The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is one of three planned ground-based optical/IR Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) that will provide a generational leap in ground-based Optical/IR capability. The GMT is part of the United States ELT Program (US-ELTP) which received the top ranking in the National Academies’ ASTRO2020 Decadal Survey. The GMT Project continues to proceed with design, fabrication, and site construction. Our schedule responds to evolving programmatic factors and we are engaged in a process to obtain US federal support for part of the construction and operations scope. Of the seven 8.4m diameter mirror segments comprising the primary mirror, three have been completed with two in storage and with the third undergoing optical testing to demonstrate figure control with the GMT test mirror cell. The remaining four primary mirror segments have been cast and are in various stages of fabrication. The final design of the telescope mount is complete and fabrication is underway. The first off-axis adaptive secondary mirror system is being tested. Results to date from two adaptive optics and phasing testbeds have demonstrated the GMT phasing strategy and continue to be used for risk reduction and component qualification of our wavefront sensing and control strategy. The first generation science instruments are in various stages of development, from design to early fabrication. Hard rock excavation of the foundations for the enclosure and telescope pier is complete, as is the final design of the enclosure. Residence buildings and other facilities and infrastructure needed to support construction at the Las Campanas site in Chile are complete and in operation.
The Giant Magellan Telescope has a seven-segment Adaptive Secondary Mirror (ASM) System that must meet stringent surface error performance requirements while tracking and offloading. The first hexapod of the M2 Positioner has been constructed and tested by AdOptica using an attocube-based laser truss as a truth sensor. Modeling, analysis, test results are presented, including an actuator model, control structure interaction analysis, attocube sensor and actuator noise models, modal identification, and performance measurements. The test results show that the 10nm RMS surface error requirement due to actuator-based noise sources is verified.
The 25.4m diameter Giant Magellan Telescope utilizes a segmented adaptive secondary mirror subsystem (ASMS) for correction of atmospheric wavefront error (r0=7cm), wind-induced telescope vibrations up to 17m/s wind speed, and M1 and M2 segment alignment errors. The ASMS is composed of seven ASM segments. Each is a 1.05m diameter concave circular segment with a 2mm thick face sheet that is driven by 675 voice coil motor motors to provide wave front and phasing control. The face sheet surface figure can be updated at up to 2kHz with a -3dB bandwidth greater than 800Hz. The ASMS is integrated to the top end of the telescope by actively controlled 6 DOF hexapods. Each hexapod provides 7Hz position control to maintain the alignment within the capture range of the wave front control system. The first off-axis ASM segment is currently being manufactured by the AdOptica Consortium and their subcontractors. The Zerodur Reference Body, Zerodur face sheet, and major structural components have been manufactured and integrated. Structural and dynamic testing of the ASM primary load path has been completed. A phasing testbed is in the build stage that utilizes the single ASM segment, edge sensors, and a reference frame to simulate the phasing of an array of 4 ASM segments. This document presents an overview of the ASMS design and the results of the manufacturing, assembly and testing of the first ASM segment.
The Wide Field Phasing Testbed (WFPT) will be used to test phasing and active optics systems planned for the doubly segmented Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). The testbed consists of a set of optical relays including segmented and deformable mirrors (DMs) that represent the GMT primary and secondary. Displacements, tilts, and clocking of the GMT M1 and M2 segments generate discontinuous wavefront errors that cannot be accurately reproduced by only continuous-surface deformable mirrors. Therefore, two segmented Piston-Tip-Tilt (PTT) mirror arrays placed at the M1 and M2 conjugate positions augment the DMs to reproduce these wavefronts in the WFPT. They must have large stroke (≥10 µm piston) with high temporal stability (⪅20 nm) to avoid drifts from corrupting the sequential AGWS measurements. They must also have very narrow gaps between the mirror clear apertures to mimic the GMT pupil geometry. The pupil size at the PTT array was scaled to fit hexagonal 17mm mirror segments, producing a pupil of approximately 50.25 mm in diameter. Each of the seven segment assemblies consists of a custom segment base component, to which a set of three piezo actuators are epoxied. We selected lead zirconate titanate (PZT) discrete stack actuators which incorporate strain gauges to allow for closed-loop operation, thus eliminating the hysteresis and creep effects of the actuator. A two-axis flexure is bonded to each piezo, opposite the bonded base. The hexagonal mirror is bonded to the three flexures. The assembly, testing and integration challenges of two arrays completed in June 2022 is discussed.
