Call for Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer Science Team Membership
Adam Bolton NSF's NOIRLab
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. US-based scientists wishing to join the MSE Science Team to participate in the next phase of its science and survey development should email Adam Bolton with "Subject line: MSE 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 MSE 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 in April/May 2018.
More about MSE:
http://mse.cfht.hawaii.edu
Detailed Science Case:
http://mse.cfht.hawaii.edu/