What European needs to do to take the lead in Space Astronomy ESO Astronomy Faculty May 2004

7 May 2004ESO Astronomy Faculty2 Objectives To identify and explore the more important issues that need be addressed to bring this about To learn what we can from past experience, both successes and failures To be aware of relevant global developments

7 May 2004ESO Astronomy Faculty3 Introduction Europe is rich, well-educated and technologically advanced The US spends more*, maintains greater cohesion and carries out serious strategic planning The US appears to the public to be the source of the majority of new scientific discoveries — even those that are actually made in Europe What are the priorities for boosting the effectiveness of European space astronomy research? *It both has more researchers per head of population and spends more on each of them

7 May 2004ESO Astronomy Faculty4 We have singled out four critical areas: 1.How are the scientific directions set and, subsequently, missions selected? 2.Once a mission has been selected and a ‘spacecraft/payload’ created, how should it be operated to yield maximum scientific benefit? 3.How should peer-selected scientific research be funded to produce high quality results in a timely fashion? 4.How do we effectively expose this scientific endeavour to decision makers, to the public and to the educational process?

7 May 2004ESO Astronomy Faculty5 A structured discussion Names are discussion leaders - not only presenters Introduction √ Mission operations and scientific support Dave Silva Research support and funding Carlos De Breuck Public Outreach Lars Christensen Strategic planning and project selection Bob Fosbury

7 May 2004ESO Astronomy Faculty6 Operations

7 May 2004ESO Astronomy Faculty7 Research support Metrics Publication number and rate, fraction of data achieving publication, measures of impact etc. Important fraction of work is done by postdocs & students => Need for dedicated funding In Europe, research funding through 3 main channels: 1.ESA fellowships (internal & external) 2.EU programs (FP6) 3.National funding

7 May 2004ESO Astronomy Faculty8 Problems: short term (2-3 years) not dedicated to a particular mission evaluated by non-expert panels => political & national influence Solutions: long-term programs such as OPTICON, Radionet (EU) dedicated fellowships: XMM, Integral, Herchel, Planck (cf. Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer) more open evaluation process more interaction instrument development users

7 May 2004ESO Astronomy Faculty9 Data reduction support to ensure timely publication Current situation in Europe: different institutes develop their own independent software (e.g. ISO) not much central support Needed: central data reduction tools written by instrument developers with input from the community dedicated support & data-reduction workshops (e.g. CIAO workshops twice a year for Chandra)

7 May 2004ESO Astronomy Faculty10 Outreach

7 May 2004ESO Astronomy Faculty11 Selection What is the process by which long-term science goals are set? Europe: by the agencies themselves, both National and International, with the help of advisory committees What more do we need? Projects are too big to rely on “Letting a thousand flowers bloom” We need a Pan-European process to set the goals which stands above national desires and intrigues — this is done with several (federal) processes in the US, including the “Decadal Survey” by the NRC

7 May 2004ESO Astronomy Faculty12 ESA is currently soliciting ideas for new themes for space science for the decade 2015–2025. This follows from Horizons 2000 and and from Cosmic Vision 2004–2014 A process started in mid-2003 with a brainstorming between the ESA Executive and a broad cross-section of scientists organised into cross-disciplinary perspective groups (XPG) A “Call or Themes for 2015–2025” has now opened with the following programme:

7 May 2004ESO Astronomy Faculty13 April 2004: Call for themes — see Faculty Homepage May 2004: Preliminary discussions with ESA science advisory bodies 1 June 2004: Deadline for 1-2 page descriptions of proposed themes from the community June 2004: report of progress to ESA SPC -> formal presentation in Spring 2005 July 2004: ESA’s scientific and technical assessment of responses September 2004: Open Workshop held in Paris. Community + ESA advisory structure Autumn 2004: Analysis of technical challenges. Exploration of synergies with groundbased astronomy (ESO)

7 May 2004ESO Astronomy Faculty14 Autumn 2004: Formulation of long-range plan November 2004: Progress report to SPC Spring 2005: Presentation to SPC and subsequent public presentations How can we, as European scientists, contribute effectively to this process?