The Giant Magellan Telescope will be a 25.4-m visible and infrared telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. The optical design consists of 7 8.4-m primary mirror segments that reflect light to 7 secondary mirror segments in a doubly segmented direct Gregorian configuration. GMT is developing a Telescope Metrology System (TMS) to decrease the complexity of alignment and increase observatory efficiency. The TMS has been developed to Preliminary Design Review level. A prototyping, modelling, and analysis effort has been completed. All components of the system were matured, and the edge-sensing strategy was significantly revised. This paper describes the current TMS design.
The Giant Magellan Telescope is proceeding with design, fabrication, and site construction. Of the seven 8.4 m diameter mirror segments required for the primary mirror, two have been completed and placed in storage, a third has been polished to specification, three more have been cast and are in various stages of fabrication, and glass is in hand to cast the final segment. The telescope structure is nearing final design review and the start of fabrication. Residence buildings and other facilities needed to support construction at the Las Campanas site in Chile are complete. Hard rock excavation of the foundations for the enclosure and telescope pier is complete. The enclosure is in final design. The first off-axis adaptive secondary mirror is being fabricated, and a primary mirror cell has been fabricated and is under test. Two adaptive optics and phasing testbeds are being fabricated for risk reduction testing and component qualification. Our fabrication and construction schedule is being revised in response to evolving programmatic factors, including the US-ELT initiative, which received the top ranking in the National Academies’ ASTRO2020 Decadal Survey.
The Giant Magellan Telescope will be a 25.4-m visible and infrared telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. The optical design consists of 7 8.4-m primary mirror segments that reflect light to 7 secondary mirror segments in a doubly-segmented direct Gregorian configuration. Each mirror pair must be coaligned and co-boresighted. During operations, the alignment of the optical components will deflect due to variations in temperature, gravity-induced structure flexure of the mount, and, on a scale relevant to phasing, vibrations. The doubly-segmented nature and size of the GMT will create a novel set of challenges for initial assembly, integration, and verification and maintaining high-precision alignment of the optical elements during operations. GMT is developing a Telescope Metrology System that uses 3D laser metrology systems to decrease the complexity of alignment and increase observatory efficiency. This paper discusses the 4 subsystems of TMS as well as their operational modes.
We present the final design of the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) Adaptive Secondary Mirrors System (ASMS), which comprises seven 1m class deformable mirrors segments plus seven hexapod positioners. Each deformable mirror is based on the well established contactless technology developed by AdOptica and already successfully deployed in several 8m class telescopes. The challenge for GMT is that the seven deformable mirrors will function as a single mirror. A subscale prototype made of 72 actuators has been produced to secure system final design: test setup and preliminary results are presented.
The Giant Magellan Telescope project is proceeding with design, fabrication, and site construction. The first two 8.4m primary mirror segments have been completed and placed in storage, three segments are in various stages of grinding and polishing, the sixth segment is in the initial stages of casting, and glass is in hand to cast the seventh segment. An industry contract is in place to complete the design and proceed with fabrication of the telescope structure. Residence buildings and other facilities at the Las Campanas site in Chile are complete. Hard rock excavation of the foundations for the enclosure and telescope pier is complete. Preliminary design of the enclosure has been completed and final design is underway. Seismic isolation system bearings have been tested. A primary mirror segment test cell that will be used to qualify control system components and software is being fabricated. Prototyping continues in several areas, including on-telescope wavefront sensing and control elements, telescope laser metrology, and a subscale Adaptive Secondary Mirror (ASM). Adaptive optics and phasing testbeds are under development. Construction activities were delayed by the global coronavirus pandemic, but work has now resumed.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.