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Experience with the design and construction of huge telescope pedestals

2004; SPIE; Volume: 5382; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1117/12.566261

1996-756X

Hans J. Kaercher,

Business, Education, Mathematics Research

The projects for Extreme Large Telescopes are getting now into sizes, on which the radio telescope engineers are used since 50 years. Obviously, for the radio telescopes the requirements (accuracies, sensitivity of equipment against environmental influences etc.) are far less than for optical telescopes. But: there are a lot of design and construction features, which have similarities, and where existing experience can be transferred. The interesting areas are: manufacturing, erection of stiffness driven space trusses (alidade and backup structure), main axes mechanisms (elevation, azimuth), environmental influences (temperature, wind), structural dynamics and active deformation control, management and cost issues. The paper reports on latest experience with the design and construction of the 50 m Large Millimeter Telescope LMT/GTM in Mexico and the 64 m Sardinia Radio Telescope SRT.