HISTORICAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE MMA

In 1983, a committee chaired by Alan Barrett (other committee members were Charles J. Lada, Patrick Palmer, Lewis E. Snyder, and William J. Welch) suggested priorities for the future of millimeter and sub-millimeter astronomy at the request of the National Science Foundation. A design study for a national millimeter-wavelength array was requested by the committee, among its three recommendations. From this grew the specific ideas for such an array described in the Millimeter Array Design Concept.

Since 1983, the Berkeley Radio Astronomy Laboratory's interferometer at Hat Creek, the California Institute of Techonology interferometer at Owens Valley, the Nobeyama Millimeter Array and the IRAM array at the Plateau de Bure in France have demonstrated the wisdom of the subcommittee's advice, providing a wealth of science impacting nearly every field of astronomy. With the advent of infrared imaging arrays, our view of the cool thermal matter around us has sharpened.

The first Millimeter Array Science Workshop was held in autumn, 1985. At this workshop, the scientific goals for a millimeter array were discussed, and recommendations were made for design parameters for an array which might address these goals. The proceedings of that workshop were published as Science with a Millimeter Array, MMA Design Study Volume I. From the parameters established by the workshop, the design concept for the Millimeter Array was created and described in Millimeter Array Design Concept, MMA Design Study Volume II. A second Millimeter Array Science Workshop was held in November 1989 to update the scientific goals and array design preparatory to a proposal for the construction of a Millimeter Array. The second workshop was held to review scientific progress, and discuss the impact of current and planned instrumentation on the scientific case for the MMA. The proceedings of that second workshop are available.

In September 1990 Associated Universities, Incorporated, submitted a proposal for the MMA to the National Science Foundation (NSF). In May 1991, the National Academy of Sciences Decade Review of Astronomy recommended the MMA as one of two major initiatives in ground-based astronomy for the decade of the 1990s. In October 1991, the NSF Advisory Committee for the Astronomical Sciences endorsed the MMA in two phases: detailed design followed by construction. In March 1992, the Division of Astronomical Sciences of the NSF asked for a three year plan for the detailed design of the MMA, which was submitted in September 1992. NRAO is pursuing the detailed design pending funding from the NSF.

On 18 November 1994, the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation approved a Project Development Plan for NRAO's proposed Millimeter Array (MMA). With this action, the MMA has become a project of the National Science Foundation and is eligible for funding.

Congress approved funding for the Design and Development in the Fall of 1997 and this phase of the project commenced on 1 June 1998. A second year of funding has also been approved. This phase of the project is expected to last three years, ending after prototype antenna delivery on 1 June 2001.

The Site

Since 1995, we have been testing fantastic millimeter sites on Mauna Kea and in Chile. These sites have such good transparancy and phase stability that they are redfining the way the MMA will be used, permitting submillimeter wavelength observations for a large fraction of the time. In May, 1998, Llano Chajnantor, Chile was chosen as the location of the Millimeter Array.

International Collaborations

International activities have paralleled these developments. In June, 1995 NRAO and Japanese astronomers signed a memorandum of understanding, forging a partnership in pursuing the goal of jointly investigating Chilean sites. A workshop on combination of the MMA with a Japanese array, the LMSA, planned for the site, was held in March, 1997 followed by a technical workshop in December 1997 in Hawaii.

A technical workshop to discuss combination of the MMA with a European array plan, the LSA, was held in March 1998. On 1998 September 15, the ESO Council stressed its enthusiasm for the project. In December, 1998, European entities signed a Memorandum of Understanding committing resources to pursuit of a design and development program coordinated with that underway at NRAO. The signatories resolved to negotiate with NSF and NRAO on the development of an international millimeter and submillimeter array project. The first of these negotiations occurred 20 January, 1999 in Washington.



Last modified 25 January 1999