APPENDIX D
ECONOMICS OF CAMPAIGN VS. OBSERVATORY MODE
It is assumed that monumentation costs are the same, whether observatory or field campaign operations are employed. Only operational expenses are considered.
For fixed observatories the annual operational cost, O, includes the amortized instrument cost, I, the fraction of the cost for running the observatory, f(M + B), where M is the manpower budget and B includes building rental, and the data transfer cost, D, or:
O = I + D + f(M + B)
For campaign mode costs, C, we assume N campaigns per site per year, each of m days. Instrument and manpower costs are shared among sites with efficiency e. Travel to the site is T, and per diem expenses are P. Then
C = N {T + m [P + (I + M)/(365 e)]}
Assuming the numbers given in the table below, O = $28,000 and C ~ $19,000.