Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 18:19:58 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Spitzer Space Telescope Cycle-6 Call for Proposals


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Spitzer Space Telescope Cycle-6 Call for Proposals
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Release Date:  7 July 2008
Proposal Deadlines:
-- Exploration Science proposals --
  Letters of Intent due 2 September 2008
  Proposals Due 10 October 2008, 5:00 PM PDT
-- Regular General Observer proposals --
  Proposals Due 6 February 2009, 5:00 PM PST

On behalf of NASA and the Spitzer Space Telescope Project, the
Spitzer Science Center (SSC) at Caltech is pleased to announce
the release of the Cycle-6 Call for Proposals (CP).
NASA has authorized the Spitzer Space Telescope Project to plan
for approximately two years of "warm" Spitzer observations after the
cryogenic mission ends (approximately 13,000 hours of science).
The Cycle-6 CP solicits 10,000 hours of Exploration Science
General Observer (GO) programs (with a minimum size of 500 hours) and
1,500 hours of regular GO programs (with a maximum size of 500 hours).

The Exploration Science GO programs will be executed over two years.
We anticipate a Cycle-7 CP to solicit an additional ~1,500 hours of
regular GO programs for the second year of the warm mission. Investigators
worldwide from all types of institutions are eligible to submit proposals
in response to this CP. During the warm mission the two shortest
wavelength channels of IRAC, at 3.6 and 4.5 microns, will be available for
use. The cryogen is expected to be fully depleted in ~April 2009.
Observations for Cycle-6 will commence in approximately June 2009, after
a transition period from nominal cold to warm operations of 6 to 8
weeks.

All proposals must be submitted electronically using Spot, the SSC
proposal planning and submission software, and received by the
appropriate deadlines listed above. Proposers planning to submit
Exploration Science GO proposals should submit a Letter of Intent
to propose by September 2, 2008.  Please see the CP for details.

** Proposal PDF files MUST be prepared with the separate Cycle-6
proposal templates available at the Proposal Kit website. **

The S18 version of Spot is now available from the SSC website and via
the auto-update feature in Spot. Proposers must use this version of
the software to submit their proposals. The visibility windows in Spot
will be updated to support the warm mission by August 1, 2008.
Note: proposers attempting to install Spot on a 64-bit Linux platform
may encounter problems doing so; please see the note "For All Users"
on the Spot installation webpage.

All programmatic and technical information for Cycle-6 is available
electronically from the Proposal Kit section of the Spitzer Science
Center website. The URL is http://ssc.spitzer.caltech.edu/propkit/.

Any questions should be addressed to the Spitzer Helpdesk at
help@spitzer.caltech.edu.