partnered with both Canada’s National Resource Council-Herzberg (NRC-H) and the
Australian National University — expect to
complete the Critical Design Stage with the
second part of this project milestone in early
March 2016.
In order to reach this milestone, the GHOST
project has continued to move forward in
2016, despite a couple of setbacks:
First, we lost NRC-H’s project manager, a key
player who moved on to another opportunity outside the organization. The existing
NRC-H team has since absorbed his responsibilities, with some additional help from
within their department.
Second, in mid-2015, the AAO experienced
trouble securing an acceptable optical fiber
from its vendors — until one of them finally
delivered a usable fiber. With the fiber delivered, construction of the prototype fiber assembly is underway. We still believe that it
is possible to manufacture a better fiber, so
AAO is continuing to work with the vendor
to optimize the product. While this prototype fiber assembly is not on the project’s
critical path, it remains a high-risk design
item until completed and tested.
During the December 2015 Critical Design
Review, an external committee and the
Gemini GHOST internal team reviewed the
spectrograph optics and system software
and completed designs for the Cassegrain
unit, fiber assembly, and slit-viewing assembly. Early in March 2016 a second review will
cover the spectrograph’s optomechanical
design and electronics, as well as the thermal enclosure design and anything else that
still needs addressing from the first review.
In other news, NRC-H expects the imminent
arrival of GHOST’s first engineering grade CCD
detectors that were ordered in the first quarter of 2015. This CCD will be characterized and
integrated in preparation for the arrival of the
science grade detectors in third quarter 2016.
January 2016
Adding to this progress, the Gemini Board
has recently endorsed the decision to locate
GHOST at Gemini South, where preparations
have begun to receive the instrument. We
expect delivery near the end of 2017. After
testing and commissioning, we plan to have
GHOST ready for use by semester 2018B.
Figure 1.
Sky coverage vs.
Galactic Latitude
with NGS2 on
Gemini South.
Gemini Instrument
Feasibility Studies
In April 2015 Gemini funded a number of independent and non-competitive Gemini Instrument Feasibility Studies (GIFS). We designed
these studies to help Gemini understand the
science, technical requirements, and costs associated with creating the next Gemini instrument (Gen4#3) — while complying with a set
of top-level Science and Technology Advisory
Committee guiding principles.
GIFS resulted in four outstanding studies for
Gemini: GEONIS, GMOX, MOVIES, and OCTOCAM. (A summary of these projects appear
in the July 2015 news items below). Each
represents a different view of what is possible for Gemini’s next instruments. Howev-
2015 Year in Review
GeminiFocus
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