FAQs: GO 6

Please see the Cycle 6 Call for Proposals for more information regarding Cycle-6.

***General Cycle Information

Q:   When will the Cycle-6 Call for Proposals be issued?

A:   The Cycle-6 CP was issued on July 7, 2008, along with a slew of other updated documentation. For Exploration Science General Observer Proposals, letters of intent are due Tuesday, September 2, 2008, and proposals are due Friday, October 10, 2008. Regular General Observer proposals are due Friday, February 6, 2009 (no letters of intent due). For future dates for these sorts of events, consult the science schedule.

Q:   How much time do I have left to submit a proposal?

A:   See this page. Exploration Science Proposals are due by Friday, October 10, 2008 5pm PDT and regular GO proposals are due by Friday, February 6, 2009 5pm PST.

Q:   Can I submit a GTO, Legacy Science, Archive or Theoretical Research Proposal in Cycle-6?

A:   No. GTO programs are completed with the cryogenic mission. The Legacy Science program is not offered in Cycle-6 (the additional funding to support enhanced data products for Legacy teams during the cryogenic mission is no longer available). Archival and Theoretical Research proposals are not available. It is anticipated that research using Spitzer archival data will be supported via other NASA programs. We will advertise these programs as they become available.

Q:   Can I apply for a joint proposal using other observatories in addition to Spitzer?

A:   No. Joint observing programs with HST, CXO, NOAO, or NRAO are not offered in Cycle-6. We anticipate that these will be available in Cycle-7 for regular GO proposals.

Q:   What instruments are available in Cycle-6?

A:   Cycle-6 will take place during the Spitzer 'warm' mission after the cryogenic mission ends. After cryogen depletion, the observatory will continue operating using only the 3.6 and 4.5 micron channels on the IRAC instrument with expected sensitivity unchanged from performance in the cryogenic mission. The longer wavelength IRAC channels (5.6 and 8.0 microns) and the MIPS and IRS instruments will be unavailable. The IRAC Post-Cryo AOT must be used in Spot when submitting proposals.

Q:   Are high/medium impact Targets of Opportunity (ToOs) available in Cycle-6?

A:   No, only low-impact (> 5 weeks) ToOs can be proposed in Cycle-6. High/medium-impact ToOs (< 5 weeks) can only be submitted as Director's Discretionary Time (DDT) proposals.

Q:   Where do I submit my Exploration Science proposal Letter of Intent? What do I need to include in the Letter?

A:   Letters of Intent should be emailed to the SSC Helpdesk at help - at - spitzer.caltech.edu and should contain the name of the Principal Investigator and institutional affiliation, the names and institutional affiliations of co-investigators, the Proposal Title, the Science Category (as listed in Spot's Proposal Tool) and a brief Abstract.

Q:   Are late ephemeris updates allowed in Cycle-6?

A:   Late ephemeris updates will not be supported in GO proposals. Any observations requiring a late ephemeris update must be submitted via a DDT proposal.

Q:   I am a graduate student. Can I submit an Exploration Science proposal as PI?

A:   Yes. However you must have your graduate advisor send a letter of support to the SSC outlining your qualifications to PI the proposal. Your advisor should email the letter to the SSC Helpdesk. Letters of support are due at the SSC by the Exploration Science proposal deadline.

Q:   I am preparing a Spitzer proposal for ~10 hours of Spitzer time. Could you give me a rough estimate of what the data analysis funding will be?

A:   The 'Spitzer constant' (data analysis dollars per observing hour) will be lower (< $1000/hr) during the warm mission compared to the cryogenic mission. Cycle-6 proposals allocated < 20 hrs will receive no direct data analysis funding, but the SSC will pay page charges for papers produced by the PI team. Proposals allocated > 20 hrs are eligible for data analysis funding. No one proposal will be awarded more than 20% of the available funding even if they are awarded > 20% of the available observing time. The funding is determined by formula.

Also see the funding pages for more information.

Q:   How do I tell what objects have already been observed, and to what sensitivity?

