Hubble Space Telescope Call for Proposals for Cycle 11

1.2 New and Important Features of Cycle 11

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Cycle 11 will start nominally in July 2002 and have a duration of one year. The following features are new in Cycle 11:

• The next servicing mission (SM3B; see Section 2.1.5 of the HST Primer) is currently anticipated to occur in the time frame between November 2001 and January 2002, before the start of Cycle 11. Space Shuttle astronauts will install the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Also, the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) will resume operations after installation of a new cryo-cooling system. NICMOS and ACS will be available for Cycle 11 observing proposals, in addition to the current instruments: the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS); the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS); and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2).
• Proposals are being solicited for the new category of `Treasury Proposals' (see Section 3.2.4), to stimulate science from HST that might not naturally be encouraged by the existing process. A Treasury program should aim to obtain a coherent dataset that has the potential to address multiple scientific questions (e.g., in the style of the Hubble Deep Fields), and enhanced data products (e.g., reduced images, object catalogs, etc.) must be returned to STScI in a timely manner. Treasury programs are expected to require large numbers of orbits, and can extend over multiple cycles. However, Treasury Programs have different goals than other Large Programs (those programs requiring 100 orbits or more), and form a separate category. Proposers are strongly encouraged to develop competitive Treasury and Large proposals. Up to a total of approximately 1200 orbits per cycle (of order 1/3 of the observing time) will be awarded to these categories.
• STScI wishes to stimulate theoretical research and is soliciting proposals in the new category of Theory Proposals (see Section 3.5). A Theory proposal should address a topic that is of direct relevance to HST observational programs, and the results should enable important new types of investigations with HST or with data in the HST Data Archive. Award amounts are anticipated to be similar to those made for `Regular AR' proposals (see Section 3.4.1). Recent trends in HST funding suggest that of order 5% of the total HST GO Funding might be used to support Theory Proposals.
• STScI is endeavouring to maximize the use of the HST Data Archive, and has therefore decided to widen the scope of the Archival Research (AR) Program. Proposals are solicited in the new category of `Legacy AR Proposals' (see Section 3.4.2), which should perform a homogeneous analysis of a well-defined subset of data in the HST Archive. The main goal should be to provide a homogeneous set of calibrated data and/or ancillary data products (catalogs, software tools, web interfaces etc.) to the scientific community, to allow a variety of new and important types of scientific investigations. It is anticipated that Legacy AR proposals will be larger in scope and requested funds than most Regular AR proposals (see Section 3.4.1), and they are allowed to be multi-year projects. In all AR proposal categories, STScI encourages projects that combine HST data with data from other space-missions or ground-based observatories.
• Starting in Cycle 11 it will be possible to assign relative priorities (high/medium/low) to approved targets within a Snapshot program (see Section 3.3). This is described with other useful information on the implementation and scheduling of snapshot programs in a new SNAP User Information Report.
• The scope of the use of Director's Discretionary (DD) time (see Section 3.10) has been widened. In the past, DD time was generally not awarded if the proposed observations could be done in the next regular review cycle. Recognizing the limited lifetimes for major space facilities such as HST, Chandra, and SIRTF, proposals for rapid follow-up of new discoveries will now be considered even if the astrophysics of the phenomena do not require such rapid follow-up. However, proposers must demonstrate that the observations will provide a critical link in the understanding of the phenomena and that carrying them out quickly is particularly important for planning future observations with major facilities. The primary criteria for DD proposals will continue to be extremely high scientific merit and a strong demonstration of the urgency of the observations.

The following features also deserve special mention, but have not changed since the last cycle:

• Joint HST-Chandra observing proposals are solicited (see Section 3.8). These should be submitted to the observatory where the predominant review panel expertise (IR/optical/UV vs. X-ray) is most relevant.
• HST proposals can request observing time on NOAO Telescopes, including the public access time on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope and the MMT but excluding the Gemini telescopes, if the ground-based observations are an essential part of the science project (see Section 3.9).
• Proposals are solicited for the categories of `Calibration Programs' and `Innovative Programs' (see Sections Section 3.7and Section 3.6). The former aim at providing new or improved instrument calibrations or calibration software, and the latter explore new and innovative ways of using HST.
• STScI encourages the community to identify exciting HST science that would be enabled by Target of Opportunity (TOO) proposals with a 2-day (or less) turnaround time, and to submit proposals accordingly (see Section 4.1.2).

We would also like to point out the following, which may be of interest to some investigators with previously approved programs. It is anticipated that the imaging capabilities of the ACS will significantly exceed those of WFPC2 and STIS. Some imaging programs with the latter instruments from Cycle 10 or earlier have not yet been completed, and investigators may wonder whether they will be allowed to change their observations to ACS. Policies for such alterations will be announced once ACS is inserted into HST and its performance is established. However, in general it should be expected that limited resources at STScI will prevent such alterations from being possible.