Legacy Program: Fundamental Principles
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Fundamental Principles
The Legacy Science program is motivated by a desire to enable large observing programs early during Spitzer's prime mission, with the goal of creating a substantial database of archived observations that can be utilized by subsequent Spitzer observers. To distinguish Legacy Science projects from General Observer investigations, the following three fundamental principles must be satisfied:
- They must be large coherent science investigations, not
reproducible by any reasonable number or combination of smaller General
Observer programs;
- They must be programs whose scientific data, upon archiving, are of
general and lasting importance to the broad community; and
- All raw and pipeline-processed data must enter the public domain
immediately, thereby enabling timely and effective opportunities for
follow-on observations and for archival research, with both Spitzer and with
other observatories.
Legacy Science projects typically involve many hundreds of hours of observing time. Proposed investigations that do not meet these requirements are ineligible for the Legacy Science Program and must be submitted in response to subsequent General Observer Calls for Proposals.
Previous space astronomy missions have implemented variations on this theme, often as "Key Projects." Unlike those missions, however, the Spitzer Legacy Science Program will not pre-determine science topics or categories, and the Legacy Science Program will be open to all credible science areas for which Spitzer can make a major contribution, and will be open to all scientists on a competitive basis. Spitzer will rely on the ingenuity of the user community and the peer-review process to guarantee that the approved projects maximize the scientific legacy of Spitzer.
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