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