The Giant Magellan Telescope ( #GMT), located at Las Campanas Observatory in the Chilean Atacama Desert, is one of the world’s largest #telescope and it will offer images ten times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope.
GMT is composed on seven primary mirrors, each 8.4 meters in diameter, to form an effective aperture of 25 meters that will be able to gather faint light from the farthest reaches of the known #universe.
#OHBItalia will develop the complex mechanical covers:
- to protect the giant mirrors from damage
- to minimize their exposure from dust and particles
- to ensure a stable thermal environment
- to provide access to the telescope’s subsystems that cannot be safely accessed with the mirrors exposed.
The covers will be made of an aluminium honeycomb composite. The large covers can be operated locally or remotely with an open/close time of only 150sec.
OHB Italia with this important project confirms its role as leader for supplying complex mechanisms and ground equipment.
#OHBDigitalConnect #GMTO #CoverMechanisms #GroundEquipment #Telescope #DeepUniverse
