Email from Zoran Ninkov
FIRST/Planck
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To the Canadian astronomical community,
On behalf of the Long Range Planning Panel (the LRPP), I wish to express our sincere thanks to the community for your commitment and contributions to this process. The goal is to win new funding to support a broad vision of astronomical research in the coming, highly challenging 10 - 15 years. The very nature of our vision is multi-wavelength because the challenging astrophysics we wish to do demands it. From planet formation to exotic stellar astrophysics, star formation, galaxy formation and evolution, and on to cosmology; solutions to these problems will require a complementary set of telescopes and instrumentation, both on the ground and in space.
Our panel was assembled in July and August of 1998, and has had a series of face to face meetings at McMaster University in September, November, and February, as well as at DAO in December. A total of six subcommittees have been at work since September, interacting with the community and writing advisory reports to the panel in radio, OIR, space, computation, theory, and education. Most of the final reports of these committees have been now submitted to us. Many of these studies have been supplemented by the reports of additional working groups. These include studies of the NGST, the science drivers behind a Canadian Large Adaptive Reflector (CLAR) stand-alone prototype for the SKA, and a plan for a wide field CFH 8m. A goodly fraction of the community has been engaged in these exercises, as it must. These advisory documents will comprise the second volume of this study. Further community involvement was clearly seen at the 4 town hall meetings, at which more than 160 of you attended, from beginning grad students, to professors emeriti, to amateur astronomers. We can truly say that the coming report represents the integrated vision and wisdom of our community.
The main report, which is now being written, builds upon this depth of community consultation and interaction. It will be written in a way that should be understandable to any educated person. The report must reflect community consensus; without this, neither the government nor the public will take us seriously. It is the LRPP's view that the community has now achieved a consensus. Phase I of this process, consisting of the complete examination of our needs and a formulation of a broadly based plan, is well into the writing phase. Phase II will commence on the completion and release of the two LRPP volumes (planned for May 1). This will consist of our concerted efforts to interact with the government and public regarding our proposals. It may be the harder part. In the coming year, our entire community will have to convince members of government, the public, and the media, that our vision of astronomy is worth the investment of almost (very roughly) 150 million dollars over the next decade. This is not a frivolous number; failure to achieve a major portion of it will have severe repercussions for our ability to compete in the coming century. At this level of funding, it must be shown that many levels of Canadian education, scientific training, and industrial and technological development will be stimulated in addition to putting Canadian astronomers at the forefront of research.
Our document will make a number of strong recommendations. I summarize a few that were released after our 3 day panel policy meeting in mid February. Others will follow with the release of the LRPP report.
The panel will strongly recommend that Canada join the LSA/MMA (henceforth LMA) project as soon as possible. This is in accord with the huge support we have received from all astronomers across Canada, regardless of field/wavelength/research area; as well as the submissions of radio astronomers in the radio committee report, and other submissions. The LMA is, in the view of the LRPP, critical to the development of not just radio astronomy in Canada, but to astronomical research in general in this country.
In agreement with the recommendations of many radio astronomers that we have spoken with, our panel will recommend the development of a collaboration between the NRC and the NRAO towards becoming a full partner in the LMA project. As part of this collaboration, the NRC will be involved with other specific projects such as the development of high-frequency recievers and the construction of the new VLA correlator.
The details of these arrangments and others are being worked out in preliminary discussions between Don Morton of the NRC, and Paul Vanden Bout, of the NRAO.
In order to enter into the LMA project at a critical level, the LRPP will recommend that our commitments to the JCMT over the next decade, be allowed to ramp down as the various projects that we are engaged with, are completed. This will free us to employ our expertise in mm and submm receivers and related instrumentation in the LMA project.
We see that SCUBA will continue to provide exciting scientific breakthroughs throughout the next decade and that Canadian astronomers will make important use of it in this period.
The LRPP will strongly recommend that vigorous development of SKA design continue to be fostered by NRC. In particular, the support for PHASE B LAR (large adaptive reflector) design studies should be supported.
This design is very promising and could become a leading contender for the SKA project, should the latter be approved by the world community as its high priority radio observatory for the second decade of the century. The fostering of a correlator group would also keep Canada in a good position regarding potential SKA developments.
The LRPP will recommend that any decision regarding the construction of a post PHASE B prototype, be subject to stringent review. We will recommend a "mid-course" review of PHASE B results, as well as international assessment about the SKA program, probably in mid next decade. Should this review be highly favourable, the project could proceed as indicated below.
The LRPP will strongly recommend the establishment of a Prototype Development Envelope of funds that could be freed for the construction of proto-types such as the CLAR (Canadian Large Adaptive Reflector); should the review process decide to proceed in this way.
The development envelope would also be competed for, in principle, for support of a prototype VLOT design, should that emerge in the coming decade. The Panel wishes to ensure that Canada will be well placed in both the possible SKA and VLOT eras, to play leading roles in these possible facilities of the second decade of the century.
Canada should actively seek SKA partnership at the appropropriate time in the future if the world community, through careful review process, comes to see the need for such a facility. Canada should, by that time, be prepared with design work that could have a strong influence on the construction of the SKA; should that take place.
The Panel feels that this is an excellent, well conceived project that deserves full support within the NRC budget.
The LRPP will strongly recommend that the extension of the survey be continued to 2005, at which time it should be wrapped up. The scientific returns, stimulus to research, and fostering of NRC/University partnerships in important scientific problems were regarded as being very important by the Panel.
The LRPP will strongly recommend that our community implement a new wide-field, IR optimized 8m telescope at CFH as soon as possible. International discussions of such a possibility have now been initiated. This wide-field 8m telescope would be equipped with WIRCAM, and the megaprime camera could be redesigned to go with the 8m. A CFH 8m has every chance of being the highly innovative and competitive new workhorse of Canadian optical/IR astronomy. It would beautifully complement the science capabilities of the small field of view, Gemini telescopes. A thorough first study of these possibilities, authored by a large number of optical and IR astronomers across the country, may be found on the LRPP website. The panel will recommend the immediate establishment of a study team whose task will be to lay out a serious design and plan for this project.
We will recommend that Canada should own 40% of this proposed CFH 8m. This together with our Gemini nights, will guarantee Canadian astronomers the number of nights required to continue to maintain a vital OIR community. Without such a capacity, our community faces the real threat of being side-lined in the 8 meter telescope era.
The LRPP budget will contribute a significant fraction of the needed funds, but this committment must be kept in balance with the other vital projects to maintain an overall unified vision. The panel will recommend that the remaining funds required to make up a total 40% Canadian share, be sought through other Canadian routes.
The Panel will strongly recommend the immediate establishment of a design team to develop plans for a Very Large Optical Telescope (VLOT). This will keep Canada in the vanguard of innovative telescope design that is likely to become important in the second decade of the century.
The most natural step, in the panel's view, is to contemplate an initial 25 m VLOT design. This nicely falls into a natural flow of design steps that typically double the diameter of optical telescopes (ie, go from 10m to 20-25m). This size is also the minimum step required to complement the NGST in much the way that the HST and Keck provide well matched capabilities for imaging and spectroscopy.
The site of VLOT will be determined by a host of factors far beyond our control. There are strong environmental reasons that would probably not allow for anything in excess of an 8m telescope footprint at the CFH site.
Canada should actively seek VLOT partnership at the appropriate time in the future IF the world community, through careful review process, comes to see the need for such a facility, probably sometime in the second decade of the next century. It should, by that time, be prepared with design work that could have a strong influence on the construction of the VLOT, should that take place.
With best regards, for the LRPP, Ralph Pudritz
Email from Zoran Ninkov
FIRST/Planck
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