Technology Nugget—Collaboration, Competition, or "Collabortition"?
  Mark Sirota, TMT Telescope Controls Group Leader

Astronomy is purely an observational science and as a result places high value on first discovery. Although peer confirmation is essential to all scientific discoveries; the thrill, recognition, and opportunity that a new discovery brings inevitably goes to those who are first. On the other hand astronomy is an academic pursuit placing great value on collaboration and the sharing of knowledge. So what is the manifestation of an environment where competition to be first and collaboration and sharing of knowledge are both the norm? Maybe we should call it a "collabortition".

The high priority that astronomy communities world wide have placed on extremely large telescopes (ELTs) is a direct result of the exciting and unique science that these technical marvels will make possible. It then doesn't come as a surprise that TMT isn't the only game in town. In addition to TMT, the GMT (Giant Magellan Telescope), a collaboration of US and Australian institutions, and the E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope), a collaboration of European countries via the European Southern Observatory (ESO), are actively pursuing alternate versions of an ELT. Additional information about both these projects can be found at www.eso.org/projects/e-elt and www.gmto.org/ respectively. So how does a "collabortition" between these "BIG" science projects actually work?

In practice competition manifests itself primarily at the institutional level in terms of providing strategic motivation and enabling resources. Meanwhile discrete low level collaborations are often encouraged at the project level as long as all participants can benefit equally over the long run. In other words, designing and building an ELT is a challenging and expensive undertaking; if collaborations can ease the fiscal and technical challenges in a balanced manner the collaboration may be embraced. On the other hand, and maybe more commonly, a collaboration may only go as far as enabling an open dialogue with sharing of ideas and learning. Either approach can be constructive and add value.

Both the TMT and the E-ELT reference designs utilize fully filled segmented primary mirror apertures consisting of hexagonal segments of approximately 1.4 meters in diameter. The similarity of the TMT and E-ELT primary mirror systems provide fertile ground for collaboration on a number of challenging technical issues. In addition to these similarities in size and shape, segments for both projects will be made using low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) materials and will require active control. Looking more closely, it becomes obvious that many areas of mutual interest exist; for example testing of segment blank characteristics; segment fabrication techniques and processes; segment handling, cleaning, and coating equipment and processes; segment control components and systems including actuators, sensors, distributed electronics, software and control laws; mirror alignment and phasing strategies, algorithms, processes, and instruments; segment support systems, and even mirror cell design.

Additional areas of mutual interest include the development and validation of wind models, wind rejection strategies, adaptive optic systems, and earthquake safety systems. As a starting point team members from the TMT and E-ELT projects recently participated in a video meeting that focused on identifying, in detail, areas of mutual interest and providing a forum for introductions. The meeting was well received by both teams and there is much interest in continuing and expanding this dialogue over the coming months and years.

The "collabortition" is off and running.