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SIRTF is looking for a few good scientists, and more
By MARK WHALEN

     Although its launch is more than four years away, planning 
and design work on the JPL-managed Space Infrared Telescope 
Facility (SIRTF) is now well under way.
     "SIRTF is one of NASA's Great Observatories and is the 
infrared equivalent of the Hubble Space Telescope," said Dr. 
Charles Beichman, director of the Infrared Processing and 
Analysis Center (IPAC). "SIRTF will make observations that are 
factors of thousands more sensitive than those possible  with any 
other facility and will advance our understanding of almost all 
aspects of astrophysics: from comets and proto-planetary disks to 
active galaxies and the early universe."
     IPAC is jointly operated by JPL and the Caltech campus and 
has been named by NASA as the SIRTF science center. IPAC is 
seeking to fill a number of key positions for the SIRTF project 
during fiscal year 1998.
     Added Beichman: "Although SIRTF will be one of the Great 
Observatories in the scientific class of  Hubble and the Advanced 
X-ray Telescope Facility (AXAF), it will  be constructed and 
operated for a fraction of the cost of those earlier missions. 
SIRTF is also the first major mission in NASA's Origins 
program, which has the twin goals of seeing the first generation 
of stars and galaxies, and of finding planets and possibly life 
itself around nearby stars."
     The SIRTF mission requirement is  to last for 2 1/2 years, 
but the expectation is that its cryogenic liquid helium will last 
almost five years, Beichman said. SIRTF is now in its definition 
phase, known as Phase B, where its preliminary design is being 
developed. A wide variety of special skills is sought for SIRTF 
science center, he added.
     "We are looking for a combination of skills, including 
people with science operations experience, instrument 
representatives and scientists, Web-based programmers, database 
programmers, science tools programmers, observation planning and 
schedulers, and system engineers," he said. 
     In addition, he said that staffing needs include expertise 
in planetary, galactic and extra-galactic astronomy with a focus 
on, but not limited to, infrared astronomy.
     Beichman foresees the staff at IPAC working on SIRTF 
increasing from about 20 in FY '98 to 80 by its December 2001 
launch. In addition to the SIRTF staff at IPAC, scientists and 
engineers working on other astrophysics programs will bring the 
total staff at IPAC ups to approximately 140. 
     Beichman said a key factor in the mission will be the 
development of innovative operations techniques  and scientific 
analysis tools.
     "We're going to develop scientific tools that use the World 
Wide Web to bring SIRTF data to the astronomical  community at 
low cost," he noted.  IPAC will be operating SIRTF and processing 
its data in ways that  promise to reduce operating costs by 
factors of two to five relative to other astrophysics 
missions."
     IPAC was founded as a joint JPL-Caltech enterprise to work 
on the extended mission support for JPL's Infrared Astronomical 
Satellite (IRAS) in 1984. Located in its own building next to the 
gymnasium on the Caltech campus, IPAC has developed an 
international reputation for excellence in infrared astronomy 
based on its work on IRAS as well as on  the 2-Micron All-Sky 
Survey and the European ISO (Infrared Space Observatory) 
satellite. IPAC is also home to the science operations center for 
NASA's Wide Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE), which will be 
launched in September 1998.
     IPAC employees work directly for the Caltech campus, but 
under the same benefits and salary structure as JPL. There is a 
transparent transfer of employees between the two entities.
     "The excitement of SIRTF will be comparable to that 
generated by Hubble," said Beichman. "We expect that SIRTF will 
provide the same kind of exciting results for the infrared sky as 
Hubble has done for the visible sky. We are looking for people to 
work at IPAC who want to share in that thrill of discovery."
     For more information, see IPAC's Web site at 
http://www.ipac.caltech. edu/jobs or SIRTF's site at 
http://sirtf.jpl.nasa.gov/sirtf/home.html. 

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