Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer: the status and progress of a major site redevelopment project

Abstract

The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) project is a collaboration designing the largest non-ELT optical/NIR astronomical telescope to date. MSE is unique as a major astronomical facility since it involves the redevelopment of an existing facility, that of the Canada France Hawai‘i Telescope (CFHT), with a newly expanded partnership. The project office is hosted at CFHT in Waimea HI, and includes new partners from Australia, China, India and Spain. The project is being developed by an international collaboration with design team membership distributed across four continents. In addition to a report on the progress and organization of design work, this paper describes the challenges of redeveloping a major astronomical site in Hawai‘i. We discuss the Project Office and engineering work from the aspects of meeting the Science Requirements while satisfying the unique conditions imposed by redevelopment on Maunakea.