Abstract
Development of the SOAR telescope is currently underway. Project plans include many tactics for smooth assembly, integration, and validation of this new facility to be located on Cerro Pachon at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. A small project team has been established to manage and engineer the development of the major subsystems that are combined in this high image quality 4.2-meter diameter telescope. The status and plans for the development of the 28m telescope are discussed. A modest-sized facility building is under construction by CTIO, the organization appointed to operate the facility for the SOAR partners. Each telescope subsystem is contracted on a firm fixed price basis and will include complete performance testing at the contractor's facility before acceptance and shipment to the site. To ensure seamless integration, representatives of each contractor will come to the site for assembly and testing in place. They join personnel from the Project Office, the new operations staff, and the CTIO maintenance organization to form integrated product teams for subsystem integration, SOAR eases integration by using and mandating common, commercial control software. The contractors, the SOAR team, and the instrument buildings are making extensive use of LabVIEW/BridgeVIEW running under Linux (with real-time extensions as necessary) on compactPCI chassis. The telescope will include sufficient instrumentation, including a possible adaptive optics system, to allow system testing and optimization. An exceptionally large instrument payload ensures that instruments can remain in place upon the telescope as they are delivered and brought on line.
