Appendix C

GSFC ROSAT "AO5" Announcement

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REGARDING PROPOSAL SUBMISSION

The information contained in Appendix C applies only to this announcement.

PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION

Requirements and Constraints

This announcement is the fifth to invite proposals to use the ROSAT X-ray observatory. This announcement covers the 1-year period of observations beginning about September 1994. Additional announcement are planned to be released at intervals of approximately one year.

ROSAT is an international X-ray astronomy observatory. The three participants, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the United States (U.S.), and the United Kingdom (UK) have agreed to make ROSAT observing time available to the international astronomical community. Proposals may be submitted to any one of the three national programs (FRG, UK, and U.S.), but proposers should note the following agreements regarding proposal submission:

A proposal must be submitted to only one national program. The appropriate national program to which to submit a proposal will be determined solely by the nationality of the sponsoring institution with which the proposer is affiliated, either permanently or on a long-term visit that extends for at least the duration of the guest investigation. Proposers for observing time from the FRG, UK, or U.S. must submit proposals only to their respective national programs.
A proposer from other than the FRG, UK, or U.S. may submit his or her proposals to any one of the three national programs, but only to one. The observing time allocated to a proposer will, therefore, be charged to only one national program. Similar proposals with similar target lists should NOT be submitted to more than one national program if essentially the same consortium of investigators is implicitly involved. A consortium of investigators may choose to split up a large survey investigation into different proposals submitted to different national programs, but the target lists should also be different. Each of the individual proposals will be evaluated on its own merits.

Requests for Supplementary Information

Letters of Intent to Propose are not required. Proposers interested in receiving Appendices F, G, H, and I may obtain the necessary information from the anonymous ftp account heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov, in the directory rosat/nra_info. One may also submit a request for supplementary information to the address below. These requests for supplementary information should contain the name, full mailing address, and telephone number of the potential proposer.

Dr. Alan N. Bunner

Astrophysics Division

Code SZ

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

300 E Street, SW

Washington, DC 20546 USA

Telephone: (202) 358-0370

Technical questions concerning the ROSAT mission and requests for assistance in proposal submission may be addressed to the ROSAT Project Scientist:

Dr. Robert Petre

ROSAT Science Data Center

Code 666

Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA

Telephone: (301) 286-3844

FAX: (301) 286-1684

E-mail: petre@lheavx.span.nasa.gov or: LHEAVX::PETRE

Proposers should note that the appendices mentioned above are updated versions of similar appendices issued with the first NASA ROSAT announcement. The list of completed or planned ROSAT observations is contained in Appendix I. As an alternative to requesting a printed version, potential proposers may access this list electronically via the Mission Information and Planning System (MIPS).

Proposal Format, Content, Quantity, and Certification; Electronic Submission

The proposal must include the scientific justification, as described below, a standard cover sheet, a general form, and, where appropriate, target forms and target constraint forms. (The forms have been changed for this announcement.) The cover sheet must be signed by an institutional official who is authorized to certify institutional support and sponsorship of the investigation and of the management of the proposal.

Paper copies of these forms are attached to this Appendix and also are contained in the Appendix F Addendum. The forms must be completed in the format presented here and substitutes are not acceptable. The forms generally are self-explanatory, however, detailed instructions are contained in Appendix F. Proposers should note that the abstract must be limited to 800 characters, including spaces between words. If the abstract exceeds this length, it will be automatically truncated at 800 characters when entered into the data base. The abstracts and target lists for approved observations are available to the scientific community in printed and electronic form.

In addition to the copies submitted with the proposal, we require all proposers to submit their cover page (containing proposal abstract), general form, and target forms (with constraint and remarks forms, if necessary) electronically. (Proposers who do not have access to electronic communications should contact Dr. Petre at the above address.) Electronic submission facilitates efficient proposal processing and reduces the likelihood of the introduction of transcription errors into the proposal and observation databases. For electronic form submission, the ROSAT Science Data Center is making available Remote Proposal Software (RPS5). This software, which runs in the UNIX and VMS environments, provides a "user friendly" means of entering, checking, electronically mailing, and printing the forms. It can be run either remotely or downloaded to a computer at one's home institution. How to access or acquire RPS is described in Appendix E.

NASA, DARA, and SERC have agreed that approximately 5 percent of the ROSAT observing time can be allocated to time-constrained observations (i.e., time-critical as defined in Appendix F). A target constraint form must be submitted, and should only be submitted, for a proposed observation for which a time constraint applies.

Proposers should also particularly note that the pointing positions given in the target form will be used to point the spacecraft and that care must be exercised in stating these positions. Slight pointing errors can seriously degrade the data from an observation. Positions must be stated in equinox/epoch 2000. For proposals involving multiple pointings, targets should be ordered on the Target Summary form in the order of preference. If it is necessary for the proposal selection official to reduce observing times, an attempt will be made to preserve the highest priority observations.

