GeminiFocus October 2013 | Page 20

Scot Kleinman, Bernadette Rodgers, Chad Trujillo Instrument Development Report Instrument Development at Gemini is firing on all cylinders, with forwardlooking planning into the next decade and a suite of new instruments coming online at Gemini South. From the long-awaited FLAMINGOS-2, to operational improvements on the Gemini Multi-Object adaptive optics System, to the delivery of the Gemini Planet Imager, these new instruments represent the fruits of long, dedicated efforts by our user community and Gemini staff and three highlyanticipated and exciting capabilities for the Gemini South telescope. During this past quarter, we saw many areas of progress on new instrumentation at Gemini. However, before going into those details, let’s look at our longer-range planning, which is also presenting opportunities as well as frustrations. Since the recent announcement (http://www.gemini.edu/node/12064) of the loss of one of the proposed subcontractors for the Gemini High-resolution Optical Spectrograph (GHOS), we have been working closely with the instrument team and our governing and advisory committees to develop the best path forward. As these plans finalize, we will make announcements on the Gemini web site. Work on the Gemini Remote Access to CFHT ESPaDOnS Spectrograph (GRACES) is proceeding substantially on course. The big accomplishment this quarter is that the fiber cable vendor succeeded in producing, to our specifications, a full-length (270-meter) shielded fiber with connectors. More work, though, is needed before GRACES’ final fiber cable (consisting of two shielded fibers in an armored cable) can be reliably developed, which we expect to be completed before the end of this year. We also made a recent announcement (http://www.gemini.edu/node/12066) on the upcoming proposal process for Gemini’s next instrument, temporarily named Gen4#3. As current projects finish and resources become available, we will make updated reports regarding our plans and schedule for this new instrument. October2013 GeminiFocus 20