[alma_na] November ALMA US DH Meeting Minutes

[Carolyn White]

ALMA US Division Heads Teleconference Minutes - 2001-Nov-13

Attendees:  Glendenning, Kingsley, Mangum, Perfetto, Radford, Rafal, Sramek,
Webber, White, Wootten

U.S. Funding Status
-------------------
Rafal has no new updates on the funding status for the U.S.  Both the
House and Senate have passed the bill.  It is waiting to be signed by the
President.

European Prototype Antenna Status
---------------------------------
Kurz has announced that ESO may not continue the deal with EIE/Alcatel.
Other options are being discussed.  ESO is considering working with the
Vertex contractor to conduct a value engineering study to reduce the
production cost of the antenna leading to a second antenna which will meet
specifications.  ESO has already spoken with Vertex.  The major change in
the design includes replacing the machined aluminum panels with
replication panels.  This would provide lower cost production panels, but
an equal quality antenna.  If this antenna meets specifications, it would
be disassembled and taken immediately to Chile.  This would be considered
the first production antenna.  Replications panels are made by first
creating a master blank, meteorological panel, which other panels are made
from.  At the moment, there is no answer on how they will reflect.  A
preliminary target date for the European Vertex prototype antenna is
February 2003. If this antenna meets specifications, it could be on site
in early 2004.

Kingsley still feels very confident with U.S. prototype design from
Vertex.  Due to these activities, the antenna testing plan has been
changed.  We will not be comparing antennas.

Glendenning wishes to actually have the interferometer to continue testing
software, hardware, etc.  Wootten suggest that we make sure all items are
in good working order before taking them to the high site.  Rafal
explained that he does not necessarily agree with this.  All the hardware
at this point is in production mode; there is no reason to have crews at
each site.

Miscellany
----------
Webber asked how soon can some of the larger dollar amount items be signed
off.  Webber would like to get the money to UVA.  Rafal stated that we
should have information on cashflow next week.

There will be an AEC meeting in Grenoble November 28 - 30.  A draft of the
bi-lateral scope should be worked out at this time.  One item on the
agenda will be for the AEC to consider how to deal with the cost growth in
certain areas.  We will need to maintain the scope of $552.5 M.

Status Reports
---------------
Antennas - Vertex is still holding to the current schedule.  However there
are issues with the panels and some slippage has been seen in the
schedule.  Gasho will be visiting the Vertex plant on Wednesday.  We plan
to have the encoder testing done in early December.  The communication
test occurred last month.  Kingsley will contact Vertex about using photos
of progress shown.

Evaluation Receivers - Receiver 3 should arrive today.  The machine shop is
working on parts; we expect delivery at the end of November.  The holography
receiver should be complete by the end of February 2002.

ATF - Instrumentation for the ALMA Test Facility is slowly arriving.

Next meeting will be November 19, 2001 at 1800 UT.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

ALMA US Division Heads Teleconference Minutes - 2001-Nov-19

Attendees:  Brown, Glendenning, Mangum, Payne, Perfetto, Radford, Rafal,
Simon, Sramek, Webber, White, Wootten

There is no new information on the budget. The President did sign the the
aviation security bill.  However, we received the new increment from the
supplemental funding we are receiving from NSF.

Status Reports
--------------
System - Sramek reported on the visit to the VLA site from Mitsubishi.  The
Mitsubishi representatives stated that they plan to begin fabrication in
March/April 2002; ship to the VLA site in December 2002; start assembly in
January/March 2003.  They plan to have five Japanese on site and plan to
hire 12 - 15 local contractors.  Sramek then explained the current situation
at the NRAO; he also gave them the yellow pages to begin looking for
contractors in nearby areas.  The representatives stated they would need to
use the antenna barn for approximately six weeks; this is longer than we
anticipated, and some options were discussed.  The Mitsubishi
representatives were interested in OSHA, safety rules, etc.  Since all this
material is described in the original proposal, they should contact Ukita.

Sramek and the representatives discussed the foundation plans.  We will
charge NAOJ for the foundation cost incurred, including overhead, etc.  The
Japanese are in a very difficult situation at this time.

The tower installation is out for bids.

The AEC will be issuing a statement after the November meetings describing
what the ALMA Project currently consists of.

Computing -  The Japanese have asked to be able to continue involvement in
this area.  Rafal stated that we will only want to invite them to PDRs, etc.
The AEC announcement should make issues more clearer to all involved.  Much
effort has continued in the antenna simulator.  The high level architecture
document review is in the planning process.  The bi-lateral re-negotiations
with Raffi are going well.  There has been progress in the joint web group.

Front End - Payne submitted a metrology proposal to Kingsley and Baars.

Evaluation Receivers - Assembly of the hardware continues.  The quality of
the machine shop in Green Bank is very disappointing.  Shillue is having
difficulty getting new lasers to phase lock.

ATF - Mangum has requested new lab equipment for testing.  This has not been
dropped; no decisions on when it will be complete has been made. We are
slowly receiving weather station information.

Site - Radford is preparing for the next campaign on the site in December.
All seems satisfactory at the site.

Science - A configuration teleconference will be held next week.  The
configuration meeting will be January 21, 2002; at this meeting a decision
will be made on the final configuration.

Administration - Simon is working on organizing how we administratively move
to Phase II in accounting, etc.   Please send meeting information to
cwhite at nrao.edu to be listed on the ALMA web pages.  White has set up four
new email exploders for use by all (NRAO and non-NRAO) division heads:
alma_us, alma_e; alma_j; alma_c.  almaadmin and mmadivhd are no longer
activated. Plans to set up alma_nrao are in the works; this will include all
NRAO ALMA employees.  Once alma_nrao is created, we will remove mmawkrpt.
Members are listed below.  Please send cwhite at nrao.edu any corrections, etc.

alma_us:
	 aperfett at nrao.edu
     awootten at nrao.edu
     bglenden at nrao.edu
     bporter at nrao.edu
     cwhite at nrao.edu
     dsramek at nrao.edu
     ehardy at nrao.edu
     hliszt at nrao.edu
     jkingsle at nrao.edu
     jmangum at nrao.edu
     jpayne at nrao.edu
     jwebber at nrao.edu
     ldaddario at nrao.edu
     mbrooks at nrao.edu
     mrafal at nrao.edu
     pgray at nrao.edu
     rbrown at nrao.edu
     rsimon at nrao.edu

alma_c:
     charles.cunningham at nrc.ca
     david.crampton at nrc.ca
     david.schade at nrc.ca
     lorne.avery at nrc.ca
     peter.dewdney at nrc.ca
     simon.lilly at nrc.ca
     wilson at physics.mcmaster.ca

alma_e
     b.n.ellison at rl.ac.uk
     baudry at observ.u-bordeaux.fr
     dhofstad at eso.org
     ghtan at eso.org
     graffi at eso.org
     guillote at iram.fr
     jbaars at eso.org
     lnyman at eso.org
     rkurz at eso.org
     torben.andersen at astro.lu.se
     wild at astro.rug.nl

alma_j
     chikada at optik.mtk.nao.ac.jp
     ishiguro at nro.nao.ac.jp
     kawabe at nro.nao.ac.jp
     kotaro at nro.nao.ac.jp
     morita at nro.nao.ac.jp
     noguchi at nro.nao.ac.jp
     seiichi at nro.nao.ac.jp
     sekimoto at nro.nao.ac.jp
     sokumura at nro.nao.ac.jp
     tetsuo.hasegawa at nao.ac.jp
     ukita at nro.nao.ac.jp