The development of Pollux, proposed for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) mission, relies on a broad European consortium bringing together experts in instrumentation, astrophysics, and space technologies.

This consortium is led by France, in particular by the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM) and the Laboratoire d’instrumentation et de recherche en astrophysique (LIRA), with the support of CNES, the French space agency.

The consortium currently gathers more than xxx scientists and engineers from xxx institutes across xx European countries, covering a wide range of expertise from instrument design to science cases.

Its organization is structured around several complementary components :
– scientific and technical coordination (led by the main institutes),
– science working groups defining the key science cases (exoplanets, interstellar medium, galaxies, etc.),
– instrumental work packages dedicated to subsystems (UV optics, polarimetry, detectors, calibration),
– international coordination, particularly with the HWO community and NASA teams.

In this context, Pollux represents a major European contribution to UV instrumentation for HWO, complementing the US-led instruments, with a unique positioning based on high-resolution UV-to-NIR spectropolarimetry.