Tess will observe over 85% of the sky in full-frame images (ffis). The overlap of sectors near the ecliptic poles provides ~350 days of coverage in the continuous viewing zone (CVZ). This is a…

This is a federal grant awarded by NASA to the SETI Institute, a non-profit organization focused on astrobiology, planetary science, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The grant, valued at $50,000.00, is for research related to NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. The research aims to discover more than 200 exoplanets in the continuous viewing zone of TESS, which will provide a valuable dataset to characterize planet and star properties, search for additional planets, and constrain planet masses. This work is expected to make a significant contribution to the scientific yield of the TESS mission. The grant does not have a set-aside designation and is scheduled for completion by September 30, 2022.

The SETI Institute also holds an Indefinite Delivery Contract (IDC) with NASA Headquarters, valued at up to $4.7 million through June 2025, to provide multidiscipline technical support services related to the design, development, fabrication, integration, testing, verification, and launch site support operations of spaceflight hardware, with a focus on planetary protection compliance.

Tess will observe over 85% of the sky in full-frame images (ffis). The overlap of sectors near the ecliptic poles provides ~350 days of coverage in the continuous viewing zone (CVZ). This is a valuable place to search for planets due to the long baseline. Over 100,000 STARS on the candidate target list in the CVZ will not have 2-min data; some these will host observable transiting exoplanets. We will discover more than 200 planets in the CVZ using ffis, and swiftly add them to the 2-min target list as toos. The new 2- min data, combined with ffis, will provide a rich dataset to constrain planet and star properties, search for additional planets, and constrain planet masses through transit timing variations. This work provides a major contribution to the yield of the most valuable planets.