Development of the US Extremely Large Telescope Program

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The United States Extremely Large Telescope Program (U.S. ELT Program) will coordinate the activities of three organizations, the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), and NSF’s National Optical-infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NSF’s NOIRLab). Together these three organizations aim to provide access to two new and very large telescopes, the GMT and TMT, for all U.S. astronomers. This award will fund planning for this activity; it will not fund any construction activities. It will also support important development work for the GMT (no funding is being provided to the TMT). The award will help the GMT advance state-of-the-art technologies that will make sure the telescope, once built, produces the sharpest images possible. Important components of a prototype for one of the seven secondary mirrors and a system to support and maintain the shape of each of the seven 8-meter primary mirrors will be developed; a new “adaptive optics” systems will also be tested. At the same time, NSF’s NOIRLab will develop plans that would allow astronomers to easily use both telescopes and quickly access their observations. Young scientists and engineers will be involved in this work. Together, the GMT and TMT will allow scientists from diverse backgrounds to observe the entire sky as never before.The TMT and GMT are targeted to be built in the mid-to-late 2020s, provided that all approvals are in place. Under this Award, NSF’s NOIRLab will develop a plan to collaborate with both the GMT and TMT to secure observing time on both telescopes for the broader US community if the telescopes are ultimately constructed. The plan would enable transformational research using these two next-generation, ground-based, optical-infrared observing platforms. If constructed, GMT and TMT would be two of only three 20 to 40-meter class Extremely Large Telescopes in existence in the 2030s. The collaboration, dubbed the “US ELT Program,” would permit scientists anywhere in the US to lead projects that require large allocations of observing time on the GMT and TMT, taking advantage of their full sky coverage and diverse instrumentation and observing capabilities. The TMT and GMT would open a new discovery space in astronomy and astrophysics, enabling forefront research in fields ranging from the search for biomarkers in the atmosphere of planets around other stars to studies of the first light in the universe. The US ELT Program Office, which would, if approved, be based at NSF’s NOIRLab in Tucson, would be responsible for the scientific and programmatic coordination of this joint endeavor and for representation and advocacy of US community interests in the GMT and TMT. The US ELT Program would, thus, give a voice to US astronomers early in the development of these two very complex telescope systems. The award will also support development work on a number of important projects key to the success of the GMT. Deliverables for the GMT component of this proposal specifically target a reduction in cost and schedule risks associated with telescope system image quality. These include the development of laboratory testbeds for adaptive optics and the prototyping and testing of active and adaptive optics components and subsystems. These activities will ensure immediate and high scientific impact if GMT were commissioned later this decade. The US ELT Program presents an outstanding opportunity to engage diverse scientific and educational communities. Early career scientists and engineers from institutions distributed throughout the US would participate in this work. The experience would help them further develop and strengthen technical skills that would make them more valuable members of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) workforce. In the longer term, the US-ELT Program partnership has the potential to foster large scientific collaborations that would lead to increased involvement by a more diverse community of scientists from a broad range of institutions and demographic groups.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.