of damaging the primary mirror while performing this function remotely. We achieved
this by implementing a design upgrade that
effectively captured the overall project’s
guiding principle of doing the minimum to
obtain the maximum possible benefit.
The team will undertake the fourth and final
run only once all problems identified in the
first three runs have been prioritized and any
potential showstoppers have been solved.
This time, observers will perform all operations from the base facility control room
with no personnel on the summit.
If everything proceeds according to plan,
we expect to handover BFO to Operations at
Gemini North by the end of December 2015.
Implementation in Chile
During the fourth quarter of this year, we will
officially begin working on BFO at Gemini
South, with the goal of handing over to Operations during the third quarter of 2016.
While one might think that most of the work
required to establish BFO at Gemini South
would be very similar to what has been done
at Gemini North, there are significant differences. These will require the introduction of
some level of development before we start
to install, integrate, and test the work package products at Gemini South.
An Impressive Team Effort
BFO is the result of the effort and dedication
of many engineers, technicians, and SOSs
who incorporated this effort into their operations work in order to schedule tasks related to the project. Without their enthusiastic
participation it would have been impossible
to keep the 17 concurrent work packages
progressing at a steady state — from gathering requirements, to conceptual design, and
then to final design and implementation —
over a period of many months.
October 2015
Because of its nature, we believe that by the
time BFO is completed, everyone at the Observatory will have been involved at some level. This is truly an Observatory-wide project.
Special acknowledgments also have to go
to the people at the Canada-France-Hawai‘i
Telescope (CFHT) who shared many of their
lessons learned and important ideas on how
to develop and implement BFO at Gemini.
CFHT engineers and scientists were very patient and collaborative, especially considering our many visits (even at the beginning
of the night) to either ask for design details
or observe their facility operating remotely.
Their willingness to provide information was
always superb, and the information they provided was accurate and in-depth. We learned
much from the CFHT staff and management,
and for that we are extremely grateful.
BFO Legacy
Once BFO is fully implemented, Gemini will
be the first among the 8- to 10-meter-class
observatories routinely operating from a
base facility at night. This will save money
(important in this era of diminishing budgets for research), and reduce environmental impact on Maunakea and Cerro Pachón
(which was pointed out as an important and
welcome outcome at a recent Maunakea
management meeting in Hawai‘i).
Finally, Gemini’s remote operations will open
up new operational models. It is now possible to imagine observers in full control of the
telescopes and instruments, executing their
observations from anywhere on our planet,
and uniting our partnership in new ways
that we cannot yet even imagine.
Gustavo Arriagada is Senior Project Manager
in the Engineering Group at Gemini South and
leads the BFO project for Gemini. He can be
reached at: [email protected]
GeminiFocus
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