Motivation
As Spitzer underwent two fiscally-mandated redesigns in the early 1990s,
project managers and engineers derived clever and ingenious schemes for
protecting the scientific integrity and vitality of the program. As the
original 5-year lifetime seemed to be sliced in half, scientists within
the Project Office and throughout the external user community realized
that they too would have to re-examine the way science is conducted with
such a precious resource.
The apparent reduction in available observing time understated the true
impact because of the need for "thinking time," that is, the time required
for collection, analysis, and dissemination of data, followed by the
subsequent proposing of additional follow-on investigations.
The usual iterative cycle of
propose -----> observe -----> analyze -----> publish -----> interpret -----> re-propose
is too lengthy for a short cryogenic mission. The potential loss of
scientific knowledge is particularly great for Spitzer, where the huge
increase in "astronomical throughput" (sensitivity, efficiency, sky
coverage) will inevitably lead to discoveries that are unexpected and/or
unobservable by any other means. With this stark realization in mind, the
Spitzer Project and its community-based advisory group at the time - the
Community Task Force -
formulated a unique and innovative program that seeks to establish an
early and long-lasting heritage: the Spitzer Legacy Science Program.
Go back to Legacy information home page or
on to Fundamental Principles.
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