The Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT)

1. The Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) Richard Ellis, Steele Professor and California Institute of Technology TMT Board member Michael Bolte, Director, University of California Observatories and TMT Board member

2. Why a Thirty Meter Telescope? • The decadal survey of astronomy carried out by the US National Academy of Sciences called for a thirty meter class telescope as the highest priority large ground-based project in astronomy for the next decade • To be built by a partnership of private and public sponsors • To be operating to overlap the observing by the James Webb Space Telescope, its highest priority space-based project • The Canadian Long-Range Plan for Astronomy had similar goals • A thirty meter telescope will have 144 times the light collection area and 12 times sharper resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope

4. TMT Project Scope • Costs • The current cost estimate for the project is $750M (US, 2005) • $25M - $30M annual operating expense • Ongoing development budget TBD • $64M Design Development Phase (DDP) is underway • Schedule • Construction start date: 2009 • “first light” date: 2015 • Facility lifetime: ~ 50 years

5. The TMT Partnership • Current partners (for Design Development Phase) are: • University of California (UC) • Caltech • ACURA (Canada) • AURA (NSF) • UC and Caltech designed, built and operate two 10-meter telescopes at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii • Design Development Phase (DDP) • Currently $64M (US) is available from the Moore Foundation, Canada, and the US NSF to support the DDP • Goal is Preliminary Design of facility, risk (technical and fiscal) reduction to level of 25% overall contingency • TMT Board of Directors is actively seeking additional partners

6. Public-Private Partnership • UC and Caltech have successfully raised private funds for construction of their various observatories (Keck, Palomar, Lick, …) • Private fund-raising for the TMT construction is high priority in the campaigns of UC and Caltech • Canada is committed to raising 25% of both capital and operations costs • In order to prepare credible construction proposals, we need to identify the source of operations funds in the next 12 months • A new partner that could contribute $5M - $10M per year to operations would be very welcome

7. TMT Site • Require a superb astronomical site for the TMT • Dark skies • Stable atmosphere above the site • Large fraction of clear nights • A five-year effort of the TMT Project Site team is underway to characterize potential sites • Robotic data collection underway at 3 sites in Chile, San Pedro Martir (Mexico), and Mauna Kea • The most comprehensive (and ambitious) astronomical site survey work ever

8. TMT Site Selection Process • Quality of the sites for carrying out astronomy research is crucial to the final selection • Additional factors will also be considered such as: • construction cost differentials • operations costs differentials • site permitting schedule and uncertainties • arrangements with site host for share of telescope time • shared infrastructure development costs • Potential for partnership based on contributions to construction or operations • Site testing will continue through Mar 07, final site recommendation to the Board in Mar 08

9. Mexico as a Partner • Mexico is a welcome partner given its record of leading world-class astronomical facilities • By joining TMT, Mexico gains immediate access to world’s biggest optical/IR telescope • Opportunities for UNAM to contribute to state of the art instrumentation including adaptive optics • Outreach opportunities bringing young people into science and technical fields • Builds on success of Gran Telescopio Milimetrico: world-class research facility with Mexico-US collaboration

10. Contact Information Ed Stone, Chair, Board of Directors, Thirty-Meter Telescope Project California Institute of Technology, Downs-218 Pasadena, CA 91125 +1 626 395 8321 ecs@srl.caltech.edu Gary Sanders, Project Manager, Thirty-Meter Telescope Project 1200 East California Boulevard, MC 102-8 Pasadena, CA 91125 USA +1 626 395 2997 sanders@tmt.org Richard Ellis, Board of Directors, Thirty-Meter Telescope Project California Institute of Technology,Astronomy 105-24 Pasadena, CA 91125 +1 626 295 2598 rse@astro.caltech.edu Michael Bolte, Board of Directors, Thirty-Meter Telescope Project University of California Observatories UC Santa Cruz, ISB-375 Santa Cruz, CA 95064 +1 831 459 2991 bolte@ucolick.org Further information: http://www.tmt.org/

11. Backup Slides

12. TMT Science Highlights • Detection and characterization of extra-solar planets • Star and planetary system formation and evolution • The initial epoch of star and galaxy formation and subsequent early evolution of galaxies • The growth of supermassive black holes in the Universe • Observational tests of fundamental physics • New discovery space

13. SPM questions • Permitting process, timeline and risks • Construction costs specific to SPM • Operations costs specific to SPM • Arrangements for partnership with UNAM, Mexico and Baja California • Astronomical “weather” compared to other sites