NTE

In late November 2014, the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) of NTE was held. Beyond the NOT involvement with various work packages, it also included preparatory work in collaboration with the NBI main project manager in terms of document control and revision, event organisation and general management. In January we received the sad new about the severe illness of the NBI main project manager, who currently is on sick leave until September 2015. Due to this, the NOT is contributing a substantial extra effort in project management towards the NTE to carry the project on through a delta-PDR, and to the Final Design Review with the least amount of delay.

As part of the redesign of the Cryogenic system of the NTE following the PDR, advice and information has been provided based on our experience with NOTCam and the use of CryoTigers. The modified design probably means the telescope liquid nitrogen requirements will be similar to our existing usage.

A continuous issue is the overbooking of the central persons in the project at the NBI. Their simultaneous involvement in the NTE, Euclid and the CCD project causes many difficulties, and seems bound to lead to more delays. The CCD project directly involves the NOT, as this concerns the new ALFOSC and FIES detectors, but it is hoped that this can be concluded in the coming months. The situation with Euclid is not very clear. As far as can been seen, the Danish involvement in Euclid seems to be let by DTU Space (Danish National Space Institute) in Copenhagen, and it is not clear what are the NBI's commitments towards Euclid.