Spitzer warm mission: maximizing the science return in the extended mission phase

Abstract

The Spitzer Space Telescope is executing the third observing cycle in the `warm' extended phase of the mission. For the warm mission, the observatory was effectively reinvented as a new, scientifically productive mission operating at a substantially lower cost. In this paper we describe the ongoing implementation of improvements in science capabilities during the extended mission phase even as the project budget continues to shrink. Improvements in pointing stability, data compression and data analysis techniques allow for new science opportunities more than 8 years after launch. Engineering analyses have shown that the mission can operate with high reliability and minimal technical risk through at least January 2017.

Spitzer operations: scheduling the out years

“…The Astronomical Observing Requests (AORs) must have no constraints, employ modes with low data volumes, and have a maximum duration of about one hour. While several previous snapshot programs have been executed in their entirety, each program must be designed to yield useful scientific results if only 50% of the observations are executed [5] . The CP discusses both technical and scheduling limitations and indicates ways a program can be designed to ease scheduling difficulties without limiting the scope of the science objectives.…”