  Muon ionization cooling provides the only practical solution for preparing
high brightness beams necessary for a neutrino factory or muon collider. The
Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) is under development at the
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK). It comprises a dedicated beam line
designed to generate a range of input emittances and momenta with
time-of-flight and Cherenkov detectors to select a pure muon beam. A first
measurement of emittance is performed in the upstream magnetic spectrometer
with a scintillating fiber tracker. A cooling cell will then follow,
alternating energy loss in liquid hydrogen and acceleration by RF cavities. A
second spectrometer identical to the first and another particle identification
system provide a measurement of the outgoing emittance. In late 2009, it is
expected that the beam and many of the particle identification detectors will
be in the final commissioning phase, and the first measurement of input beam
emittance will take place in 2010. The steps of commissioning, emittance
measurement and cooling will be described.
