A scalable, cost-effective radio telescope drive and axis system

Silversun Sturgis; Jingquan Cheng; Xun Zhang; Dehua Yang

doi:10.1117/12.855910

4 August 2010 A scalable, cost-effective radio telescope drive and axis system

Silversun Sturgis, Jingquan Cheng, Xun Zhang, Dehua Yang

Proceedings Volume 7733, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III; 77333K (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.855910
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The key factor influencing the size of future radio aperture synthesis telescope projects is the cost of the antenna dish and its drive and axis system. A good drive and axis system is of vital importance to the antenna performance as it is directly related to the antenna pointing and tracking accuracy. In this paper, various different drive systems have been investigated and, finally, a compact, modular, scalable, combined elevation and azimuth drive and axis unit design is presented. In this proposed design, the elevation drive and axis component shares virtually all parts with the azimuth drive and axis component and many commercial off-the-shelf parts are used for both axis and drive linkage. This design can also assure the required pointing and tracking accuracy is met. Since it is a self contained unit, the assembly, installation, and maintenance are further simplified, resulting in overall lower cost.

Citation Download Citation

Silversun Sturgis, Jingquan Cheng, Xun Zhang, and Dehua Yang "A scalable, cost-effective radio telescope drive and axis system", Proc. SPIE 7733, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes III, 77333K (4 August 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.855910

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