Construction Progress
In January, 2008 software billionaires Charles Simonyi and Bill Gates pledged $20 million and $10 million respectively to the project. The project continues to seek a National Science Foundation grant of nearly $400 million. $7.5 million is included in the U.S. president's FY2013 NSF budget request. The Department of Energy is expected to fund construction of the digital camera component by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, as part of its mission to understand dark energy.
The LSST was greatly encouraged by its selection as the highest-priority ground-based instrument in the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey.
Construction of the primary mirror, the most critical and time-consuming part of a large telescope's construction, is already well underway. The M1M3 monolith is being constructed at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory Mirror Lab. Construction of the mold began in November 2007, mirror casting was begun in March 2008, and the mirror blank was declared "perfect" at the beginning of September 2008. As of January 2011, both M1 and M3 figures have completed generation and fine grinding. Polishing has begun on M3.
The secondary mirror blank has been constructed and coarse-ground to within 40 μm of the desired shape. It is in storage awaiting funding to complete it.
Site excavation began in earnest March 8, 2011, and a construction progress website maintains two webcams showing live construction progress.
As of January 2012, the LSST site has been leveled, the primary mirror has been ground, and is awaiting polishing while the tertiary mirror is fine-ground. The M1M3 monolith is expected to be completed in late 2012. The design of the telescope buildings (dome, maintenance workshop, control room and utilities) is almost complete, and numerous telescope subsystems are having their designs fine-tuned. In particular the mirror support system, stray light baffles, wind screen, and calibration screen have been significantly improved.
Read more about this topic: Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
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