For Scientists: The Long-Term Plan
This is the current Year-1 Long-Term Plan (LTP) for IXPE, assuming a 2021-Dec-09 launch. The Science Advisory Team also requested transient targets to be added when and if they become bright. At such time, the LTP will be adjusted, attempting to minimize the impact on the overall plan; however, nothing is guaranteed. The current LTP can accommodate the addition of approximately a half-dozen transients. Should there be a lack of transients in the coming year, additional time and/or targets will be added to the plan.
IXPE is telemetry limited for bright sources and this requires that observations be handled slightly differently from the way most X-ray missions operate. If IXPE is observing a bright source that could potentially fill on-board storage, we shall divide the observation into multiple segments.
COLUMNS:
SG: This is a segment number. If it is zero, then the observation has not been segmented.
Name: This is a common name for the target.
Start: The Year-Month-Day the observation will begin. The observations ends just before the next target begins.
buffer: This is an estimate as to how much data will stll be on the spacecraft when the observation ends in MB. The on-board storage can hold just over 5500 MB and when planning we keep this number below 4000 MB.
| SG | Name | Start | buffer |
| 0 | Cas A | 2022-01-10 | 0 |
| 0 | Cen A | 2022-01-28 | 0 |
| 0 | Her X-1 | 2022-01-30 | 0 |
| 1 | 4U 0142+61 | 2022-01-31 | 0 |
| 0 | Her X-1 | 2022-02-05 | 0 |
| 2 | 4U 0142+61 | 2022-02-06 | 0 |
| 0 | Her X-1 | 2022-02-12 | 0 |
| 3 | 4U 0142+61 | 2022-02-13 | 0 |
| 0 | Her X-1 | 2022-02-16 | 0 |
| 4 | 4U 0142+61 | 2022-02-18 | 0 |
| 1 | Crab | 2022-02-21 | 3167.2 |
| 0 | Cen A | 2022-02-22 | 3149.7 |
| 0 | Her X-1 | 2022-02-24 | 3105.7 |
| 1 | Sgr A complex | 2022-02-25 | 2653.2 |
| 0 | Her X-1 | 2022-02-27 | 2599.6 |
| 0 | Mrk 501 | 2022-02-28 | 2460.3 |
| 2 | Sgr A complex | 2022-03-01 | 650.6 |
| 2 | Crab | 2022-03-10 | 3894.2 |
| 0 | X Persei | 2022-03-11 | 3551.9 |
| 3 | Sgr A complex | 2022-03-13 | 1289.7 |
| 0 | Mrk 501 | 2022-03-24 | 1153.9 |
| 0 | GS 1826-238 | 2022-03-25 | 1239 |
| 0 | S5 0716+714 | 2022-03-27 | 45.5 |
| 0 | Mrk 501 | 2022-04-01 | 0 |
| 0 | GRS 1915+105 | 2022-04-02 | 0 |
| 0 | Vela Pulsar | 2022-04-08 | 0 |
| 0 | Mrk 421 | 2022-04-28 | 315.8 |
| 0 | Cyg X-1 | 2022-04-29 | 2703.5 |
| 0 | MCG-5-23-16 | 2022-05-05 | 497.1 |
| 0 | Vela X-1 | 2022-05-16 | 3226.2 |
| 0 | BL Lac | 2022-05-22 | 1552.6 |
| 0 | Mrk 421 | 2022-05-30 | 1841.2 |
| 0 | 3C 454.3 | 2022-05-31 | 1400.9 |
| 0 | 3C 273 | 2022-06-02 | 957.7 |
| 0 | Cyg X-2 | 2022-06-05 | 2821.5 |
| 0 | Mrk 421 | 2022-06-07 | 3120.6 |
| 0 | 1ES 1959+650 | 2022-06-08 | 3094.1 |
| 0 | 3C 454.3 | 2022-06-08 | 2653.9 |
| 0 | Mrk 421 | 2022-06-11 | 2940 |
| 0 | 3C 279 | 2022-06-12 | 2497 |
| 0 | Mrk 421 | 2022-06-14 | 2782.9 |
| 0 | 1ES 1959+650 | 2022-06-15 | 2760.3 |
| 0 | 3C 273 | 2022-06-16 | 2317.3 |
| 0 | Mrk 421 | 2022-06-18 | 2614.3 |
| 0 | Tycho | 2022-06-19 | 0 |
| 0 | Mrk 501 | 2022-07-06 | 0 |
| 0 | IC 4329A | 2022-07-07 | 0 |
| 0 | 1ES 0229+200 | 2022-07-18 | 0 |
| 0 | 3C 279 | 2022-07-26 | 0 |
| 0 | J0211+1051 | 2022-07-29 | 0 |
| 0 | GX 301-2 | 2022-08-02 | 0 |
| 0 | Circinus galax | 2022-08-07 | 0 |
| 0 | MSH15-52 | 2022-08-21 | 0 |
| 0 | 1RXS J170849.0 | 2022-09-17 | 0 |
| 0 | Mrk 501 | 2022-10-08 | 0 |
| 0 | GX9+9 | 2022-10-09 | 0 |
| 0 | 4U 1626-67 | 2022-10-10 | 0 |
| 0 | 1ES 1959+650 | 2022-10-13 | 0 |
| 0 | Mrk 501 | 2022-10-14 | 0 |
Currently the plan does not include a 2nd look at J0211+1051 nor a long observation of SN 1006. These will be added to the plan as the year progresses.
Note, should commissioning finish early then the observation of Cas A will begin early. If this happens, we will add an observation of J0211+1051 immediately following the observation of Cas A and preserve the rest of the LTP.