AITC Update
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue31 1–31 August 2022
MAVIS: Deeper than HST, sharper than JWST
Unless you have been living under a rock in the past couple of months, you are undoubtedly aware of the resounding success of the James Web Space Telescope (JWST). JWST is breaking record after record (faintest image, highest z galaxy). One of the keys to the success of JWST is how detailed its images are: limited by the JWST large aperture diffraction and the absence of atmosphere to blur the images and block the light across most of the near and mid Infrared. In a few years, the Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) will come online, also optimised for the near-infrared (NIR) - both JWST and ELTs main science case is the dark ages, the early, high redshift universe; hence the focus on the NIR, as most interesting diagnostics emission lines are shifted beyond 1 micron wavelength. This leaves a gap to study the low redshift, local universe, which MAVIS is filling: MAVIS[1] will provide images and spectra at greater than 2x the angular resolution provided by JWST (3x those of Hubble Space Telescope (HST)), and deeper than HST by a magnitude or so on point sources. Using adaptive optics to provide these deep and crisp visible images, MAVIS will complement nicely the NIR data from ELTs and the JWST. MAVIS will go on the VLT UT4 Nasmyth platform opposite MUSE, and is schedule to see first light at the end of 2027.
RSAA/AITC is the lead institute of the multi-national MAVIS consortium (Australia/Italy/France/Germany). AITC is where things happen. In addition to hosting the Project Office (PI, lead PM, Project Scientist, System Engineer), AITC is responsible for several work packages, including the Overall Mechanical Structure, the Real Time Computer, the overall System Engineering, the Laser Guide Star WaveFront Sensors, most detectors, the calibration unit, and the MAIT (Manufacturing, Assembly, Integration and Tests).
The team is currently in phase B (ESO lingo for Preliminary Design), and coming up on the Preliminary Design Review at the end of the year. Reviews are long and structured processes at ESO and for this one we have to deliver the documentation around mid-October for a review early December.
You might see more hardware activity very soon as we are entering the prototyping phase. MAVIS performance requirements are extremely tight, and to achieve these requirements, we can not simply rely on "classical" Adaptive Optics techniques. We came up with -or adopted- novel control methods, for which we develop the theory, and check how well they should work through numerical simulations. But of course this is not enough. One crucial, missing stage before we can green light these techniques for operation into MAVIS is the actual hardware prototyping. Facing the real world. These prototyping activities, including methods like Tomographic Phase Diversity[2] and Differential Astrometric Distortion calibration[3] are foreseen to take place in the Academic Lab 2, AITC2, supported by several ANU post-graduate students. We've already had two PhD students to date in the MAVIS program: Stephanie and Hao. We will undoubtedly have a second generation coming up. Contact us if you are interested, there are a plethora of interesting instrumentation subjects, which generally include an interesting mix of math, physics, and engineering topics.
Should you be looking for more information regarding MAVIS, do not hesitate to bug any of us - you probably know who we are: David, Gaston, Jennifer, Dionne, Israel, Trevor, Brian, Antony, Annino, Julien, Nico, Jesse, Hao, Stephanie, Lance, Roger, Damien and Francois.
Prof Francois Rigaut
References:
[1] "MAVIS on the VLT: A Powerful, Synergistic ELT complement in the visible", F.Rigaut and the MAVIS consortium, The Messenger 182, pp7-11, 2021
[2] "Tomographic phase diversity for non-common path aberrations retrieval on wide field AO systems", D.Gratadour, F.Rigaut, B.Neichel, AO4ELT2, 2011
[3] "MAVIS: Astrometry Calibration Techniques", Jesse Cranney et al, SPIE conference 12185, 12185-235, 2022
