India joins 5-nation team to construct Thirty Meter Telescope

The construction of ambitious next- generation Thirty Meter
Telescope, to be built at an estimated cost of $1.47 billion
by an international consortium consisting of institutions
from India, the US, Canada, Japan and China, has begun
this week in Hawaii.
The gigantic telescope, scheduled to be ready by 2020, will
provide astronomers with unparalleled power to observe the
intricacies of the universe from the comfort of Earth.
India is a significant partner in this ambitious international
project, which would enable scientists to answer some of
the most fundamental questions in modern science.
Last month, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi had given its approval for India’s
participation in the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Project at
Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA at a total cost of ₹1,299.8 crores
from 2014-23.
The project is an international consortium consisting of
institutions from the USA, Canada, Japan, India and China.
From India side, this will be a joint project of the
Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the
Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).
With its contributions, India will be a 10 per cent partner in
the project and 70 per cent of its contributions will be “in
kind”. This will translate into 25 to 30 observing nights on
the telescope for Indian scientists per year.
The TMT will enable scientists to study fainter objects far
away from us in the Universe, which will give information
about early stages of the evolution of the Universe.
It will also give finer details of not-so-far-away objects
such as undiscovered planets and other objects in the Solar
System and planets around other stars.
This partnership will also enhance India’s technological
capabilities in high-technology areas such as primary
mirror segment figuring and polishing, mirror support
system and edge sensor assembly and testing, software for
observatory controls, data analysis pipelines, adaptive
optics techniques.
The TMT will be one of the largest optical-infrared
telescopes to come up in the next decade. Its 30 meter
diameter primary mirror will consist of 492 segments of
1.44 meter diameter each.
These mirror segments will be cleverly positioned relative
to each other through sophisticated sensors, actuators and
control systems, so that the entire assembly behaves like a
single monolithic mirror.
From the Indian side, the project would be led by Indian
Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) Bangalore, with the help of
Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences
(ARIES), Nainital and Inter-University Centre for Astronomy
and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune.