We are proud to announce that the ELT-MOSAIC project enters phase B1.

This phase will be crucial for the consolidation of the instrument architecture and the availability of the planned resources, and is planned to last for 18 months, until its final specifications and architecture review (SAR). It is an important step for this ELT project conducted by an international consortium including 22 institutional partners located in 13 countries, led by the CNRS. The list of parties includes: University of Vienna (Austria), Universidade de Sao Paulo and LNA (Brazil), Universities of Helsinki and Turku (Finland), LAM, GEPI, IRAP, and OCA (France), AIP and Heidelberg University (Germany), INAF (Italy), NOVA (Netherlands), F. Ciencias and CAUP (Portugal), University of Madrid and IAA (Spain), Universities of Lund, Stockholm and Uppsala (Sweden), University of Geneva and EPFL (Switzerland), STFC/ATC, Durham University and Oxford RAL (UK), and University of Michigan (USA). More than 350 scientists and engineers participate into this effort.

The MOSAIC Kick Off that took place in Paris on march 14th and 15th focused mainly on management organisation, and on internal engineering and scientific presentations.

We would like to thank everyone involved in the project for this milestone achievement !

The intergalactic medium (IGM) of the modern Universe is fully ionized, and maintained in this state by the integrated ultraviolet (UV) emission from stars and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). The epoch of reionization (EoR; z>6) marks the point at which this phase transition occurred, and is a key period in cosmic history. Exactly how reionisation occurred is still a debated topic in modern astrophysics.
MOSAIC will allow unique massive scale spectroscopic surveys of thousands of galaxies at z>6, efficiently extending the spectroscopic frontier to fainter, ‘ordinary’ galaxies. MOSAIC will perform critical rest UV observations of the earliest galaxies, providing measurements to complete panchromatic spectral surveys together with JWST, Euclid, and Roman. MOSAIC’s high-resolution gratings and large multiplexing+multi-IFU modes make it the only instrument solution able to efficiently characterize the EoR galaxy population in the UV.

The MOSAIC collaboration is pleased to announce the Phase B1 Kick-off Meeting, which will take place in Paris on March 14th-15th. The management meeting will take place in the afternoon of the 14/03, with the presence of ESO representatives. The 15/03 will be dedicated to our internal technical and scientific meetings, including splinters. The meeting will take place in hybrid mode, both for the plenary sessions and splinters. The Agenda can be found here.

This meeting starts the Phase B1 of the ELT-MOSAIC project, that will last for 18 months and will go until the Specifications and Architecture Review (SAR). This phase is intended to consolidate the architecture of the instrument and the availability of the resources, an important step for this ELT project conducted by an international consortium including 22 institutional partners located in 13 countries, led by the CNRS. The list of parties includes: University of Vienna (Austria), Universidade de Sao Paulo and LNA (Brazil), Universities of Helsinki and Turku (Finland), LAM, GEPI and IRAP (France), AIP and Heidelberg University (Germany), INAF (Italy), NOVA (Netherlands), F. Ciencias and CAUP (Portugal), University of Madrid and IAA (Spain), Universities of Lund, Stockholm and Uppsala (Sweden), University of Geneva and EPFL (Switzerland), STFC/ATC, Durham University and Oxford RAL (UK), and University of Michigan (USA). More than 350 scientists and engineers participate into this effort.

Registering to the MOSAIC community will keep you updated to with everything related to MOSAIC. Being registered will allow us to take you into account in our science programs and news. You will receive invitations to workshops and symposia. It will take you less than 5 minutes !

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After Phase A and during the pre-Phase B, the MOSAIC design concept has been consolidated, following collaborative work between the Consortium and ESO. The ESO Council approved on Tuesday Dec. 7th the proposed MOSAIC Construction Agreement which will be signed between the CNRS and ESO in March 2022. Phase B will officially start with the MOSAIC kickoff in June next year. Still, since the project is ready to move forward, an internal kickoff in February will set the real start of the Preliminary Design and Technology Completion phase.
MOSAIC is now a reality and the scientific community will benefit at the horizon 2030 of the only ELT instrument which will open a large discovery space for the science cases where statistics plays a key role.