Project Status Report (Bob Brown)
The D&D phase of the project officially began in June of this year when NSF released the first $9M. An additional $9M is expected for next year, but it has not been approved by Congress yet. The D&D phase is scheduled to end in the spring of 2001 and hopefully will smoothly transition into the construction phase.

The pacing item in the D&D phase is antenna design and procurement. As was mentioned in the report on the Internal Review, the completion of the antenna bid document has been moved forward to the end of this year in order to give potential contractors more time to design. It is hoped to have a signed contract for a prototype antenna to be delivered in two years.

European Cooperation
On September 3, 1998 a meeting between NSF administrators (Van Horn, Dickman, and Eisenstein) and European representatives from the ESO countries and the UK. At this meeting, it was agreed to negotiate to merge the LSA and MMA D&D phases.

A European Coordinating Committee will be formed which will be responsible for coordinating and organizing the European partners and for coordinating with the US. This committee will be the single interface with which the US will interact.

The Europeans hope to get all their members together by the end of 1998 and it is hoped to have a Memorandum of Agreement between the US and the European partners ready by mid 1999.

Telescope Size
The goal is to achieve at least 7000 square meters of collecting area. This can be achieved either with 64 x 12m antennae or with 90 x 10m antennae. The Europeans are working on a 12m design and the US is working on a 10m design. It is hoped to have two prototypes by mid 2001. The Europeans and the US will appoint two separate committees which will study the pros and cons of 10m vs 12m antennae. These committees will meet with each other to try to reach a decision on antenna size agreeable to both sides.

Japanese Collaboration
The Japanese are still very much interested in collaborating but they are unlikely to have major funding until several other projects, which are ahead of the LMSA in the funding que are funded. They have funds to produce a prototype antenna which they would like to test with our prototype on the Chilean site, but our antenna isn`t scheduled to go to Chile until 2002. This collaboration is much less advanced than that with the Europeans.

MMA Project Book
Everyone should check the Project Book on the Web regularly to keep up with new developments. Darrel Emerson will be in in charge of up-dating it every couple of months or so. The additions will be color coded for quick recognition.

Issues Identified at the Internal Review
Check the report on this meeting which was sent to the MAC in Aug. Among the issues was the recommendation to build a ``quick and dirty'' receiver for testing the prototype antenna. It was recommended that NRAO put its efforts on development of those components which it can do better than any body else and order those that are readily available commercially. Several others are in my report.

NSF Oversight Committee
The report from the August meeting of this committee will be on the web soon. This committee has required NRAO to study and define more precisely the costs, personnel, and work schedule.

Personnel
Open positions are posted on the web. Members are requested to steer possible qualified and interested persons to this site.

Fall MAC meeting
This meeting is scheduled for Nov. 21/22. Please put it on your calendar and reserve these dates. This meeting will key on scientific drivers of the MMA/LSA hardware, particularly those that could be very costly with minimal scientific return.

-----Ed Churchwell