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Minor Planet Center & the Tamkin Foundation

The Minor Planet Center and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory gratefully acknowledge the Tamkin Foundation of Los Angeles for the establishment of the Tamkin Foundation Computing Network. This high-speed computer network allows the MPC to determine more rapidly the orbits of newly-discovered minor planets and comets, including those that are on orbits that might one day impact the earth.

A statement from Steve Tamkin, Vice-President of the Tamkin Foundation	A statement from Brian Marsden, Director of the Minor Planet Center
``This is the Foundation's first investment in non-medical scientific research, and we look forward to a long and fruitful partnership in supporting the Minor Planet Center's work. We are interested in maintaining the efficient functioning of the Center's computing capacity, because of the enormously important role it plays in identifying asteroids and comets that could come into close proximity to the earth. As an amateur astronomer with a deep interest in near-Earth asteroids and other objects, I am pleased that my family and I can be part of this essential research.''	``Accurate orbits for comets and minor planets (asteroids) are needed so that other researchers wishing to undertake studies of the physical nature of these bodies can be confident of actually finding the objects they wish to study! Accurate orbits are also necessary to allow radar observations (for both dynamical and physical studies), for the investigation of future impact scenarios for Near-Earth Objects or for the planning of space missions. Orbits are derived from positional observations made by professional and amateur observers all around the world. The number of observations archived by the Center has doubled in the past 15 months, and the monthly flow of new observations is 100 times greater than it was in 1990. This has necessitated the acquisition of more and faster computers. It is very rewarding for us that the Tamkin Foundation is supporting the computing technology that is integral to this research.''

A statement from Steve Tamkin, Vice-President of the Tamkin Foundation

A statement from Brian Marsden,
Director of the Minor Planet Center

``This is the Foundation's first investment in non-medical scientific research, and we look forward to a long and fruitful partnership in supporting the Minor Planet Center's work. We are interested in maintaining the efficient functioning of the Center's computing capacity, because of the enormously important role it plays in identifying asteroids and comets that could come into close proximity to the earth. As an amateur astronomer with a deep interest in near-Earth asteroids and other objects, I am pleased that my family and I can be part of this essential research.''

``Accurate orbits for comets and minor planets (asteroids) are needed so that other researchers wishing to undertake studies of the physical nature of these bodies can be confident of actually finding the objects they wish to study! Accurate orbits are also necessary to allow radar observations (for both dynamical and physical studies), for the investigation of future impact scenarios for Near-Earth Objects or for the planning of space missions. Orbits are derived from positional observations made by professional and amateur observers all around the world. The number of observations archived by the Center has doubled in the past 15 months, and the monthly flow of new observations is 100 times greater than it was in 1990. This has necessitated the acquisition of more and faster computers. It is very rewarding for us that the Tamkin Foundation is supporting the computing technology that is integral to this research.''

Left to right: Steve Tamkin (Tamkin Foundation), Irwin Shapiro (then-Director, SAO), Brian Marsden (then-Director, MPC).

The Tamkin Computer Network

The Tamkin Computer Network consists of the following Alpha-based machines. All the machines are running the extremely robust and secure OpenVMS operating system. The Alpha machines are arranged as an OpenVMS Cluster, allowing all machines to share disk storage, execution and batch queues and other resources, as well as simplifying system management. On 2005 May 9, the MPC OpenVMS cluster passed the two year uptime mark since it was first setup in its current state: it has reached this mark even though every machine in the cluster was rebooted last summer during the upgrade to the then-latest version of the OS.

Most of the software used at the MPC is written in-house in Fortran 95 (older code is in Fortran 77). Orbits for objects with radar observations are computed using the free OrbFit software.

SENECA Professional Workstation XP1000
667 MHz Alpha 21264A EV67
768 MB RAM
81 GB disk space
20 GB/40 GB DAT drive
Used for processing incoming observations, performing orbit calculations, archiving data and code development.

CFAPS5 Personal Workstation 433au
433 MHz Alpha 21164A EV56
704 MB RAM
17 GB disk space
20 GB/40 GB DAT drive
Used for processing incoming observations, performing orbit calculations and archiving data.

CFAPS6 Personal Workstation 433au
433 MHz Alpha 21164A EV56
704 MB RAM
26 GB disk space
Used for processing incoming observations, performing orbit calculations and archiving data.

CFAPS7 Personal Workstation 433au
433 MHz Alpha 21164A EV56
704 MB RAM
26 GB disk space
Used for processing incoming observations, performing orbit calculations and archiving data.

CFAPS2 AlphaStation 255/500
233 MHz Alpha 21164 EV5
192 MB RAM
8 GB disk space
Used for archiving data and code development.

SCULLY Personal Workstation 600au
600 MHz Alpha 21164A EV56
512 MB RAM
27 GB disk space
Used for running WebCS scripts.

CYRENE Personal Workstation 500au
500 MHz Alpha 21164A EV56
512 MB RAM
81 GB disk space
Used for processing incoming observations, performing orbit calculations and archiving data.

ADONIS Professional Workstation XP1000
667 MHz Alpha 21264A EV67
1 GB RAM
81 GB disk space
Used for processing incoming observations, performing orbit calculations, and archiving data.

ALBERT Professional Workstation XP1000
667 MHz Alpha 21264A EV67
1 GB RAM
81 GB disk space
Used for processing incoming observations, performing orbit calculations, and archiving data.

ALINDA Professional Workstation XP1000
667 MHz Alpha 21264A EV67
1 GB RAM
81 GB disk space
Used for processing incoming observations, performing orbit calculations, and archiving data.

APOLLO Professional Workstation XP1000
667 MHz Alpha 21264A EV67
1 GB RAM
81 GB disk space
Used for processing incoming observations, performing orbit calculations, and archiving data.

MELETE AlphaServer ES40
4 x 667 MHz Alpha 21264A EV67
4 GB RAM
117 GB disk space
To be used for implementing the new observation and orbit formats.
This machine was inherited from another group at the CfA.

MPC