Present Status of the ALMA Project

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• Present Status of the ALMA Project

IAU General Assembly Prague, August 24, 2006
Hans Rykaczewski - ESO European ALMA Project
Manager
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Scope

• Construct and operate a large array of radio
  telescopes
• 54 antennas of 12 m diameter (initial
  configuration)
• 12 antennas of 7 m diameter.
• Measure millimeter / submillimeter wavelength
  spectra
• 0.85 mm lt ? lt 3mm.
• Array in 5000m altitude in the Atacama desert
• (near St. Pedro de Atacama, Northern Chile) with
  
• compact (150 m) and extended (15 km)
  configurations.

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History

• 2002 Project started
• Bilateral agreement between North America (NSF)
  and Europe (ESO).
• 2004 Japan joined
• 2005 Project redefined / rebaselined

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Schedule

• 2006 Construction started
• Hardware production lines underway, software in
  development.
• 2010 Early science
• 2012 Full science operations

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ALMA Site
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ALMA Site
San Pedro de Atacama
ALMA Operations Site AOS
Operations Support Facilities OSF
Toconao
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Road to AOS
AOS Site (43 km)
OSF Site (15 km)
Completed up to AOS 43 km
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Road to AOS
AOS Site (43 km)
OSF Site (15 km)
Width of road 14 to 19 meters
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Road Culverts and Drainage Structures
Completed up to OSF
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The Operations Support Facilities - Area
General Layout Including Camps and Antenna
Assembly Areas
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OSF - Contractors Camp
At present for 150 persons at peak construction
for 500 persons
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OSF Vertex Assembly Area
Antenna Contractor Area (Vertex) July 2006
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ALMA Camp and Lascar Vulcan
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ALMA OSF Technical Facilities
Antenna Assembly Area (no hall)
Technical Building
Warehouse
ALM Building (deferred)
ESO signed construction contact beginning of
August 2006 About 6000 m2 net surface - Ready
Q1/2008
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ALMA OSF Technical Facilities
Earthworks at the OSF upper level is
complete. Ready for construction.
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ALMA AOS Array Operations Site Layout
AOS the High Site of ALMA (5000 meters) Data
Transmission, Computers, Correlator
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Array Operations Site Layout Technical Building
AOS the High Site of ALMA (5000 meters) Data
Transmission, Computers, Correlator
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Array Operations Site Layout Technical Building
The AOS Technical Building July 2007
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The AOS and the Centre of the ALMA Array
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The Chajnantor / ALMA Plateau
V. Licancabur
Cº Chajnantor
Pampa La Bola
AOS TB
Center of Array
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ALMA Antennas

• Demanding ALMA antenna specifications
• Surface accuracy (25 µm)
• Absolute and offset pointing accuracy (2 arcsec
  absolute, 0.6 arcsec offset)
• Path length (15 µm non-repeatable, 20 µm
  repeatable)
• To validate these specifications three prototype
  antennas built and evaluated at ATF (VLA site)

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Vertex Prototype Antenna at the ATF
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AEC Prototype Antenna at the ATF
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The Three ALMA Prototype Antennas at the ATF
Mitsubishi Antenna
Vertex Antenna
AEC Antenna
12 Meter Diameter, Carbon Fiber Support Structures
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Antenna Procurement

• North America AUI 25 antennas (12 m)
• Contract General Dynamics / Vertex RSI
• First antenna Q2/2007, last antenna Q4/2011.
• Europe - ESO 25 antennas (12 m)
• Contract AEM Consortium
• (Alcatel Alenia Space, European Industrial
  Engineering, MT Aerospace)
• First antenna Q3/2008, last antenna Q4/2011.
• Japan - NAOJ 4 antennas (12 m) 12 antennas (7
  m)
• Contract for 12 m Mitsubishi Electric
  Corporation (MELCO)
• First antenna Q4/2007, last antenna Q3/2008.
• Call for Tender planned for 2007 for 7 m
• First antenna Q2/2009, last antenna Q3/2010.

