Cost Estimates

 

Basic 8.4-m telescope includes primary and secondary, mirror cells, telescope structure, control system, dome, building [Basis -- guesswork; estimates for Gemini, Magellan, LBT, the 3DT] $50M
2. 1.1-m corrector includes ADC, cells, control system [Basis -- CTIO corrector (0.49-m), increased by diameter cubed] $4M
3. Spectrographs - 4 required @ $4M each includes collimator, camera, 3 grating sets [Basis -- assumes the smaller 4-m spectrograph will cost $3M plus detectors] $16M
4. Detectors, optical - 4 Mosaics required @ $3M each includes per Mosaic, 32 CCDs (2Kx4K), 8 controllers, dewar, window [Basis -- The 2 NOAO Mosaic CCD Imagers] $12M
5. Detectors, IR - 4 Mosaics at $4M each includes per channel, 16 2Kx2K, plus controllers, [Basis -- current pricing at $250K per 2Kx2K array] $20M
6. Instrument Computers, 8 required for data acq. @ $10K each, includes storage for DVD array or other archive medium Expected data rate is <50 Gbytes per night (1 DLT tape). [Basis -- existing Mosaic computers, and continuing decline of computer hardware costs.] $1M
7. Software includes acquisition, pipeline reductions, and archiving. Much of the software, including database and mining tools, will build on the legacy from the SDSS and the STScI archive. Further, we expect that external and diverse sources of funding and contributed software will be available to develop the "expert" software for higher level analyses (e.g., classification and statistics) [Basis -- other large software projects at NOAO; e.g., IRAF over its 15 year lifetime has cost ~$5M in 1999 dollars] $6M
Total  $109M

Updated on May 25, 2022, 9:53 am