\svnid{$Id: astro.nsf.projsumm.tex 105 2009-08-10 18:38:35Z cmartin $}
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\section{Project Summary}
\label{sec:projsumm}

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%  statement of objectives
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% must clearly address (in separate statements)
%  intellectual merit of proposed activity
%  broader impacts resulting from activity

\draftblue{Project Summary (maximum length, 1 page). Describe the proposed major
research instrumentation, the type of research and/or research
training it will enable and make more tractable, and the activities
that would result if NSF funds the project. Proposals that do not
separately address both merit review criteria (intellectual merit and
broader impacts) within the one-page Project Summary will be returned
without review.}

Funds are requested to develop and deploy the telescope and facility
instrument for the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope and Robotic
Observatory (ASTRO) to be located on the ALMA site. The facility will
be optimized to perform large-scale, high-spectral resolution surveys
of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies in astrophysically important
lines at submillimeter wavelengths.  The telescope will have a 1.7 m
aperture and build upon the past success of the Antarctic
Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory (AST/RO). The facility
instrument will be a self-contained, closed-cycle, 64 pixel SIS
receiver with a modular mixer array that may be swapped-out for
operation in different atmospheric windows.  Molecular and atomic
species with lines falling in the 450 micron window ($\sim600-700$
GHz) will be initially targeted. The instrument is made possible by
recent advances in mixer, local oscillator, low-noise amplifier,
cryogenic, and digital signal processing technologies. The instrument,
\sctwo{}, will benefit directly from experience gained in the
development of the 345 GHz \scone{} instrument for the Heinrich Hertz
Telescope (HHT).

\subsection{What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity?}

ASTRO, with its large format heterodyne imaging array and arcminute
resolution, will be able to map hundreds of square degrees of the
Galaxy each year at wavelengths not routinely available at other
sites. This exceptional mapping speed will make ASTRO a
uniquely powerful instrument for probing active regions of star
formation and warm gas in our Galaxy and the local Universe. ASTRO
surveys will be used to answer fundamental questions about the physics
and chemistry of the star formation process, molecular clouds, and
evolved stellar envelopes. By comparing ASTRO's surveys to
those made at lower frequencies on larger telescopes (e.g. the HHT),
the impact of Galactic environment on these phenomena will be
realized. ASTRO surveys will also serve as finder charts for focused
research (e.g. with ALMA) while simultaneously improving the interpretation and
value of numerous contemporary surveys. These developments
will put Oberlin and its collaborative institutions at the forefront
of research and technology in this wavelength regime for years to come.

\subsection{What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity?}

A key project for ASTRO will be to conduct sensitive, large-scale,
\comol{} and \thirtco{6} surveys of the Galactic Plane, Magellanic
Clouds, and nearby galaxies. Definitive and comprehensive science
products from these surveys will be made available to the astronomical
community via the Web soon after calibrated maps are produced. The
anticipated richness of the data set makes delaying web publication
for a proprietary period unnecessary and unproductive. 

Nationally and internationally the impacts of this galactic plane
survey will coincide with three synergistic surveys: the FCRAO-BU
Galactic Ring Survey (GRS), GLIMPSE, a Spitzer Space Telescope Legacy
Program, and the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS), along with
overlaps on sources in the ``Cores to Disks'' Spitzer Legacy program and
Herschel GTO and Key programs.  As has been shown by these groups,
tremendous new insights are made possible by large surveys of this
kind, and that by freely releasing the data the entire community is
energized to explore questions that frequently were not even
considered by the original proposers.

The proposed effort is both multi-disciplined and
multi-institutional. Our team members have worked closely together
both on the AST/RO telescope at the Pole and in the construction of
the first \scone{} instrument. As with these projects, the design and
fabrication of ASTRO and \sctwo{} will be an interdisciplinary, team
effort involving students and faculty from astronomy, physics, optical
sciences, and electrical engineering. Astronomical instrumentation is
becoming ever more complex, requiring the talents of many individuals
to bring projects to fruition. Providing students with both technical
training and team-work experience increases their probability of
success not only within astronomy, but society as a whole.
