The ExoLife Finder Project Milestones

Design Concept

A team of scientists from multiple institutions designs technology concepts for near-term ultralarge telescopes based on distributed Fizeau apertures, with the explicit goal of finding life within several light-years of Earth.

DiSL Contract Awarded

July  The first design contract for Mini-ELF (also known as SELF) is awarded. A detailed optomechanical contract is granted to DiSL, officially starting the Mini-ELF project at IAC.

Funding Awarded

4 million euros in funding from the EU is awarded to CRAL for supporting thin “Live Mirror” research, and 3 million euros from PEPR ORIGINS for developing the Mach- Zehnder high-order AO and real time wavefront control.

Kick off and Team Formation

Feb First kick-off meeting of the Laboratory for
Innovation in Optomechanics (LIOM) at IAC.

Nov Kickoff for SURI distributed aperture
telescope research program at GSU.

Dec The LIOM research team is established at IACTEC, initially composed of six members.

EU Support for LIOM Project

Apr Funding secured for the SELF dome and its
site on Teide.

May Long-term support from the EU for LIOM project secured with a major IAC CELESTE grant including CNRS/CRAL.

Jun Detailed SELF optomechanical milestone
reviewed.

SELF telescope installation

Aug ELF project office initiated

Sep SELF optomechanical telescope installed at IACTEC for testing.

SELF First Light

Aug SELF installed on Teide and commisioning
start.
Oct First light observations and scalability testing begin.

SELF Cartography

May Cartography of giant planets on nearby
stars or Neptune moons.

Jun Conceptual ELF design review.

ELF Design Review

May SELF scalability testing concluded.

Jun Preliminary ELF design review.

ELF Construction Begins

Jun ELF critical design review.

Sep Full construction funding for ELF partnership secured, start of ELF construction in La Palma.

ELF First Light

Jun First light observations of ELF.

Alien Life Detected

Jun First alien life signatures detected.