NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has just successfully completed the
critical design review of the mission’s ground systems, which are spread over
multiple institutions including the Space Telescope Science Institute in
Baltimore, Maryland; NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Maryland; and Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California. STScI will host the
Science Operations Center while Goddard will provide the Mission Operations
Center and Caltech/IPAC will house the Science Support Center. The passing of
the critical design review means the plan for science operations has met all
of the design, schedule, and budget requirements. The mission will now proceed
to the next phase: building and testing the newly designed systems that will
enable planning and scheduling of Roman observations and managing the
resulting data, which will amount to over 20 petabytes (20,000,000 GB) within
the first five years of operations.
When it launches in the mid-2020s, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
will revolutionize astronomy by building on the science discoveries and
technological leaps of the Hubble, Spitzer, and Webb space telescopes. The
mission’s wide field of view and superb resolution will enable scientists to
conduct sweeping cosmic surveys, yielding a wealth of information about
celestial realms from our solar system to the edge of the observable
universe.
On July 23rd, the Roman Space Telescope successfully completed the critical
design review of the mission’s ground systems, which are spread over
multiple institutions including the Space Telescope Science Institute
(STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland; NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Maryland; and Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California. STScI will
host the Science Operations Center (SOC) while Goddard will provide the
Mission Operations Center and Caltech/IPAC will house the Science Support
Center. The passing of the critical design review means the plan for science
operations provides all the necessary data processing and archiving
capabilities. The mission will now proceed to the next phase: building and
testing the newly designed systems that will enable planning and scheduling
of Roman observations and managing the resulting data, anticipated to be
over 20 petabytes (20,000,000 GB) within the first five years of operations.
“At STScI, we are really excited about the opportunities for discovery that
Roman will bring. All areas of astrophysics will benefit,” said STScI deputy
director Nancy Levenson. “We are developing novel tools and new ways of
working so the global research community can make best use of the advanced
capabilities of this survey-oriented, ‘big data’ space mission.”
“A lot of work is required to reach this stage in any space mission, and our
team faced the added challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic. The successful
completion of the critical design review is a testament to all of their
efforts,” said Cristina Oliveira, SOC deputy head at STScI.
In its role as Science Operations Center, STScI will plan, schedule, and
carry out observations, process and archive mission datasets, and engage and
inform the astronomical community and the public. STScI will collaborate
closely with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which manages the mission
and will host the Mission Operations Center (MOC). The MOC is responsible
for overall spacecraft operations and overseeing the data transmitted
between the spacecraft and the ground. The collaboration also includes
Caltech/IPAC, home of the Roman Science Support Center (SSC), which works
with the other ground system elements to achieve the scientific and
operational goals of Roman.
The Science Support Center at Caltech/IPAC is tasked with issuing calls for
Roman proposals to the general science community and managing the proposal
process. It will also lead the Coronagraph Instrument observation planning
and data products, and provide a data analysis environment for the
instrument and community team. In addition, it is responsible for community
outreach for both exoplanet science and science enabled by spectroscopic
observations. The SSC is also developing and operating science data
pipelines to process data from the Wide Field Instrument spectroscopic modes
and for exoplanet microlensing science.
Goddard is developing the Wide Field Instrument to perform the major science
surveys, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing the Coronagraph
Instrument to perform exoplanet direct imaging observations.
Expanding Our View
Roman will be able to capture an area over 100 times larger than Hubble in a
single snapshot. This will give it the unique ability to do wide-field
surveys at space-based resolution, which will be the observatory’s primary
operating mode.
“Unlike Hubble and Webb, Roman is a survey mission first and foremost,”
explained acting SOC mission scientist John MacKenty of STScI. “Our role is
to help gather input from the astronomical community, make those surveys
ready for the community to do science, and give the community the tools they
need to do their research.”
Roman’s surveys will generate mountains of data, creating new challenges for
scientists seeking to analyze those data. As a result, STScI is spearheading
the use of cloud-based computing for Roman data processing.
“Instead of sending the data to the astronomer, we’re bringing the
astronomer to the data,” said SOC mission systems engineer Chris Hanley of
STScI.
All of the data collected by the Roman Space Telescope will be accessible
via the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) at STScI.
Those data will be publicly available within days of the observations – a
first for a NASA astrophysics flagship mission. Since scientists everywhere
will have rapid access to the data, they will be able to quickly discover
and follow up on short-lived phenomena, such as supernova explosions.
The Science of the Roman Space Telescope
Roman will enable new science in all areas of astrophysics. It can search
for dwarf planets, comets, and asteroids in our solar system. It will image
stars throughout our own galaxy to measure its structure and investigate its
formation history. It will also survey the birthplaces of stars, giant
nurseries of gas and dust which Roman’s large field of view will be able to
fully image at high resolution for the first time.
By staring deeply at wide swaths of apparently blank sections of sky, Roman
will image an unprecedented number of galaxies with high resolution. Roman
will map the distribution of dark matter within large clusters of galaxies
and discover thousands of galaxies at very high redshifts, which will
provide the tools to study how galaxies change over cosmic time.
Roman’s surveys will deliver new insights into the history and structure of
the universe, including the mysterious “dark energy” that is making space
itself expand faster and faster. This powerful new observatory will also
build on the broad foundation of work begun with Hubble and other
observatories like Kepler/K2 and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
(TESS) on planets outside our solar system. It will discover thousands of
exoplanets using its wide-field camera. Its Coronagraph Instrument will
conduct a technology demonstration and, depending on its performance, may
provide studies of the atmospheres of giant gaseous planets orbiting other
stars.
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Space & Astrophysics