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Large Synoptic Large Synoptic Survey TelescopeSurvey Telescope

Update forAstronomy & Astrophysics Advisory Committee

February 2012

Nigel Sharp

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Summary – the LSST Project

•Probing dark matter & dark energy•Order of magnitude improvement

•Mapping the Milky Way•Formation and structure

•An Inventory of the Solar System•Potentially hazardous asteroids

•The Transient Optical Sky•Opening the Time Domain

A ten year experiment to reach specific scientific goals, with well defined deliverables

Not just another telescope – a data driven transformative discovery engine with a prime mission

Design driven by science requirements

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National Academies’ decadal survey endorsement

LSST ranked as the highest priority large ground-based facility for the next decade, due to “(1) its compelling science case and capacity to address so many of the science goals of this survey and (2) its readiness for submission to the MREFC process …”

Project supportEndorsed by directorate advisory committee at NSF, unanimously across all divisions

Several external and community reports

World leading: no other project can do this science

LSST ahead of all others to the point of having no rivals, only eager participants

Starting with a concept for a Dark Matter Telescope in 1998, presented at meetings through 1999, endorsed by the 2000 NAS decadal survey, and with over a dozen years of work and ~$120M of private and federal investment in design and development

A truly unique discovery engine, transformative in science, in education & outreach, and in data-enabled science & cyberinfrastructure

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Private construction Private construction supportsupport Private funding of $39M,

mostly already spent Uncertainty of private

investment accepted to enhance project’s chances & reduce risks

Innovative primary/tertiary mirror – important to retire the major risk of this unique design

Site preparation – risk of the unknown once work started

Detector development – risks in performance & delivery

Two vendors delivering

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Major Progress ReviewsMajor Progress Reviews

NSF Preliminary Design Review (PDR)2011 August 29 – September 2

““The Panel considers that the LSST project hasThe Panel considers that the LSST project has

met the requirements for PDR.”met the requirements for PDR.” DOE CD-1 ‘Lehman’ review of the Camera2011 November 1-3

The project met all the CD-1 prerequisites “and inThe project met all the CD-1 prerequisites “and in

some areas has even significantly exceeded them”some areas has even significantly exceeded them” Both review panels made recommendations

NSF and DOE should align funding profiles (CD-1) Conduct an independent (external) review of the interfaces between

the Camera and the other Observatory systems (PDR)

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Progress Reviews Progress Reviews continuedcontinued

Many of the recommendations endorsed steps the project had already planned to take External review of interfaces, especially between NSF & DOE scope Viable sensors demonstrated before first procurement Overall, more regular & more frequent external reviews Quality assurance, and total project systems engineering

Current coordinated funding requests NSF total project cost (TPC) $457M over 7 years, 3 months

Budget submitted from AURA LSSTPO >$100M in year 2 That was a technically limited profile that minimized the total cost to NSF Extended duration to synchronize with DOE camera funding (429->457) NSF profile still high in yrs 2 & 3 – this is a significant risk of increased TPC

DOE total $160M Now properly synchronized with NSF request

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Possible risks

No site risks. Preliminary site preparation with private funds found no geotechnical concerns

Environmentalpermitting in Chile completed: site impact mitigation well in hand

Biggest risks are budgetary

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Revised coordinated budget profile for NSF

On advice from NSF (AST & BFA), AURA LSST Project Office created to take over project management; LSSTC retains technical charge

Increases management fee but adds considerable confidenceDOE budget profile at CD-1 delays camera from minimum cost profileRevision of WBS adds a year and $27.7M to NSF’s totalPDR and CD-1 review both

validated project’s cost estimates

Increase not due to change in scope or project error

Full science operations now start in October 2021

MREFC Construction Funding MREFC Construction Funding NSF Facilities Plan NSF Facilities Plan (FY 12 Current (FY 12 Current Plan)Plan)

9M.Coles, DDLFP, LFO

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Revised coordinated timeline

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Operations Plan Scope: survey for 10 years, maintain throughput, maintain facilities Process data, produce near-real-time alerts & archives of raw images Full data and deep co-added images released annually Provide access to computer resources for analyzing data Assist the community in accessing and using the data

Estimate at PDR $37.2M/year ($US FY2011) NSF/AST $19M/yr; DOE/HEP $9M/yr (decadal nominal numbers) Amounts identified and allocated by NSF & DOE: ~75% of the need NASA interested but not committed Foreign partners willing to sign letters of intent to contribute at a

nominal rate of $20k per active scientist. Signatures from 63 institutions in 24 countries for ~$10M/yr; more interested

No problem raising the operating funds

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NSF & DOE Partnership – working well together NSF/AST and DOE/HEP have set up a Joint Oversight Group (JOG)

including the agency Program Managers, meeting regularly, and the JOG also has regular meetings with the project management team.

Synchronizing the very different processes of two agencies requires active, regular interaction through the JOG and frequent conversations between the Program Managers. Examples include: adjustment of overall project timeline and NSF request to match defined

DOE budget profile schedule of CD-3a (long lead time procurement) before CD-2 (project

baseline) to match NSF post-request approach to defining a budget profile Agencies are currently iterating the MOU covering defined scope and

responsibilities. Umbrella agreement declares both agencies want this experiment and will work to carry it out: some details cannot be known now and will be specified later and added as annex documents.

