Original proposal addressed astrobiological problems for the point of view of three types of observations: module (1) collection and analysis of spectra from warm extrasolar jupiters; module (2)…

This contract award, with ID NNX17AL71A, was made by NASA to Cornell University, a private non-profit research institution, to support astrobiological research and observations. The original proposal addressed three main areas: (1) collecting and analyzing spectra from warm extrasolar Jupiters, (2) measuring isotopic ratios in the solar system by observing giant planets and other bodies, and (3) global monitoring of Mars and Titan. The award, valued at $879,356.34, is a cooperative agreement without any set-aside designation. It supports Cornell's work on updating the observing program across these three research modules, while the overall science investigations remain largely unchanged. The contract also provides funding to maintain CASSIS, Cornell's atlas of Spitzer IRS sources, as a resource for the community planning James Webb Space Telescope observations.

Original proposal addressed astrobiological problems for the point of view of three types of observations: module (1) collection and analysis of spectra from warm extrasolar jupiters; module (2) isotopic ratios in the solar system by observing giant planets, triton, pluto, charon and titan; module (3) global monitoring of mars and titan for temporal changes. The program and its rationale remain much the same, although some objects have been added and others dropped based on more recent data and new methods of observations. With the demonstrated utility of transit observations of exoplanets, the method of observations of extrasolar planets in module (1) has been changed from coronagraphy to transits. The solar system's giant planets will be dropped from module (2) because of problems in dealing with the large brightnesses of jupiter and saturn (norwood ET AL., 2016) and herschel has already measured HD in uranus and neptune. We will add eris, not yet discovered when the original proposal was written, to the list of KBO's to observe. Module (3) remains the same except more emphasis will be placed on titan rather than assigning equal time to IT and mars. We regard these as minor changes and provide only updates to the observing program in each of the modules. The science investigations remain essentially the same. Note we are also requesting support for maintaining cassis, the cornell atlas of spitzer IRS sources, as a general resource for the community in planning jwst observations.