1. Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
News since the February update
Astronomy & Astrophysics Advisory Committee
Telecon May 2012
Fred Borcherding/Nigel Sharp/Kathy Turner

2. Budget and Schedule NSF MPS/AST DOE Office of Science/HEP
$7.5M for LSST Design & Development in FY13 request
Proposal for FY13-FY15 continued D&D is in hand
DOE Office of Science/HEP
$10M Major Item of Equipment request in FY13
Re-alignment of NSF/DOE schedules/budgets
For MREFC start in Q4 of FY 2014, completion of major construction deliverables would occur in 2019
Survey begins October 2021 after two-year commissioning
Total construction cost (including contingency, then-year dollars) of $457M NSF, $160M DOE, $39M private

3. MREFC Construction Funding (taken from FY 13 request)

4. NSF MREFC panel report
“[U]nanimous recommendation of LSST as the highest priority major science facility opportunity that should be the next project to receive NSF MREFC funds for construction.”
Conditional on completion of
NSF-DOE joint systems engineering review
Signed letter of intent with DOE, addressing individual agency and joint interagency responsibilities, in anticipation of completion of a detailed NSF-DOE Memorandum of Understanding

5. Recommended additional reviews
Separate cost estimation review – May 15/16
Total Project Cost (TPC) and methodology of PMCS were endorsed by NSF PDR in September 2011
Three external scrutineers to validate cost update (<$28M) and to consider cost and contingency substantiation
Detailed Systems Engineering and NSF-DOE Interfaces Review – May 30-June 1
Interfaces between telescope (NSF portion) and camera (DOE portion) to ensure that all scope is accounted for
Flow-through to science impact of any shortfalls in meeting detailed specifications

6. Interagency agreements
Statement of Intent between DOE and NSF signed 4/16/2012
Signed by Dr Brinkman and Dr Marrett
MOU to enter formal clearance process in May 2012
Declares scope of responsibilities, NSF as lead agency
“… the two agencies together will support the integration, commissioning, and subsequent ten-year prime mission operations of the integrated LSST systems”
Sent to OSTP/OMB with signed cover letter
MOU: advanced draft in iteration
Common baseline for scope, budget, schedule, and risk
Agency oversight roles and responsibilities
Integrated project office
Development of mutually agreed data policy

7. LSST data policy LSST Data Policy is still in development.
Data levels:
Level 1 – raw data off telescope
Level 2 – initial processing
Level 3 – derived info – catalogs with parameters, shapes, colors
Project is investigating financial contributions towards annual operations cost in return for data access, as well as other possible interests in joining the experiment, under terms yet to be negotiated.
It is not likely that there will be unrestricted rights to the data: there will be access levels. It is also likely that there will not be redistribution rights (e.g. to use for any purpose or project you like).
Initial position:
Transients – free, open, immediate access
Some level of raw data will be immediately accessible
Annual release of catalogs of Level 3 data
NSF-AST and DOE-HEP reserve approval rights over all agreements.