A group of physicists at Stanford University, conducting a research program called Galileo, proposed an Engineering Test Facility Vacuum System. The vacuum system will complete the facility that includes an existing high bay area with two 15 ton cranes, an assembly area, a clean room space and supporting offices. The facility will be available to collaborative groups working with LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory currently under construction). It will be used for the testing and the rapid prototyping of subsystems to be used in future interferometers at LIGO. This action is partly supported by the NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program.
