The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) project

摘要

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is a Chinese mega-science project funded by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC) is in charge of its construction and the subsequent operation. Upon its expected completion in September of 2016, FAST will surpass the 300-meter Arecibo and the 100-meter GBT in terms of absolute sensitivity in the 70 MHz to 3 GHz bands. In this paper, we report the current status, the key science goals, and the aspiration of its early sciences. A special emphasis is paid to its innovative fatigue-resistant fibers, which are critical for the control and data acquisition under the unique FAST design.