The Advanced Technology Solar Telescope is the largest solar optical facility currently under development. The National Solar Observatory and its partners have just started the design and development phase with first light being planned for late this decade. The 4-m telescope will provide an angular resolution down to 0.025 arcsec, a large photon flux for precise magnetic and velocity field measurements, and access to a broad set of diagnostics from 0.3 to 28 mu m. We summarize the currently envisioned scientific capabilities of the telescope and its suite of instruments along with a glimpse at some of the early concepts.