Call for Proposals Readiness Review

In early November the Gemini Project and Observatory held a "Call for Proposals Readiness" Review. The Review Panel, Chaired by Fred Chaffee (Director of the W.M. Keck Observatory) looked at whether the Gemini North Telescope, its first facility instrument (NIRI), the Science Operations Team and the National Gemini Offices (NGOs) would be ready for our first "call for proposals". Their conclusions were instructive.

They were "enormously impressed by the state of readiness of the telescope and of the NGOs to receive proposals, manage the TAC process and forward the proposals to Gemini in a uniform way so they can be assembled into a combined classical and queue schedule. Similarly, [they] were impressed with the results of the immense amount of work that has gone into the web-based proposal planning and submittal process, and the training program at Gemini HQ for those charged with disseminating this information to potential users in the partner countries." The Review Panel however were concerned that "Gemini is attempting to break new ground on many levels-[for example] its use of queue scheduling, its serving of a global users community, [and] its eventual operation of two telescopes with a single team of engineers. We feel strongly that such an ambitious program requires a much higher level of readiness than ever before and believe that it would be essential to have a first-class NIRI [Near Infrared Imager] to offer its users at the beginning of Gemini Science operations". The Panel is concerned that NIRI and its associated detector systems do not yet meet the "higher level of readiness" required. NIRI has completed a very successful first cool down as a fully assembled instrument, however it will not be until the next cool down that we anticipate a demonstration of its scientific performance.

Therefore, before issuing our first call for proposals and setting a proposal deadline, Gemini will:

1. Undertake a further in-depth review of NIRI's performance as part of the planned acceptance testing of this instrument and its associated systems after its next cool down in January 2000.
2. On the same time scale, reassess the state of readiness of the telescope and associated systems
3. Ask, in line with the recommendations of the Review Panel, that all the National Gemini Office's and University of Hawaii conducts end-to-end tests of their proposal submission and forwarding processes.

We are planning to hold a "Science Operations Readiness Review" of the Gemini North Telescope in May of 2000.

Last update November 12, 1999; Phil Puxley