[mmaimcal] July 17, 2005 BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
Alwyn Wootten
awootten at nrao.edu
Sat Jul 30 14:01:23 EDT 2005
BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO
July 17, 2005 -- July 31, 2005
******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT*****************************
AUI/NRAO Signs Contract for ALMA Antennas
A Word of Thanks from the Director
On Monday July 11, on behalf of AUI/NRAO and the North America ALMA
project, I signed the contract with Vertex Communications Corporation to
procure up to 32 ALMA antennas. (See
http://www.aui.edu/press/2005jul11.html.) This was a truly momentous
occasion for all astronomers. As you know, ALMA is designed to
revolutionize astronomy, and the array's high performance antennas are
absolutely critical to its success.
I want to express a sincere "thank you" to everyone at the NRAO who
contributed to the ALMA antenna efforts.
Fred K. Y. Lo
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We delighted to announce that Jeff Zivick has agreed to take up the post
of North American Antenna IPT Lead. Jeff started his new position on
Monday, July 11, the same day that we signed the antenna contract.
Congratulations to Jeff on his new role and excellent timing!
Adrian Russell and Fred Lo
July 12, 2005
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Jorge Riquelme has joined the AUI/NRAO team in Chile as Construction
Supervisor on the 4th of July, 2005. Good day to start working in ALMA!!!
Jorge is a Civil Engineer with almost 10 years of experience in Supervision
and Management of Site development in large Industrial Projects in Chile.
His position will be based at the OSF starting next August. During July he
will stay in Santiago and have some trips to San Pedro, learning about and
getting involved in this fascinating project.
Please welcome Jorge Riquelme as the new Construction Supervisor for the
AUI/NRAO Site IPT Construction Contracts for ALMA in Chile
His e-mail is: jriquelm at nrao.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jody Bolyard, the Manager for Environment, Safety, and Security (ES&S),
is beginning a year long effort in Santiago in support
of the development of the ALMA Safety Program. This is effective July
11.
Jacques LaSalle has been hired as ALMA Safety Officer and will begin in
September.
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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 ALMA Calendar overview at:
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
*******************************************************************************
General Happenings
OSF: Site museum proposal submitted to Chilean govt. Provisional Acceptance
of the extension of the ALMA camp to 30 bed capacity will be on 15-Jul-2005.
Closing date of the tender for the construction of the Technical Facilities
at the OSF has been extended to 05-Aug-2005 September to result in
contracting
of the Work in October/November 2005. Construction start on the
Contractor Camp
expansion is scheduled to be in late July 2005 and completion is scheduled
to be in November 2005. Road construction above km 28 started on
09-Jul-2005.
Currently there are approximately 41 persons working at the site.
AOS: The contract for the construction of the AOS Technical Building
foundations has been approved by NSF. The building superstructure and
envelope has recently also obtained been approved by NSF. Mobilization
will start when the Contract has been signed late July, August 2005-
so construction starts shortly afterward. Science team on-site early August
for staking new configuration, removing old stakes, characterization tests
for WVR/Fast Switching plan, replacement of old battery complement.
Tucson: Design of the inner portions of the new configuration plan is
finished;
refinement of outer pad locations under way to include avoidance of vizcacha
colonies. The design now consists of ~185 pads in 29 configurations.
Emerson to lead System Requirements Review in CV 26-27 July.
Emerson organized and led teleconference to discuss ALMA OSF Holography.
ATF: ATF computer and network hardware upgrade/canonicalization completed
AOC: Work on slave laser in Central LO rack continued. Assembly of
central LO rack continues. Review of '2 GHz' LO design planned for 28
July in Socorro. Review of cable wrap design proposal was conducted in
Socorro.
Continuing effort towards System Sensitivity Budget vis-a-vis Science
Requirements and System Technical Specification.
