TMT recently achieved a major project milestone, with a review Board, mainly composed of external reviewers, concluding that its plans for Observatory Operations, Commissioning and Data-Management (OCDM) have reached sufficient maturity at this stage of the project design. Concretely, this positive preliminary review means that TMT’s operations...
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.
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.
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.
Many Congratulations to Andrea Ghez on the award of the Physics 2020 Nobel Prize for her work on the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
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.
An important project for the global astronomy community, TMT is working collaboratively with the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab) to develop a U.S.-Extremely Large Telescope Program (US-ELTP).
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.
