Solar System Science Collaboration (SSSC) June 2020 Update

An brief update on SSSC (Solar System Science Collaboration) happenings over the past several months.A more detailed version will be sent out to the SSSC listserv.

The on-going protests in the US over the systemic racism and police brutality against black Americans voice deep-rooted anger and pain. The SSSC leadership stands with these protestors and denounce all acts of racism and bigotry. We reaffirm our commitment to forging a collaboration that is rooted in respect, equity, inclusion, and diversity. We welcome input from the entire SSSC on how the collaboration and its leadership can continue and improve on this work. We encourage you to reach out to David and Meg (SSSC Co-chairs).

As a first step, we ask you to review the SSSC Code of Conduct. As per the SSSC Code of Conduct, all SSSC members are expected to treat all people with equity and respect, providing a harassment- and bullying-free environment, regardless of sex, sexual orientation and/or gender identity, disability, physical appearance, body size, age, race, nationality, ethnicity, and religion. We will not tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other kinds of bias— whether these behaviors are overt or subtle. It is the responsibility of the entire SSSC to not remain silent when we see violations of the Code of Conduct.

An update on SSSC activities and progress over the past several months is detailed below.

SSSC Architects Nomination Form - The publication coordinators have set up the SSSC Architects nomination form. SSSC Architects are members whose efforts are acknowledged to have laid the groundwork for LSST Solar System science and/or made notable contributions to the collaboration that significantly enhance or enable Solar System science with LSST. Further details about SSSC Architect status can be found in the publication policy.

Updates from LSST Solar System Processing (new names for MOPS) - News from the April Data Management Report - ‘We demonstrated execution of a complete solar system processing system prototype, including linking and initial orbit determination, on simulated data. This is a major step towards validating the ultimate Rubin Observatory solar system processing system.’

Save the date: The Rubin Observatory Project & Community Workshop (PCW) has been switched to a virtual workshop on August 10-14, 2020. Further details including how to register can be found here

LSST Solar System Readiness (Virtual) Sprint 3 - The SSSC Sprint will be June 16, 17, and 23rd. We currently have 40 people signed up to participate. The talks will be recorded and posted online.

Co-Chair elections - Meg Schwamb has been re-elected for a second term.

Chuck Claver (Rubin Observatory System Scientist) recently gave a Project Update to the joint Project Science Team + Science Collaboration Chairs Call. The video can be found here

Bob Blum (Rubin Observatory Acting Direction of Operations) and Phil Marshall (Rubin Observatory Deputy Director of Operations) gave last month on “LSST data rights” and “Planning for Operations” for the Joint Project Science Team + Science Collaboration Chairs Call. The video can be found here.

Impact of Satellite Constellations on the Rubin Observatory - Rubin Observatory has released a report and executive summary based on simulating the impact of Space-X and other satellite constellations. More details can be found here.

Optical Interference from Satellite Constellations - the Astro2020 Decadal Survey Committee held a virtual meeting on this topic. You can find the talks here.

Euclid Update - The Rubin Observatory and the Euclid Consortium are looking into the joint LSST+Euclid data products and processing. Further details can be found here.

Considering delays to pixel-level data access in the LSST - The Rubin Observatory Construction Project team had asked the science collaborations to evaluate the impact of delays to pixel-level data on our science goals. Mike Kelley (Active Objects working group Lead) was the SSSC representative on the task force writing the response. The report from the task force was submitted to the Project team.

New Cadence Simulations - On Community there are several posts from Lynne Jones about cadence simulations and invitation to explore the output from the metrics run on these simulations. Please take a look these two posts: January 2020 update - FBS 1.4 Runs and May Update - Bonus FBS 1.5 release

Year 1 templates - The Research Note draft on ‘Opportunities for High Impact Solar System Science During Year 1 of the LSST’ for was sent to the Rubin Observatory Data Management Team . You can find the draft here. Meg is attempting to make updates to the draft based on feedback from the RNAAS editor and plans to resubmit.

Science Collaborations Naming Guide - There is a Vera C. Rubin Observatory Official Name Usage Guide and the science collaborations now have one as well.