"What we have just successfully completed is the System Architecture Review (SAR). It certifies that the technical specifications of the instrument are not only complete and understood, but also correctly propagated to the subsystems, and that we have identified an architecture for the instrument that meets all scientific requirements. This is the foundation for all further development," explain Mathieu Puech and Myriam Rodrigues, Chief System Engineer (UNIDIA), jointly.
This review marks the end of an intense design phase, during which the consortium finalized the scientific specifications, defined the functional and technical architecture of the instrument, and propagated nearly 8,000 input requirements, derived from ESO documents and the needs expressed by the Science Team. This work was carried out by a dedicated team of systems engineers, who focused on structuring the system and propagating the requirements through the various design levels.
"The complexity of this phase lay in the volume and heterogeneity of the specifications to be processed. They had to be sorted, clarified, and rigorously structured to ensure their consistency and traceability at all levels of the instrument. This step truly laid the foundations for the MOSAIC architecture," explains Myriam Rodrigues, head of system engineering.
To accomplish this task, the consortium set up a dedicated engineering database capable of linking all development artifacts—from needs to requirements, including interfaces, use cases, and technical justifications. The integration of artificial intelligence tools into the engineering process also represented a significant advance.
"Artificial intelligence has been integrated in a structured way into our system engineering approach, which is still uncommon in astronomical instrumentation projects. It has enabled us to automate certain tedious tasks and identify inconsistencies and ambiguous formulations, thereby helping to strengthen the overall robustness of the process," explains Clément Hottier, a research engineer at UNIDIA who coordinated this initiative.
The completion of the SAR now allows MOSAIC to enter its B2 phase, which will see the detailed development of subsystems in preparation for the preliminary design review (PDR). This is a milestone that has been successfully achieved, the result of two years of rigorous, collective work that will have a profound impact on the future of the instrument.