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The 39th meeting of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) was held 14-22 July 2012 in Mysore, India.

This report to COSPAR on the scientific activities of the European Space Agency was written by members of the Directorate of Earth Observation, the Directorate of Human Spaceflight and Operations and the Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration.

Contents:

• Foreword by Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General, ESA
• Earth Observation
  1. Introduction
  2. The Living Planet Programme
  3. The Earth Explorer Missions
  4. ERS and Envisat
• Human Spaceflight and Operations
  1. Introduction
  2. Overview: Columbus and ISS Facilities
  3. Funding Europe's ISS Research: ELIPS
  4. Research on the ISS
  5. Ongoing Research Using Other Platforms
  6. Projects under Development
• Science and Robotic Exploration
  1. Introduction
  2. Missions in Operation
  3. Missions in the Post-Operations and Archiving Phases
  4. Projects under Development
  5. Missions under Study

JWST will play a central role, along with other new capabilities such as Herschel, ALMA, and large groundbased telescopes, in advancing our understanding of the four key questions:

• How do interstellar clouds of gas and dust begin their collapse into stars?
• What processes regulate the star formation following this collapse?
• How do planets form in dense disks of gas and dust around young stars?
• What is the subsequent evolution of planetary systems?

The Mid Infrared Instrument (MIRI), one of the four instruments on the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), supports all of the science objectives of the observatory. MIRI optical alignment is an important step in the verification process, directly affecting mission success. The MIRI optical alignment is verified on the ground at the integrated ISIM level using an element in the MIRI Filter Wheel, the pupil alignment reference (PAR), developed by NASA GSFC and provided to MIRI. It is a ~2.3g aluminum piece that has a flat, specularly reflective, 3mm diameter surface in its center, with laser-etched fiducials within its aperture. The PAR is illuminated via an optical stimulus (ground support equipment) and imaged using a pupil imaging camera, during the ISIM test program in order to determine absolute and relative changes in the alignment that impact pupil shear and roll. Here we describe the MIRI PAR; its physical properties and challenges during its design, manufacturing, and testing.

The James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared-optimized space telescope being developed by NASA for launch in 2014, will utilize cutting-edge detector technology in its investigation of fundamental questions in astrophysics. JWST's near infrared spectrograph, NIRSpec utilizes two 2048 × 2048 HdCdTe arrays with Sidecar ASIC readout electronics developed by Teledyne to provide spectral coverage from 0.6 microns to 5 microns. We present recent test and calibration results for the "pathfinder NIRSpec detector subsystem" as well as data processing routines for noise reduction and cosmic ray rejection.

The Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) is one of four scientific instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observatory, scheduled for launch in 2014. It will provide unique capabilities to probe the deeply dust-enshrouded regions of the Universe, investigating the history of star formation both near and far. The MIRI is the coldest instrument on the observatory. Its thermal design is driven by requirements to cool an Optics Module (OM) to below 15.5 K and detectors within this to below 6.7 K with a stability of \ml10 mK over 1000 seconds. The OM is accommodated within the JWST Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) which is cooled passively to between 32 and 40 K. The instrument temperatures are achieved by a combination of thermal isolation of the OM and the ISIM supplemented with active cooling of the OM by a dedicated cryo-cooler. A flight representative "verification model" underwent two cryogenic thermal test campaigns at the UK's STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory between December 2007 and September 2008. This paper begins by summarizing the thermal design of the MIRI OM and describing the design of the cryogenic test facility. It goes on to describe the two test campaigns and the correlation of the MIRI OM thermal model to the thermal balance test measurements, concluding with the predicted in-flight thermal performance of the instrument based on this testing.

MIRI is the mid-IR instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope and provides imaging, coronography and integral field spectroscopy over the 5-28 micron wavelength range. MIRI is the only instrument which is cooled to 7K by a dedicated cooler, much lower than the passively cooled 40K of the rest of JWST, which introduces unique challenges. The paper will describe the key features of the overall instrument design. The flight model design of the MIRI Optical System is completed, with hardware now in manufacture across Europe and the USA, while the MIRI Cooler System is at PDR level development. A brief description of how the different development stages of the optical and cooling systems are accommodated is provided, but the paper largely describes progress with the MIRI Optical System. We report the current status of the development and provide an overview of the results from the qualification and test programme.

Presented at the conference "Future Ground Based Solar System Research, Isola d'Elba, 8-12 September 2008"

The Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) is a multipurpose imager, coronagraph, and spectrometer for the James Webb Space Telescope. It provides wavelength coverage from 5 through 28 microns and is an integral contributor to all four of JWST's primary science themes. MIRI is being developed as a partnership between NASA and ESA, with JPL providing the Focal Plane System (FPS, consisting of the detectors, control electronics, and flight software) and the cooler, and a consortium of European astronomical institutes providing the optical bench and structure. The flight FPS is being prepared for delivery to the European Consortium for its integration into the optical bench, while the cooler is nearing its Critical Design Review. We describe the capabilities of the FPS and cooler, present test results and the predicted sensitivity performance of the FPS, and update the current status of each these systems. The research described in this poster was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The recycling of matter between the interstellar medium (ISM) and stars are key evolutionary drivers of a galaxy's baryonic matter. The Spitzer and JWST/MIRI wavelengths provide a sensitive probe of circumstellar and interstellar dust and hence, allow us to study the physical processes of the ISM, the formation of new stars and the injection of mass by evolved stars and their relationships on the galaxy-wide scale. We have performed a uniform and unbiased imaging survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC, 7x7 degrees), using the IRAC (3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8 microns) and MIPS (24, 70, and 160 microns) instruments on board the Spitzer Space Telescope (Spitzer) in order to survey the agents of a galaxy's evolution (SAGE): the ISM, young stellar objects (YSOs) and dusty evolved stars (Meixner et al. 2006). Initial results from SAGE have revealed >1000 new YSOs (Whitney et al. 2008), a detailed map of the dust and ISM mass (Bernard et al. 2008) and estimates of the dusty mass-loss return (Srinivsan et al., submitted) of the 30,000 dusty evolved stars (Blum et al. 2006). Here we describe how the powerful capabilities of the JWST MIRI can be used to followup these new discoveries of SAGE-LMC and also how SAGE-like studies can be extended to nearby galaxies.

The SAGE Project is supported by NASA/Spitzer grant 1275598 and MIRI science team work is supported by NASA NAG5-12595.

Some first results from the Integral Field Spectroscopy Survey of (U)LIRGs using VLT instruments VIMOS and SINFONI are presented. Detailed studies of the two-dimensional ionization structure and kinematics of the stars and different gas phases are within reach with IFS techniques on 8 m class telescopes. The perspectives of extending these studies to high-z galaxies with future IFS instruments (NIRSpec and MIRI) onboard JWST are considered.