Poster Abstract

P8.7 Nicolas Flagey (CFHT Corporation - MSE Project Office)

Theme: Telescope operations and scheduling: from classical to autonomous

Revealing the faint Universemillions of spectra at a time: the Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE

The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) will each year obtain millions of spectra in the optical to near- infrared, at low (R≈3000) to high (R≈40000) spectral resolution by observing more than 4000 spectra per pointing via a highly multiplexed fiber-fed system. Key science programs for MSE include black hole reverberation mapping, stellar population analysis of faint galaxies at high redshift, and sub-km/s velocity accuracy for stellar astrophysics.
MSE has completed its system-level Conceptual Design in 2018 and the assembly of subsystems designed to meet the science requirements and describes what MSE will look like is now well understood. In this presentation, we focus on the operations concept of MSE, which describes how to operate a fiber fed, highly multiplexed, dedicated observatory given its architecture and the science requirements.
The operations concept details the phases of operations, from selecting proposals within the science community to distributing back millions of spectra to this community onto a science platform. For each phase, the operations concept describes the tools required to support the science community in their analyses and the operations staff in their work. It also highlights the specific needs related to the complexity of MSE with millions of targets to observe, thousands of fibers to position, and different spectral resolution to use. Finally, the operations concept shows how the science requirements on calibration and observing efficiency can be met.