GeminiFocus 2014 Year in Review | Page 49

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