NESSI: the New Mexico Tech Extra(solar)planet Spectroscopic Survey Instrument is a ground-based multi-object
spectrograph that operates in the near-infrared and is being deployed this fall at the Magdalena Ridge Observatory 2.4 m
telescope. When completed later this year, it is expected to be used to characterize the atmospheres of transiting
exoplanets with unprecedented ground-based accuracies down to about K = 9 magnitude. The superior capabilities of
NEESI for this type of work lay, in part, in the design philosophy used for the instrument which is well-focused on the
exoplanet case. We report here on this design philosophy, detail and status of the design and assembly, and preparation
for first light in the fall of 2012.
NESSI: the New Mexico Tech Extrasolar Spectroscopic Survey Instrument is a ground-based multi-object
spectrograph that operates in the near-infrared. It will be installed on one of the Nasmyth ports of the
Magdalena Ridge Observatory (MRO) 2.4-meter Telescope. NESSI operates stationary to the telescope
fork so as not to produce differential flexure between internal opto-mechanical components during or
between observations. In this paper we report on NESSI's detailed mechanical and opto-mechanical design,
and the planning for mechanical construction, assembly, integration and verification.
Here is presented the current outline and progress of MROI's automated alignment system design. Depending on the
location of each of MROI's unit telescopes (UT), light can travel distances ranging from 460 to 660 meters via
several reflections that redirect the beam's path through the beam relay system (BRS), delay line system (DLS),
beam compressing telescope (BCR), switchyards and finally to the beam combiners (BC). All of these sub-systems
comprise three major optical axes of the MROI which must be coaligned on a nightly basis by the AAS. The AAS
consists of four subsystems: the primary fiducial-for beam injection, the UT tilt and shear measurement
components (TASM), the BC TASM components, and the secondary fiducial-for quick alignment checks. All of
these subsystems contribute to the unique design of the AAS which will allow for simultaneous measurements from
the visible to the near-IR wavelengths, full automation, the capability to perform optical path difference (OPD)
alignment and spectral calibration, making it cost effective and saving on realty in the beam combining area (BCA).
The AAS is nearing completion and assembly of the various subsystems is expected to commence soon. The latest
results on all of the following are reviewed here.
Less than 20 years after the discovery of the first extrasolar planet, exoplanetology is rapidly growing with more than
one discovery every week on average since 2007. An important step in exoplanetology is the chemical characterization
of exoplanet atmospheres. It has recently been shown that molecular signatures of transiting exoplanets can be studied
from the ground. To advance this idea and prepare more ambitious missions such as THESIS, a dedicated spectrometer
named the New Mexico Tech Extrasolar Spectroscopic Survey Instrument (NESSI) is being built at New Mexico Tech
in collaboration with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NESSI is a purpose-built multi-object spectrograph that
operates in the J, H, and K-bands with a resolution of R = 1000 in each, as well as a lower resolution of R = 250 across
the entire J/H/K region.
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