The QiTai Radio Telescope (QTT), the first major scientific research infrastructure project in China's northwest Xinjiang Autonomous Region, completed the final construction step for its track foundation girder ring beam on September 20, marking the beginning of the main antenna structure installation.
Upon completion, QTT will be fully steerable, highly sensitive, with its 110-meter main reflector. The telescope is designed for multi-disciplinary observations across a frequency range of 270 MHz to 115 GHz.
Since the construction began, the QTT project team at the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has finalized both the overall and detailed designs of the telescope.
QTT will be the world's largest ultra-high-precision, large-aperture radio telescope for 3mm observations, with pointing accuracy being crucial for this capability.
The antenna track foundation is vital for ensuring the telescope's necessary pointing precision. The completion of the girder ring beam marks the end of the track foundation construction, allowing the project to officially move into the installation phase for the main antenna structure.
This next phase will focus on the installation of the antenna’s mechanical structure, a critical component that provides a stable, reliable, and high-precision platform for the telescope’s electrical performance during observations.
Construction site of the QiTai Radio Telescope (Image by Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory)
Technicians have begun assembling the world's largest radio telescope, with a dish the size of 30 football grounds, deep in the mountains of southwest China's Guizhou Province. Yesterday afternoon, they began to assemble the telescope's reflector, which is 500 meters in diameter and made up of 4,450 panels. Each panel is an equilateral triangle with sides 11 meters long.
China has started assembling the world's largest radio telescope as it looks to improve its ability to explore outer space. The 500-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, or FAST, rests in a bowl-shaped valley in the southwestern province of Guizhou. The telescope will have a dish the size of 30 soccer fields when it is completed.
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