METIS Instrument FDR
A bit more than 3 years after the Preliminary Design Review (PDR), it was time for the METIS team to meet ESO review team in the frame of the instrument Final Design Review (FDR) at the ESO Headquarters in Garching (D).
With the documentation delivered beginning September, the 40 ESO experts spent two months reviewing the METIS Instrument Design and identifying discrepencies or points to be clarified.
Out of the 993 questions raised during this phase only the most critical ones (about 150) haved been adressed during the five days session held at ESO Headquarters the second week of November.
Although there remain several aspects to be completed, the review board could confirm that the current design status of the reviewed subsystems satisfies the objective of the FDR thus allowing to prepare the next step which will consist in the manufacturing of the hardware. The official completion of the METIS FDR will however only be granted later in 2023 once all critical actions are closed and the design of the last subsystem reviewed.
The ESO team highlighted in particular the collaborative spirit of the METIS Consortium not only during this review but throughout the previous years.
To celebrate this milestone, the consortium updated its website with more detailed overview of the different mode.
external pageMETIS website
Regarding the Cryostat for which ETH is responsible, the next milestones will come very soon with the manufacturing of the structure to start first quarter 2023 followed by the in house integration and testing from automn 2023.
On top of the pure technical aspects applicable to this review, it worth mentionning that this was the first time the METIS Team was meeting in person again since February 2020 thus having a special flavour.
METIS Picture Gallery
