The Joint Committee on Space Astronomy (JCSA)
This is a draft of the new informational website for JCSA. We will likely host it on the CASCA website.
Though this site will be publicly viewable, it is intended primarily as information for New Committee Members.
Please send comments to Matt if you have suggestions for improvements.
The JCSA is the Canadian space astronomy community's voice to Canadian Space Agency (CSA). It acts as a liaison between the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA) and CSA. The committee meets every few months by telephone conference and twice a year for a 1-2 day face-to-face meeting. One meeting traditionally takes place at the CASCA summer conference (June) and the other in fall (Nov/Dec), oftentimes in Montreal.
The JCSA's mandate
- To advise the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) on matters pertaining to the Space Astronomy segment of the Space Science Program, including priorities, areas of research, selection mechanisms, funding areas and the extent of funding
- To express the concerns of the scientific community to the CSA
- To advise the scientific community of programs and events in the CSA Space Science Program
The present membership of the JCSA is published on the CSA website,
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/sciences/committees-jcsa.asp
The JCSA membership normally consists of
- Six external voting members, nominated by CASCA and ratified by the CSA.
External members serve for a three year term. The membership is meant to represent the breadth
of space astronomy in Canada, with regards to areas of expertise and geography.
- An NSERC representative, normally the team leader of Physics and Astronomy, GSC 17 (non-voting).
- The CASCA president (non-voting).
- Director General of the HIA (non-voting).
- Ex-officio members from the CSA, including the director of space sciences and director of space astronomy (non-voting)
- CSA program scientist(s) (also non-voting) who act as executive secretary to the committee
As of 2007, the CSA took steps to make the committee's operation arm's reach from the CSA. CSA staff are no longer automatically invited to the meetings. This will allow the JCSA to discuss issues that may be sensitive to the CSA staff or program, if the need arises. Despite this new organization, the JCSA has typically found the participation of CSA staff extremely useful, and normally invites the Director of Space Astronomy (presently Alain Berinstain), and the space astronomy program scientists (presently Jean Dupuis and Denis Laurin). One of the program scientists typically acts as meeting secretary.
JCSA Public Reports
Information for JCSA Members
Mail Lists
- jcsa_members@space.gc.ca includes only the space astronomy members of the JCSA, but not the CSA members. This allows the advisory body to discuss in
private" if they so wish.
- jcsa@space.gc.ca which includes all of the relevent CSA folks (both JCSA members and not), NSERC representatives, etc.
Generic Agenda for JCSA Face-to-face Meetings
If you are a new committee members to the JCSA, here's what to expect during a 1-2 day meeting.
- Welcome and comments from the JCSA chair.
- Approval of minutes from last meeting. Review of action items from last meeting
- Updates from CSA representatives: this normally includes budgetary issues, plan for announcements of opportunity, and requests from the CSA for advice on issues.
- Mission Updates from PIs that have been invited for presentations.
- Review of written mission updates for all CSA funded space astronomy missions.
Mission recommendations to CSA (e.g. highlighting missions with technical problems, scheduling issues,
and advising on requests for funding extensions, etc.)
- Closed discussion (voting members only) on missions.
- Other items: this may include planning for upcoming workshops or space astro conferences, discussions of fellowships, astronomy long range plan organization, CASCA updates or requests, etc.
- Closed session and writing of recommendations for CSA (voting members only).
Examples from previous meetings includes recommending that CSA fellowships be
openned to international applicants and that the CSA provide AOs that are synchronized
with other nation's space agencies to accommodate joint missions.
- Review of action items and scheduling of next meeting
Mission updates for all funded CSA space astronomy contracts are requested from the mission PIs several weeks before the meeting. All members are expected to read every report, but two members are assigned to read each report in detail and present them in the mission review session. If the members feel that there are any issues that require further information or presentations, the PIs for these missions are requested to attend the meeting and present a brief (10-20 minute) update. For missions that do not have outstanding issues, an effort will be made to hear in-person updates from each mission PI roughly every 2 years.
Accessing Reports through the CSA Intranet
Mission update reports and other information for JCSA meetings are posted on the CSA intranet at
http://extranet.space.gc.ca/SSAC .
This is a password protected site. JCSA members will receive a username and password from the CSA program officer (presently Jean Dupuis). Some members have reported problems navigating the site. To access the reports
- Go to http://extranet.space.gc.ca, enter your username and password. Choose your language (english or french)
- Choose the JCSA button on the left hand navigation bar.
- Choose the Meetings/Minutes button that appears on the left hand navigation bar.
The agenda and relevant reports for each meeting will be linked from here.
- Note: there is a "projects" area in the JCSA extranet that is out of date.
Jean/Laurin are updating this to serve as a mission summary page where members can learn about missings
(often times it will just give links) and about the funding that has been awarded to each mission.
The extranet works well with Windows Explorer and Mozilla, though members have had trouble accessing it with Safari or Camino (Mac OS). CSA will resolve this issue soon.
CSA AOs and Fellowships
One of the most important roles of the JCSA is to steward the CSA funding opportunities and fellowships as they pertain to space sciences. It is important that all members are familiar with these programs.
Relevant Links
Last updated Sept 2007, Nov 2007 by M. Dobbs
This topic: Main > Internal > JcsaIntro
Topic revision: r7 - 2007-11-19 - MattDobbs