NSF as lead agency; defined unique contributions from NSF and DOE as per OSTP/OMB S&T priorities memo.

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NSF & DOE Partnership – roles & responsibilitiesOMB/OSTP Guidance Memo

“In requesting funds for large-scale S&T projects involving significant interagency or international collaboration, agencies should identify:

the lead organization for the collaboration; the unique capabilities brought to the collaboration by each partnering organization; and specific roles and responsibilities for each organization”

NSF is the lead organization, and has a long history of building and operating telescopes; more than 40 years in Chile, good relations with the Chilean government and astronomy community; numerous astronomical assets in Chile, which will be actively coordinated with LSST for follow-up; responsible for construction of telescope, site support buildings, instrumentation; responsible for operation of the telescope for the primary survey mission; responsible for oversight of Project Execution and Operations Plans;

DOE-HEP has unique capabilities in instrumentation (the camera); in the management & processing of large data sets; in scientific collaborations for design, fabrication, data-taking and analysis; in other large astronomical surveys, notably SDSS and DES; in project management and oversight; responsible for the camera & related instrumentation, and data management system items TBD responsible for scientist support for participation, especially to achieve the dark energy results

Similar concerns in NRC study on impediments to interagency collaboration

A Solid ProjectA Solid Project

LSST has a long history of community technical input Each subsystem has had numerous outside critical reviews Broad interest in collaborative engagement

LSST scope, requirements, & design are well understood Prototypes are reducing risk and refining design. All major subsystem requirements and ICDs in place. Diverse and experienced team working to develop LSST.

Agency commitments are strong and coordinated Adjustments to budget profiles Adjustments to review sequence and scheduling

Operations support ‘interest’ has become very solid In as much as possible, i.e. signed letters of intent Enough interest for redundancy and allowance for drop-outs

Risks identified Formally tracked, with mitigation plans and recovery options

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Privately funded site preparation post-permitting

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Backup Slides

Enormous Potential Enormous Potential for LSST EPOfor LSST EPO

Aligned with national priorities & standards Integrated with science mission of LSST Tuned to audience needs Public involvement adds value: required to

maximize the science output from LSST Broadening Participation; addressing national

priorities Integration of Education & Research A dynamic public web presence with interactive

participation in research A physical presence in classrooms and science

centers with active engagement with data products and research process

The right time to do it, with time to do it right

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LSST widely used by LSST widely used by non-specialistsnon-specialists

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31 million people visit US planetaria each year; 112 million worldwide

31 million people visit US planetaria each year; 112 million worldwide

Sky in Google Earth & WWT = tens of millions; NASA Twitter sites ~715,000 followers

Sky in Google Earth & WWT = tens of millions; NASA Twitter sites ~715,000 followers

~2,000 AAVSO Observers~2,000 AAVSO Observers

~10,000 Science Users~10,000 Science Users

~ 450,000 Zooniverse Participants~ 450,000 Zooniverse Participants

3,600 science teachers 72,000 K-12 students250,000 Astro 101 undergraduates3,600 science teachers 72,000 K-12 students250,000 Astro 101 undergraduates

Headquarters SiteHeadquarters FacilityObservatory ManagementScience OperationsEducation and Public Outreach

Archive SiteArchive Center

Alert ProductionData Release Production

Long-term Storage (copy 2)Data Access Center

Data Access and User Services

Base SiteBase Facility

Long-term storage (copy 1)Data Access Center

Data Access and User Services

Summit SiteSummit Facility

Telescope and CameraData Acquisition

Crosstalk Correction

One System, Two Continents, One System, Two Continents, Four SitesFour Sites

Additional Processing Site(s)

Data Release Production

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Massively parallel astrophysics - data enabled science

very large datasets allow for precision statistical analysis and an automated search for very rare events

A survey of 20 billion objects in space and time

High dimensionality data explorationautomated discoveryautomated data quality assessment

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40Tb, the same as the 10-year Sloan Digital Sky Survey, every night

Science – a frontier in data volume

A new window on the Universeexpect the unexpected

Transformative impact of sky surveyschange in astronomical culture

Probing Dark Matter and Dark EnergyThe primary interest of DOE and their reason for wanting this project

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Science continued

Mapping our Galaxy: the current best survey (SDSS, right) compared with an LSST simulation on the same scale

Finding Near Earth Asteroids – moving object pipeline

Unexplored parameter space – from ¼ to 1 million variables and transients per night – many per second

Why is the prime mission planned to last ten years?The point of diminishing returns: various survey quality parameters suggest you need 4 or 5 years to have an impact, and that gains continue for longer, but flattening out at around 9-11 years, when the different science areas have all been transformed

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Transformative impact of sky surveys

Best photographic survey Sloan Digital Sky Survey LSST - only 1/500th of a field

Current large telescope imager, compared to the above region, versus the LSST full field of view

A piece of the sky no larger than a thumb-tack held at arm’s length