CRSIG within NASA's Physics of the Cosmos and the Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations

NASA’s Physics of the Cosmic Ray Cosmos Science Interest Group (CRSIG) provides a forum for researchers across the broad energy spectrum of cosmic ray and neutrino observations to both discuss and provide NASA information about the science objectives and needs of the community, both now and planning for the future. In this talk, I will give a brief overview of PhysPAG’s CRSIG and as an example discuss the science goals and status of the upcoming NASA long duration missions.

The Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO) is a balloon-borne mission planned to fly out of McMurdo Station in Antarctica in December 2025. Designed to search for ultrahigh energy neutrinos from cosmogenic and astrophysical sources, it will have unprecedented sensitivity in the EeV energy range by scanning the ice in Antarctica for Askaryan radiation resulting from neutrino interactions in the ice as well as air showers. It builds on its successor ANITA using a novel phased trigger. It consists of a main instrument with 96 dual-polarized horn antennas sensitive to the 300-1200 MHz range and a low frequency instrument, a deployable antenna array sensitive to the 50-500 MHz range. I will discuss the experimental design, ongoing preparations for flight, and science prospects with a particular emphasis on the low frequency instrument and how it contributes to future balloon missions like the radio subsystem of the POEMMA Balloon Radio (PBR).