Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE140100013
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$300,000.00
Summary
A sensitive tip-tilt wave-front sensor for the multi-conjugate adaptive-optics system on the Gemini south telescope. A sensitive tip-tilt wavefront sensor for the multi-conjugate adaptive-optics system on the Gemini South telescope: This project will construct a sensitive tip-tilt wavefront sensor for GeMS, the multi-conjugate adaptive-optics system on the Gemini South telescope in Chile. GeMS is a unique and revolutionary new system that delivers near-infrared images at similar resolution to th ....A sensitive tip-tilt wave-front sensor for the multi-conjugate adaptive-optics system on the Gemini south telescope. A sensitive tip-tilt wavefront sensor for the multi-conjugate adaptive-optics system on the Gemini South telescope: This project will construct a sensitive tip-tilt wavefront sensor for GeMS, the multi-conjugate adaptive-optics system on the Gemini South telescope in Chile. GeMS is a unique and revolutionary new system that delivers near-infrared images at similar resolution to the Hubble Space Telescope at optical wavelengths over wide fields. With this improvement in technology it will be possible to do this on much fainter objects than is currently possible using this new wave-front sensor. This will allow GeMS to routinely study the morphologies of external galaxies at high angular resolution - greatly extending its science scope. Sharper images will also be obtained for all objects that are currently accessible, leading to higher quality science data.Read moreRead less
A systemic model to underpin enhanced management of powered-two-wheelers as part of a safe, sustainable transport system. Better management of motor scooters and motorbikes (Powered-2-wheelers or P2W) will deliver economic, environmental and social benefits. Road crashes involving P2Ws cost the Australian community in excess of $2 billion per annum. There are also the broader social impacts for crash victims, their families and communities from the potentially long-term pain, grief and debilitat ....A systemic model to underpin enhanced management of powered-two-wheelers as part of a safe, sustainable transport system. Better management of motor scooters and motorbikes (Powered-2-wheelers or P2W) will deliver economic, environmental and social benefits. Road crashes involving P2Ws cost the Australian community in excess of $2 billion per annum. There are also the broader social impacts for crash victims, their families and communities from the potentially long-term pain, grief and debilitating injuries. This project will provide insight into how the incidence and costs associated with P2W crashes can be reduced. In addition, congestion costs in each of Australia's capital cities are on the order of $3 billion per annum and there is potential for P2W research to reduce not only that cost but also the broader environmental impacts of travel by providing an alternative to cars.Read moreRead less
Peering through the Dark Ages with the Murchison Widefield Array. There is one large gap in our understanding of the early evolution of the universe, namely, when did the first sources of light appear? Resolution of this puzzle requires new observational and technical strategies, both in terms of telescopes and the analysis of observations. The Murchison Widefield Array, a major new radio telescope in Western Australia, is an international initiative under construction to tackle the problem. Thi ....Peering through the Dark Ages with the Murchison Widefield Array. There is one large gap in our understanding of the early evolution of the universe, namely, when did the first sources of light appear? Resolution of this puzzle requires new observational and technical strategies, both in terms of telescopes and the analysis of observations. The Murchison Widefield Array, a major new radio telescope in Western Australia, is an international initiative under construction to tackle the problem. This program will provide a significant Australian contribution at the forefront of modern cosmology.Read moreRead less
The morphological evolution of galaxies over cosmic time. Present-day galaxies look either red and round or blue and disc-like; this project will study galaxies that existed when the universe was one quarter its present age to understand how these different structures came about. To do this, the project will use a new high resolution near-infrared camera built at The Australian National University.
