4MOST Final Design Phase formally closed

by Joe Liske on 2020-09-26

An announcement from the Project Manager, Joar Brynnel:

On 22 – 24 September 2020 a meeting between the 4MOST project and ESO was held at the AIP in Potsdam. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the updated System (Optical) Alignment Plan and the Focal Surface Test Tools (FSTT) Design Report and associated action items. Those documents were formally reviewed at the 4MOST delta-FDR in January 2020, a review which resulted in some action items that were classified as critical. This meant that the delta review was not formally closed, which by extension meant that the Final Design Phase was not closed.

ESO, in the meeting represented by Jeff Pirard and Stephane Guisard, determined that the documents have now been substantially improved, and that most of the critical action items could be closed. At the end of the meeting a statement was made by ESO management that the 4MOST Final Design Phase is now officially concluded. While it is recognized that most subsystems have been in the MAIT phase for some time already, it is nevertheless an important milestone for the project overall. Many thanks to everyone involved in making this happen!