Indian Software which will run the world’s largest Telescope: Compiled
The software powering the Thirty Meter Telescope, a project with a distinct Indian flavour, is ready.
ThoughtWorks Technologies India has developed the software that is going to run the largest ground-based telescope ever built in the world, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). The Pune based team has reached the pre-shipment review stage for their Telescope Common Software (CSW), meaning it is consistent with the original design requirements and is ready for future integration into the Telescope’s software infrastructure.
The Thirty Meter Telescope project is ambitious — building a telescope with a diameter of 30 m, almost 9 times larger than any existing telescopes, its arrival by an estimated 2027 is an eagerly awaited event by astronomers and scientists the world over. India is playing a key role in both its construction and funding. As part of a consortium including the governments of Canada, Japan and China, India has pledged, along with the Chinese, to fund the entire construction costs of over $1.4 billion — a sign of the changing tides in Space and Science research globally.
The Telescope operates in the near-ultraviolet to mid-infrared region (0.31 to 28 μm wavelengths) (that is, the light waves you can see with your eyes, but on steroids). Big telescope, big potential for future discoveries — it will play a huge role in understanding star and planet formation and the large scale structure of the universe as we know it. Did we mention black holes? It will help detect and investigate the gargantuan black holes at the centre of distant galaxies, as well as the one at the centre of the Milky Way. Enough with the size jokes, onto software.
The CSW package developed by the Indian team of the global software consultancy will be the communication backbone of the architecture: All configuration, command, control and status reporting across the observatory will rely on this. Each included service provides a function to integrate the subsystems, and has a unique astronomy-oriented interface.
Here’s the Github source code for those interested geeks. Code that’s going to run the world’s largest telescope!
The team is also set to work on the Telescope Control System, which will provide high-quality imaging to its delicate science instruments, and has received rave reviews from Francisco Delgado, TMT Observatory software project manager. “We have built an effective tri-partite collaboration between the main Project Office in Pasadena, the India TMT Coordination Center (ITCC) in Bangalore and the ThoughtWorks Company. All these teams have cooperated very effectively. Passing the Pre-Shipment review is a very powerful demonstration that the software team will be capable of delivering the other software components in the future”, he said.
Vastly differing from the convention of Indian involvement in software alone, crucial Indian contributions will also be made in the telescope hardware, supervised by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore. Larsen & Toubro, India has received a contract to build Segment Support Assemblies (SSA). Each of the 492 mirrors of the telescope, will be mounted on one of these optomechanical sub-assemblies. Interestingly, 80 of these mirrors will also be made in India. IIA, Bangalore will be supervising the IndiaTMT optics fabricating facility where they’ll be built and shipped to Hawaii/ Pasadena/ Canary Islands (???).
What’s that? Controversy and outrage have dogged the project since protests started in 2014. Here’s the lowdown:
- the ideal construction site for the telescope is atop the summit of Mauna Kea — the dormant volcano in the Hawaiian islands, which would make it the highest and the largest ELT(Extremely Large Telescope). Multiple sites, including in Chile, Kashmir and the Canary Islands in Spain have been considered, This one’s the best.
- The mountain is considered sacred to many Native Hawaiians, and there have been concerns over damage to the fragile alpine ecosystem. TMT has since done its best to assuage fears by coming out with an Environment Action Plan and talking to local communities
- The Supreme Court of Hawaii intervened 4 years back, but earlier rulings have since been overturned, after asserting this would be the last telescope on the mountain. Governor David Ige gave the go-ahead in July 2019, paving the way for construction to resume on July 15th. Not so easy though.
While there may be setbacks along the way in terms of the construction and execution, the world looks well set to see one of the most exciting astronomy developments of the millennium. India sure is making a mark in pushing the boundaries of astronomy to even more distant galaxies and the birth of our universe. Mark your calendars for 2027.
Pranav Krishnan is a sophomore undergraduate from the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, with a keen interest in potentially world-changing materials innovations. He has written previously about IIT-alumni startups and student teams at international tech competitions. He is an editor at IIT Tech Ambit, as well as being a debater and actor, representing the institute
