Dear Patrick,

 

Following the town meeting here is my input.

 

This bid is for infrastructure support for an instrument development facility for the ESA L3 Low-frequency gravitational wave mission.  More than 20 years of pioneering study/development work within the UK and elsewhere have resulted in ESA selecting a low-frequency gravitational wave space observatory for its L3 mission.  With a nominal launch date of 2034 the ESA rationale for early pre-selection was to give the necessary long-term stability to the science teams.  However, as science teams are normally funded by National Agencies, this has a presumption of UKSA funding.  The UK is particularly successful within ESA and current needs for M1, M2, M3 and L2 more than consume the existing budget.  For L3 the ongoing LISAPF programme provides support for UK hardware groups (Imperial and Glasgow) until the launch (mid-2015). The next L3 milestone will be in 2018-9 with a specific mission proposal (based on LISA and LISAPF) and if the UK is to consolidate its central position in this pioneering mission critical instrument development and transfer of leadership/knowledge to the next generation must happen.  This proposal is for an instrument development facility (£8M) for L3 to cover the period 2016-2020 after which central UKSA funding should become available.

 

I will also input this through the web-page

 

Best wishes,

 

 

Tim

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Prof Timothy J Sumner

Physics Department, Imperial College London

Prince Consort Road,  London. SW7 2AZ, UK

 

Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 7552

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http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/highenergyphysics

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