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Antenna Systems Analyses
Wind Analysis, 0 elevation
Global FEA model, 90 elevation
Thermal Analysis
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Antenna Transporters
Two transporters PDR held in July 2006,
delivery Q3/2007 and Q1/2008
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Similar Transporters
Transporters built for NASA transport
rockets. ALMA transporters WHL 10 m 6 m
15 m. Delay in production due to unavailability
of large size tires.
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Front End Assemblies
Three Identical Front End Integration
Centres North America (NRAO), Europe (RAL), and
Asia (Taiwan)
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Front End Cryostats
All cryostats will be assembled at RAL and
shipped to the three Front End Integration
Centres. First four cryostats accepted.
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Frequency Bands Covered by ALMA
Japan
North America
Europe
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Cartridge Production

• Band 3 (HIA, Canada)
• Assembly of third cartridge in progress.
• Band 6 (NRAO, USA)
• Three cartridges assembled.
• Band 7 (IRAM, France)
• Five cartridges assembled. First cartridge
  accepted at NA FEIC.
• Band 9 (SRON, The Netherlands)
• First cartridge assembled.

Band 9
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Band 7 Noise Performance
Band 7
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Data Transmission Front End to Correlator
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Back End 4 GHz Digitizer

• Status
• Layout was optimized to reduce number of parts
  and assembly costs.
• Improved performance and reliability.
• The first four digitizer units tested at
  University of Bordeaux. Already shipped to NRAO
  to replace prototypes and to be used at ATF.
• New features (more diagnostics and remote
  operation) under evaluation.

Prototype Digitizer
Production Digitizer
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Back End Optical Data Transmission System
Complete DTS transmitter including Solid State
Optical Transmitters (3 channels)
Optical Transmitters (3 chanels)

• Technology advance
• Original Discrete Design
• (2002) replaced (2005) by
• Solid State Components for
• higher performances, better
• reliability and lower cost.
• Reduced size by a factor
• of three.

Optical Receivers (3 channels)
Complete DTS receiver including Solid State
Optical Receivers (3 channels)

• Status
• Complete DTS link verified in laboratory tests.
• Ready for tests at the ATF.

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Tunable Filter Bank

• Status
• The production version of the TFB, based on
  STRATIX II technology was successfully tested
  with the correlator at NRAO.
• A Critical Design Review was held in April
  confirming the readiness of the design for the
  series production.
• Contract for series production placed.

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The Correlator
First of four Correlators at NRAO

• 2912 printed circuit boards
• 5200 interface cables
• More than 20 million solder joints
• First quadrant completed Q3/2007

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Trilateral Computing Organisation

• The output will be a 2M lines of code.
• Software system running on over 200 computers on
  4 continents.
• Difficult distributed development software
  engineering practices, travel.

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The ALMA Test Facilities in Socorro

• The Vertex and AEC prototypes are operational at
  the ATF. They are being used for the Prototype
  System Integration activities.

• With prototype front ends, local oscillator, back
  ends, data transmission, correlator and software.
  
• First fringes are expected in September / October
  2006.

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Schedule Overview

• First Fringes ATF September / October 2006
• AOS, OSF construction complete Q1/2008
• Antennas 1 2007, 2 2007 50 2011
• Front Ends 1 2007, production
• DTS production
• Correlator Quadr. 1 complete, ... Quadr. 4 2008
• Call for Early Science March 2009
• Early Science January 2010
• Full Operations September 2012

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Conclusions

• During the last year ALMA has achieved major
  milestones
• Rebaselining completed, successful ALMA Cost
  Review
• Budget approvals by ESO and NSF
• Placing the contracts for antennas and the
  transporters
• Important progress has been made on various
  construction projects at the site
• Completion of the access road
• AOS Technical Building
• Earthworks at the OSF, antenna contractors lay
  down area

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Conclusions

• Other big construction projects planned to start
  soon
• OSF Technical Facilities
• Antenna Foundations
• First Band 7 cartridge accepted.
• Bands 3, 6, and 7 on schedule.
• Starting transition from prototyping, development
  and pre-production to serial production for
  several procurements concerning Front End and
  Back End.