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After the final design reviews of the optics (2021) and the entire system (2022), most hardware procurements have started. In this paper we present an overview of the status of the various ongoing activities. Many hardware components are already in hand, and the manufacturing is in full swing in order to start the assembly and testing of the subsystems in 2024 toward first light at the telescope in 2028/29. This rather brief paper only provides an overview of the project status. For more information, we refer to the detailed instrument paper which will be published soon.
This paper reports on the performance of the instrument measured in laboratory (results of test plan in Nice and AIV in Paranal) in terms of spectral coverage, dispersion laws and spectral resolutions, and transfer function analysis: instrumental contrast, visibility accuracy, accuracy of the differential phase, of the closure-phase and of the differential visibility. It also provides results of the first tests on sky and the planning of the on-going commissioning.
An overview of the mid-infrared spectro-interferometer MATISSE: science, concept, and current status
The instrument consists in a warm optical system (WOP) accepting four optical beams and relaying them after a dichroic splitting (for the L and M- and N- spectral bands) to cold optical benches (COB) located in two separate cryostats. The Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur is in charge of the WOP providing the spectral band separation, optical path equalization and modulation, pupil positioning, beam anamorphosis, beam commutation, and calibration. NOVA-ASTRON is in charge of the COB providing the functions of beam selection, reduction of thermal background emission, spatial filtering, pupil transfer, photometry and interferometry splitting, additional beam anamorphosis, spectral filtering, polarization selection, image dispersion, and image combination. The Max Planck Institut für Radio Astronomie is in charge of the operation and performance validation of the two detectors, a HAWAII-2RG from Teledyne for the L- and M- bands and a Raytheon AQUARIUS for the N-band. Both detectors are provided by ESO. The Max Planck Institut für Astronomie is in charge of the electronics and the cryostats for which the requirements on space limitations and vibration stability resulted on very specific and stringent decisions on the design.
The integration and test of the COB: the two cryogenic systems, including the cold benches and the detectors, have been conducted at MPIA in parallel with the integration of the WOP at OCA. At the end of 2014, the complete instrument was integrated at OCA. Following this integration, a period of interface and alignment between the COB and the WOP took place resulting in the first interference fringes in the L-band during summer 2015 and the first interference fringes in the N-ban in March 2016.
After a period of optimization of both the instrument reliability and the environmental working conditions, the test plan is presently being conducted in order to evaluate the complete performance of the instrument and its compliance with the high-level requirements. The present paper gives the first results of the alignment, integration and test phase of the MATISSE instrument.
The FAME design consists of a pre-formed, deformable thin mirror sheet with an active support system. The thin face sheet provides a close to final surface shape with very high surface quality. The active array provides the support, and through actuation, the control to achieve final surface shape accuracy.
In this paper the development path, trade-offs and demonstrator design of the FAME active array is presented. The key step in the development process of the active array is the design of the mechanical structure and especially the optimization of the actuation node positions, where the actuator force is transmitted to the thin mirror sheet. This is crucial for the final performance of the mirror where the aim is to achieve an accurate surface shape, with low residual (high order) errors using the minimum number of actuators. These activities are based on the coupling of optical and mechanical engineering, using analytical and numerical methods, which results in an active array with optimized node positions and surface shape.
Due to the opening of a new parameter space in optical design, Freeform Optics are a revolution in imaging systems for a broad range of applications from high tech cameras to astronomy, via earth observation systems, drones and defense. Freeform mirrors are defined by a non-rotational symmetry of the surface shape, and the fact that the surface shape cannot be simply described by conicoids extensions, or off-axis conicoids. An extreme freeform surface is a significantly challenging optical surface, especially for UV/VIS/NIR diffraction limited instruments.
The aim of the FAME effort is to use an extreme freeform mirror with standard optics in order to propose an integrated system solution for use in future instruments. The work done so far concentrated on identification of compact, fast, widefield optical designs working in the visible, with diffraction limited performance; optimization of the number of required actuators and their layout; the design of an active array to manipulate the face sheet, as well as the actuator design.
In this paper we present the status of the demonstrator development, with focus on the different building blocks: an extreme freeform thin face sheet, the active array, a highly controllable thermal actuator array, and the metrology and control system.
Ground-based search for the brightest transiting planets with the Multi-site All-Sky CAmeRA: MASCARA
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