As you are aware, the delivery of the Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph by NOAO will be substantially overbudget and will be delivered late. In addition to the inadequacy of management oversight, which failed to detect the fact that the formal reports on project status were not correct, we have discovered substantial problems with the original mechanical design. We are, accordingly, in the process of repackaging the instrument. The optical, electronics, and software designs were sound and will be retained. More details about why the management failures occurred can be found on the NOAO web site.
We do not expect the redesigned instrument to cost more or take longer than it would have taken to complete the original design, and the original design would not have met specifications. It is my understanding that the international Gemini project staff is much happier with the changed design.
Because most of the problems with this project were caused by NOAO staff, NOAO will cover the additional costs of completing the instrument. The total cost to NOAO will be approximately $3M, with $1M having already been committed and the remaining $2M to be committed in nearly equal installments over the next four fiscal years.
Much concern has been expressed about the impact on other NOAO programs of this $3M commitment to Gemini. The increased cost of the GNIRS will have negligible impact on the observatory relative to the impact of the pattern of persistent and systematic reduction in the purchasing power of the funding provided to NOAO by the NSF. Compare $3M for the GNIRS with the impact of the reduction in the purchasing power of the NOAO budget over the past 15 years, which at an average of $4.25M per year integrated over each of the past 15 years (see previous article) amounts to a total of nearly $64M in 1998 dollars in instruments that were never built and projects that were never started. At least the $3M for the GNIRS will ultimately provide a first rate instrument to the users of Gemini.
Sidney C. Wolff