[ASA] Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer Announcement

[Aaron Robotham]

Dear ASA Members,

I would like to bring your attention to a new announcement from the MSE project. I am the Australian Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) representative, and have been involved in the MSE project in some capacity for the past 6 years. We are at a phase where we want to get countries that have involvement in MSE re-engaged with the science,. This is with the broad purpose of updating the main science cases compared to the initial science cases published a couple of years ago. Informally you can get in touch with me if you would to know more, but otherwise please see the instructions below.

Thanks,

Aaron

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Call for Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer Science Team Membership

The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) is a proposed 11.25m wide field (1.5 square degree) telescope equipped with a suite of dedicated multi-object spectrographs that will obtain more than 4000 optical and near-infrared astronomical spectra per pointing. To join the Science Team to participate in the next phase of its science and survey development, please email the MSE Project Scientist, Alan McConnachie, at mcconnachie at mse.cfht.hawaii.edu<mailto:mcconnachie at mse.cfht.hawaii.edu> (Subject line: Science Team Membership).

Following a busy and successful 2017, which saw 10 different subsystem conceptual design reviews (CoDRs) and culminated in a successful Systems-Level Review in January 2018, MSE is wrapping up the Conceptual Design Phase and is preparing to move into the Preliminary Design Phase (PDP).

A major science development phase will get underway in April/May 2018, that will be spearheaded by the international science team. Specifically, they will develop the first phase of the MSE Design Reference Survey (DRS). The DRS is planned as a 2 year observing campaign that will demonstrate the science impact of MSE in a broad range of science areas and will provide an excellent dataset for community science. It will describe and simulate an executable survey plan that addresses the key science described in the Detailed Science Case.  The DRS will naturally undergo several iterations between now and first light of MSE: this first phase (nicknamed DRS1) will set the foundation for its future development.

DRS1 will be supported by the Project Office and will use various simulation tools, including Integration Time Calculators, fiber-assigning software, and a telescope scheduler. It is anticipated that the DRS will become the first observing program on MSE come first light of the facility, and it will be used by the Project Office going forward to understand the consequences for science for all decisions relating to the engineering and operational development of MSE.

More information about the development of the DRS and how to participate will be circulated to the members of the MSE Science Team shortly.

More about MSE:
https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/hrmoC2xZYvC0nrr1CncDrt?domain=mse.cfht.hawaii.edu

Detailed Science Case:
https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/TwRPC3Q8Z2FWL33qiq0SUk?domain=mse.cfht.hawaii.edu or https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/hcCQC4QZ1RFRLPPgcBK3Th?domain=arxiv.org

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Dr Aaron S.G. Robotham

Research Assistant Professor & Senior Research Fellow

Room: G44, KJM Building, UWA, 7 Fairway, Crawley, Perth, WA 6009
Post: ICRAR M468, UWA, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Perth, WA 6009
Tel:  (+61) 08 6488 5564
Email:  aaron.robotham at uwa.edu.au<mailto:aaron.robotham at uwa.edu.au>
WWW:    www.researchgate.net/profile/Aaron_Robotham<http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Aaron_Robotham>

ICRAR: Discovering the hidden Universe through radio astronomy

[cid:79666969-E22F-4D7A-A6B9-695B7AEBBC3B at pawsey.org.au]

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