[asapmembers] Arecibo Science Advocacy Partnership: May 2009 Newsletter to Members

[ASAP Secretary]

Dear ASAP Member,
    We write again to help keep you informed about the many developments
that affect
the future of the Arecibo Observatory.  Your concern and membership support
provide
the foundation for ASAP's work, and indeed March and April have been busy
months for
the ASAP Board.  Overall, Board members are staying in close touch with
issues that
affect the immediate health of the Observatory as well as the pivotal longer
term actions
that can assure its future.

    To this end, ASAP Board member Dan Stinebring made a trip to DC in
mid-March
and met with AST Director Craig Foltz, NAIC Program Manager Dana Lehr as
well as
Atmospheric Sciences Division Director Bob Robinson.  He was warmly received
and
had ample opportunity both to inquire about AST perceptions and policies and
to make
a strong case for the importance and uniqueness of AO's science.

    Although application of worst-case Senior
Review<http://www.nsf.gov/mps/ast/seniorreview/sr-report.pdf>(SR)
recommendations by the
NSF Astronomy Division (AST) continues to bedevil AO funding, changes in
policy may
be possible in the nearer future as the AST conducts its management
recompetition
of the AO and on the longer term in the context of the National Academy of
Sciences
Decadal Survey ASTR2010<http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/CommitteeView.aspx?key=48964>.
No full listing of the science White Papers submitted last
December to the latter is available, but it would seem that AO's unique
capabilities were
well recognized in a number of these documents.

    As noted in the last Newsletter, NSF AST has started the management
recompetition
for AO with a "Dear Colleague"
letter<http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/nsf09014/nsf09014.pdf>.
and the Request for Proposals (RFP) was to be
available early April.  However, sources who have spoken recently with Board
members
reiterate that the delays continue and indicate that any actual RFP may
still be weeks or
even several months away.

    Three organizations are now expected to submit proposals for the
management of the
Observatory (though two might join forces).  In an effort to assure that
these management
proposals fully exploit AO's three main research areas (radio astronomy,
atmospheric
science and radar astronomy), strongly pursue its educational mission, and
make full use
of AO's staff expertise, the ASAP Board has adopted a Statement of
Principles <http://www.areciboscience.org/SOP.htm> (SoP) for
the recompetition and distributed it to the three organizations that are
considering submitting
proposals as well as the NSF.  In her reply to the Board, NAIC Project
Manager Dana Lehr
indicated that the AST "welcomed ASAP's role in assisting potential managing
organizations"
and "will consider the application of [ASAP's] principles in [its] own
planning for NAIC".

    More recently, the Board has written to the AST emphasizing that current
conditions
are now fundamentally different than anything the SR considered.  Therefore,
the Board
requested that AST's RFP initiate a new chapter in its relationship with the
AO and that
it support this unique and "essentially new" observatory in a manner
befitting its position
as one of the "jewels in the NSF's crown".

    In other news, the Congressional Research Service has just published a
report <http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40437_20090305.pdf> on the
Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory (sic) that outlines the issues and
controversies following
from the SR.  It also reviews the bills considered by the 110th Congress as
background
for possible actions taken by the sitting 111th Congress.  Caltech Prof.
Shri Kulkarni has
given the 2009 Gordon Lecture at AO entitled "The Arecibo Telescope: A
Discovery Engine?
A Survey Machine? An Educational Resource? or All?"  Finally, President
Obama has just
addressed<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/science/earth/28speech.html?_r=1&hp>the
National Academy of Sciences emphasizing the importance of fundamental
research and promising "the largest commitment to scientific research and
innovation in
American history".

    ASAP membership has grown significantly since our last newsletter, but
we need about
40 new members to achieve our goal of doubling ASAP membership by the time
the AST
RFP is released.  ASAP members are what gives ASAP its strength.
*Please*then assist us
in *building the ASAP membership* by approaching your own
colleagues—especially those
outside the immediate community of AO users—using the
brochure<http://www.areciboscience.org/Membership_brochure.pdf>as
needed.  If even most current members brought in a single new member,
ASAP would more than meet this crucial
goal easily.

     Finally, the Board wants to take this opportunity to encourage members
to email <%20board at areciboscience.org> with
suggestions, help build the membership or assist with ASAP's work in
future.  For instance,
you may be an expert on aspects of AO's scientific excellence and uniqueness
that are not
now well described on the ASAP website;  if so, please consider writing up a
short piece (a
"one-pager") for this purpose.

    Sincere thanks from the ASAP Board for your absolutely essential support
at members.

        With best wishes to you and for a vital Arecibo future,

                    The ASAP Board
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