NASA is seeking a U.S. scientist to serve as a member of an international
Science Working Group (SWG) for the Astro-E2 mission. Astro-E2 is a
cooperative X-ray astronomy program with Japan that will enter its
development (C/D) phase later this year and is scheduled for launch in
2005. Astro-E2 will be a rebuild and reflight of Astro-E, which failed on
launch in February 2000. Astro-E2 is designed to study the X-ray spectra
of astronomical sources over the energy range 0.3-600 keV. The
instrumentation includes an X-ray microcalorimeter array, CCD imaging
spectrometers, and a hard X-ray spectrometer.

The current membership of the Astro-E2 SWG includes members of the Japanese
and American groups responsible for the provision of flight hardware and
the ground data handling system to the mission as well as U.S., Japanese,
and international members of the science community who served on the
Astro-E SWG. The U.S. scientists who served on the Astro-E SWG and have
agreed to serve on the Astro-E2 SWG as well are Pat Henry (Hawaii), Jack
Hughes (Rutgers), Steve Kahn (Columbia), and John Nousek (Penn State).

The individual sought in this letter would serve as a representative of the
Astro-E2 user community in order to help guide plans for the optimal use of
the observatory. It is anticipated that the SWG will meet once or twice
per year, usually at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science near
Tokyo, Japan. Interested scientists should write a letter to NASA
expressing their interest, their qualifications, and their area of
emphasis/expertise which they bring to the SWG. Letters should not exceed
two pages in length and should be received no later than September 30,
2001. Letters should be sent to Dr. Louis Kaluzienski, Astro-E2 Program
Scientist, Code SZ, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546 (Phone:
202-358-0365; E-mail: lkaluzienski@... ).