Last month, I talked with the India-TMT Optics team and one of their industrial partners, Optica. We discussed their work for TMT’s primary mirror, for which India is providing 84 of the 492 pieces of polished glass ceramic.
Meet the team behind TMT - Associate Professor Saeko Hayashi
The production of TMT’s primary mirrors in North America is progressing very well. Several polished glass-ceramic roundels are currently in production at the Coherent manufacturing facilities; three were recently finished and shipped to the TMT storage facility in the Bay Area.
The TMT Laser Guide Star Facility (LGSF) has successfully completed the first phase of its Preliminary Design Review (PDR1). The LGSF will be responsible for generating artificial laser guide stars that will be used with TMT’s Adaptive Optics (AO) systems, including NFIRAOS, the Observatory’s first-light AO facility.
In a previous set of blog entries, we discussed the principle of adaptive optics, which TMT will use to remove the effects of turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere. TMT's first light adaptive optics includes the Narrow Field Infra-Red Adaptive Optics System (NFIRAOS), which is being designed and built by our Canadian colleagues at the Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre, in Victoria.
The optical metrology and test set for TMT’s primary mirror segments has arrived at its warehouse in California. It was sent by Arizona Optical Systems (AOS) in Tucson, Arizona, on May 11 and arrived safely the day after at the TMT storage facility after a 500-mile journey. All fabrication and test tooling for the complete metrology system were also included in the freight.
The handling equipment for TMT primary mirror (M1) segment recently passed its Preliminary Design Review. The custom-designed equipment and tooling will be used to safely handle mirrors within the observatory during operational activities.
Meet the TMT Team - Professor A.N. Ramaprakash (Ram)
TMT is deeply saddened by the passing of TMT Systems Engineer Hugh Thompson on May 7, 2021. Hugh was a colleague, good friend and inspiration to many of us who were fortunate to interact with him over his career.
A virtual meeting was conducted on April 5, 2021 between representatives of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ, TMT Japanese Partner Institution) and the TMT Project Office (TMTPO) Telescope Structure Subsystem (STR), Systems Engineering (SE) and Project Management (PM) teams. The goal of this closeout meeting was to verify closure of all major actions from the STR Production Readiness Review (PRR) 1 which was conducted...
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