SAMOS is a programmable visible multi-object spectrograph designed to exploit the wide-field image quality delivered by the SOAR GLAO module. Its digital micromirror device provides a reconfigurable focal-plane mask in which arbitrary slit patterns can be generated in seconds, while a parallel imaging channel supports target acquisition, monitoring, and photometric calibration.

Following commissioning and completion of the imaging and spectroscopic reduction pipelines, SAMOS now provides an end-to-end demonstration of both the advantages and practical implementation of programmable multi-object spectroscopy. I will summarize its on-sky performance, observing workflow, multiplexing, calibration strategy, and final pipeline products.

I will then use SAMOS as a starting point for looking beyond seeing-limited spectroscopy. In studies of micromirror-based spectrographs for a possible UV/visible instrument for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO, the next “super Hubble"), diffraction by individual mirrors, inter-mirror gaps, and tilted-mirror geometry becomes part of the optical response and introduces a new set of design constraints. Similar considerations arise for visible spectroscopy behind extreme-AO systems on large ground-based telescopes. MAVIS at the VLT could enable multiplexed spectroscopy of crowded fields and resolved stellar populations, providing a ground-based precursor, over a smaller field of view, to some of the visible-wavelength science capabilities envisioned for HWO.

SAMOS is therefore not only an operational instrument, but also a unique on-sky demonstrator for the next generation of reconfigurable astronomical spectroscopy.