[asac] ASAC Meeting in Tokyo

[Tetsuo Hasegawa]

Dear Geoff and Pierre,

The entire plan of the next ASAC face-to-face meeting was discussed in the 
national committee yesterday based on Hasegawa's plan as attached below. 
Please give us comments to our current plan.  Before the next ASAC telecon, 
we will circulate the travel information (hotel bookings, etc.).

ASAC may need to nominate one or two persons from Europe and US to organize 
the Science day.  From our side, we two will join them.

With our best regards,

Yasuo and Tetsuo


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<The Main ASAC Meeting>

date: March 19 (Tue) - 20 (Wed)
venue: NAOJ Mitaka headquarter

agenda: We would like to raise the following two items:

1. Transition from 2-way to 3-way and the final form of ALMA in scientific 
perspective

With the inclusion of the prototype antenna and other ALMA developments in 
the Japanese FY2002 budget, now we have a firmer prospect for the Japanese 
formal participation in 2004 (or sooner).  In this circumstance, ASAC 
should play an important role in guiding the project so that the final form 
of 3-way ALMA is optimized based on the global discussion of scientists. We 
think the forthcoming ASAC meeting in Tokyo is a good opportunity to start 
this.  For example, 2G correlator and ACA are among the obvious topics 
discussed in this context.

For us to do this process, we need an up-to-date information of the 2-way 
project sent to the participants beforehand, which we examine and discuss. 
Based on our global discussion, we may want to give advice if necessary.

We, as scientists, should discuss our strategy toward the successful 
construction of the most powerful instrument.  It should accord with the 
strategy of continued funding for construction in the North American and 
European sides and the official approval of the project and getting 
sufficient funding in the  Japanese side.  This would meet our goal of 
achieving the best instrument through the politically complicated 
transition of the project from 2-way to 3-way.

2. Scientific operation

At the last ASAC meeting in Santiago, we identified the comparative study 
of single and multiple TAC systems as one of the agenda items for the next 
meeting.  With the bilateral project starting, Japanese scientists are 
anxious about to what extent the way of scientific operation are decided 
before Japan joins officially.  We would like to include this in the 
discussion.


<Dinner and a meeting with a press>

date: march 19 (Tue) evening
venue: NAOJ Mitaka headquarter

Japanese newspapers are interested in the ALMA project and the Japanese 
status in it.  A brief (<60 min) meeting with some ASAC members and the 
press may be set right after the first day's ASAC and before dinner.  We 
can state that ALMA is starting now, with Japan having a delay.  Good words 
from European and north American members on the expectation for the 
Japanese participation would be very helpful.

After the meeting, the press can join the ASAC dinner buffet.  We may enjoy 
friendly atmosphere and exchanging information.


<Associated General Lecture or Science day>

date: afternoon of March 21 (Thu) - Japanese holiday to celebrate equinox
venue: A hall with 300 seats in the National Museum of Emerging Science and 
Innovation has been tentatively reserved.
This new museum opened in July 2001 at the Tokyo waterfront will co-host 
the Lecture session.
http://www.miraikan.jst.go.jp/

The main goal of the session is to convey the exciting forefront of 
astronomical research and the prospect of more exciting science with ALMA 
to the general public with interest in science, with ages ranging from ~15 
to 60 or up averaging at
high school students.  Families visiting the museum on that day can drop in 
if they get interested.  We will send out invitations to people in MEXT 
(although not many of them may attend), in order to call attention by them. 
It is important to make MEXT people feel that ALMA is and will be well 
supported by the Japanese people and that Japan has a good role to play in 
it.  Press are also invited of course.

The session may be composed of two parts.

1. Lectures on Astronomy and ALMA (100 min total)
A brief description of the ALMA project will be given.  After that, 
scientific talks are given by European, North American, and Japanese 
speakers.  The European and North American speakers give lecture in English 
followed by Japanese translation page by page (of viewgraphs/PowerPoint). 
We need to nominate the speakers.

2. Discussion (60-90 min)
After a short break, we will have a discussion session.  It can be in a 
panel discussion style with the former speakers and a few more (e.g., the 
director of the museum, Dr. Mouri,  who is an astronaut himself, if we 
succeed to persuade him to come) on stage, exchanging discussions on ALMA 
in terms of science, technology, and society.  In the course of the 
discussion, we pick up the questions from the audience written in question 
sheets and collected during the break.  (The discussion will be made mainly 
in Japanese.  We will assign graduate students to give a minimum of 
interpretation to follow the discussion.  Picked questions from the 
audience are translated. )

The balance between the two parts may have to be adjusted as the 
preparation goes.  If we can have Dr. Mouri (he is famous) or someone else 
on stage, some weight may be put on the discussion part.  If not, we can 
spend more time in talks.

(the end of the text)
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Tetsuo HASEGAWA, D. Sc.   <tetsuo.hasegawa at nao.ac.jp>
ALMA-J Project Scientist
Professor, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
Phone +81-422-34-3780 / FAX +81-422-34-3764
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