Overview and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope Project

Patrick J. McCarthy; James Fanson; Rebecca Bernstein; David Ashby; Bruce Bigelow; Nune Boyadjian; Antonin Bouchez; Eric Chauvin; Eduardo Donoso; Jose Filgueira; Robert Goodrich; Frank Groark; George Jacoby; Eric Pearce

doi:10.1117/12.2234505

8 August 2016 Overview and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope Project

Patrick J. McCarthy, James Fanson, Rebecca Bernstein, David Ashby, Bruce Bigelow, Nune Boyadjian, Antonin Bouchez, Eric Chauvin, Eduardo Donoso, Jose Filgueira, Robert Goodrich, Frank Groark, George Jacoby, Eric Pearce

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9906, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VI; 990612 (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2234505
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

The Giant Magellan Telescope Project is in the construction phase. Production of the primary mirror segments is underway with four of the seven required 8.4m mirrors at various stages of completion and materials purchased for segments five and six. Development of the infrastructure at the GMT site at Las Campanas is nearing completion. Power, water, and data connections sufficient to support the construction of the telescope and enclosure are in place and roads to the summit have been widened and graded to support transportation of large and heavy loads. Construction pads for the support buildings have been graded and the construction residence is being installed. A small number of issues need to be resolved before the final design of the telescope structure and enclosure can proceed and the GMT team is collecting the required inputs to the decision making process. Prototyping activities targeted at the active and adaptive optics systems are allowing us to finalize designs before large scale production of components begins. Our technically driven schedule calls for the telescope to be assembled on site in 2022 and to be ready to receive a subset of the primary and secondary mirror optics late in the year. The end date for the project is coupled to the delivery of the final primary mirror segments and the adaptive secondary mirrors that support adaptive optics operations.

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Patrick J. McCarthy, James Fanson, Rebecca Bernstein, David Ashby, Bruce Bigelow, Nune Boyadjian, Antonin Bouchez, Eric Chauvin, Eduardo Donoso, Jose Filgueira, Robert Goodrich, Frank Groark, George Jacoby, and Eric Pearce "Overview and status of the Giant Magellan Telescope Project", Proc. SPIE 9906, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VI, 990612 (8 August 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2234505

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