India part the consortium for the $1.47 bn project
With India as an eager participant, work has begun on construction of the world’s most advanced telescope that could help transform understanding of the universe.
When completed in 2022, the mammoth “Thirty Meter Telescope” (TMT) will have eight times the light-gathering area of any other optical telescope. It will enable astronomers to study objects in the Solar System and stars throughout the Milky Way and its neighbouring galaxies.
India is part of a consortium of five nations, the others being the United States, Japan, China and Canada, to execute the $1.47 billion project.
An Indian delegation was part of the 100-odd astronomers and officials from the collaborating nations who participated in the groundbreaking ceremony, held near the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii this week.
Native Hawaiians, however, are opposing the “monster” telescope project and they organized protests, delaying the ceremony by several hours.
But the US authorities plan to press ahead with the project. As Edward Stone, Executive Director of the TMT International Observatory, put it: “This is an exciting moment as we begin construction of TMT. Its giant mirror, nearly 100 feet across, promises the highest definition views of planets orbiting nearby stars and the first stars and galaxies in the distant universe.”
For India, participation in this mega science project is being viewed as the first implementation of elements in the list of select outcomes from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent US visit.
Just a day before Modi left for the US, the Union Cabinet gave its approval for India’s participation in the TMT project at a total cost of about Rs 1,300 crore over 10 years up to 2023.
From the Indian side, this will be a joint project of the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Atomic Energy.
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, it is said, will translate into 25 to 30 observing nights on the telescope for Indian scientists per year. A number of high technology items for use in the project will be produced in India.
A project that has been in the planning stage for years, TMT will enhance India’s own capabilities in high-tech 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 and adaptive optics techniques.