Altec Engineering set to secure work for world's most advanced telescope of its kind

The company and Durham University's CfAI (Centre for Advanced Instrumentation) have visited the Munich -ased European Southern Observatory, representing the UK on the E-ELT M1 Mirror Segment Support (M1SS) components bid. ESO will issue the call for tender sometime in June 2014, with the contract award announced around the end of November 2014 (it is possible that two contracts could be awarded) - there is international competition for this work.The project duration is 30 months. The design and sub-systems assembly work will be project managed through the company's special-purpose equipment division, while the complex CNC precision machining content will be delivered from Altec's AS9100 Rev C manufacturing division. Durham University's CfAI, with its extensive experience in space instrument design and integration, will undertake the final assembly and environmental testing prior to shipment. In fact, Altec Engineering is a recognised and accredited supplier to the aerospace and space science industry and already has an ongoing working relationship with STFC. The company recently secured a new four-year contract with the organisation, the second in succession, under which the company will provide a wide range of precision machining services to the STFC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory – Oxfordshire, Daresbury Laboratory – Cheshire and the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh. Altec also has a long-standing collaborative arrangement with Durham University's Centre for Advanced Instrumentation (CfAI). The E-ELT, to be built in Chile, will see first light in early 2020 and will make possible huge strides in mankind's understanding of the universe, the effects of dark matter and energy and planets outside of the solar system. Its 39 m diameter mirror, comprising of almost 800 individual segments, will collect 15 times more light than any existing telescope and it will produce images 16 times sharper than the Hubble space-based telescope. The E-ELT Primary Mirror comprises 798 off-axis aspherical segments. The M1SS components are made of low expansion glass or glass-ceramics, roughly 1.44 m in diameter and 50 mm thickness at the centre. Each segment is supported by a mechanical system transferring the load of the mirror to the telescope structure. There are a total of 931 segments and associated supports, of which 798 are installed in the telescope at any given time. These are actively controlled to set and maintain position using three actuators, attached to the segment supporting frame. Positional adjustments are calculated, using information from position sensors (edge sensors) that measure relative displacements of the segments in real time, down to a few nanometers in accuracy. In addition to rigid body motion, the segments are controlled in shape via moment or force actuators (the warping harness), which enable adjustment of the supporting forces, thus generating minor segment surface deformations. Active shape control allows for conservation of an optimum primary mirror shape under external loads, but also for moderate relaxation of fabrication and testing tolerances. For the UK, following the UK government's confirmation of an £88 million investment in what is recognised as one of the biggest global science collaborations in history, the UK research base and industry are set to play a key role in the project. This investment will see UK scientists and engineers, supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), heavily involved in the construction and operation of the telescope and its instruments. UK industry has already won £9 million worth of contracts, and that figure is predicted to increase as much as ten-fold once, construction is completed.