National Workshop on ELTs

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National Workshop on ELTs
Australian Academy of Science, Canberra - 21 May
2003
Stellar Populations in Galaxies
Characterizing Exo-Planets
The Birth of Planetary Systems
The Birth of Galaxies
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ELT Projects

• Matthew Colless, 21 May 2003

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Telescope aperture versus time
Telescope diameter doubles roughly every 30 years
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Early ELT concepts
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ELT Projects

• ELT projects currently in progress include
• CELT - California Extremely Large Telescope (30m)
• GSMT - Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope (30m)
• TMT - Magellan Twenty Meter Telescope (20-25m)
• LAT - Large Atacama Telescope (20-30m)
• VLOT - Very Large Optical Telescope (20-30m)
• OWL - Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (100m)
• EURO50 - European Fifty Metre Telescope (50m)
• Science cases are well developed and quite
  similar technical approaches vary, but with
  commonalities.

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California Extremely Large Telescope

• Caltech U.California
• 30m segmented mirror
• Siting could be in either Hawaii or Chile
• Concept study (Green Book) - June 2002
• Private funding through Caltech and UC sources
• US35M for design study from Moore Foundation

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Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope

• Top-priority ground-based facility in US
  Decadal Plan
• Backed by AURA via NOAOs New Initiatives
  Office
• 30m segmented-mirror
• GSMT/CELT have MOU for design phase worth
  US70M
• US35M for design study sought from NSF
• Aim is for US-only public private ELT

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Magellan Twenty Meter

• Private consortium currently Arizona, Carnegie,
  Michigan, Harvard/Smithsonian, MIT
• Successor to Magellan (2x6.5m) and LBT (2x8.4m)
• Concept is 7x8.4m mirrors
• Upgrade path to Magellan 20/20 (2x20m
  interferometer)
• Now funded for 18-month conceptual design phase

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Large Atacama/Aperture Telescope

• Originally Atacama (mid-IR 12-15m) now Aperture
  (mid-IR/survey 15-20m) telescope
• Optimized for mid-IR/wide-field high-altitude
  site in Chile
• Consortium still to sign MOU
  Cornell, Chicago, Northwestern,
  Illinois, Texas?, Virginia?

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Large Optical Telescope

• LOT (VLOT) is priority of Canadas Long-Range
  Plan
• Canada seek second-to-none partnership yielding
  a significant share in a 20m (50) or 30m
  (25)
• CA4.5M in design studies for AO and
  enclosure (with industry partner AMEC)
• CFHT site will take 20m
• About to submit CA125M funding proposal to
  CFI
• Seeking partner(s)

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Overwhelmingly Large Telescope

• European Southern Observatory 100m telescope
• Concept study in progress with goal a design that
  could be built in 10 years for lt1 billion Euros
• Leap-frogging the competition or a
  bridge too far?
• Will ESO take some intermediate step?
• ESOs facility suite VLT,ALMA,30m?,OWL

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EURO50

• A Swedish proposal, with institutions from
  Finland, Ireland, Spain and UK involved in design
  studies
• Segmented mirror 50m, to be sited on La Palma

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ELT Cost Estimates

• The sort of figures that are being suggested for
  the cost of a 30m ELT like CELT or GSMT are
• Design US70M (funding sought by CELT/GSMT)
• Construction US700M (as estimated by CELT
  GSMT)
• Operation US50M / year (dep. on operating
  model)
• The cost of a 20m ELT like Magellan is suggested
  to be approximately half of these figures.
• N.B. usual rule-of-thumb scaling is cost ?
  D2.7, which would imply the cost of a 20m ELT is
  US230M, but this ignores development costs and
  fixed costs (e.g. site)

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(No Transcript)
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Recent Developments - CELT/GSMT

• CELT conceptual design completed in June 2002
• Caltech and UC founded CELT Corp. in March 2003
• AURA and CELT signing MOU to work together on
  design/development/prototyping studies
• Caltech/UC will get Moore Foundation (Intel)
  funds for next phase of design studies (US35M)
  AURA seeking NSF funds for design studies
  (US35M)
• Caltech expects to be able to fund 25 of CELT
  UC still looking for similar level of funding
  AURA would like 25-50 share of 30m

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Recent Developments - Canada

• Canada has its own well-developed ELT program
  (VLOT) and has formed ACURA consortium
• It would like either 50 of a 20m or 25 of a 30m
• So far, Canada has spent CA3M in design studies
  and has AMEC as a large and active industry
  partner
• In May, ACURA will bid for CA125M from major new
  funding pool (CA1300M)
• Canadian approaches to CELT/AURA have been
  somewhat frustrated by internal US politics

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Partnerships?

• What existing ELT program(s) might Australia
  join?
• CELT - no current interest in Australia as
  partner, except (possibly) through AURA
• GSMT - current focus on merger with CELT, and US
  30m
• TMT - some interest in Australia as partner to
  OCIW, Harvard, MIT, Michigan in Magellan 20m
• VLOT - Canada interested in a possible binational
  partnership with Australia
• Partnership with the OWL/EURO50 to be explored
• One other important potential partner is Japan

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Australian Context - Current Funding

• Total spending on astronomy is Australia is
  estimated to be 45M/yr (according to official
  government estimates)
• Funding for research and major facilities is
  estimated to be 36M/yr
• Major funding for astronomical research and
  facilities AUM
• Australian Research Council grants (inc.
  part Gemini) 9.9
• MNRF (23M/5yr inc. part Gemini)
  4.6
• Australia Telescope National Facility
  12.5
• Research School of Astronomy Astrophysics,
  ANU 5.5
• Anglo-Australian Observatory (Australian
  share) 3.8
• Total 36.3
• Note Institutional estimates exclude ARC/MNRF
  income, but include salaries for research-only
  staff teachingresearch staff are excluded.

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Australia compared to Canada

• Canada is planning to spend CA77.0M/yr
  (AU87.4M/yr) on astronomy research and major
  facilities over the next five years (including
  space funding and proposed new funding).
• Australia Canada
  AU/CA
• Population 19.7M 32.2M 0.61
• GDP AU880G AU1538G
  0.57
• GDP per capita AU44.7k AU47.8k
  0.94
• Astro funding AU36.3M AU87.4M
  0.42
• Future Australian astronomy spending on research
  and facilities would need to increase from
  AU36.3M to AU49.8M/yr (i.e. by AU13.5M/yr or
  37) to be in line with planned Canadian
  spending, based on the relative GDPs.

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Costs of Major Australian Facilities

• Anglo-Australian Telescope
• 1973 construction cost AU16M
• GDP-scaled 2003 cost AU43M
• Australia Telescope
• 1988 construction cost AU50M
• GDP-scaled 2003 cost AU86M
• 10 of 30m (or 20 of 20m)
• Estimated cost AU105M