The interplanetary network (IPN) is a consortium of space-based high-energy monitors who together detect, localize, and characterize short-duration high-energy transients. The IPN was key to…

Louisiana State University has been awarded a $1.62M grant to modernize and automate the Interplanetary Network (IPN), a consortium of space-based high-energy monitors that detects, localizes, and characterizes short-duration high-energy transients. The IPN has historically been instrumental in discovering magnetars and enabling the James Webb Space Telescope's direct observation of heavy element nucleosynthesis, and has continuously monitored the high-energy sky for decades. This grant, awarded by a civilian federal agency on April 1, 2025, with completion targeted for March 31, 2027, aims to update the IPN's outdated operations infrastructure while expanding its scope to focus on gamma-ray bursts—the most luminous events in the universe since the Big Bang. No set-aside designation was applied to this contract.

The modernization effort will create key infrastructure to support the global time-domain and multimessage astrophysics ecosystem, positioning the IPN as a critical asset for contemporary observational astronomy. LSU, a comprehensive public research university and land-grant institution based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, brings significant expertise in advanced scientific research and space-related initiatives through its designation as a space-grant institution. The university's track record of managing federal research awards across multiple agencies including NASA, NSF, and DOE demonstrates its capability to execute complex, long-term research modernization projects of this scope and scientific significance.

The interplanetary network (IPN) is a consortium of space-based high-energy monitors who together detect, localize, and characterize short-duration high-energy transients. The IPN was key to discovering magnetars, enabled the use of the james webb space telescope for direct proof of heavy element nucleosynthesis, and has provided continuous, all-sky monitoring of the high-energy sky for decades. However, the operations of the IPN are outdated. We propose to modernize and automate the IPN operations, to broaden its scope, and to create key infrastructure for the global time-domain and multimessage astrophysics ecosystem. These efforts will be focused on gamma-RAY bursts, being the most luminous events in the universe since the big bang.