Very long time we have not updated this blog. There are lots of news, all positive, that we are excited to share with you.

MAVIS Phase A review

The MAVIS phase A review took place over two half days on may 26-27, 2020 - at the height of the COVID first wave. It was all virtual of course. The documentation was delivered 6 weeks prior to the review, and in the usual ESO review style, we had an exchange of RID/RIX/RIC prior to the review itself, so that the review was dedicated to discussions on points that were not settled during this pre-review process.

MAVIS passed the phase A review, with a handful of actions items that were addressed by Mid July.

Note that, importantly, the MAVIS science team decided to make the science case public; it was release on arXiv early September.

The team also published a snapshot of the intrument in a SPIE paper (SPIE 12/2020), available here. This paper is the basis of the MAVIS description web page on the present site.

Phase B started

Not waiting for the formal signature of the phase B-E agreement, the phase B work started on August 1rst, albeit at a slow pace - or at least slower then the frantic end of phase A, and expectedly slower than after we have officially started phase B. Work has been progressing well on a number of front: Science image simulator, system engineering and project assurance, numerical simulation and control, project management and ICDs, progress on long lead items, real time computer. As said below, we expect an official start of phase B early March

Toward an official start of phase B-E

Phase B-E is the “construction phase” in ESO lingo. Phase B is the Preliminary Design, followed by the Detailed Design (phase C), Manufacturing, Assembly, Integration, Verification and Tests (MAIVT, phase D) and Commissioning (phase E). The current schedule puts MAVIS on sky for commissioning at the end of the first semester 2027.

After successfully passing the phase A review, MAVIS was presented to the La Silla-Paranal STC sub-committee in October, then to the STC; Following that, it was presented to and approved by the ESO Finance Committee (November) and the ESO Council (December 2nd). We are currently in the final phases of negotiations of the phase B-E agreement between ESO and the MAVIS consortium (represented by the Australian National University as head of the consortium). We are targeting an agreement signature on Feb 26, followed by a Kick Off meeting on March 1rst, immediately followed by a busy week from March 2 to 5. The current schedule puts the Preliminary Design Review in March 2022.