MOSAIC at ELT: status of science requirements and trade-off studies

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics (2026) 237

Authors:

Jay Stephan, Mathieu Puech, Rubén Sánchez Janssen, Myriam Rodrigues, Armando Gil de Paz, Nicolas Laporte, Søren Larsen, Timothy J Morris, Roser Pello, Thomas Augusteijn, Gavin B Dalton, Kacem El Hadi, Marísa Luisa García-Vargas, Marie Larrieu, Alessandro Meoli, Hermine Schnetler, Christian Surace

MOSAIC at ELT: the Instrument Core Subsystem (ICOS) design status

Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy XI SPIE (2026) 275-275

Authors:

Bruno V Castilho, Décio Ferreira, André G Coutinho, Antonio Braulio Neto, Bruno S Pinto, Leandro H dos Santos, Eleonai L Barbedo, Lucimara Martins, Milena Lusa, Marc Jacquet, Laurent Martin, Alexandre Bozier, Diane Chapuis Kerouanton, Kacem El Hadi, Beatriz S Barbuy, Thomas Augusteijn, Gavin B Dalton, Marísa Luisa García-Vargas, Marie Larrieu, Alessandro Meoli, Roser Pello, Mathieu Puech, Myriam Rodrigues, Rubén Sanchez Janssen, Hermine Schnetler, Jay Stephan, Christian Surace

Abstract:

MOSAIC, the wide-field multi-object spectrograph for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), is advancing through Phase B2, where subsystem architectures mature toward the Preliminary Design Review. Central to the Front-End channel is the Instrument Core Subsystem (ICOS), which provides the mechanical support, alignment stability, and controlled rotation required by the focal-plane assembly and the GLAO, ORSS, and CALEMOS subsystems. ICOS comprises a steel Static Structure Module interfaced to the Nasmyth platform, a motorized Rotating Structure Module that delivers field -rotation compensation with accuracy better than 0.095 mrad , and a Cable Wrap Module enabling continuous ±180 deg motion. ICOS must include an alignment strategy capable of restoring the optical axis to the sub-100μm level required for injection efficiency and pupil stability. With refined interfaces and a mass current estimated mass of 12.97 t, within the 13.3 t allocation, ICOS is converging toward a robust preliminary design for Phase C.

MOSAIC at the ELT: focal plane architecture and initial design

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics (2026) 266

Authors:

Ellen Schallig, Ian J Lewis, Alec York, Louis Gabarra, David Terrett, Rui Gao, Gavin Dalton, Diane Chapuis Kerouanton, Thomas Augusteijn, Kacem El Hadi, Marísa Luisa García-Vargas, Marie Larrieu, Alessandro Meoli, Roser Pello, Mathieu Puech, Myriam Rodrigues, Rubén Sanchez-Janssen, Hermine Schnetler, Jay Stephan, Christian Surace

MOSAIC for ELT: NIR spectrograph system performance

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics (2026) 272

Authors:

A Perez-Calpena, E Sanchez-Blanco, ML Garcia-Vargas, G Veredas, M Maldonado, M Penataro, J Gallego, A Castillo, FJ Montenegro-Montes, A Gil de Paz, M Chamorro-Cazorla, T Augusteijn, G Dalton, K El Hadi, M Larrieu, A Meoli, R Pelló, M Puech, M Rodrigues, R Sanchez-Janssen, H Schnetler, J Stephen, C Surace

MOSAIC on ELT: VIS channel transmission budget and estimates from SAR to preliminary design phase

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics (2026) 97

Authors:

Meghna Mohamed, Alessandro Meoli, Walter Seifert, Andreas Kelz, Myriam Rodrigues, Alondra Solá, Wenli Xu, Carlos Rodriguez Alvarez, Gavin Dalton, Thomas Augusteijn, Kacem El Hadi, Marísa Luisa García-Vargas, Marie Larrieu, Roser Pello, Mathieu Puech, Rubén Sanchez-Janssen, Hermine Schnetler, Jay Stephan, Christian Surace