Welcome to the NESSI Homepage!
NESSI == New Mexico Tech Extrasolar Spectroscopic Survey Instrument
We are a recently funded (9/09) initiative at NMT to build a multi-object NIR spectrometer
to be used at the Magdalena Ridge Observatory 2.4m Telescope. The NESSI project's
funding comes from a combination of MRO's PI, Van Romero, Vice-president of Research
and Economic Development at NMT and NASA EPSCoR in NM at NMSU. We completed
our Final Design Review with our JPL Collaborators in July, 2011 and have most of the
components on order or in the lab right now (see a few picutres below).
The NESSI Team:
The current members of the NESSI team at NMT are:
M. Creech-Eakman, Science PI
C. Jurgenson, Instrument Scientist/Designer
F. Santoro, MROI Lead Mechanical Engineer, Mechanical System Design
C. Salcido and A. Olivares, MROI Mechanical Engineers assisting in NESSI design
H. Bloemhard, NMT Graduate Student, Exoplanet Atmospheres and NESSI Science
L. Schmidt, NMT Graduate Student, Instrumentation and Software Control
M. Napolitano, NMT Undergraduate, Software/Computer Control
R. Selina, MRO Staff, AIV Planning and On-site Integration
and
P. Boston, NESSI Tiger Team and Workshop Coordinator
L. Taylor, NESSI Workshop Assistant
E. Aafloy, NESSI Financial Manager
and previous members of the NESSI team are:
K. Houairi, Postdoc, Optical Design and System Definition
M. Hrynevych, Postdoc, Systems Engineering
J. Russell, NMT Graduate Student, Exoplanet Atmospheres Data Reduction
C. Moore, NMT Undergrad, Computer Control and Software Design
D. Rodeheffer, NMT Undergrad, Exoplanet MOS fields
G. Vaive, NMT Undergrad, Exoplanet Atmospheres Data Reduction and Computer Control
T. Wolfe, NMT Graduate Student, Exoplanet Atmospheres Data Reduction
D. Westpfahl, NMT Education and Outreach Coordinator
MRO consultants:
E. and B. Ryan, MRO 2.4m telescope
A. Farris, Software Design
Our NESSI Collaborators at NASA's JPL:
M. Swain, Exospec Team Lead, Science Co-I on NESSI
G. Vasisht, Instrument Design Advisor
P. Deroo, Exoplanet Atrmospheres Advisor
P. Chin, Exoplanet Atmospheric Chemistry Advisor
M. Zhao, Exospec Team Associate
G. Orton, Giant Planet Atmospheres Advisor
Information about the concepts behind NESSI's science:
Look here for a cool Press Release on Exoplanet Science from the IRTF.
The Swain et al. Nature paper which the design of NESSI is based on stands as a proof of concept
for what NESSI will be doing soon.
Progress on NESSI and the next steps:
NESSI's informal design started in Feb. 2009 shortly before submitting our proposal to NASA.
Since funding started in Sept. 2009 we have assembled our team and begun optical design in
earnest. NESSI had a CoDR at JPL in March, 2010 and FDR at NMT in July, 2011 (picture).
We have a majority of the NESSI structure in fabrication right now, including optics (from ISP),
cryostat (from UCryo), and mechanical structure (from ProFab and JW Industries). We expect
to assemble the entire NESSI structure over the summer 2012 in the lab and take it to the telescope
in the fall after we complete all our alignment and characterization.
Technical Information:
Abstract announcing NESSI at the Jan 2010 AAS Meeting in Washington, DC.
Short article about our instrument from April 2010 Astrobiology Conference in League City, TX.
Abstract (and SPIE article for subscribers) about our optical design from the June 2010 SPIE Meeting in San Diego, CA.
Upcoming SPIE presentations are here (2012 SPIE in Amsterdam) NESSI operations (306) and NESSI optomechanics (364).
Look here for some NMT NESSI press releases: initial announcement and an update.
Overview:
Look here for a schematic of NESSI's layout. From L to R in the picture you see a zemax file of:
the 2.4m MRO telescope, the K-mirror derotator, a dichroic which reflects the IR light down
to the spectrograph and transmits the optical light to the guide camera. The inset blow-up is of
the K-mirror, dichroic and cryogenic spectrograph. Real pictures of hardware in the lab are below.
NESSI salient specifications for the curious. (COMING SOON)
Pictures/Drawings/Tables:
Drawing of NESSI cryostat on its handling cart and NESSI structure on its handling cart. Actual cart.
Drawing of NESSI warm optics assembly.
Drawing of NESSI cold optics assembly.
Drawing of cryostat (dewar) for NESSI. Picture1, Picture2 and Picture 3 of cryostat.
Picture of K Mirror lightweighting on mirror 2.
Picture of NESSI structure in fab.
Drawing of derotator. And picture of derotator drive.
This page was last updated: April 18, 2012