Instrumentation Program and forward look

1. Instrumentation Programand forward look

2. NOVA instrumentation programoverview • Research and instrumentation are interlinked parts of the NOVA program entitledUnravelling the history of the Universe: the life-cycle of stars and galaxies • The ambition is to stay at the forefront of worldwide astronomy • Because many discoveries are driven by new observational capabilities, astronomers in the Netherlands need access to state-of-the-art observing facilities covering the entire electro-magnetic spectrum, and beyond • NOVA’s strategy is to take part in the design and construction of auxiliary instruments for international facilities including ESO’s VLT and VLTI, ALMA, JWST, LOFAR and in the future E-ELT.

3. Access to observing capabilities • Through national membership astronomers in the Netherlands have access to the observing facilities provided by ESA (Herschel, XMM-Newton, HST) and ESO (VLT, VLTI, VST, VISTA, APEX, ALMA) • The national funding agency NWO, through its division of Physical Sciences, provides access to the telescopes of the Isaac Newton Group (ING) on La Palma, and to the JCMT (and e-SMA) on Hawaii • ASTRON operates the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) and soon also LOFAR • On ad hoc basis multi disciplinary collaborations provide access to non electro-magnetic “signals” from the Universe

4. National priorities to participate in next generation large facilities In random order • Assure LOFAR will be success for research in astronomy; pro-active role in preparations for SKA: ASTRON, with NOVA astronomers and industry • Major contribution to a X-ray instrument on board of ESA’s IXO mission and/or far-IR instrument (Safari) on Jananese-European mission SPICA: SRON, with NOVA astronomers and industry • Get involved in the European ELT through ESO; pro-active role in design and construction of an E-ELT instrument: NOVA, ASTRON, SRON and industry

5. NOVA strategy • NOVA acts as national home base for ESO • For this task NOVA funding needs to be extended beyond 2013 for a period of at least 10 years. • Permanent status is more in line with other organizations in the Netherlands with similar tasks (ESA, CERN, radio astronomy), or with practice in other ESO member states • Design and construct instruments for facilities operated by ESO together with • international partners on scientific objectives, instrument concepts and high-level division of work • national partners (ASTRON, SRON, TNO, technical universities and industry) on technical R&D and implementation of the NL work packages • have the core project team “in house” (NOVA astronomers plus Optical-IR instrumentation group) and outsource tasks where possible • invest in technical R&D for future instrumentation

6. NOVA strategy -2 • For good scientific reasons NOVA was involved in several instrumentation projects that have no link with ESO • Pulsar backend for WSRT (vdKlis, PuMa completed in 2005) • MIRI spectrometer for JWST (vDishoeck, on going) • LOFAR-DCLA (Röttgering, on going) • Gaia – pipeline software for photometry (Brown, on going) • This will also continue is the future • S5T (Keller/Snik) • AMUSE (Portegies Zwart) • Seed funding • Auger-radio (Falcke) • CTA-studies (Markoff/Vink) • SKA-design (vdHulst)

7. NOVA instrumentation programfrom strategy to implementation • Build key instruments with research objectives in mind • Capitalize on Dutch investments in world-class facilities • Provides priority access/influence on future developments (ESO, ESA) • Main focus on European Southern Observatory • Strengthen technical expertise at the universities • In collaboration with (inter)national technical institutes • Hands-on experience of existing and new staff • Training of new generation of instrumentalists • Active oversight by Instrument Steering Committee • National and international experts • Projects on track, ~on budget, and ~on schedule

8. Criteria for instrumentation projects • Challenging science goal that fits in NL context • Increases instrument expertise at NOVA institutes • Technical and managerial feasibility • Solid financial basis, including allocated NOVA funding • Attractive NL role in design and construction • PI employed by one of the NOVA institutes

9. Examples NOVA contributions to world-leading facilities • Mid-infrared spectrometer for MIRI @ JWST (2002-2009) • Assure the mid-IR spectroscopic capabilities (5-28 µm, integral field) • USA – European partnership • Europe: consortium of 9 countries + ESA, led by G. Wright • ALMA Band-9 receivers 1999-2012 • Assure ALMA gets state-of-the-art high-frequency receivers • NOVA invested 1 M€ in pre-design + knowledge transfer from SRON resulted in ~15 M€ contracts with ESO • Series production of up to 73 copies! • At present 30 cartridges are completed! • Spin-off: detectors for CHAMP+ @ APEX

10. Summary of program 2003 - 2009 investment (M€) • ESO 8.5 • VLT, VLTI, VST, E-ELT preparation • ALMA Band-9 9.9 • Space projects 7.5 • JWST-MIRI cold optical bench • Gaia photometric software • Other projects, including 3.2 • WSRT PuMaII (pulsar digital backend) • Set-ups for Sackler Laboratory for Astrophyscis • LOFAR DCLA • Seed funding / new initiatives 0.8

11. NOVA versus external funding • NOVA+universities fund ~40% of costs instrumentation program • In order to get external funding (through competitive peer review process) start-up funds are needed for early design, feasibility studies, and prototyping of high-risk components • In many cases NOVA funded project start-up or mandatory matching (MIRI, ALMA Band-9, X-Shooter, SPHERE, LOFAR-DCLA). Without these funds university astronomers would have much more difficulty to join projects • Without continuation of NOVA funding > 2013 the university instrumentation program will significantly reduce

