e 1 David Murphy 31-Oct-06/1-Nov-02 Agenda + U.S. VSOP-2 Support Plans

e 2 31-October-06 Agenda - 31 Oct 8:30- 9:00 Arrive at JPL Visitors center, get coffee 9:00- 9:15 Welcome and Introduction - Murphy 9:15- 9:45 VSOP-2 Mission Update - Hirax 9:45-10:00 European plans for VSOP-2 support - Gurvits 10:00-10:15 U.S. plans for VSOP-2 support - Murphy 10:15-11:30 Tracking Station Requirements - Murata/Kono -overall requirements: number and distribution tracking stations -individual tracking station requirements 11:30-12:00 ISAS VSOP-2 tracking station - Murata/Kono 12:00-1:00 *** Lunch *** 01:00-1:30 Potential Spanish VSOP-2 tracking - Lopez Fernandez station 1:30-2:00 Potential NRAO Green Bank tracking station - Langston 02:00-2:30 Potential JPL tracking stations - D'Addario/Jones 02:30-3:30 VSOP tracking stations lessons learned - Ulvestad/D'Addario/Langston/Smith 3:30-4:30 Tracking station design discussion - All -can we generate a common design? -share components? -place uplink on small nearby antenna?

e 3 31-October-06 Agenda - 1 Nov 8:30-9:00 Arrive at JPL Visitors center, get coffee 9:00-10:00 Tracking station input and output products - Murata/Kono - in: schedule file -in: frequency predicts -out: time-correction file -out: telemetry data file -out: VLBI data 10:00-10:30 Correlator interface issues - Ulvestad 10:30-12:00 Future plans - All -Possible scenarios for sharing international tracking of VSOP-2 -A plan for convergence to a tracking plan (actions and schedules) -Future interactions/meetings of this group 12:00-1:00 *** Lunch *** 1:00-4:00 Future plans continued /More discussions on tracking station design -All 4:00-4:30 Summary

e 4 31-October-06 U.S. VSOP-2 Support Plans Identify a source of funding in current challenging NASA environment where priorities are being re-directed towards ‘Apollo on steroids’ shuttle replacement vehicle Very different situation from when NASA decided to support VSOP In general NASA has open competitions for science missions Need to find a suitable competition and win selection! Only game in town appears to be 35 M$ Midex Mission of Opportunity (MoO) Our good cards: -VSOP-2 is already approved in Japan -ARISE decadal report legacy Our bad cards: -Relatively small U.S. VLBI community -Currently little support available to prepare proposal

e 5 31-October-06 Rough VSOP-2 Midex MoO Timeline Sept ‘06 VSOP-2 presentation at JPL to try and get internal JPL concept study funds Nov ‘06 JPL decides on concept studies to support Nov ‘06 - Mar ‘07 Undertake concept study Mar ‘07 JPL concept study review Mar ‘07 Draft Midex Proposal released Apr ‘07-Jan ‘08 Prepare VSOP-2 Midex MoO Jan ‘08 Submit VSOP-2 Midex MoO Jan ‘08+ NASA Midex Selection

e 6 31-October-06 Possible Uses of 35 M$ MoO Funding 1.Use of NRAO’s VLBA 2.Use of NRAO’s VLBA correlator 3.NRAO Green Bank tracking station 4.1 or more JPL tracking stations (locations TBD) 5.On-board JPL GPS receiver + GPS analysis support 6.U.S. science support (funding for U.S. PIs, experiment planning software) 7.JPL project office 8.Other - TBD

e 7 31-October-06 Concept Study What trades will be performed in a concept study? -Determine best of use limited MoO resources -Determine best distribution of responsibilities between U.S., Japanese, European and other international partners What are the top three technical issues that would be addressed? -Design, number, and locations of tracking stations -GPS/phase-referencing study -What correlator and VLBA upgrades need to be undertaken to support VSOP-2 What are the top three programmatic issues that would be addressed? -Sharing of mission responsibilities with Japanese and U.S./international partners -ITAR/TAA/MOU issues -Formation and operation of U.S. MoO team What support would you need from outside JPL -NRAO + university support