TESS
The Cycle 4 NASA Research Announcment has been release with details of the upcoming proposal call. Proposals will be due at 4.30pm on January 22, 2021. Cycle 4 observations begin in June 2021 and end in September 2022, covering observing sectors 40-56. Observations in Cycle 4 will cover the Northern Ecliptic Hemisphere and the Ecliptic Plane.
The Cycle 4 solicitation can be found on NSPIRES. Cycle 4 is longer than a typical cycle and lasting approximately 15 months.
Cycle 4 will have a dual-anonymous peer review. Under this system the reviewers do not have knowledge of the proposal teams while they perform their scientific evaluation of the proposal. Proposers should consult the Guidelines for Anonymous Proposals document on the NSPIRES of this program element for instructions on writing proposals appropriate for dual-anonymous peer review.
There are three categories of TESS GI proposals for Cycle 4; investigators are free to select the category that best reflects their scope of their proposed work.
- Mini proposals - This is a new proposal category. These programs require minimal resources, up to 50 20-second cadence targets and 1,000 2-minute cadence targets. Proposals in this category are not eligible for funding.
- Small proposals - Proposals of limited scope.
- Large proposals - Proposals of wide-ranging scope and science yield. Large proposals must deliver a clear benefit for the broader scientific community.
As with Cycle 3, can request 20-second cadence targets, 2-min targets, and funding to support analysis of TESS data, include full-frame images. Additionally, proposals that support the acquisition and analysis of scientific data from ground-based telescopes are solicited. Ground-based observing focused proposals may support the analysis and/or interpretation of TESS scientific data collected in Cycle 4 or TESS data already collected in Cycles 1-3.
The TESS GI program can also award Swift observations through a joint program with the Swift mission. Up to 100 ks Swift time will be available through this program. Small programs are eligible for up to $70,000 and large programs for up to $250,000.