| | |
|
The Atacama Desert in southern Chile offers exceptional good conditions for astronomical observations, and it is on top of a 3 km high mountain that the world's largest telescope is expected to be completed in 2018. The actual development of the telescope is, however, done in Garching near Munich.
It is ESO, European Southern Observatory, which will build this giant telescope, and the name E-ELT could not be more appropriate. As it stands for the European Extreme Large Telescope.
ESO is planning to build the telescope with a primary mirror of 39 meters in diameter. An important part of the telescope is the "Prefocal station" (PFS), which receives light from the telescope ("optical train") and distribute it to the scientific instruments. Even more central is that the PFS also houses the instruments which controls the pointing direction of the telescope as well as the advanced adaptive optics.
Based on existing concepts, Kirkholm will be tasked with developing the requirements specification for the PFS and, with this as a foundation, to outline two concepts and to examine to what extent these concepts will be able to meet the requirements specification. Furthermore Kirkholm will produce time estimates and economic forecasts of the concepts. Kirkholm's work will form the basis for more detailed analysis of the concepts and ultimately the procurement from industry.
With the new equipment, it is expected that it will be possible to discover new planets in other solar systems and that the "first light" - the first technical observations - will take place early nest decade.
| | 
 |
| A new telescope, the largest in the world really, is being developed. And when ESO starts to use it, the initial thermal analyses have been performed in Denmark by Kirkholm maskiningeniører A/S. BACKGROUND
The hotspot for astronomical observations of the southern sky is the Atacama desert in southern Chile. And within a few years ESO (European Southern Observatory) will erect the world’s largest telescope there. The telescope is currently being developed, and has been aptly named E-ELT – European Extremely Large Telescope. One of the participants in the development is Kirkholm maskiningeniører A/S. With the new instrument ESO expects to discover new planets orbiting neighbouring stars. And to make that possible advanced thermal analyses of the mirrors of the telescope are necessary. The E-ELT project represents many examples of technologies at the absolute frontier of what is possible. DEMANDING ANALYSES
The quality of the analyses required by ESO is very demanding. And Kirkholm maskiningeniører A/S has been selected to perform analyses of air flow and temperature between the mirror segments and the surrounding space. The analyses are used as basic for the temperature control of the dome inclosing the telescope. Focus is especially on vortices on the upper surface of the main mirror into the night sky. Temperature differences between the upper and lower surfaces of the mail mirror cause deformation of the mirror segments. The basis for the analyses is known physical date. The analyses are performed with the CFD-program ANSYS CFX. A significant part of the analyses are transient - which mean that the effect of temperature over time is simulated.
FACTS ABOUT THE E-ELT
E-ELT will be the world’s largest and most powerful telescope. The telescope will be 10 times as powerful as the largest telescopes in existence today. The telescope consists of five mirrors, of which some can compensate so that the images of the night sky will be almost perfectly sharp. The mail mirror of the telescope has a diameter of 42 meters. This mirror is assembled from approx. 1000 hexagonal mirror segments measuring 1450 mm from edge to edge with a thickness of 53 mm. More than 5000 actuators support the mirror system continuously keeping the mirror in shape. The adaptive optics (AO) of the mirror system updates more than 1000 times per second. The AO system compensates the blur caused by the atmosphere of the earth. To make the SO system work, a powerful laser projects a synthetic start on the upper layer of the atmosphere. This star is used to measure that atmospheric distortion of the incoming starlight – and to compute a correction applied through the AO-system. Then the E-ELT will focus optimally – and it will be possible to read a newspaper from a distance of 10 km.
| |    |
| LAMDA
In 2013 ESA (European Space Agency) launches its ExoMars Mission that two years later will place a lander and a rover on the surface of Mars. The rover – an autonomous wheeled vehicle – will be equipped with measuring instruments to investigate the geologic environment on the planet. One of these instruments, LAMDA, is being developed by a Danish consortium consisting of Innoware A/S, Kirkholm Maskiningeniører A/S and University of Aarhus.
The”Laser Anemometer and Martian Dust Analyzer”, LAMDA for short, measures wind speed, wind direction and dust deposition. The technology has been developed at Marslab at University of Aarhus, where the only wind tunnel in Europe that simulates wind and dust in the Martian atmosphere is situated.
“This contract is a good example of how Danish companies can mature and create publicity through development contracts for ESA. For us LAMDA is an effective means to sharpen our professional profile”, explains Kjeld Bruno Pedersen, CEO of Kirkholm Maskiningeniører A/S in Skanderborg, a city in the eastern part of the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, adding that ”Projects like this make it possible for us to recruit and sustain a pool of well qualified engineers, and at the same time get media exposure for our company”. Mechanically the challenge is designing an instrument of minimum weight that can withstand the extreme conditions of launch, cruise and landing.
The challenge is met through a combination of old-fashioned brain-power and advanced numerical methods like FEM and CFD.
| |  |
|
| |
