Peking University has unveiled plans to build Asia's largest optical telescope. Called EAST (Expanding Aperture Segmented Telescope), it will be built in two stages from segmented mirrors similar to those used in NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The goal of the project is to create an initial telescope with an aperture of 6 meters by 2024, with the main mirror set to grow to 8 meters by 2030.
According to Space.com, with the advent of telescopes in space, it looked like the era of ground-based optical telescopes might be over. But it is not. The main obstacle to observations from Earth is the atmosphere, but overcoming this problem has become much easier thanks to the advent of adaptive optics. It is also possible to build large enough telescopes on Earth, which, however, will not be able to be sent into space for a long time. Finally, the problem of maintaining and repairing telescopes is relatively easy to solve on earth, not in space.
The EAST telescope will be built on the Tibetan Plateau at an altitude of 4,200 meters. Construction will take place in two phases so that this telescope can begin operation as soon as possible, so the main mirror will consist of hexagonal sections. In the first phase, the mirror will consist of 18 segments and have a diameter of 6 m, and in the second phase another 18 segments will be added along the outer edge and the size of the mirror will be increased to 8 m.
Thanks to the two-stage approach to the construction of the telescope, it will be able to begin its work as early as 2024. Completion is scheduled for 2030. The work will require $69 million to $84 million, the source does not say whether the telescope will have adaptive optics or not.
The new telescope will help China develop hundreds, if not thousands, of new technologies, from material processing to information processing systems obtained by the telescope.
The largest full-surface optical telescope on Earth is the Very Large Telescope. The telescope in Chile is a complex of four separate 8.2-meter and four auxiliary 1.8-meter optical telescopes combined into a single system. It also has the highest resolution in the world.
China recently tested the new generation X-ray telescope prototype (LEIA) in working conditions, on the basis of which the telescope will be built, according to Chinese scientists, will surpass the best analog of NASA.
In December of this year, a private company in China tested the world's first methane-powered orbital rocket, but it failed, and the 14 Chinese-made satellites installed in the rocket were lost.
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