Completing the census of young stars near the Sun with the FunnelWeb spectroscopic survey

From late 2016, the Australian FunnelWeb survey will obtain medium-resolution (R~2000) spectra covering the full optical range for 2 million of the brightest stars (I<12) in the southern sky. It will do so using an upgraded UK Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, equipped with a revolutionary, parallelizable optical fibre positioner ("Starbugs") and spectrograph. The ability to reconfigure a multi-fibre plate in less than 5 minutes allows FunnelWeb to observe more stars per night than any other competing multi-fibre spectrograph and enables a range of previously inefficient bright star science not attempted since the completion of the HD catalogues in the 1940s. Among its key science aims, FunnelWeb will obtain spectra for thousands of young and adolescent (<1 Gyr) stars near the Sun (<200 pc) across a wide range of spectral types. These spectra will include well-studied youth and activity indicators such as H-alpha, Li I 6708A, Ca II H&K, as well as surface gravity diagnostics (e.g. Na I, K I). In addition, FunnelWeb will obtain stellar parameters (Teff, logg, vsini), abundances (Fe/H, alpha/Fe) and radial velocities to 1-2 km/s for every star in the survey. When combined with high precision parallaxes and proper motions from the Gaia mission expected from 2017, this dataset will provide a near-complete census of adolescent stars in the solar neighbourhood. It will help reveal the typical formation environments of young solar-type stars, how such stars move from their stellar nurseries to their adult lives in the field, and identifying thousands of high-priority targets for follow-up direct imaging (GPI, SPHERE), transit (including TESS) and radial velocity exoplanet studies. In this poster contribution we introduce the FunnelWeb survey, its science goals and input catalogue, as well as provide an update on the status of the fibre positioner and spectrograph commissioning at Siding Spring.