tise needed to complete the work, should
still submit a letter of intent and use our system to find additional partners for the work.
bility Studies (GIFS) Request for Proposals
(RfP). The project is part of a program that
will present to the Observatory several study
reports and presentations on communitycreated, science-driven instrument designs
that conform to desired principles identified
by Gemini’s Science and Technology Advisory Committee.
A total of U.S. $300,000 has been budgeted
for this project. Gemini intends to award
three or more fixed-price GIFS contracts, with
the maximum budget for each study limited
to U.S. $100,000. Gemini is currently looking
for science-driven, feasibility studies based
on a facility instrument that will cost between U.S. $8,000,000 and U.S. $12,000,000
to design, build, test, and commission in six
years or less. The RfP was issued on September 19th and is open worldwide, and not restricted to the Gemini community. The study
may be awarded to profit or nonprofit institutions or companies outside of the nations
that fund the Gemini Observatory’s instrument program.
Gemini encourages collaborations and will
provide a mechanism for groups to find additional partners to form a complete team
for this work. Thus, groups with some interest in GIFS, but lacking the complete exper-
January 2015
The following timeline applies: A Bidders
Conference was held on October 31st; notice
of intent to submit a proposal was due on
November 17th; and the deadline to submit
proposals was on December 15th at 23:00 Pacific Standard Time.
For full details, please visit our website here.
See update in January 2015 section (p. 45).
NGS Upgrade
Figure 3.
The TBAD receiver
unit mounted on
the top ring of the
Gemini North truss.
Figure 4.
Tom Murphy (center,
behind computer
screen), who
designed the TBAD
system, provides
on-site training and
characterization of
TBAD in Hilo for Gemini
and other Mauna Kea
observatories.
AURA/Gemini and the Australian National
University (ANU) have entered into an agreement to significantly upgrade the Gemini
Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics System
(GeMS) at Gemini South. The advanced technology of GeMS requires the use of up to
three Natural Guide Stars (NGS). These are
measured by an NGS subsystem, which
helps stabilize the images by removing jitter seen by the science camera.
ANU will design and build a new NGS subsystem, called the Natural Guide Star New
Generation Sensor 2 (NGS2). NGS2 will be
10 times more sensitive than the current
NGS subsystem and will operate with no
moving parts.
This is possible due to recent advancements
in imaging detector technology, which can
2014 Year in Review
GeminiFocus
47