Status Update
2008
August
In February 2008, MRO took occupancy of the Beam Combining and Delay Line buildings after a little more then 18 months after breaking ground by our general contractor K. L. House (Albuquerque, NM). Currently under development and fabrication are: the 1.4m diameter altitude-altitude telescopes (being designed and built by AMOS), six sets of optics for these telescopes (OST in Albuquerque), the delay line trolleys (built by our collaborators at the University of Cambridge), and the fringe-tracking camera(see image below)being built in-house here at NMT. We have recently returned from an international SPIE conference where we highlighted many of these, and other developments, and we direct you to our publications pages for more details.
We will be advertising one final software position shortly. Our software is all being designed in-house and with the help of the Jet Propulsion Lab using a framework called RTC, which is used at the Keck Interferometer and the CHARA array.
Developments are happening rapidly as we approach first fringes in late 2010. We encourage you to contact us if you have any questions about our progress or the Key Science Program and our Science Working Groups:
Charles Cormier (Program Director)
Dr. Michelle Creech-Eakman (Project Scientist)
Click here to see daily webcam images of the interferometer site
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- 2007
August
On July 10, 2007 NMT and MRO signed a contract with AMOS (Angleur, Belgium) for the design and construction of the interferometer’s 1.4m telescopes. AMOS has a long and distinguished record of building equipment for astronomical applications, including the Auxiliary Telescopes for ESO’s VLT Interferometer. We are pleased to be working with them on our project and are excited by the achievement of this milestone. The first telescopes for MROI are expected to start arriving in 2009, with first fringes and closure phase measurements in 2010.
- 2006
September
In September 2006, K.L. House (Albuquerque, NM), the general contractor for MROI, broke ground at the interferometer site. The site-work, floors, walls and roofs of the buildings are completed, and finishing steps in the construction will be completed in a few months. Once completed, we will start populating the facility with the equipment (e.g. optics, delay lines (see below), laser systems) needed to operate the interferometer. The full infrastructure for the interferometer includes a 574 sq. meter beam combining building, a delay line building 192m in length and wide enough for 10 long-delay lines, a 466 sq. meter control building, and infrastructure to support 28 telescope pads for the 4 configurations of the full 10-telescope array. Pads for the telescopes will be completed during the summer of 2008, after the telescope designs are completed. MROI wishes to thank M3 Engineering and Technology Corporation (Tucson, AZ) for working so closely with us on the architectural design of MROI's facility.
