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Man Behind The Thirty Metre Telescope

Posted by timothy on from the observe-your-neighbors-discreetly dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Astronomer Richard Ellis of Caltech talks about the planned Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT), with nine times the resolution of the world's largest existing telescopes, which will be able to locate earth-like planets for the first time, here"

23 comments

  1. hehe by theMerovingian · · Score: 0

    The aliens will be looking down at Earth, and say:

    "Dude, there is a 30-meter blinking eye, right there on the surface of that blue planet."

    --
    "If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
  2. the article is by Froze · · Score: 1

    fairly weak on techinical details. Seems mostly about what the guy who designed it.

    Has anyone found any quality links about the construction challenges and methods?

    --
    -- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.
  3. A link more informative by Wardish · · Score: 4, Informative

    No offense to the Anonomous Coward but... (gotta love that line...)

    I'm more interested in the telescope/project than the astronomer.

    http://www.astro.caltech.edu/observatories/tmt/

    Hmmmm.... Thorazine....

    --
    Ward

    . Silence! Be thankful thy species is unpalatable! .
  4. More Information on the Thirty Meter Telescope by mperrin · · Score: 5, Informative
    The original article is rather low on actual technical information, being instead just an interview with Richard Ellis, and while Richard is a great guy, he's only one of (very!) many individuals working to make the thirty meter telescope a reality.

    I thought I'd introduce some more facts into the discussion. There were, until recently, two major independent efforts to develop a 30 m optical/IR telescope:

    Both have done design studies and both came up with fairly similar designs. Given the reality that this telescope is going to cost something north of $600 million dollars when all is said and done, the two groups have recently decided to pool all their efforts, signing an cooperation agreement back in August.

    As part of this, both groups applied for about $35M of funding for the next stage of the development, which will involve doing more detailed design studies, simulations, and construction of subsystem mockups to test performance. The plan is after about three years of this to have a completed design and then be able to break ground around 2008 or so, and become operational around a decade from now.

    Incidentally, NOAO asked for their $35M from the National Science Foundation, while the UC/Caltech team approached the Moore Foundation, Gordon Moore's philanthropic organization. So a tiny fraction of every dollar you spend on an Intel chip may someday help to make this telescope a reality!

    1. Re:More Information on the Thirty Meter Telescope by kabocox · · Score: 1

      while the UC/Caltech team approached the Moore Foundation, Gordon Moore's philanthropic organization. So a tiny fraction of every dollar you spend on an Intel chip may someday help to make this telescope a reality!

      Oh, great I can see the ads now, huge telescopic with researcher looking through something and he sees aliens, planets, all sorts of neat stuff. Then some one asks how the government can afford all this. And he points to a plack of Paid by Intel on the side of the Telescope.

    2. Re:More Information on the Thirty Meter Telescope by DoraLives · · Score: 1
      ...points to a plack of Paid by Intel on the side of the Telescope.

      Nah, they'll probably just have a 30 meter one of these on the back side of the mirror.

      --
      Is it fascism yet?
  5. Peeping Tom Style... by dakkon1024 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    So this means I can check out alien woman now? =)

  6. tum tee by FinestLittleSpace · · Score: 1

    I have to say, I get madly excited about all this stuff. Just imagine being able to see the atmospheres of other projects. Drool.

    Anyway, anymore info apart from that interview?

  7. Bah! by catfry · · Score: 3, Interesting

    30 metres? Ha! So you want big? I'll give you big. Link goes to a page about a proposed 100 metre telescope!

  8. Re:Slashdot janitors!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Well, technically, of the four major English speaking nations, three of them spell it "metre." (And "colour," "armour," etc). Three-to-one, metre wins.

  9. Re:Benchmark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey, I worry about the Aliens resolving him. Earth is one thing, but I don't think anyone would want that guy obstructing their view of Venus!

  10. Re:Slashdot janitors!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    One superpower, one vote.

    You, for one, should welcome your new imperial overloards.

    We're making our lists, we're checking them twice.
    Would you rather be sorted as 'naughty' or 'nice'?

    We're one Santa who you don't want coming down your chimney. Ho ho ho!

  11. Re:Slashdot janitors!! by advocate_one · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    "We're one Santa who you don't want coming down your chimney. Ho ho ho!"

    What??? the fat, jackbooted Coca-Cola version???

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
  12. Take care in the precedents you propose... by Wardish · · Score: 1

    Mind you I honestly don't care how things are spelled as long as the purpose of language is achieved and the communication occurs.

    But with that said...

    Do you really want to set a precedent here that simple majority should rule on setting standards.... *shudder* And I do speak from knowledge as I come from the american bible belt.

    Donuts Thorazine
    mmmm Thorazine....

    --
    Ward

    . Silence! Be thankful thy species is unpalatable! .
  13. Re:Slashdot janitors!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Better than the thin, berkenstok, wheat grass drinking verion.

    Personally, I like my Santas to drink whisky and smell like it. That's how you know it's christmas.

  14. is that a 30m telescope you're standing behind? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    or are you just happy to see me? I mean *really* happy?

  15. Okay.. by rupert2000 · · Score: 1

    I've gotta admit I've got a slight case of telescope envy.

  16. reaching a practical limit by grosa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    it seems like pretty soon we're going to run into a practical imaging limit for earth-based telescopes, with atmospheric interference limiting what we can see. if it weren't for the huge expense involved in it, it would benefit us so much more to have something like this up in space. maybe in orbit, or on the other side of the moon or something.

    of course, having it up in space means you can't go hang out at the observatory scanning the heavens.

    i have to say though, this thing puts my telescope to shame :)

    1. Re:reaching a practical limit by V_M_Smith · · Score: 1

      Basically, adaptive optics (AO -- deformable mirrors which compensate for atmospheric turbulence) are what makes projects like this possible. That being said, projects like the European OWL (100m) telescope will need a *huge* number of actuators to get the level of mirror control necessary to eliminate most of the distortions. In fact, with a small number of AO actuators, large telescopes can actually do *worse* than with no AO system at all!

      A large chunk of the budget on these large optical telescopes will be going toward developing such large AO systems.