Amendment 19: D.7 K2 Phase-1 Due Date Delay

ROSES-18 Amendment 19: This amendment announces a delay in the Phase-1 proposal due date for K2 Guest Observer (GO) Cycle 7, program element D.7.

This program element solicits proposals for the acquisition and analysis of new scientific data from the K2 mission (http://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov). K2 repurposes the space-borne hardware and ground-based operations of the Kepler mission (http://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov) for a pointed survey of predetermined locations along the ecliptic plane. The single, visible-wavelength instrument on board K2 provides high-precision photometry capability, with short cadence and long cadence modes (1-minute and 30-minute exposures, respectively), and provides a powerful tool for broadband variability analyses of planetary, stellar, extragalactic, and solar system sources.

Contingent on the spacecraft health and fuel condition, K2 is soliciting proposals for Guest Observer (GO) Cycle 7 targets. Owing to the limited amount of spacecraft fuel remaining, Cycle 7 is comprised of Campaign 20 only. Similar to the selection process executed for K2 GO Cycle 6, an optional Phase-1 proposal will enable targets to be selected for Campaign 20.

In response to the drop in fuel pressure observed during Campaign 18, this amendment postpones the Phase-1 deadline of K2 GO Cycle 7 to August 16, 2018. This enables the submission of target proposals for K2 Campaign 20 to be delayed until after the successful start of Campaign 19 is confirmed near August 9. All other dates remain unchanged.

Phase-1 proposals, including target lists and a scientific rationale (both submitted via email to keplergo@mail.arc.nasa.gov), are requested by August 16, 2018. If the spacecraft health and fuel allow, then Phase-2 proposals will be due January 17, 2019 (via NSPIRES). Phase-2 proposals are limited to use observations for targets which have been selected as part of Phase-1, the selection results of which will be published in September 2018 at http://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov.

Technical questions concerning this program element may be directed to Geert Barentsen at keplergo@mail.arc.nasa.gov.

The NASA point of contact for programmatic information is Mario Perez who may be reached at mario.perez@nasa.gov.