CUBES Phase A design overview – The Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph for the Very Large Telescope [article]

Alessio Zanutta, Stefano Cristiani, David Atkinson, Veronica Baldini, Andrea Balestra, Beatriz Barbuy, Vanessa Bawden P. Macanhan, Ariadna Calcines, Giorgio Calderone, Scott Case, Bruno V. Castilho, Gabriele Cescutti (+42 others)
2022 arXiv   pre-print
We present the baseline conceptual design of the Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph (CUBES) for the Very Large Telescope. CUBES will provide unprecedented sensitivity for spectroscopy on a 8 - 10 m class telescope in the ground ultraviolet (UV), spanning a bandwidth of > 100 nm that starts at 300 nm, the shortest wavelength accessible from the ground. The design has been optimized for end-to-end efficiency and provides a spectral resolving power of R > 20000, that will unlock a broad
more » ... of new topics across solar system, Galactic and extraglactic astronomy. The design also features a second, lower-resolution (R \sim 7000) mode and has the option of a fiberlink to the UVES instrument for simultaneous observations at longer wavelengths. Here we present the optical, mechanical and software design of the various subsystems of the instrument after the Phase A study of the project. We discuss the expected performances for the layout choices and highlight some of the performance trade-offs considered to best meet the instrument top-level requirements. We also introduce the model-based system engineering approach used to organize and manage the project activities and interfaces, in the context that it is increasingly necessary to integrate such tools in the development of complex astronomical projects.
arXiv:2203.15352v1 fatcat:c4lbgfp24rgkfakxwml7a7hm34