Improving SALT operations resource planning and collaboration in COVID-19 times

SALT (Southern African Large Telescope) is a 10-m class optical telescope located in Sutherland, South Africa, 340km from its head office in Cape Town. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, SALT had to adapt to a virtual environment to ensure telescope operations and projects continued, while various levels of Government restrictions were in place. The early strict lockdown stages had staff working from home, while those who did onsite telescope maintenance were unable to work. However, after many planning sessions of looking at the various challenges around a mostly virtual environment, SALT was able to operate the telescope earlier than most ground-based telescopes, even during strict COVID-19 restrictions. This was accomplished by ensuring a safe operation of the telescope in remote mode for both employees and equipment. It was important that the telescope maintenance was kept up to date where possible to prevent system failures, which was accomplished by only allowing maintenance teams at the telescope when required. To ensure operations and projects remained active, we implemented the necessary virtual tools, training, and protocols to enable effective virtual meetings for operations and projects. Over time, as Government regulations changed and as we familiarized ourselves with a virtual environment, we found that we are capable of working in a hybrid environment, although there is still room for improvement. People management and teamwork play an important role for smooth operations. Enabling this environment takes some understanding of the various challenges and how to overcome them.