...
This is the first LSST:UK Newsletter, so we should explain why it is appearing and why now. When we started the lusc-announce email list, we said that it would be a low-traffic list, and a number of people have told me that they appreciate that we have stuck to that, so that they know that any message they receive on the list will be significant. As we approach survey operations, there will more information to share with the community, and we have decided to aggregate the non-time-critical material into regular newsletters, rather than increase the frequency of emails on the lusc-announce list. Now seems a good time for the first newsletter because many people will be wondering what impact Covid-19 will have on the Rubin Observatory and on LSST:UK. As discussed below, we do not have the full answer on that yet, but we have some information now and will pass on more as the situation becomes clearer.
Newsletters will be circulated as PDF attachments to emails to the lusc-announce lists, with a table of contents presented in the main body of the email. A version will also be available on the LSST:UK Confluence Wiki site, since it is expected that many newsletter items will link to longer documents available on the wiki. Our intention is to produce newsletters each month with the hope that a regular schedule will encourage members of the LSST:UK community to plan ahead and provide updates on their work within the Science Collaborations and the STFC-funded LSST:UK Science Centre programme. Those with ideas for future newsletter items should contact the LSST:UK Project Managers (George Beckett and Terry Sloan: lusc_pm@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk), while everyone is encouraged to subscribe to the Rubin Observatory Digest for more general news from the US observatory team.
...
The US agencies are, sensibly, viewing the Covid-19 pandemic as an event to be managed outside normal project contingency arrangements, and the Observatory are currently discussing with them a “rebaselining” of the final stages of the construction project and the start of operations. The outcome of that will not be known for some months, but it seems inevitable that the overall project schedule will slip by something like 6-12 months, meaning that full survey operations are now expected to commence at some point in 2023, rather than in October 2022, as originally planned. On a more positive note, the rebaselining may allow the reinstatement of some activities that seemed likely to be dropped from the commissioning schedule when, earlier this year, construction delays were to be accommodated within the project contingency.
Consideration of the UK’s in-kind contribution to Rubin operations under the new model for international participation continues, but at a slower pace than planned, due to Covid-19. The Contribution Evaluation Committee (CEC, composed mainly of representatives of all the Science Collaborations) is still evaluating the Letters of Intent submitted by international partners. The CEC was initially expected to provide feedback on the LoIs by the end of May, but that has now been delayed to the end of July, with international partners then having until late September to produce full proposals for the composition of their in-kind packages.
Work continues within the STFC-funded LSST:UK Science Centre programme. Since this is mainly software development, staff are able to work from home, albeit with the inevitable reduction in efficiency, and with some staff particularly affected due to the individual personal circumstances. The Work Package most directly affected has been the sensor characterisation work being performed at Oxford, due to lack of access to lab facilities, but, as described by Daniel Philip Weatherill below, overall progress within that Work Package has been very good. Like all STFC grant-funded projects, we were asked, in early April, to provide an initial assessment of the likely impact of Covid-19 on our work and that exercise is likely to be repeated in the coming months.
...