The task during the Operations Phase is to make observations in support of the science programs in place at Winer Observatory and our funding partner.
After Commissioning is complete, the telescope is ready to begin routine science operations. Initial science observations by our partner will be on a "shared risk" basis, that is, with the understanding that they are using a new system with the potential to reveal hidden problems. After a few months of smooth operations, the telescope system will be declared fully operational. The Project Scientist will be retained as an occasional consultant, and the telescope vendors will be placed on small maintenance and repair contracts, primarily for control software updates and bug fixes, but also for hardware repairs that the observatory staff cannot handle. Other engineering staff will be released from the project, but because they generally will be from the local area, they should be available on a time and materials basis for consulting.
At this point, Mr. Trueblood, as PI for Project ASTEROID, will begin selecting targets for the telescope, scheduling observations, overseeing data quality, and ensuring the smooth transfer of data to Mr. Robert Crawford, a current collaborator on data reduction. Mr. Crawford is now in the process of developing automated pipeline data reduction software for the 20-inch telescope currently in use, and he will work throughout Project ASTEROID to enhance that software for the Project's data reduction pipeline. Mr. Trueblood will assist from time to time in the data reduction for targets of particular interest. He will also oversee the routine maintenance and repair of the telescope and its imager.
We expect the telescope to begin operations five years after full funding is made available. At that time, all but one or two amateur astronomers will have ceased NEO astrometric follow-up observations, due to the continuing decline in the brightness of newly discovered NEO's. And the next generation of professional surveys may find it challenging to be performing follow-up observations by then with regularity.
By picking a current gap and filling it now, we will make available to the NEO community, just as it is needed most, the resource that will make NEO survey research worth pursuing into the next few decades until these other projects mature. And, if one or both of the professional projects should fail to provide follow-up astrometry for any reason, Project ASTEROID will be there, in place and already operating, shouldering the burden of NEO follow-up.
As stated earlier, we fully support the McKee-Taylor decadal survey report that recommended the new professional surveys. We also expect these surveys will, eventually, be successful both in discovering new NEO's and in performing the required orbit follow-up astrometry. Our thesis is that due to the complex nature of these projects, it will take time for these goals to be achieved. When they are, we expect the need for our telescope to increase, since it is estimated that some 10 percent of all the NEO's these surveys discover will not be followed-up by the surveys. We do not want to be in the position of having one of these 10 percent on a collision course with Earth.
A properly managed project, guided by an experienced scientist and outside experts, will have a high probability of success. Using outside contractors with a history of successful performance building similar telescopes will speed delivery of this telescope. This will help meet the goal of preventing the loss of potentially hazardous objects sooner, rather than later. It will also fill the gap until other projects only now in their infancy come online years or decades from now.
Last modified: January 3, 2008.