Norwegian participation in the Planck LFI instrument and cosmology with the Nordic Optical Telescope.

The European Planck mission will from 2007 map in detail the Cosmic Microwave Background with sensitivity and resolution unreachable by any other planned experiment, making possible answering fundamental questions of cosmology such as: What is the age of the universe? How will it end? What are its main constituents? Based on the commitment to fund Norwegian participation in the Planck project made by the Research Council of Norway in March 1999, the core of the Electrical Ground Support Equipement of the LFI instrument is being built by Norwegian industry securing data rights for Norway for the Planck data. The largest part of this proposal is for securing funding to finalize the EGSE on the agreed schedule and to start building up the needed know-how, personnel resources, data analysis software and computer infrastructure which is necessary to be able to participate in doing research with the data of Planck. Preparation for and followup of the Planck mission with ground based optical studies is vital for our use of Planck. The Nordic Optical Telescope provides, because of its excellent image quality, an unique Norwegian infrastructure, and we apply for funds necessary to exploit it in synergy with the Planck project.