12. Some characteristics • All NOVA projects for ESO or ESA facilities are collaborations with typically 4-6 international partners • Each partner designs and constructs sub-part of the instrument: examples are • SINFONI (integral field near-IR spectrometer): 2k camera (NL-PI: vdWerf) • SPHERE (planet finder for VLT): Swiss (PI) and Dutch (co-PI: Waters) together provide the imaging polarimeter • X-Shooter (0.3–2.5 µm spectrometer): NL contributed the near-IR spectrometric arm (NL co-PI: Kaper) • Project management procedures under ESO or ESA regime including, PDR, FDR and sometimes manufacturing readiness reviews, regular progress meetings, monthly written progress report. Details depend on project size and complexity • Hardware design and manufacturing through NOVA-ASTRON Optical-IR instrumentation group with NOVA astronomer as national project PI

13. Optical-IR instrumentation group • Since 1st Jan 2008 the group works under NOVA leadership and responsibility • Group is hosted at ASTRON in Dwingeloo; staff is employed by NWO. • Heritage: contributions to ESO VLT and VLTI instruments (VISIR, MIDI, SINFONI, X-Shooter, SPHERE-Zimpol), to MIRI on JWST; participation in four Phase-A studies for E-ELT instruments • Current contractual arrangements between NOVA-ASTRON-NWO run for four years (ending 31 Dec 2011); extention for additional 5-7 years is orally agreed. Head of the group: Navarro • On the longer term NOVA plans to move the group to an university campus site that secures strong interactions with astronomers and allows for strategic collaboration with SRON

14. European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) • NOVA objective is to participate in design and construction of instrumentation for E-ELT • E-ELT will enable transformational science • Modest investment in instruments allows influence on decisions that determine scientific capabilities • Instrument contributions will result in guaranteed observing time and early access to science harvest • Part of the funding secured through national ESFRI grant of 18.8 M€. Continuation of the NOVA Grant >2013 is a must to implement the ambition to become international PI for one of the E-ELT instruments. • E-ELT instrumentation projects will be carried out in collaboration with international partners. • National involvement is led by NOVA and with contributions from technological institutes, three technical Universities and industry

15. The E-ELT project • A project led by ESO on behalf of 14 member states and in collaboration with the European astronomical community • 42m adaptive telescope, segmented primary mirror • Will enable transformational science • 25x increase in collecting area compared to present generation • 5x improvement in angular resolution • Schedule: • Detailed Phase-B design phase: Jan 2007 – Jun 2010 • ESO Council decision for approval planned for Dec 2010 • First light: 2018 • Cost: • Telescope, including 1st hardware generation instruments: ~1050 M€ • Operations: 50 M€/year

16. NOVA strategy for E-ELT • Provide political support to ESO and the national ESO council members to prepare a go-ahead decision on the E-ELT under leadership of ESO; • NOVA’s prime interest is on the science and the scientific instruments; • On the longer term the aim of NOVA is to participate in two E-ELT instruments • In one as a major or leading partner (40% share) • In another one as minor partner (20% share) • NOVA has largely secured the required funding for the participation in the E-ELT instrumentation program.

17. E-ELT Phase-A studies • NOVA particpated in four Phase-A studies for E-ELT instruments (all completed by 1st April 2010): • METIS – mid-IR imager and spectrometer • European+NL PI: Bernhard Brandl • MICADO – wide-field imager • NL PI: Koen Kuijken • EPICS – exo-planet finder • NL PI: Christoph Keller • OPTIMOS-EVE – optical to infrared multi-object spectrometer: extreme visual explorer • European co-PI: Lex Kaper; NL-PI: Paul Groot • Expectation is that ESO will have a short list of 1st generation E-ELT instruments by June 2010.

18. Optical-IR and E-ELT forward lookon program • Program (2010-2018) includes • Completion of E-ELT Phase-A studies + follow-up • SPHERE-Zimpol (completed by early 2011) • MATISSE cold optical bench (up to mid-2014; 20 fte) • Technical R&D to further prepare for E-ELT • Feasibility study for use of sorption coolers • Advanced chopper technology for METIS • EPICS related studies: polarimetry of segmented mirrors, demodulating detector, extreme AO control, system engineering • PI role in one E-ELT instrument (~80 fte; 4 M€ hardware) • Maybe partner role in a second E-ELT instrument

19. Optical-IR and E-ELT forward lookon funding • Budget needs for 2010-2018 • Staff • Op-IR instr group + outsourcing (140 sy) 15.8 M€ • Support international PI (25 sy) 2.8 • Hardware, travel (excl ESO and partners contribution) 5.0 • Inflation (assumption) 2.4 • Contingency 4.0 • TOTAL 30.0 M€

20. Optical-IR and E-ELT forward lookon funding • Budget needs for 2010-2018 • Staff • Op-IR instr group + outsourcing (140 sy) 15.8 M€ • Support international PI (25 sy) 2.8 • Hardware (excl ESO and partners contribution) 5.0 • Inflation (assumption) 2.4 • Contingency 4.0 • TOTAL 30.0 M€ • Available resources • NOVA Phase-3 (2010-2013) 4 M€ • ESFRI grant 14 • NOVA Phase-4 (2014-2018) 5 • Request to NWO-EW 2 • Future NWO-large grant proposal 5 • TOTAL 30 M€

21. Conclusions • The NOVA Grant is an important ingredient in the strengthening of interuniversity collaborations, and key in undertaking challenging instrumentation projects for highly visibly observatories like VLT, ALMA, and JWST • Continuation of the NOVA Grant beyond 2013 is essential to maintain NOVA’s instrumentation program at current international level and to take-on the PI-role in one of the 1st generation E-ELT instruments • To be entrusted as instrument PI the NOVA position must be secure for at least the duration of the project ( request for ten year extension)