One very important change in the ROSAT mission has taken place. The PSPC gas has been exhausted. Thus, only the HRI will be available for observations.

Note that proposals purely for the use of public archival ROSAT pointed data, involving no new observations, should be submitted in response to the NASA Astrophysics Data Program (ADP) research announcements, and not to this announcement.

Because of the large number of proposals anticipated in response to this announcement, strict page limits will be applied to all proposals. The scientific justification should consist of not more than four pages, of which a maximum of three may be devoted to justification text. Type should not be smaller than 10 point (standard typewriter size print). These four pages and the target form(s) comprise the scientific proposal and should provide the U.S. reviewers and the IUC with the essence of the scientific proposal.

The scientific justification must provide the following information and is to be structured as follows:

Scientific Problem: State clearly the scientific problem to be addressed along with relevant scientific background and references to previous work. Show how the proposed ROSAT observations and data analysis techniques are expected to address the problem and advance previously-obtained knowledge, mentioning your past work in this research area. Justify how the observations use the unique strengths and capabilities of the ROSAT HRI. Note that a strong justification must be provided for re-observation of targets already observed or approved from previous ROSAT announcements (suggested maximum text length 2 pages).
Technical Feasibility: State how the proposed ROSAT exposure time makes possible the fulfillment of the scientific objectives. State how targets or pointing locations were selected. A clear listing should be provided of the assumptions about source intensity, surface brightness, and/or spectrum (depending on the nature of the proposed investigation). Estimates of both count rates and total counts needed to carry out the investigation should be provided. Note that it is in the proposer's best interest to provide enough detail to allow a reviewer to understand the proposer's target brightness assumptions and to reproduce estimates for counting rates and minimum observing times (suggested text length 1/2 page).
Previous ROSAT Observations: List all ROSAT pointed observations, regardless of principal investigator, that have already been performed, are scheduled, or are awaiting scheduling that are directly relevant to this proposal (suggested text length 1/2 page).
A summary of what should be included as part of a proposal is listed below:
```
SECTION                      PAGE LIMIT		COMMENTS

Cover Page                 	1		no other cover necessary

General Form               	1

Target Forms                	1 		or more, as needed

Constraint and remarks forms  2		optional

Scientific Problem and      	4		includes text, figures
    Technical Feasibility     				charts, and tables

Vitae of key investigator	1		optional
```
Reviewers will base their review only on the portion of each proposal that complies with the page limits.
Twenty copies of the proposal should be sent to:

ROSAT "AO5" Program
Astrophysics Proposal Control Office
9705 Patuxent Woods Drive
Columbia, MD 21046 USA

GUIDELINES FOR FOREIGN PARTICIPATION
In general, NASA accepts proposals from all countries. Non-U.S. proposals and U.S. proposals that include non-U.S. participation must be endorsed by the respective government agency or funding/sponsoring institution in that country from which the non-U.S. participation is proposing. Such endorsement should indicate that the proposal merits careful consideration from NASA.
The requested number of proposal copies and the Letter of Endorsement must be forwarded to NASA, at the above address, in time to arrive before the deadline established for this announcement. One copy of the proposal along with the Letter of Endorsement must be forwarded to:

Mrs. Rosemarie Vitagliano
ROSAT "AO5" Program
Code IRD
300 E Street, SW
International Relations Division
NASA Headquarters
Washington, DC 20546 USA

All proposals must be typewritten in English. All non-U.S. proposals will undergo the same evaluation and selection process as those originating in the U.S. Non-U.S. proposals and U.S. proposals that include non-U.S. participation must follow all other guidelines and requirements described in this announcement.
All proposals must be received before the established closing date; those received after the closing date will be held for the next review cycle. Sponsoring non-U.S. agencies may, in exceptional situations, forward a proposal without endorsement to the above address, if review and endorsement is not possible before the announced closing date. In such cases, however, NASA's International Relations Division should be advised when a decision on endorsement can be expected.
Successful and unsuccessful proposers will be contacted directly by the NASA Program Office coordinating the announcement. Copies of these letters will be sent to the sponsoring government agency.
Should a non-U.S. proposal or a U.S. proposal with non-U.S. participation be selected, NASA's International Relations Division will arrange with the non-U.S. sponsoring agency for the proposed participation on a no-exchange-of-funds basis, in which NASA and the non-U.S. sponsoring agency will each bear the cost of discharging its respective responsibilities. Depending on the nature and extent of the proposed cooperation, these arrangements may entail:
1. A letter of notification by NASA; and/or
2. An exchange of letters between NASA and the sponsoring governmental agency.
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