US ELT Program Update

The US Extremely Large Telescope Program (US-ELTP) is a joint endeavor of NSF’s NOIRLab and the organizations building the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) and the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). Its mission is to strengthen scientific leadership by the US community-at-large through access to extremely large telescopes (ELTs) in the northern and southern hemispheres with coverage of 100 percent of the night sky. The two-hemisphere system would provide the US science community with greater and more diverse research opportunities than could be achieved with a single telescope.

In late May 2020, the US-ELTP partners jointly submitted three Planning and Design proposals to the National Science Foundation (NSF). The partners have released a statement regarding the submission of these proposals. The recommendation of the National Academies’ Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Astro2020), which is currently expected in the first half of 2021, and the readiness of the GMT and the TMT to enter NSF’s major facilities review process, would be important next steps. NOIRLab, TMT, and GMT are working closely together to prepare the US ELT Program for external reviews associated with further engagement with federal agencies.

In July, in response to an earlier proposal, NSF issued an award to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and NOIRLab for development of the US ELT Program. The anticipated three-year award includes approximately $5.6M to support the development of detailed requirements and planning documents for user support services that NOIRLab has proposed to provide for the US-ELTP. These services include a time allocation system for US open-access observers, proposal submission (Phase I) and observation implementation (Phase II) tools, adaptive queue scheduling systems for GMT and TMT, a US-ELTP data archive, support for data reduction pipelines, a US-ELTP data science platform, help desks, documentation, and training. NOIRLab will develop these services with particular emphasis on enabling research with TMT, GMT, and their data by a broad, diverse scientific community, including scientists and students at under-resourced undergraduate institutions. The NOIRLab US-ELTP effort will build on decades of experience supporting users of Gemini, CTIO, and KPNO.

The US-ELTP team at NOIRLab has started to collect use cases and to develop requirements for the proposed user support systems. In the coming months we will be reaching out to community astronomers for your input on these systems. Please stay tuned for further information on opportunities to contribute. We expect to present details at the AAS meeting #237 in January, and through other channels.