Abstract Details

Name: Prasanna Deshmukh
Affiliation: Indian Institute of Astrophysics
Conference ID: ASI2020_142
Title : Prototyping of Soft Actuators for Thirty Meter Telescope in India.
Authors and Co-Authors : Prasanna Deshmukh, Viswanatha N, Surojit Roy, P.K.Mahesh, Lalit Kumar, Varun Saraswat, Jayakumar P.S, Jeevan V, Sudharsan K.
Abstract Type : Poster
Abstract Category : Instrumentation and Techniques
Abstract : The primary mirror of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is comprised of 492 hexagonal mirror segments. Each mirror segment is 1.44 meters measured across corners. These segments need to be maintained at the required surface accuracy and stability, against structural deformations caused by temperature, gravity, wind, and seismic vibrations. For this, each segment is actively controlled by three Actuators and passively controlled by the Segment Support Assemblies (SSA). To achieve very high spatial resolution as well as sensitivity, all the 492 hexagonal mirror segments of the TMT must be precisely positioned with respect to each other to form a 30-meter hyperboloid primary mirror. The M1 control system (M1CS) performs this task, with the help of the Actuators that correct for the segments tip-tilt and piston errors measured by edge sensors. Altogether 1476 Actuators are required to keep the 492 segments aligned and are part of India’s in-kind contribution to the TMT Project. In 2018-2019, 20 P2e Prototype actuators were manufactured at four Indian industries. All these actuators were Fabricated, Assembled and Tested for their functionality in India. Further, they were shipped to the TMT Project Office in the USA for conducting Performance and Life testing. In this poster, we will present different performance and manufacturing aspects of the TMT Actuators along with the challenges involved. Also, we will present some of the test results from Functionality and Performance testing so far.