Offline (AIPS++) test report finalized:
http://almasw.hq.eso.org/almasw/pub/Usertests/WebHome/Offline.Test3.Report.7july05-
final.pdf
NTC: The long-planned Delta PDR was held at ESO in Garching 6-7 July, with
the result that the PDR is passed with a list of action items and
recommendations.
The last batch of test equipment and hardware including LO Photonics
equipment
from Tucson arrived at the NTC; it is to be used by the ALMA FE and BE
groups.
This effectively closes long and distinguished history of the engineering
labs
in Tucson. Development of Line Length corrector will continue in Tucson, but
move to Charlottesville by August.
Installation of the final cables in the first quadrant of the correlator
began.
NAASC: New documents on Nutator were received from Japan and placed into
Science IPT area of edm.alma.cl for discussion, with notes to nutator group.
Telecon early August to finish science requirements on nutator.
*******************************************************************************
DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT ) see
https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
Mon 18 July
1100 am: joint discussion (Sci, Site, SE) of the configuration ground survey
Tue 19
10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon
11:30 PM-12:30 PM: NAScienceIPT teleconference
Archive: http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/
Wed 20
Thu 21
9:30 AM-11:00 AM: Management IPT Teleconference
Fri 22
Sat 23
Sun 24
Mon July 25
Tue July 26 All Day System Requirements Review, Charlottesville
Wed 27 All Day System Requirements Review, Charlottesville
Thu 28 All Day Antenna Kickoff Meeting, Dallas
9:30 AM-11:00 AM: Management IPT Teleconference (with Japan)
Fri 29 All Day Antenna Kickoff Meeting, Dallas
9:00 AM-10:00 AM: OSF Holography Telecon
Sat 30
Sun 31
****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS ******************************
ALMA Calendar--https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar
* Jul 26-27 -- System Requirements Review, Charlottesville
* Aug 3 -- ASAC Telecon
* Aug 4 -- ALMA Board Telecon
* Aug 25 -- Amplitude Calibration Review, Grenoble
* Aug 26 -- ANASAC Telecon
* Aug 29 -- Antenna meeting, Kilgore, Tx
* Sep 14 -- ESAC Meeting, Garching
* Sep 15 -- European ALMA Board, Garching
* Sep 22-23 -- ACA System Review, Santiago Postponed, probably to
Early Nov, Tokyo
* Sep 24-30 -- JAO/IPT Meeting, OSF Postponed, probably to early Dec.
* Sep 29-30 -- ESO Committee of Council
* Oct 1-2 -- ASAC Meeting, Santiago
* Oct 6 -- Rolling Stones come to Scott Stadium, Charlottesville
* Oct 13-16 -- ALMA Cost Review proposed, Munich
* Nov 1-2 -- ALMA Board, Santiago
* Nov 8-9 -- ESO Finance Committee
* Dec 7-8 -- ESO Council Regular Meeting
* Jan 4-7 -- URSI/NA, Boulder
* Jan 12-14 -- ALMA Zmachines workshop
******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS
*******************************
******************************ALSO OF INTEREST*******************************
SMA reports: No detections of molecular spectral lines from Comet Temple 1
have been reported from the SMA, JCMT, or CSO. An OH line (18 cm?) was
detected
by the GBT and an HCN line (3-2) as well as several CH3OH lines were
detected by the IRAM 30m. These results place strong constraints on
the rate of seepage of molecules from below the comet's surface.
* FIRST FRINGES WITH THE eSMA! mid morning, JUL 12. The JCMT was *
* inserted in place of Antenna 8, for this very preliminary test *
* at 260 GHz (using the SMA 345 GHz receiver). There was only 1 *
* GHz of common bandwidth, and no attempt was made to match *
* polarizations.
A call for new SMA proposals for the observing period NOV 1, 2005 thru APR
30, 2006 will be issued soon. The proposal deadline is expected to be
SEP 12, 2005. The announcement will invite proposals for "legacy
programs."
Workshop on Submillimeter Astronomy sponsored by SAO (the Power Point
presentation of most talks will be available on this site soon)
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/smast05
******************************************************************************
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