A total of nine instruments has been selected and recommended for development. The selection includes three Facility-class Science (FSI) instruments, five Principal Investigator-class Science (PSI) instruments and one Special Purpose Principal Investigator-class Science (SSI) instrument. PSI instruments include instruments developed in the United States and in Germany. The following are the nine first-light SOFIA instruments:

^*Not part of the USRA peer review process

The Three Classes of Science Instruments

A Facility-class Science Instrument (FSI) is a general purpose, reliable and robust instrument that provides state-of-the-art science performance at commissioning, through the use of modern, but mature technologies. It is expected that this instrument will routinely be operated and maintained by a designated FSI scientist in support of Guest Investigators (GI's) who will not be required to have extensive knowledge or experience in infrared instrumentation or observing techniques.

A Principal Investigator-class Science Instrument (PSI) is a general purpose instrument that is developed and maintained at the state-of-the-art throughout its useful operating life.

A Special Purpose Instrument (SSI) is specifically designed for a particular observation or set of observations not possible or practical with FSI or PSI instruments. This instrument may incorporate technologies at the "edge-of-the-art" that would be too risky to include in a general-purpose instrument.

The Selection Process

For the U.S. instruments, a call for proposals was issued by USRA on April 8, 1997. Nineteen proposals covering a wide range of wavelengths and functionalities were received by the deadline of July 15, 1997 and were subsequently reviewed by a panel of scientific peers at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas on September 4-5, 1997. As a result of this peer review, seven proposals were recommended for development. The selection includes three facility class instruments that will be delivered to the USRA operations center at Moffett Field. The selection has been approved by NASA.

Funding

Most U.S. instruments are funded with the USRA instrument development program for SOFIA, as part of the NASA development and operations contract. FLITECAM is funded by USRA out of the observatory development program. German instruments are constructed with the financial support of their respective institutions.

top of page