Cross-Scale

Cross-Scale news

January/February 2010

Following presentations in December 2009 in Paris, presentation to and deliberations by the ESA science advisory bodies (SSWG and SSAC), and a meeting of the ESA Science Programme Committee in February, ESA decided not to proceed with Cross-Scale into Phase A/B1 studies for M1/M2 Cosmic Vision. This is a huge disappointment to the many scientists around the world who supported the mission, and the teams that were intimately involved in the preparation of the proposal and mission scenario. The science objectives of multi-scale coupling in space plasmas remains alive and well as the SCOPE mission (JAXA with the participation of the Canadian Space Agency) continues to progress.

The following links provide the final definitive state of Cross-Scale:

The Cross-Scale Yellow Book contains both the science and technical side of the mission as reviewed by ESA

The Cross-Scale Presentation given to the Paris meeting in December outlines the case and programmatics

Although there are a variety of factors involved in such decisions, it would seem that the following considerations played some part in Cross-Scale's fate. They are recorded here in case they prove useful for future planning and related proposals, e.g., to M3 or to national/bilateral programmes. These are not official feedback or notes, but rather the web author's (SJS) personal reflections.

Science: the overall science case was well-rehearsed and made. What was less clear, perhaps, to someone outside the field was the way the number of spacecraft influenced (or not) the ability to meet the science objectives. Additionally, more demonstrations based on existing data and/or simulations to convince the reviewers that Cross-Scale could provide definitive answers would have been helpful.

Costs: ESA put the mission costs at over 600 M Euros. If there is a lesson here, it is that ESA as an organisation simply cannot find cost-efficient ways of procuring spacecraft and operating a mission compared with, for example, NASA PI-led missions.

ESA Science Politics: The federal nature of ESA and the many disciplines chasing a small number of launch opportunities was bound to put Cross-Scale in direct competition, for example, with Solar Orbiter.

International Science Politics: It would seem that the possibility of an ESA-only option provided by Cross-Scale did not feature prominently in the decision process. This is probably in part due to the (inflated) costs noted above.

19 November 2009

Second Announcement: Workshop on Cross-Scale Coupling in Plasmas 9-11 March 2009 at the Università della Calabria, Rende (Cosenza), Italy.

Full details can be found at the Workshop homepage: http://www.fis.unical.it/astroplasmi/cross-scale/

8 September 2008

Announcement: Workshop on Cross-Scale Coupling in Plasmas 9-11 March 2009 at the Università della Calabria, Rende (Cosenza), Italy. Full details can be found at the Workshop homepage: http://www.fis.unical.it/astroplasmi/cross-scale/

The workshop is an opportunity for the widest possible community, including scientists from astrophysics and laboratory backgrounds, to see the status of the mission concepts and objectives, and to contribute to the refinement of those objectives and the mission profile that will meet them.

7 September 2008

Industrial studies have started Cross-Scale's Assessment Phase. They will be looking at all aspects of the payload, spacecraft, and mission scenarios to ready the mission for the next selection process toward the end of 2009.

22 May 2008

ESA has issued a Call for Declaration of Interest. The Call invites potential Instrument Consortia to propose study activities to run in parallel with the industrial Assessment Phase studies. Proposals are due 30 June 2008 for studies to run from 1 October 2008 for 10 months. Proposals will be reviewed by ESA, but must be funded by national agencies. Full information is available at http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=42708, where you will find documents detailing the call, the latest Payload Definition Document, and the latest Science Requirements Document.

30 November 2007

The Cross-Scale Science Definition Team has announced a call for Instrument Data Sheets from the community. Deadline: end of January 2008, but preferably by 23 January 2008. Relevant documents include the Invitation Email and the Instrument Data Sheet Template.

19 October 2007

Cross-Scale has been selected by ESA's Space Science Advisory Panel to proceed to the Assessment Phase. See the ESA announcement for the full set of missions that join Cross-Scale. The Assessment Phase commences November 2007 and will consist of an initial study by the ESA internal Concurrent Design Facility, followed early in 2008 by an industrial Invitation to Tender for two parallel studies to be completed toward the end of 2009.

13 October 2007

Cross-Scale has been recommended by ESA's Solar System Working Group as one of its priorities to be considered by the Space Sciences Advisory Panel on Tuesday, 16 October 2007. That meeting will select 6 missions to enter the next Assessment Phase.

You can download a copy of the Cross-Scale SSWG presentation as either a presentation or a handout .

1 October 2007

Cross-Scale has been selected by ESA's Solar System Working Group as one of 8 missions for consideration. A mission presentation will be given the the SSWG on 11 October 2007. Four missions will then be selected for consideration by the Space Science Advisory Committee (SSAC) alongside those from the Astronomy and Fundamental Physics Working Groups. The team have prepared a 3-page mission summary, which you can find at: Cross-Scale Mission Summary

28 June 2007

Cross-Scale Proposal now submitted. See News for 28 June 2007.

23 June 2007

Final Draft Available. [DRAFT no longer online] Deadline for final comments and final signature registration: noon BST, Wednesday 27 June 2007.

13 June 2007

A draft proposal [DRAFT no longer online] is available for Community members. If you have not registered on the web-site AND sent an email to the proposal coordinator, please go to the Community page and register before downloading the proposal. There are still a few sections to be written/modified, but the draft is otherwise fairly complete. The proposal-writing team will finalise details by 21 June 2007, so any comments must be received by then. Thanks to all those who have signed up and provided input.

21 March 2007

ESA's Cosmic Vision exercise is underway. The Cross-Scale Letter of Intent has been submitted to ESA, and the proposal is being drafted for submission by the end of June. Cross-Scale News is here.

24 September2006

Latest Cross-Scale news: update from Steve Schwartz

7 September2006

Presentations from the Cross-Scale Community meeting are now available.

1 September2006

The final programme of the Cross-Scale Community meeting is now available.

21 August 2006

More than 60 people have registered to attend the Cross-Scale Community meeting on the 4-5 September in London. Late registrations can still be accepted - please fill in the registration form.

12 July 2006

September meeting details announced to the community

15 June 2006

www.Cross-Scale.org launched; Community meeting announced