TIO recently celebrated the completion of another eight newly polished roundels produced for the TMT primary mirror by Canon in Japan. The TIO and NAOJ teams responsible for the mirror polishing held a face-to-face meeting virtually on April 27, 2021 to confirm that the polishing results met the demanding requirements for these parts.
TMT and Coherent reached a new milestone this month with the completion of the first two roundels for TMT’s Primary Mirror (M1). Coherent precisely contoured and polished the optical surfaces of the roundels under the direction of TIO. They are the first of 231 roundels Coherent will provide for the TMT primary mirror array, nearly half of the total of 492 required to complete the telescope.
TMT, in partnership with Larson Packaging Company, recently celebrated the successful design and completion of TMT’s Primary Mirror Assembly Shipping Container (PMASC). The shipping container will enclose and protect TMT’s primary mirror segments during transport and storage between their international destinations.
A major milestone for the international Thirty Meter Telescope project (TMT) was reached in October 2020, as TMT selected California-based Coherent, Inc. for the Hexagonal cutting of the US allocation of its Primary Mirror (M1) segments. Coherent is one of the world’s leading providers of photonic solutions, including lasers and custom optics, and has extensive experience in large-scale precision optics and assemblies, such as those required...
The Thirty Meter Telescope Optics Group recently reached a critical production milestone, with the approval of the first polished roundel (# SN023) for TMT’s Primary Mirror (M1). Teams at TIO, NAOJ, and Canon reviewed the manufacturing operations required to turn a meniscus mirror blank into a polished roundel, and the roundel was confirmed to meet all requirements set by the TMT Project. This approval obtained in December 2020 validates years...
As an extremely complex organization of systems all interacting together, TMT will require an elaborate Telescope Utility Services (TUS) infrastructure to enable operations within the observatory, across the summit facilities, enclosure, and telescope. The first tier of TMT’s TUS successfully passed its Final Design review, covering elements of the design that pertain to the Telescope Structure and its various interfaces, via video...
TMT Optics and Systems Engineering teams have reached another major milestone, with a successful “gate” review of the TMT optical Test INstruments System (TINS) preliminary design.
TMT Optics and Systems Engineering teams recently conducted a technical evaluation of the primary mirror optical cleaning system, marking a major milestone in its design. The Optics Cleaning System (CLN) for TMT’s segmented primary mirror (M1) as well as the secondary (M2) and tertiary (M3) mirrors successfully passed Preliminary Design Review (PDR) on August 19 and 20, 2020 during a remote conference meeting.
One of TMT’s three “Early Light” instruments, the Wide-Field Optical Spectrometer (WFOS), recently underwent an interim Conceptual Design Review via Zoom. The review’s purpose was to assess the instrument’s progress to date and to provide guidance on potential work needed to successfully complete the technical and scientific aspects to bring the overall design to a full Conceptual Design level.
Recently, the TMT Engineering Sensors System (ESEN) successfully passed its Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and is now ready to enter the Final Design phase. Chris Carter and Scott Michaels, TMT telescope control and software engineers, led a team of four people in presenting the design to the review panel.
