General
MIRADAS is a multi-object spectrograph able to observe until 20 objects simultaneously thanks to its 20 articulated arms with a small mirror attached. Each arm can patrol a sector inside a 5 arcmin circle in the GTC focal plane.
Apart from the scientific matters, the IAC contribution is focused in the development of the instrument control system, where other institutions are also participating. MIRADAS follows the GTC control system standards, assuring a total integration with the telescope. The control system is based in a distributed architecture, according to the component model of GTC, developed in C++ and running in different computers by means of the CORBA middleware.
The consortium is lead by the University of Florida (USA) with the participation of Universidad de Barcelona (UB), Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) and Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC, as technical support to UB). Additionally, several individual researchers from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) are also participating.
Members
Results
In 2012 the main part of the preliminar design has been carried out by the different institutions of the consortium and the scientific program driving the instrument was prepared. Also two articulated arm prototypes to hold the selection optics were build, as they were identified, since the beginning, as the components with the highest risks of the technical proposal. These prototypes were successfully tested at ambient and at cryogenic temperatures, validating different design and mounting trade-offs as well as allowing the debug of the algorithms controlling the movement. In November 2012 the project had the preliminary design review meeting.