An upgraded pulsar timing array for gravitational wave detection. Millisecond pulsars are remarkably regularly-rotating neutron stars that offer the opportunity to detect gravitational waves via the technique known as pulsar timing. Australia has long been a world leader in the discovery and timing of millisecond pulsars, and the Parkes pulsar timing array is one of three major programmes in the world aimed at making the first direct detection of gravitational waves in any frequency band. This p ....An upgraded pulsar timing array for gravitational wave detection. Millisecond pulsars are remarkably regularly-rotating neutron stars that offer the opportunity to detect gravitational waves via the technique known as pulsar timing. Australia has long been a world leader in the discovery and timing of millisecond pulsars, and the Parkes pulsar timing array is one of three major programmes in the world aimed at making the first direct detection of gravitational waves in any frequency band. This project is designed to capitalise on Australia's position of strength in this field by extending the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array dataset (PPTA) so that it has the best chance of detecting gravitational waves in the nanohertz regime until the SKA pathfinders start to come online in 2017.Read moreRead less
Improving external validity of stated choice experiments. This project aims to deliver more accurate estimates of choice behaviour by reducing biases due to choice task complexity in surveys as well as design artefacts. Extracting 'true' preferences is challenging, not only due to possible hypothetical bias, but also due to increasingly complex choice tasks and the existence of design artefacts. This project will investigate the latter two in the context of marketing, transport, health, and envi ....Improving external validity of stated choice experiments. This project aims to deliver more accurate estimates of choice behaviour by reducing biases due to choice task complexity in surveys as well as design artefacts. Extracting 'true' preferences is challenging, not only due to possible hypothetical bias, but also due to increasingly complex choice tasks and the existence of design artefacts. This project will investigate the latter two in the context of marketing, transport, health, and environmental economics, and proposes new methodologies to extract preferences that more closely reflect true behaviour in real markets.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE160100031
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,000,000.00
Summary
Expanding our view of the Universe with the Murchison Widefield Array. Expanding our view of the Universe with the Murchison Widefield Array:
This project aims to build a Phase 2 Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) to boost the capabilities of the Phase 1 MWA by an order of magnitude. The Epoch of Reionisation (EoR), when the first stars and galaxies lit up the universe, is the last unstudied phase of cosmic evolution. The MWA is at the frontier of EoR research and all-sky survey astrophysics, is t ....Expanding our view of the Universe with the Murchison Widefield Array. Expanding our view of the Universe with the Murchison Widefield Array:
This project aims to build a Phase 2 Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) to boost the capabilities of the Phase 1 MWA by an order of magnitude. The Epoch of Reionisation (EoR), when the first stars and galaxies lit up the universe, is the last unstudied phase of cosmic evolution. The MWA is at the frontier of EoR research and all-sky survey astrophysics, is the only low frequency precursor for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), and is the only SKA precursor delivering science quality data. This project to construct a Phase 2 MWA would double the number of antennas in the array, double the maximum baseline length, and boost our all-sky survey and EoR capabilities. Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE160100014
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$550,000.00
Summary
VeloceCal: Hyper-Calibrating Australia's Planet Foundry. VeloceCal: hyper-calibrating Australia's planet foundry:
VeloceCal aims to deliver a hyper-calibration capability to Australia's premier high-resolution optical spectrograph, such that instrumental drifts will make an insignificant contribution to the system's Doppler velocity measurement capabilities. This would transform Australian capabilities for the measurement of masses (and so densities) for the lowest mass planets which will be em ....VeloceCal: Hyper-Calibrating Australia's Planet Foundry. VeloceCal: hyper-calibrating Australia's planet foundry:
VeloceCal aims to deliver a hyper-calibration capability to Australia's premier high-resolution optical spectrograph, such that instrumental drifts will make an insignificant contribution to the system's Doppler velocity measurement capabilities. This would transform Australian capabilities for the measurement of masses (and so densities) for the lowest mass planets which will be emerging from NASA's next-generation Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) from 2017 onwards. VeloceCal would play a pivotal role in determining whether the smallest planets found by TESS are terrestrial (like the Earth) or icy (like Neptune), and in unambiguously discovering terrestrial planets orbiting low-mass stars in habitable orbits.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE140100052
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$350,000.00
Summary
TAIPAN - a spectrograph to survey the southern sky. TAIPAN - a spectrograph to survey the southern sky: The TAIPAN spectroscopic survey of the southern sky aims to quadruple the number of nearby galaxies with measured redshifts, distances and velocities. Science goals include measuring the expansion rate of the universe to 1 per cent precision, and combining optical spectroscopy and radio data for each galaxy to measure the rate at which gas is being converted into stars in the local universe. T ....TAIPAN - a spectrograph to survey the southern sky. TAIPAN - a spectrograph to survey the southern sky: The TAIPAN spectroscopic survey of the southern sky aims to quadruple the number of nearby galaxies with measured redshifts, distances and velocities. Science goals include measuring the expansion rate of the universe to 1 per cent precision, and combining optical spectroscopy and radio data for each galaxy to measure the rate at which gas is being converted into stars in the local universe. This project supports construction of the TAIPAN high-performance spectrograph that will be used to carry out the survey on the UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST). The results of the survey will be made freely available to all Australian astronomers.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100104
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$740,000.00
Summary
Mapping the universe with the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (PanSTARRS). This project plans to build a powerful new observatory, Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (PanSTARRS-2), to be located in Hawaii. PanSTARRS-2 will have an enormous fish-eye-lens view of the northern stars, which we will combine with Australian telescopes to give a unique view of the entire sky. Australian scientists will use this data to solve fundamental problems in astrophysics an ....Mapping the universe with the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (PanSTARRS). This project plans to build a powerful new observatory, Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (PanSTARRS-2), to be located in Hawaii. PanSTARRS-2 will have an enormous fish-eye-lens view of the northern stars, which we will combine with Australian telescopes to give a unique view of the entire sky. Australian scientists will use this data to solve fundamental problems in astrophysics and cosmology.Read moreRead less