Endeavour update newsletter Summer 2026
11 Aug 2026 - Rosie de Laune
Endeavour will deliver transformative impact in key societal challenge areas such as materials for the future, clean growth and life sciences. Super MuSR and HRPD-X are currently planned to be ready for the user programme in the first half of 2028. Wish-II, Mushroom and Sandals-2 are now in the detailed design phase, with Osiris+ and Tosca+ likely to follow during the next two years.
Super MuSR
Both Spin Rotators have been fully assembled in the clean tent. The survey group has aligned the electrodes in Spin Rotator 1 to achieve extremely high accuracy. This is a fantastic achievement, highlighting the benefits from the collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institut for this project. They are due to align the electrodes in Spin Rotator 2 in the next couple of weeks. Spin Rotator 1 has been moved into the high voltage (HV) test area, with testing starting soon to reach +/- 215 kV.
The HV test vessel itself has been run up to 215 kV with both resistor boxes, proving critical aspects of the Spin Rotator design such as the ceramic insulator assembly, electromagnetic design, surface finishes and cleanliness.
Work is progressing on the detector build. The 960 scintillator tiles are all being made by hand, in five different sizes. The fibre optics are first glued into place, then lapped down to size before being polished. Each is then inspected and wrapped ready for testing (by Ben – see below!) before installation in 2027. The instrument pre-build is also progressing.
People of Endeavour
Continuing our series introducing the staff behind Endeavour, we speak to Ben Thompson, who is on an industrial placement year as a Detector Scientist testing the scintillator tiles for the Super MuSR detectors as they’re produced.
The project initially appealed to him because it not only looked interesting, but because it would produce tangible results. “The detector testing has direct applications: it’s going straight into a beamline that’s used for battery development and superconductor testing,” he explains.
Ben’s testing has been part of the iterative development loop, as the tiles have been designed specifically for Super MuSR and are all handmade. This means that his testing has flagged up issues caused by changes in production method or resin quality. He’s also had experience of beamtime, to test each assembled stave as a full ensemble in the muon beam. “The most exciting part of the placement was the beamtime. It’s good to see everything working in its final application and realise all myself and my team’s hard work.”
HRPD-X
The HRPD-X project continues to pick up pace as it moves into an instrument pre-build phase, ahead of installation next year. Two detector structures have been built, the first argon tank is being set up for gas testing and the vacuum vessel (pictured, left) is undergoing factory acceptance testing ready for delivery in a few weeks. The first set of detector modules are being tested with neutrons with very positive initial results. The curved modules are being populated and coded in the assembly lab. The building that will house the instrument continues to progress on time, with all the reinforced concrete sections now poured and the crane installed, and is expected to be weather tight before the end of the summer.
Wish-II
The primary parts of the instrument are being designed by the team at Daresbury with a plan to install the shutters, inserts and new chopper pit shielding in the long shutdown. Some of the beamline shielding has already been delivered and there has recently been a test of the new design of detector.
Developing in-house capability for 3D-printing custom collimators for the Endeavour programme
3D printing the complex shapes and patterns of the ISIS neutron collimators would be safer and easier than the current epoxy resin method, as well as having a quicker turnaround time for new components. However, commercial boron carbide filament is expensive and not very high quality. Joel Hodder from STFC’s Technology department is working with Rafael Heeb, a postdoctoral researcher joint between ISIS and the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) to develop an extruder to make the filaments required.
The HRPD-X collimator will be large, complex, and made of the rare isotope boron-10, so it’s important for them to be confident in the extrusion and printing process before the final build. They plan to print the collimator in about 40 sections to reduce the impact of any errors or breakages. They are also using the extruder to produce gadolinium oxide filament, which will be used to produce test pieces of collimator for WISH-II.
