[mmaimcal] FYI: 5 Dec '05 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
Alwyn Wootten
awootten at nrao.edu
Wed Dec 7 15:22:36 EST 2005
Comments, corrections, clarifications or criticisms?
BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
Dec 5, 2005 -- Dec 19, 2005
******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT****************************
On 22 November President Bush signed into law H.R. 2862, the
"Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations
Act, 2006," shortly before issuing a Presidential Pardon to turkeys named
"Marshmallow and Yam" in the Annual Turkey Ceremony associated with
Thanksgiving.
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/11/20051122-4.html)
In the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction
Account, ALMA will receive $49.24M. This is the eighth consecutive
year of funding for ALMA appropriated by Congress.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It is our pleasure to inform you that Dr. C. Cesarsky, Director General
of ESO, and Dr. P. MautÈ, on behalf of the Alcatel Alenia Space, EIE, MT
Aerospace Consortium, have signed the procurement contract for the
supply of 25 antennas, with an option to supply up to 32 antennas, for
the ALMA project.
We would like to take this important event to thank all our colleagues
who have made important and significant contributions to successfully
achieve this very essential milestone of ALMA. At the same time we wish
to encourage all our colleagues to continue contributing with their
dedicated passion to make sure that this very challenging and
unprecedented project progresses to a success.
With best regards,
H. Rykaczewski, European ALMA Project Manager
S. Stanghellini, ALMA Antenna IPT Leader
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Report of the Cost Review Committee was received by the ALMA Board.
It is available (for those with proper permissions) on edm.alma.cl
(http://tinyurl.com/7prga) but public dissemination of the report awaits
Board discussion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A delta-Cost Review plus and an unassociated review of NA project
management will take place in January, probably on the week of 30 Jan
in Charlottesville.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A first world-wide conference on "Science with the Atacama Large
Millimeter Array" took place in Washington, D.C. (USA), on 6-8 October
1999.
The conference to be held in Madrid (Spain), on 13-16 November 2006, will
be the second world-wide meeting on "Science with the Atacama Large
Millimeter Array". This international ALMA conference is envisioned as a
way for the astronomers interested on ALMA, not necessarily
radioastronomers, to exchange views, to plan preparatory observations in
view of the scientific exploitation of the interferometer, and to obtain
the information needed to orient their scientific work to the best
possible use of ALMA.
The conference will cover a wide range of topics, which will indeed
include the main scientific drivers of ALMA: the formation and evolution
of galaxies, the physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium, and the
processes of star and planet formation.
Then web page for the symposium is http://www.oan.es/alma2006/
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Past issues of this Calendar may be viewed at
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html
See also the JAO ALMA Calendar overview at:
http://www.alma.cl/alma_project
***************************************************************************
General Happenings
Santiago: "Groups of galaxies in the nearby Universe" Dec 5 - 9, 2005
Providencia.
OSF: Currently there are approximately 126 persons working at the site
involving ALMA. The tender documents for the Vertex building area grading
at the OSF was released to bidders on 18-Nov-2005. Bids to be received on
05-Dec-2005. The tender action for the sewage treatment plant drying
facility has been completed. A revised proposal has been received.
Contract has been signed and work starts on 05-Dec-2005. The site museum
at km 21 is under construction.
AOS: Construction progress continues on the Technical Building; finishing
date is March 2006. See image
at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/AOSTBcornerstone.jpg
Rough Work for the establishment of the modified formation level of the
permanent access road from km 28 to the AOS is in progress at km 40.
AOC: AOS Internal Fibre Design scheduled for 1330 UT on 8 December.
Pre-production Optical DTS Mux ready for shipment. LO Photonics
photomixers delivery delayed to Jan 2006. (RAL) Phase lock of Photonic LO
was established after extensive cleaning of fiber cable at connectors.
ALMA Common Software (ACS) 5.0 released.
ATF: A. Symmes and N. Emerson met with FE & BE engineers at Socorro and
ATF to work out additional details regarding equipment layout in Vertex
cabin. Re-cabling of ATF Vertex racks for updated standards ensues.
Testing the software on the AEC antenna starts 2005-12-06
TUC: Draft Nutator specification under active development by Antenna IPT,
particularly N. Emerson.
NTC: Gain stability of Band 6 (1.3mm) Cartridge 002 was measured and
meets ALMA specifications. Bids were received for building modifications
in the Front End Integration Center (FEIC) needed to allow installation
of the test system. B7 (.85mm) and B9 (.65mm) cartridges No. 1 will be
delivered to FEIC at NTC by Jan '06 and March '06, respectively.
Intensive testing of the Tunable Filter Bank (TFB) cards installed in the
correlator and in the test fixture continued. Construction of correlator
quadrant #2 continued. This is Ray Escoffier’s last month before
retirement to New Orleans--Godspeed, Ray! R. Lacasse is working part-time
in the correlator group.
NAASC: Hibbard, Wootten in Santiago.
***************************************************************************
DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
Mon 5 December
Tue 6 December
10:30 am JAO/IPT telecon
Wed 7 December
Thu 8 Immaculate Conception Holiday, Chile
10:00 am ALMA Calibration Group telecon
10:00 am NA Board telecaucus
11:00 am Board telecon
Fri 9
8:00 am ALMA Operations Group telecon
Sat 10
Sun 11
Mon 12
Latin American Regional IAU Meeting, Pucon, Chile (through Friday)
Tue 13
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
Wed 14
Vertex receiver cabin lay-out document phone review.
4:00 PM: ASAC Telecon
Thu 15
Fri 16 Beethoven's Birthday
Sat 17
Sun 18
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ****************************
ALMA Calendar--https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
* Dec 7-8 -- ESO Council Regular Meeting
* Dec 8 -- ALMA Board telecon
* Dec 22 -- ALMA Board telecon
* Jan 4-7 -- URSI/NA, Boulder
* Jan 4 --- ASAC telecon
* Jan 6 -- ANASAC telecon
* Jan 9 -- ALMA Town Meeting, AAS
* Jan 9-12 -- AAS meeting, Washington
* Jan 12-14 -- ALMA Zmachines workshop
* Jan 28-29 ASAC face-to-face, L. A.
* Jan 30 -- Delta cost review
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ****************************
******************************ALSO OF INTEREST*****************************
---------------------------ALMA Postdocs-----------------------------------
2006 Postdoc Position at the North American ALMA Science Center/ALMA
Construction
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory expects to invite applications
for a NRAO Postdoctoral appointment at the North American ALMA Science
Center in Charlottesville, Va. These positions provide 50% time for
independent research, with the remaining 50% assigned to project
and operational duties at the sites.
The position is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation
through the ALMA Construction Project. See
http://www.nrao.edu/administration/personnel_office/careers.shtml#alma
---------------------------------------------
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The calendar will be issued between late Friday and sometime on Monday by
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