This project will develop and begin observing with the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT) Network of Robotic Echelle Spectrographs (NRES). NRES will be prtotyped at Sedgwick Reserve and eventually deployed at six LCOGT network nodes and will roughly double the nationwide capacity for the follow-up spectroscopy needed most by exoplanet surveys. It will extend LCOGT’s photometric capacity with radial velocity (RV) and stellar characterization of unprecedented homogeneity and quantity, yielding an RV accuracy better than 3 m/s. Working with ground- and space-based surveys, NRES will enable studies of exoplanets and exoplanet populations that are now infeasible.

Approved