NASA’s next flagship astronomy mission after the James Webb Space Telescope will become a formal project in February thanks to increased funding and direction from Congress, even as the agency looks to make cuts elsewhere in its astrophysics program.Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s astrophysics division, told astronomers attending the 227th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society here Jan. 4 that the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will enter its “formulation phase,” the beginning of NASA’s project management process, in February after the proposed space telescope passed a mission concept review in December.That decision also comes after the passage of the fiscal year 2016 omnibus spending bill in December that provided $90 million for WFIRST, far above NASA’s request of $14 million. The report accompanying the bill adopted language approved by Senate appropriators in June directing NASA to move WFIRST into the formulation phase by early 2016.
The baseline plan for the mission calls for the use of one of the 2.4-meter mirrors provided to NASA by the National Reconnaissance Office in 2012. The spacecraft will operate at the Earth-sun L-2 Lagrange point for a prime mission of at least six years.
The baseline mission in SDT final report from Feb 2015 (available somewhere on the revamped WFIRST website http://wfirst.gsfc.nasa.gov/) has Delta IV Heavy as the launch vehicle, but that's probably not definite yet. In fact, the baseline mission had a 28.5 degree geosynchronous orbit but if spacenews.com reporting is accurate, this has changed to L2. The SDT report does mention that a more detailed assessment of the orbit trade would be done in 2015 and that Delta IV Heavy enables both geosynchronous and L2 missions with healthy margins.
Quote from: as58 on 01/06/2016 08:41 pmThe baseline mission in SDT final report from Feb 2015 (available somewhere on the revamped WFIRST website http://wfirst.gsfc.nasa.gov/) has Delta IV Heavy as the launch vehicle, but that's probably not definite yet. In fact, the baseline mission had a 28.5 degree geosynchronous orbit but if spacenews.com reporting is accurate, this has changed to L2. The SDT report does mention that a more detailed assessment of the orbit trade would be done in 2015 and that Delta IV Heavy enables both geosynchronous and L2 missions with healthy margins.Would the Delta IV Heavy still be in active production by launch time?
Interesting to hear the mirrors from the NRO are deformable, I have been wondering about that for some time.Matthew
Have they made a final decision that they will use the NRO mirror for WFIRST? I heard a lot of grumbling that it's not really good for that mission (not qualified for very cold temperatures, for instance) and that may drive up the cost substantially.
I know it's early, but is there a target date (year) for launch?