9315747 Ricker This award supports a two-year cooperative research project between Professor George Ricker, Center for Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dr. Masaru Matsuoka, Cosmic Radiation Laboratory, Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Saitama, Japan. The joint research project focuses on scientific preparations for the High Energy Transient Experiment (HETE), a dedicated, international, multiwavelength astrophysics satellite scheduled for launch in December 1994. In the United States, HETE is supported by NASA. The partner nations are France, Italy, and Japan. This award supports the non-hardware tasks associated with the experiment, which will be carried out with scientists at established optical and radio facilities throughout Japan, as well as with scientists at RIKEN working on satellite data analysis. In the pre-launch period, discussions and collaborative planning will take place with theoretical astrophysicists at various universities. In the post-launch period, discussions will be held with Japanese astronomers interested in transient sources. Joint data analyses and joint papers will also be prepared. In addition to the principal investigator, two postdoctoral research associates from MIT will spend time in Japan conducting data analysis. ***
