Design Study for a next generation Astrocomb - Synopsis

The next generation Astrocomb project aims at the research and development of a next generation calibration system for ESO’s high resolution spectrographs. The immediate objectives of the project are to determine the most promising technology and potential technical implementation of such a calibration system and to propose a conceptual design, which in a second step should be thoroughly analysed and further consolidated, to demonstrate its ability to reach the Top Level Requirements. To achieve the immediate objectives, ESO plans to fund a design study and prototyping to increase the technical readiness where necessary. In that context, ESO is looking for an interested industrial partner to perform the said R&D study. The long-term goal is the development and procurement of a final system – a reliable, turn- key calibration system (in the following referred to as Astrocomb), which continuously covers the optical and near-infrared spectral range (0.37-1.8 µm) with (tens of) thousands of unresolved spectral lines with a line spacing of 17-32GHz. The wavelengths of the individual calibration lines should be known from first principles to an accuracy equal or better than 1cm/s. The contract covering this latter phase may be placed without further competition.