The ESO/ELT ANDES (ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph) project successfully completed the system architecture review and is currently finalizing its preliminary design phase. ANDES is the high-resolution spectrograph for the ELT (ESO Extremely Large Telescope) capable of reaching a resolution of R ~ 100,000 simultaneously, in a wavelength range between 0.35 -2.4 µm (goals included), characterized by high-precision and extreme calibration accuracy suitable to address a variety of flagship scientific cases across a wide range of astronomical domains. To fulfill the required specifications the proposed design adopts a modular approach where the instrument is split in four individual spectrographs, each fiber-fed, and thermally and vacuum stabilized. A dedicated front-end which host a single conjugated adaptive optics module, collects either the light from the telescope or from a calibration unit feeding in turn the individual spectrographs. To master the described complexity the same modularity is reflected also at the project management level: each of the 9 subsystems (counting also the software as a standalone subsystem) is under direct responsibility of different teams coordinated by the ANDES project office. The high distribution and the large community involvement, consisting of 24 institutes from 13 countries, represent certainly a challenge from the project management point of view. In this paper we present the project management approach we envisaged to master successfully all the ANDES project phases from the finalization of the preliminary design up to commissioning on-sky; in particular we will describe in detail the risk management and PA/QA activities we have foreseen to assure appropriate risk mitigation and an overall high-quality standard required for the ANDES project.
The first generation of ELT instruments includes an optical-infrared high resolution spectrograph, indicated as ELT-HIRES and recently christened ANDES (ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph). ANDES consists of three fibre-fed spectrographs ([U]BV, RIZ, YJH) providing a spectral resolution of ∼100,000 with a minimum simultaneous wavelength coverage of 0.4-1.8 μm with the goal of extending it to 0.35-2.4 μm with the addition of an U arm to the BV spectrograph and a separate K band spectrograph. It operates both in seeing- and diffraction-limited conditions and the fibre-feeding allows several, interchangeable observing modes including a single conjugated adaptive optics module and a small diffraction-limited integral field unit in the NIR. Modularity and fibre-feeding allows ANDES to be placed partly on the ELT Nasmyth platform and partly in the Coudé room. ANDES has a wide range of groundbreaking science cases spanning nearly all areas of research in astrophysics and even fundamental physics. Among the top science cases there are the detection of biosignatures from exoplanet atmospheres, finding the fingerprints of the first generation of stars, tests on the stability of Nature’s fundamental couplings, and the direct detection of the cosmic acceleration. The ANDES project is carried forward by a large international consortium, composed of 35 Institutes from 13 countries, forming a team of almost 300 scientists and engineers which include the majority of the scientific and technical expertise in the field that can be found in ESO member states.
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