIRTF

Conclusion Australia can still play an important role in the thermal infrared.