March 31, 2017 - The Final Design Review for the LSST Coating Plant took place last week in Germany. Four members of the Telescope & Site team (Tomislav Vucina, Doug Neil, Constanza Araujo, and John Andrew) traveled with Systems Engineer Brian Selvy to the Von Ardenne GmbH facility in Dresden. There, the LSST team participated in the final design review of the coating chamber's components and systems--including vacuum vessels, pumping equipment, coating process, and cleaning and washing station--to ensure that each will meet the project requirements. The LSST team then traveled to the MAN factory in Deggendorf to inspect the assembly of the vacuum vessels. They reviewed the progress of the upper and lower vessels and the intermediate ring, and discussed the construction and quality control processes for the vacuum vessels with MAN personnel.
The 9-meter coating chamber is scheduled to be shipped to Chile in May of 2018, and to be ready for initial coating of the M1M3 and M2 mirrors in September 2018. It's expected that the M1M3 mirror will need to be recoated every two years, and the M2 mirror every 5 years, during the 10-year LSST survey.
Stories on the Coating Plant Kick-off Meeting and Preliminary Design Review have been previously posted on the LSST Project Website.
Main image: LSST team plus N. Miller from Von Ardenne, at the Dresden facility with the original Von Ardenne family Telescope donated by NASA to Manfred von Ardenne.
 LSST team plus Von Ardenne representatives at the MAN facilities in Deggendorf with the Upper Chamber behind us. |
 LSST team plus N. Miller from Von Ardenne, at the Dresden facility with the original Von Ardenne family Telescope donated by NASA to Manfred von Ardenne. |
 Coating Lower Chamber. |
 Coating Intermediate Ring. |
Financial support for Rubin Observatory comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Cooperative Support Agreement No. 1202910, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515, and private funding raised by the LSST Corporation. The NSF-funded Rubin Observatory Project Office for construction was established as an operating center under management of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). The DOE-funded effort to build the the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera (LSSTCam) is managed by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC).
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an
independent federal agency created by Congress
in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.
NSF and DOE will continue to support Rubin Observatory in its Operations phase. They will also provide support for scientific research with LSST data.
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