World's largest radio telescope gets help from smart maintenance robots

[Judi Lynn]

By John Loeffler published 2 days ago
Even radio telescopes need a roomba sometimes.



A large man-made dish sits like a crater surrounded by utility towers in a mountainous forest.
Aerial view of China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the world's largest single-dish telescope, on April 11, 2023 in Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province of China. (Image credit: Aerial view of China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the world's largest )

Chinese authorities announced recently that a handful of "smart" robots have been inspected and approved for use in the upkeep of China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) — currently the largest single-dish radio telescope in the world. The new robots are ready for deployment, the officials said.

The primary role of these robots will be assessing the cables and pulleys that support FAST's feed cabin (the suspended structure that collects radio data collected by the dish); automating the maintenance of laser targets and actuators on the reflector; facilitating the assembly and disassembly of feed receivers; monitoring radio interference; and carrying out all-weather measurements of the 30-ton feed cabin.

With the feed cabin tethered 460 feet (140 meters) above the dish structure underneath, it is naturally a challenge to maintain, and with the dish's 0.3-mile (0.5 kilometers) diameter, maintaining the cables holding up the feed cabin is just as arduous.

According to interviews with the robots' engineers by China's state-run Xinhua news agency, one of the most important jobs of the new robots will be the replacement of special sensors in the dish that help relay radio signals to the feed cabin overhead. These are embedded in the aluminum reflectors that make up the dish, and which can be damaged by human maintenance workers crawling over them to get to the parts that need replacing.

More:
https://www.space.com/largest-radio-telescope-smart-maintenance-robots

[Silent Type]

1. Good article. Read start of last paragraph as, "According to interviews with robots . . ."

[Layzeebeaver]

2. "Robot's engineers..."

Regardless, a good article. Sad to have lost aricebo…

Although at 500m diameter, it casts a huge difference to aricebo’s 305m.