A:   At any time, you can use Leopard to search by position for your favorite objects, and/or you can use Spot to download entire programs. (All the GO abstracts are online, if you wish to search by topic or PI.) You might also be interested in exactly what constitutes a duplicate observation, because the observation you are planning may not actually duplicate an existing observation.

There are also other tools to check and see if your target has already been observed -- there is a plain text ROC, and from within Spot, you can choose "Search programs" under the "file" menu to search for other AORs near your target.

***Formatting Questions

Q:   What is the preferred format for Spitzer Proposals?

A:   You MUST use the Cycle-6 Proposal Templates (updated from previous cycles), and you can choose from LaTeX and Word format.

Q:   How do I make a PDF file on [my platform]?

A:   Please see the document entitled "How to make PDF files" for instructions on how to generate a PDF file from several platforms, with or without the Adobe products.

Q:   Do I have to prepend the coversheet info to my proposal PDF file before I submit it?

A:   No, proposers should NOT prepend the coversheet information to their PDF file. This feature is for users who may want to create an electronic copy of a complete Spitzer proposal for their own use. The SSC will generate a coversheet from the latest, final coversheet information you submit with your proposal and prepend it to your PDF file for our use.

Q:   Do I have to append the AORs themselves into my proposal PDF file before I submit them?

A:   No, ALL of the AORs in your Spot AOR window are sent along with your proposal by the Spot proposal tool. Be sure that all of the AORs in your window are ones you want as part of your proposal (no test AORs, etc).

Q:   What is the maximum size for the PDF part of the proposal?

A:   The maximum size is 10 MB.

Q:   So do I HAVE to use the proposal templates??

A:   Yes, you MUST use the templates.

Q:   I'm having trouble getting Latex to handle my figures properly. Can you help?

A:   Here are some things to try..

Put a \clearpage before the tables and figures section, and right after it.

If you're trying to put a second figure on the same page, then yes, it can be finicky about how many figures it will let you put on the same page. You may very well have to reduce them in size on the page until latex is happy with their sizes. But, you can fake it out. Latex only knows about the bounding box on the ps file. I personally have had some problems when the plotting program that produces the ps creates excessive margins around the relevant bit -- e.g., the ps bounding box is 10cm wide, but the plot only takes up 6 or 8 of those 10 cm. So latex is trying to make space for the excess white space, which then looks funny on the compiled product. I've had some luck using a program like gimp to crop down the ps into a new version of the ps with less margin. Another solution I've used is to use gimp (or similar program) to put two figures next to each other and saving them as one file -- latex then just sees one figure, but your caption can now refer to "left" and "right" or "a" and "b" and have two figures occupy the vertical space previously occupied by just one.

***Funding Questions

Q:   I am a grad student (or postdoc) at an institution that won't let me handle the money. Can I be the "Scientific PI" of the proposal, and have my advisor be the "Administrative PI"?

A:   We do accept proposals from graduate students as the PI. If your institution requires a faculty member to be the administrative PI and handle all the funding, we support that. The grad student (or postdoc) can be the PI and when your proposal is approved and we contact you regarding the funding, you should tell us who will be administrative PI.

Q:   Can I fund a non-U.S.-based collaborator's visit to my U.S. institution with Spitzer funds?

A:   No NASA funds can flow to non-U.S.-based institutions and non-U.S.-based investigators. Such investigators must obtain their own funds. We have relaxed this rule for graduate students and post-docs who typically do not have their own funding source. But for scientists with permanent jobs at foreign institutions we cannot request travel funds.

An exception is if your U.S.-based institution will appoint the non-U.S.-based collaborator to a real but temporary position at your U.S.-based institution. In that case, the investigator now holds a U.S.-based affiliation and you can support their visit (flights, stipend, etc.) for the duration of the appointment.

Q:   Is support for ground based observations needed to interpret Spitzer data an allowable cost for Spitzer proposals?

A:   Yes, modest support for ground-based observations is allowed. One should not exceed 10-20% of the total requested/provided funds for such a component.