1. APS Meeting, Washington DC July 14, 2011 James Kasting, ExoPAG Chair
ExoPAG Report
APS Meeting, Washington DC
July 14, 2011
James Kasting, ExoPAG Chair

2. ExoPAG activities since February meeting
Joint COPAG/ExoPAG steering committee meeting, Apr. 26, STScI
Ken Sembach (COPAG) was the chief organizer
Approximately 20 attendees
Discussed plans for a future optical/UV/near-IR space telescope (see next slide)
ExoPAG4 meeting, June 1-2, Alexandria, VA
Approximately 60 attendees
Various agenda items, discussed below

3. Joint COPAG/ExoPAG meeting, Apr. 26
Recommendation: Both groups should pursue the study of two different types of representative missions:
A 4-m aperture monolithic telescope with an internal coronagraph of some sort. The coronagraph must be capable of achieving a contrast ratio of 1010 or better in order to find exoEarths. It would need to operate at an inner working angle of ~2 /D in order to satisfy the exoplanet science requirements.
An 8-m aperture segmented telescope that relies on an external occulter to achieve the high contrast needed to find an exoEarth
4-m occulter designs will be studied as well
Combined coronagraph/occulter concepts are possible
The size of the mission will ultimately be determined by factors such as Earth (from Kepler), exozodi brightnesses (from LBTI?), and the desires of the COPAG science community

4. ExoPAG4 meeting, June 1-2
Discussion of proposed Imaging Performance Study (IPS) to be carried out by the Exoplanet Exploration Program office at JPL
This is a non-binding, practice run for a funded mission concept study currently scheduled to begin in January, 2013
Discussion of science requirements for a direct imaging mission
Proposal is to use a Kepner-Tregoe table in which some requirements are considered as absolute, while others are evaluated on a point-scoring basis
Preliminary requirements list to be generated by September, 2011, for use in the IPS study
Update on the exozodi problem
Discussion of New Worlds Technology Development Program (NWTDP)--Web Cash

5. New Worlds Technology Development Program
Cash argued that the level of technology funding for the NWTDP is insufficient to enable a direct imaging mission to be selected in 2020
Wants the ExoPAG to play a role in advising how technology money should be spent
The plan should include demo missions for the various technology concepts (i.e., occulters and coronagraphs)
Request to APS: That the ExoPAG be allowed to set up a new study analysis group (SAG) to examine how the NWTDP could be most effectively implemented. Web Cash would be the chair. A report would be presented at the ExoPAG meeting in January, 2012, and then forwarded to the APS committee if approved by the ExoPAG.