Prototyping results for a wide-field fibre positioner for the Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope

Given the physical size of the GSMT prime focus field is approximately equivalent to that of the Subaru telescope it is possible to directly apply current technology developed for the Fiber Multi-Object Spectrograph instrument (FMOS, to be commissioned in 2005) and substantially reduce the risk associated with developing a new solution for wide-field multi-object spectroscopy on an ELT. The Anglo-Australian Observatory has recently completed a design study for an ∼1000 fibre, Echidna-style positioner for the prime focus of the Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope (GSMT). The positioner forms part of the wide-field Multi-Object Multi-Fiber Optical Spectrograph (MOMFOS), an ELT prime focus instrument offering a minimum of 800 fibres patrolling the corrected 20 arcmin field. The design study identified 2 components of an equivalent MOMFOS positioner design that required prototyping. Firstly, a higher spine packing density is required to satisfy the proposed scientific program. Secondly, the fibre position measurement system adopted for FMOS cannot be simply scaled and applied to MOMFOS given space constraints in the top end unit. As such a new and, if possible, simpler system was required. Prototyping results for both components are presented.