Overview and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope project

Abstract

The Giant Magellan Telescope project is proceeding with design, fabrication, and site construction. The first of the seven required 8.4-m primary mirror segments is completed and in storage, three segments are in various stages of grinding and polishing, and the fifth segment has been cast. Industry contracts are underway to complete the design of the telescope structure. Residence buildings and other facilities needed to support construction at the Las Campanas site in Chile are complete. Hard rock excavation is imminent in preparation for the pouring of concrete for the telescope pier and other foundations. Computational fluid dynamics analysis is informing the design of the telescope enclosure, and further construction work packages are being readied for tender. Seismic design considerations have resulted in the incorporation of a seismic isolation system into the telescope pier, as well as modifications to the primary mirror support system. Designs for the fast-steering and adaptive secondary mirrors, science instruments, and other subsystems are maturing. Prototyping is underway in various aspects, including on-sky testing of wavefront sensing and control elements, and the telescope metrology system. Our fabrication and construction schedule calls for engineering first light with a subset of primary mirror segments in late 2023, with buildout to the full configuration occurring in stages, paced by the availability of primary mirror segments and other components.

Precision and consistency of astrocombs

“…These science goals are important drivers for all 30-meter class telescopes planned for the 2020s, i.e. the Extremely E-mail: dmilakov@eso.org Large Telescope (ELT, Tamai et al 2018), the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT, Simard et al 2016), and the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT, Fanson et al 2018). This is why all will be equipped with a high resolution optical spectrograph.…”

Overview and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope project

“…A summit support building dedicated to primary mirror coating has been placed adjacent to the enclosure. The master plan is otherwise unchanged from the last overview paper in 2016, 6 although considerable new infrastructure has been completed at the site since that time. Figure 12 shows a rendering of the summit site and Figure 13 shows a recent photograph.…”

“…The goals of the project and the concept for the GMT have been reviewed in past proceedings of the SPIE. 1,2,3,4,5,6 In this 2018 status update, we concentrate on areas of the project that have undergone significant evolution since the report in the 2016 proceedings. These include improvements in systems engineering and integrated modeling, incorporation of base isolation into the telescope pier, engagement with industry contractors for the telescope structure, advances in wavefront sensing, metrology and control, and construction on the site in Chile.…”

Overview and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope Project

“…The goals of the project and the concept for the GMT have been reviewed in past proceedings of the SPIE. 1,2,3,4,5,6 In this 2018 status update, we concentrate on areas of the project that have undergone significant evolution since the report in the 2016 proceedings. These include improvements in systems engineering and integrated modeling, incorporation of base isolation into the telescope pier, engagement with industry contractors for the telescope structure, advances in wavefront sensing, metrology and control, and construction on the site in Chile.…”