ngVLA Antenna Prototyping and Early Science

下一代甚大阵列（ngVLA）是未来一个潜在的大型射电天文学项目，设想成为波长从2.5到250毫米的干涉仪。 美国国家射电天文台（NRAO）正在制定ngVLA 18米天线的设计、建造和运营计划，作为下一代厘米（cm）和毫米（mm）射电天文学的基石。原型天线将提供成本信息和洞察现代设计和材料的精确厘米毫米天线。 该合同支持新墨西哥州ngVLA原型天线的设计、施工、调试和性能测试。NRAO将利用为管理ngVLA而创建的大量文档，并提供适当的监督。 为了使ngVLA在灵敏度和角分辨率方面都有一个数量级的改进，需要通过该奖项开发下一代天线。 该天线的创建和详细测试还有助于将其他行业的技术进步转移到射电天文学设施和研究基础设施中。 由于ngVLA需要244个天线，因此天线及其电子器件必须针对可制造性、批量生产和低维护进行优化，以最大限度地降低总生命周期成本。 这种低成本、高性能的厘米/毫米天线平台使未来的射电望远镜具有更大的潜力，包括航天器下行链路能力的潜在重大改进以及南半球天体和地球参考框架测量的扩展。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) is a potential future large-scale radio astronomy project, envisioned to be an interferometer for wavelengths from 2.5 to 250mm. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is developing plans for the design, construction, and operations of the ngVLA 18-m antenna as the building block of next generation centimeter (cm) and millimeter (mm) radio astronomy. The prototype antenna will provide cost information and insight into modern designs and materials for precise cm-mm antennae. This award supports the design, construction, commissioning and performance testing of the ngVLA prototype antenna in New Mexico.NRAO will leverage a large body of documentation already created for the management of ngVLA, as well as provide appropriate oversight. To allow the ngVLA to deliver an order of magnitude improvement in both sensitivity and angular resolution requires developing the next-generation antenna through this award. The creation and detailed testing of this antenna also helps to transfer technical advancements in other industries into radio astronomy facilities and research infrastructure. Because ngVLA needs 244 antennae, the antenna and its electronics must be optimized for manufacturability, volume production, and low maintenance, in order to minimize the total lifecycle cost. This low-cost, high-performance cm/mm antenna platform enables more than future radio telescopes, including potentially significant improvements in spacecraft downlink capabilities and southern-hemisphere extensions of celestial and terrestrial reference frame measurements.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.