Completion of the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) Primary Mirror System

摘要

On completion by the end of 2004 the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) being erected in Sutherland, South Africa, will be the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. This paper addresses the process of designing, building and demonstrating a high performance primary mirror system for SALT that meets the overall telescope requirements. Throughout the process consideration was given to the fact that SALT is budget sensitive, which required careful allocation of funds among the various subsystems, innovative designs, and using COTS components where possible. The process delivered subsystems with a very high cost-performance ratio.