{"schema_version":1,"experiment_id":"eoa_inverse_innovation_exp04_retrieval_first_paired20_20260802","cell_id":"deadweight_loss_reduction__astronomy_astrophysics","hypothesis_id":"H1","search_queries":["telescope time allocation auction credits scarcity observing conditions","astronomy telescope proposal allocation virtual currency tokens bidding","telescope time allocation market mechanism auction scientific priority","observatory dynamic scheduling condition constraints priority queue official","\"telescope time\" \"currency\" allocation scheduler","\"telescope time\" auction allocation astronomy","patent telescope scheduling priority bidding credits","astronomical observatory queue \"pressure\" weather priority dynamic scheduling"],"sources":[{"source_id":"C1","title":"Guide to Observing with the VLA Complete Manual","publisher":"National Radio Astronomy Observatory","url":"https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/vla/docs/manuals/obsguide/referencemanual-all-pages","source_class":"OFFICIAL_GUIDANCE","claims_supported":["VLA scheduling priorities already depend on scientific rank, requested LST range, available time, and competition from better-ranked proposals requesting similar ranges.","Accepted projects compete in a dynamic queue whose heuristics use current conditions and scheduling priority.","NRAO publishes pressure plots and advises observers to alter duration, weather limits, frequency grouping, and LST flexibility to improve execution prospects."]},{"source_id":"C2","title":"A Brief Description of the VLA Prioritizer","publisher":"National Radio Astronomy Observatory","url":"https://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~schedsoc/VLAprioritizerMemo.pdf","source_class":"OFFICIAL_PRODUCT_DOCUMENTATION","claims_supported":["The VLA prioritizer computes available capacity as a function of LST and assigns A, B, or C priorities by comparing requested allocations with available time.","Its thresholds explicitly use allocated-to-available-time ratios, making forecast contention part of accepted-session allocation.","The mechanism is an operator-side heuristic priority assignment rather than a user-spent credit price."]},{"source_id":"C3","title":"The VLA Pressure Histogram","publisher":"National Radio Astronomy Observatory","url":"https://science.nrao.edu/enews/6.9/index.shtml","source_class":"OFFICIAL_ORGANIZATION_DATA","claims_supported":["VLA pressure histograms expose queued demand by LST and TAC priority.","Observers can respond to congestion information by changing duration, weather constraints, observing band, and permissible LST range.","Current weather and user-controlled constraints already influence selection from the dynamic queue."]},{"source_id":"C4","title":"Adaptive Scheduler","publisher":"Observatory Control System","url":"https://observatorycontrolsystem.github.io/components/adaptive_scheduler/","source_class":"OFFICIAL_PRODUCT_DOCUMENTATION","claims_supported":["An operationally documented telescope scheduler uses telemetry and request-availability windows to optimize schedules.","Its objective maximizes effective priority, including proposal priority, an investigator-provided priority value, and duration.","Condition-aware, priority-weighted allocation is therefore implemented independently of user-facing scarcity prices."]},{"source_id":"C5","title":"Observing Modes and Time Allocation","publisher":"TMT International Observatory","url":"https://www.tmt.org/page/observing-modes","source_class":"OFFICIAL_GUIDANCE","claims_supported":["TMT plans real-time queue prioritization using meteorological conditions, scientific priority, time criticality, partner share, and programme completeness.","Member time shares are protected and distributed across lunar phases and night lengths, providing an established access-safeguard analogue."]},{"source_id":"C6","title":"Alnitak Research Telescope Access Program","publisher":"Alnitak Remote Observatories","url":"https://www.alnitakobs.com/arta/","source_class":"COMMERCIAL_FIRST_PARTY","claims_supported":["Accepted research proposals receive telescope credits in an account.","Credits are debited only for imaging time actually delivered, closely paralleling an unused-credit refund or non-charge rule.","The documented system does not state that credit prices vary with forecast contention or observing-condition scarcity."]},{"source_id":"C7","title":"The Design of Mechanisms to Allocate Space Station Resources","publisher":"California Institute of Technology","url":"https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/68k2y-nze20","source_class":"PRIMARY_RESEARCH","claims_supported":["A neighboring scientific-platform study designed priority contracts for contingent rescheduling and English and Vickrey-Groves auctions for scheduled resource use and priority.","Laboratory tests found significantly greater expected efficiency than first-come-first-served allocation, establishing scarcity-based bidding as prior art for uncertain scientific resources."]}],"proximity":"SUBSTANTIAL_COLLISION","closest_analogues":[{"name":"VLA pressure-aware prioritizer and dynamic queue","similarity":"It measures capacity pressure by observing window, converts scientific rank and contention into scheduling priority, publishes pressure information, and induces observers to relax or retime constraints.","remaining_difference":"Contention changes an operator-assigned queue priority rather than the number of credits an observing team must spend for a telescope-hour.","source_ids":["C1","C2","C3"]},{"name":"Alnitak proposal-awarded telescope credits","similarity":"Accepted teams receive credits, schedule observations from an account, and are charged only for successfully delivered imaging time.","remaining_difference":"The opened documentation shows neither condition-dependent scarcity prices nor protected-access credit endowments.","source_ids":["C6"]},{"name":"Condition-aware priority optimization in OCS and TMT","similarity":"Both combine observation constraints or meteorological state with scientific or investigator priority to maximize execution value; TMT also preserves partner shares.","remaining_difference":"They perform centralized scheduling without a user-facing, scarcity-weighted credit budget or rebate-induced request choice.","source_ids":["C4","C5"]},{"name":"Auction and priority contracts for Space Station resources","similarity":"The neighboring-domain mechanism prices or bids for scheduled scientific-platform capacity and priority under uncertain curtailment to improve allocative efficiency.","remaining_difference":"It is not a telescope-access practice and does not document protected credits for early-career or otherwise access-protected scientific teams.","source_ids":["C7"]}],"overlapping_components":["Forecast capacity and contention measurement by observing window","Scientific-priority weighting","Dynamic matching to weather and observing constraints","User adjustment of duration and acceptable conditions in response to pressure","Proposal-awarded telescope credits","Debit only for successfully delivered observing time","Protected institutional or partner access shares","Priority or auction mechanisms for uncertain scientific-platform capacity"],"remaining_contrastive_claim":"Within the opened sources, no noncommercial scientific observatory uses an ex ante team budget whose per-hour credit charge varies by forecast telescope, instrument, and observing-condition contention while also supplying protected-access credits and automatically restoring credits for undelivered observations.","claim_falsifier":"A pre-existing observatory manual, deployed-system documentation, paper, or patent showing all four elements—user-spent observing credits, forecast contention-dependent prices by resource and condition, protected-access endowments, and automatic refunds for undelivered time—would falsify the contrastive claim.","problem_support":"MODERATE","recommendation":"RESEARCH","world_novelty_boundary":"The broad treatment is not novel: pressure-aware telescope allocation, condition-aware priority queues, observing credits, delivered-time-only debit, protected shares, and auction allocation of uncertain scientific resources all pre-exist. The bounded unresolved feature is their integration into a user-facing scarcity-price-and-safeguard mechanism at the accepted-proposal boundary. Eight ordinary-web queries and seven opened sources did not establish that exact integration, but this is not an exhaustive patent, non-indexed literature, historical observatory-policy, or internal-system search."}