A highly qualified Coherent inspector verifies the roundel surface of each TMT finished roundel before it is sealed up in its packaging at the supplier’s facility.
Glen Cole, TIO Lead Optical Fabrication Engineer, visits Coherent’s production unit dedicated to TMT while observing strict safety protocols due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Highly protected and covered by optical paper, the roundel is ready to be shipped to TIO’s storage facility.
On March 3, 2021 in Tucson AZ, AOS successfully demonstrated the metrology system they have built to measure the aspheric prescription of the TMT primary mirror segments. This test set uses a full-aperture reference surface and a Fizeau interferometer to measure the curvature of the off-axis segments. This test set will guide the Ion Beam Figuring process which will bring the TMT segments to their final surface figure requirements.
Each TMT segment must be cut into a hexagonal shape and carved at critical dimensions for lodging high precision support components known as the central diaphragm and two edge sensors on each side.
Coherent production facility dedicated to TMT Polishing and Hexing processes.
TMT’s general and emergency lighting system provides illumination of the telescope floors and platforms, telescope access paths and walkways for the specific telescope work areas in the Telescope elevation structure, azimuth structure and fixed structures including the primary mirror cell structure.
Professor Eswar Reddy provided a tour of the new facility and presented an update of the project development to the Vice President of India and several members of Parliament.
The three-story building of nearly 3,600 square meters is a world class optical facility dedicated to TMT primary mirror segments fabrication.
The Vice President of India with distinguished Professors of the India Institute of Astrophysics and India-TMT members participated in the opening ceremony and were guided in viewing the new building on 29 December 2020.
New integration facility for NFIRAOS, TMT first light Adaptive Optics (AO) at NRC-HAA research center in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, where NRC-HAA and industrial subcontractors are developing NFIRAOS. The building will allow the integration and test of NFIRAOS with its first light instrument IRIS. This is illustrated in the top right figure, which shows a CAD rendering of NFIRAOS and IRIS installed in the building.
