Design Reference Mission (DRM)

Design Reference Mission

The Ad Hoc Science Working Group (ASWG) was responsible for identifying the core science goals for the JWST mission. From 1997 to 1999, it developed hypothetical observing programs to accomplish them. These 25 programs were known as the Design Reference Mission (DRM) and were used to guide telescope, instrument, and satellite designs.

Ideally, the JWST would be capable of accomplishing the DRM in less than half of its nominal 5-year lifetime, leaving the remainder of the observatory's mission for broader studies and follow-up observations. Observations were included in the DRM because they were thought to be representative of the types of science that people would do with a large, infrared-optimized space telescope. The DRM Programs fall within 5 main themes and are presented in detail sufficient to aid in the development of functional requirements for the JWST mission (e.g., before the selection and final design of the instruments and telescope optics).

Cosmology and the Structure of the Universe

Mapping the Dark Matter Distribution at High Redshift with NGST (Peter Schneider, Jean-Paul Kneib, Roser Pello)

Measuring Cosmological Parameters with High-z Supernovae (Robert Kirshner, Piero Madau)

Microlensing in the Virgo Cluster and the Role of Baryonic Dark Matter in the Universe (Hans-Walter Rix)

Observing the IR Transients of Gamma-ray Bursts and their Host Galaxies (Peter Stockman, Piero Madau, Avi Loeb)

Probing the Intergalactic Medium out to the Reionization Epoch (Peter Jakobsen, Piero Madau, Avi Loeb, Jill Bechtold)

The Origin and Evolution of Galaxies

The Evolution of the Cosmic Supernova Rates [revised April 1999] (Piero Madau, Robert Kirshner, Andrea Ferrara)

The Formation and Evolution of Galaxies I: The Deep Imaging Survey(s) (Simon Lilly, Mike Fall, Massimo Stiavelli, Piero Madau, Avi Loeb, Jon Gardner, Marcia Rieke)

The Formation and Evolution of Galaxies II: The Deep Spectroscopic Survey(s) (Simon Lilly, Mike Fall, Massimo Stiavelli, Piero Madau, Avi Loeb, Jon Gardner, Marcia Rieke)

The Formation and Evolution of Galaxies III: Cluster Galaxies (Simon Lilly, Mike Fall, Massimo Stiavelli, Piero Madau, Avi Loeb, Jon Gardner, Marcia Rieke)

The Formation and Evolution of Galaxies IV: The Relation between Galaxy Evolution and AGN (Simon Lilly, Mike Fall, Massimo Stiavelli, Piero Madau, Avi Loeb, Jon Gardner, Marcia Rieke, Robert Fosbury)

The Formation and Evolution of Galaxies V: Obscured Star Formation at High Redshifts (Marcia Rieke, Simon Lilly, James Graham, Jill Bechtold, Mike Fall, Massimo Stiavelli)

Formation and Evolution of Galaxies: Stressing the Need for Wide-field Ultraviolet Rest-frame Photometry [submitted April 1999 to complement the imaging survey (D. Burgarella, V. Buat, F. Hammer, M. Ward, P. O'Brien, B. Millard)]

The History of the Milky Way and Its Neighbors

The Age of the Oldest Stars from the Faint End Slope of the White Dwarf Luminosity Function in Globular Clusters (R. Michael Rich, Bruce Margon, Harvey Richer)

The Ages and Chemistry of the Oldest Stellar Halo Populations (R. Michael Rich, Bruce Margon)

A Complete Initial Mass Function for Old Stellar Populations (R. Michael Rich, Bruce Margon)

A Spectroscopic Study of Cool, Field Brown Dwarf Neighbors [revised June 30 1999] (Jim Liebert, H.S. Stockman, Mike Rich)

The Birth and Formation of Stars

Dynamics and Evolution of the Interstellar Medium: Cosmic Recycling (John Bally, Neal Evans, Ted Snow, David Neufeld, Jon Morse, Ewine van Dishoeck)

The Origin of Sub-stellar Mass Objects: Probing Brown Dwarfs and Extra-solar Planets in Star-forming Regions (Michael Meyer)

The Physics of Star Formation: Understanding the Youngest Protostars [revised 26 May, 1999] (Tom Greene, Michael Meyer, John Bally, Suzan Edwards)

The Origin and Evolution of Planetary Systems

Detection and Characterization of Extra-solar Planets (Joan Najita, Jeff Valenti, Karl Stapelfeldt)

Detection and Characterization of Jovian Planets and Brown Dwarf Companions in the Solar Neighborhood [draft submitted April 1999] (John Trauger, Raghvendra Sahai, Karl Stapelfeldt, Dwight Moody, Jonathan Lunine)

Evolution of Circumstellar Disks around Young Stars: The Search for Gas and Remnant Dust (Michael Meyer, Ewine van Dishoeck, Craig Kulesa, Joan Najita)

Explorations in Astrobiology: Evolution of Organic Matter from the ISM to Planetary Systems [submitted April 1999] (Tom Greene, Lou Allamandola, Scott Sandford)

Measuring the Physical Properties of Kuiper Belt Objects (Marcia Rieke, Phil Nicholson)

A Survey of the Trans-Neptunian Region (Philip D. Nicholson, Brett J. Gladman)

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Design Reference Mission (DRM)