ARGOS Conceptual Design Study: Designing a next-generation radio facility for multi-messenger astronomy

Project Information

ARGOS-CDS

Grant agreement ID: 101094354

DOI

10.3030/101094354

Project closed

EC signature date 2 December 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 30 June 2026

Funded under

• Research infrastructures

Total cost

€ 3 000 000,00

EU contribution

€ 3 000 000,00

Coordinated by

IDRYMA TECHNOLOGIAS KAI EREVNAS
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ARGOS-CDS (ARGOS Conceptual Design Study: Designing a next-generation radio facility for multi-messengerastronomy)

Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2023-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Astronomy is being transformed by surveys performed with instruments capable of searching the sky multi-messenger
signals with high speed and sensitivity, while delivering science-read datasets to the community. While radio astronomy
is not yet fully participating in this revolution, it is clear that an instrument following the same philosophy, that would
finally open up the dynamic radio sky for exploration, is not only urgent but inevitable.

ARGOS is a concept (TRL2) for a leading-edge, low-cost, sustainable European astronomical facility that will finally
realize this ambition, directly addressing multiple fundamental scientific questions, from the nature of dark matter and
dark energy to the origin of fast radio bursts and the properties of extreme gravity. ARGOS will enable, for the first
time, continuous wide-field monitoring of the sky at centimetre wavelengths, while publicly distributing science-ready
data and alerts in real time.

To make the strategic scientific need for such a facility clear and accessible to funding and policy bodies, a detailed
design study is necessary. This should include technical studies, community groundwork and prototyping, as well as
quantitative cost-to-benefit analysis, well-calibrated project budget, and assessments of scientific and socioeconomic
impact, sustainability, technological readiness and innovation needs. The ARGOS-CDS vision is to deliver a conceptual
design study to fully prepare the subsequent rapid implementation of a leading-edge public radio facility on European
grounds and ensure its optimal integration into the network of existing and future international astronomical facilities.
ARGOS-CDS will achieve this by directly addressing the aforementioned challenges via an integrated systems engineering
approach. The project will also produce cutting-edge science, big-data and artificial intelligence technologies
with significant scientific impact and lasting spill-over societal benefits.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

ARGOS is currently undergoing a definition and preliminary design phase.

The main objective during this phase is to finalize the level 0 science requirements and the corresponding level 1 specifications for the facility. Technical activities focus on performing requirements analysis and trade-off studies between the candidate design solutions, as well as simulations, laboratory measurements and prototyping work. These studies consider a range of criteria including construction, operations and maintenance costs, site and architectural constraints, logistics and operations complexity, complementarity to other facilities, environmental impact, technology maturity and, of course, science return. As part of the Science Activities an early validation plan was also be developed. This document describes the level 0 requirements for ARGOS pathfinder and defines several Verification Tests to be carried out with this facility. This phase will conclude with the preliminary design review of the ARGOS candidate design

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Overall, during the past year, ARGOS has evolved from an abstract concept to a high-level design with well-defined quantitative requirements. Some highlights of ARGOS-CDS during the first twelve months include:
• the completion of several critical deliverables, including the level 0 science specifications document and the level 1 engineering requirements document. These deliverables represent the culmination of quantitative investigations by the Consortium. They also capture the needs of the broader scientific community, as those were determined before and during the Stakeholders workshop. The project is now gearing towards the Preliminary Design Review.
• Several scientific breakthroughs including a significant contribution by ARGOS members to the detection of a nanohertz gravitational wave background with European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) data.
• The successful completion of a detailed RFI campaign in Crete at the main candidate sites for the deployment of ARGOS and ARGOS pathfinder. The RFI monitoring results have been crucial in establishing the deployment site and feed design for ARGOS pathfinder
• The investigation –and in some cases adoption – of several lower-level design solutions. These include:

- the adoption of a “digital frontend” solution based on commercial Radio-Frequency-over-Chip (RFSoC) boards for direct sampling of the analogue signal at the focus.
- detailed simulations of the reflector/feed system to inform the high-level requirements
- investigation of novel cost-effective production solutions for the feed (such as 3D printing) that are now ready for prototyping and testing.
- AI-based solutions for certain pipelines such as the FRB detection pipeline.
- the decision to make the ARGOS backend fully compatible with the European VLBI network. This choice has several cascading consequences, including the possibility of smaller ARGOS stations to be deployed as out-of-the-box instruments at long baselines (e.g. at existing EVN station to take advantage of existing infrastructure such as maser clocks and high-speed network connections. Several external stakeholders have expressed interest in purchasing and deploying such stations.
• The establishment of strategic partnerships and collaborations, e.g. with Horizon R&I actions such as TITAN, Radioblocks and the Opticon-RadioNET Pilot, European consortia such as the European Pulsar Timing Array, legal organizations such as the Committee on Radio Astronomy Frequencies (CRAF), and the Square-Kilometre Array Organization (SKAO).
• The growth of the ARGOS community via workshops, targeted communication actions (e.g. social media), online seminars, academic visits and department colloquia, conferences, mailing lists, slack channels etc. The ARGOS management has adopted a non-disclosure agreement to allow for in-kind contributions by individuals external to the consortium to participate in the project.