Project Owner: ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Project Value: $750,000,000
Project Status: In Progress
Location: ACT, Australia

The Giant Magellan Telescope

Project Owners:

In Australia:  ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (RSAA)

International:  GMTO Corporation

Project Value: $88.4M in Australia;  $750M internationally.

Project Status: In Progress

Location:        Mt Stromlo Observatory, ACT Australia

GMTO Corp, Pasadena, California

 

The Giant Magellan Telescope is a billion-dollar, international project that aims to design, build and operate a very large, next generation optical/infrared telescope. The Telescope is specified to have sensitivity nearly 100 times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope and image sharpness 10 times better than Hubble. It will enable researchers explore the formation of the first galaxies in the early Universe, to study the physics of material surrounding black holes, and to investigate Earthlike planets around other stars.

The telescope is being designed by an international consortium of research institutions,  including the ANU in Australia. In 2020, the Telescope will go into operation at Cerro Las Campanas, Chile, in the high Atacama Desert. The project is being facilitated internationally by the Giant Magellan Telescope Organisation (GMTO), a not-for-profit corporation. The Australian National University is the principal organisation for the project in Australia and with its partnership with Astronomy Australia Limited, holds a 10% stake in the project.

The international project is approaching its Preliminary Design Review, to be held mid-2012. ANU involvement in the GMT project will be (i) the design, construction and delivery of an Integral Field Spectrograph (GMTIFS) and (ii) the Adaptive Optics telescope subsystem that aims to remove atmospheric blurring. This work will be carried out at the RSAA Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre at Mt Stromlo, Canberra, together with Australian partners from industry.

Opportunities current exist for companies wishing to develop skills in space-related technologies through collaboration on the GMT project. Skill areas of importance include optics, vacuum cryogenics, control systems, detector systems, integration, assembly, and test and validation in the areas of systems engineering, mechanical engineering, analogue and digital electrical engineering, software engineering, and project management. In the coming years, there will be opportunities to tender for a wide range of contracts. A (preliminary) procurement calendar is provided below, and Requests for Tender will be posted as they are released.

The ANU is seeking commercial companies interested in partnering in the project.

 

Contacts:

Roger Franzen (rfranzen@mso.anu.edu.au)

Mt Stromlo Observatory

Cotter Road

Weston, ACT 2611

 

info@gmto.org

GMTO Corporation
P.O. Box 90933
Pasadena, CA 91109-0933

 

Image courtesy -Giant Magellan Telescope - Carnegie Observatories.