This is a collaboration CO-i institution proposal for the proposal "STO-2: support for 4TH year operations, recovery, and science whose lead proposal is submitted by the university of arizona with DR.…

This federal contract award, valued at $245,434.51, was granted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) to provide support for the 4th year operations, recovery, and science of the STO-2 project. STO-2 is a collaboration co-I institution proposal led by the University of Arizona that aims to survey the southern galactic plane to study the life cycle of the interstellar medium and its relationship to star formation. The contract, which has no set-aside designation, will enable JHU to prepare and deploy key members of the instrument team to support the 2016-2017 Antarctic campaign for the STO-2 payload. The contract builds upon previous NASA grants to JHU for biomedical research, public health initiatives, engineering innovations, and scientific analysis to advance discovery.

This is a collaboration CO-i institution proposal for the proposal "STO-2: support for 4TH year operations, recovery, and science whose lead proposal is submitted by the university of arizona with DR. Christofer walker as PI. STO-2 was flight-ready in the 2015-2016 austral summer. However, due to the late establishment of the stratospheric anti-cyclone and poor surface conditions, STO-2 was unable to launch. The decision was made to winter-over the STO-2 payload in its hangar for launch during the 2016-2017 antarctic campaign. Funds to cover preparations and deployment of key members of the instrument team in support of the campaign are being provided by NASA under the existing grant. However, these funds are only sufficient to cover expenses up to approximately december 31ST. Here we request supplemental funds to cover costs associated with STO-2 operations and recovery beyond this date. STO-2 will address a key problem in modern astrophysics, understanding the life cycle of the interstellar medium (ISM). STO-2 will survey approximately 1/4 of the southern galactic plane in the dominant interstellar cooling line [CII] (158 m) and the important star formation tracer [NII] (205 m). In addition, STO-2 will perform path finding observations of the 63 m [OI] line toward selected regions. With ~1 arcminute angular resolution, STO-2 will spatially resolve atomic, ionic and molecular clouds out to 10 KPC. The STO-2 survey will be conducted at unparalleled sensitivity levels. STO-2 will uniquely probe the pivotal formative and disruptive stages in the life cycle of interstellar clouds and the relationship between global star formation rates and the properties of the ISM. Combined with previous HI and CO surveys, STO-2 will create 3-dimensional maps of the structure, dynamics, turbulence, energy balance, and pressure of the milky way's ISM, as well as the star formation rate. Once we gain an understanding of the relationship between ISM properties and star formation in the milky way, we can better interpret observations of nearby galaxies and the distant universe. The mission goals for these surveys are to: 1) determine the life cycle of galactic interstellar gas. 2) study the creation and disruption of star-forming clouds in the galaxy. 3) determine the parameters that affect the star formation rate in the galaxy. 4) provide templates for star formation and stellar/interstellar feedback in other galaxies. STO-2 reuses the 80 CM telescope and many subsystems from STO-1. IT also reuses the gondola developed by APL for the bopps and brisson comet missions. For the STO-2 flight, STO-1 s high spectral resolution (= 0.4) within its survey region.