The%20Thirty-Meter%20Telescope%20(TMT)

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The Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT)

• Richard Ellis, Steele Professor and California
  Institute of Technology TMT Board member
• Michael Bolte, Director, University of California
  Observatories and TMT Board member

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Why a Thirty Meter Telescope?

• The decadal survey of astronomy carried out by
  the US National Academy of Sciences called for a
  thirty meter class telescope as the highest
  priority large ground-based project in astronomy
  for the next decade
• To be built by a partnership of private and
  public sponsors
• To be operating to overlap the observing by the
  James Webb Space Telescope, its highest priority
  space-based project
• The Canadian Long-Range Plan for Astronomy had
  similar goals
• A thirty meter telescope will have 144 times the
  light collection area and 12 times sharper
  resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope

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TMT Project Scope

• Costs
• The current cost estimate for the project is
  750M (US, 2005)
• 25M - 30M annual operating expense
• Ongoing development budget TBD
• 64M Design Development Phase (DDP) is underway
• Schedule
• Construction start date 2009
• first light date 2015
• Facility lifetime 50 years

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The TMT Partnership

• Current partners (for Design Development Phase)
  are
• University of California (UC)
  
• Caltech
• ACURA (Canada)
• AURA (NSF)
• UC and Caltech designed, built and operate two
  10-meter telescopes at the Keck Observatory in
  Hawaii
• Design Development Phase (DDP)
• Currently 64M (US) is available from the Moore
  Foundation, Canada, and the US NSF to support the
  DDP
• Goal is Preliminary Design of facility, risk
  (technical and fiscal) reduction to level of 25
  overall contingency
• TMT Board of Directors is actively seeking
  additional partners

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Public-Private Partnership

• UC and Caltech have successfully raised private
  funds for construction of their various
  observatories (Keck, Palomar, Lick, )
• Private fund-raising for the TMT construction is
  high priority in the campaigns of UC and Caltech
• Canada is committed to raising 25 of both
  capital and operations costs
• In order to prepare credible construction
  proposals, we need to identify the source of
  operations funds in the next 12 months
• A new partner that could contribute 5M - 10M
  per year to operations would be very welcome

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TMT Site

• Require a superb astronomical site for the TMT
• Dark skies
• Stable atmosphere above the site
• Large fraction of clear nights
• A five-year effort of the TMT Project Site team
  is underway to characterize potential sites
• Robotic data collection underway at 3 sites in
  Chile, San Pedro Martir (Mexico), and Mauna Kea
• The most comprehensive (and ambitious)
  astronomical site survey work ever

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TMT Site Selection Process

• Quality of the sites for carrying out astronomy
  research is crucial to the final selection
• Additional factors will also be considered such
  as
• construction cost differentials
• operations costs differentials
• site permitting schedule and uncertainties
• arrangements with site host for share of
  telescope time
• shared infrastructure development costs
• Potential for partnership based on contributions
  to construction or operations
• Site testing will continue through Mar 07, final
  site recommendation to the Board in Mar 08

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Mexico as a Partner

• Mexico is a welcome partner given its record of
  leading world-class astronomical facilities
• By joining TMT, Mexico gains immediate access to
  worlds biggest optical/IR telescope
• Opportunities for UNAM to contribute to state of
  the art instrumentation including adaptive optics
• Outreach opportunities bringing young people into
  science and technical fields
• Builds on success of Gran Telescopio Milimetrico
  world-class research facility with Mexico-US
  collaboration

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Contact Information

• Ed Stone, Chair, Board of Directors, Thirty-Meter
  Telescope Project
• California Institute of Technology, Downs-218
• Pasadena, CA 91125
• 1 626 395 8321
• ecs_at_srl.caltech.edu
• Gary Sanders, Project Manager, Thirty-Meter
  Telescope Project
• 1200 East California Boulevard, MC 102-8
• Pasadena, CA 91125 USA
• 1 626 395 2997
• sanders_at_tmt.org
• Richard Ellis, Board of Directors, Thirty-Meter
  Telescope Project
• California Institute of Technology,Astronomy
  105-24
• Pasadena, CA 91125
• 1 626 295 2598
• rse_at_astro.caltech.edu
• Michael Bolte, Board of Directors, Thirty-Meter
  Telescope Project

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Backup Slides
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TMT Science Highlights

• Detection and characterization of extra-solar
  planets
• Star and planetary system formation and evolution
• The initial epoch of star and galaxy formation
  and subsequent early evolution of galaxies
• The growth of supermassive black holes in the
  Universe
• Observational tests of fundamental physics
• New discovery space

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SPM questions

• Permitting process, timeline and risks
• Construction costs specific to SPM
• Operations costs specific to SPM
• Arrangements for partnership with UNAM, Mexico
  and Baja California
• Astronomical weather compared to other sites