29th Annual Report (2016-17)

124 AstroSatActivities at IUCAA AstroSat Science Support Cell ASSC Personnel andHardware Activities at IUCAA related to the AstroSat Mission includes the running of two key services: The AstroSat Science Support Cell, and the CadmiumZincTelluride PayloadOperation Centre. After the successful launch ofAstroSat in September 2015, the first Indian multi-wavelength astronomy satellite, it has been producing unprecedented high quality data of the Universe. It is a proposal-driven, observatory class mission, with a large fraction of the time open to national users outside of the payload instrument teams. With five specialized instruments on board,AstroSat's mission is to observe a wide variety of astronomical sources, such as star forming region, violent explosions like gamma-ray bursts, and high energy emission from systems harbouring black holes and neutron stars. In its ten year life time, it is expected that AstroSat will produce more than 500 unique observations of different astrophysical sources, each having an independent scientific objective. These observations will provide a unique opportunity to a large number of scientists from all over the country to do internationally appreciated, front-line research using a state-of-the-art indigenous national facility. The AstroSat experience would enable these scientists, most of whom would be young Ph.D. students and university teachers, to become members of a well spread, vibrant and confident Indian Astronomy community, who would lay the foundation for the next generation of space based scientific research. Indeed, it is imperative that a large Indian community utilizesAstroSat data, for themission to fulfil its primary goal as a national facility that will promote astronomy research in the country. There is the potential in a number of universities and institutes in the country to attract Ph.D. students, who are excited by AstroSat science. Moreover, there are also young teachers in universities and colleges, who would be interested in usingAstroSat to do front-line research. However, since this is the first time such an observatory is available in India, these young scientists would necessarily require initiation, training andmentoring, if they have to optimally utilize theAstroSat facilities. To address these requirements, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and IUCAA have established the AstroSat Science Support Cell (ASSC). The cell is hosted at IUCAA, and started its operations inMay 2016, and has been formally dedicated to the nation by the Chairman, ISROwhenAstroSat completed one year of operations on September 29, 2016. Members of the CZTI POC and ASSC: Bhagyashri Dighole, Saraswathi Lakumarpu, Pradnya Bhoye, Anjali Rao, Kanak Saha, Dipankar Bhattacharya, Ranjeev Misra, Ajay Vibhute andGulabDewangan 29 th ANNUAL RE PORT 2016-17 FACILITIES AT IUCAA