STELLA ANTARCTICA
Short Title: STELLA ANTARCTICA Proposal URL: http://classic.ipy.org/development/eoi/proposal-details.php?id=385 Dome C in Antarctica is potentially the best astronomical site in the world, with conditions close to space for some atmospheric windows. An extensive site testing program at the Concordia French-Italian station is underway. Comprehensive results of this program will be available during the year 2007. Small-scale astronomical experiments should also give their first results during the IPY. In 2007, astronomers will then be able to target precisely the best scientific and observational niches for astronomy at Dome C. A European network (coordinated action in the frame of the Large Research Infrastructure Research Programme's of EEC), named ARENA has just started in January, 2006, and is devoted to this task. Among the observational niches, some are already clearly identified : submillimeter wavelengths, high angular resolution, as well as Wide field IR and optical observations, and continuous observations over days or weeks. The IPY offers a unique opportunity to discuss with national and international agencies the frame for a large astronomical infrastructure in Antarctica and to undertake its development. The development of astronomy at Dome C, for which several French and international teams (Italy, Australia, China, Germany, United Kingdom) have expressed their interest, has to be carried out in several steps. The next two years (2006-2007) will be devoted to the completion of the site characterization in Summer and Winter. The development of small astronomical experiments will additionally provide a good overview of the specific operational constraints that any observatory will face on this site. In the meantime, the polar institutes and astronomical agencies involved in the Concordia station (INAF and PNRA in Italy, IPEV and INSU in France) will discuss, in collaboration with the Arena consortium, whether and how they wish to open officially Concordia to more international collaborations with the long-term goal of an international ambitious observatory on the site. The frame for international collaborations should ideally be determined before end 2006. On the scientific side, in 2006 and 2007 several workshops and symposia at the national and international levels will be organized with the aims to survey the scientific topics that can be addressed by polar astronomy. Our goals during the IPY are then: -to define the strategy for a development of astronomy at Dome C, -to propose it to the agencies and to have it endorsed, -and to increase and develop the funding process. This strategy should be based on the scientific questions that will benefit most from this exceptional site. It should aim at ambitious experiments: if indeed for some questions Dome C is the best site on Earth, we should build there the best possible telescope with the best instrumentation. The legacy of STELLA ANTARCTICA will then be a development plan for an international astronomical observatory at Dome C. This plan will have been endorsed by a consortium of national and international agencies, and its funding secured, possibly through actions of the European FP7, and possibly bilateral agreements with countries outside the EU. What can be foreseen is a development plan in two major steps: - A first step at the European scale, taking advantage of the existing Concordia station and the capabilities of the present Italo-French logistics. Such a European scale astronomical project could be considered in a range of 10-20 M during the next 5 to 10 years. - The second step could be much more ambitious and target a world wide astronomical project in the range of 500-1000 M. That will also imply a change of scale of the complete logistics, and must be considered at an horizon of the order of 20 years. Concordia would have then become one of the major world astronomical facilities, and be in the position of playing a key role, like among others, answering one of the fundamental mankind questions: where else in the Universe can Life have developed.
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