Found 111 talks archived in Telescopes and instrumentation

The search for extrasolar planets is one of the fastest-growing fields of astronomy. This rapid growth was both made possible by the development of instrumentation and motivated it, creating a virtuous cycle that impacted positively several fields of research.

In this talk I will present the latest planet-hunting spectrograph ESPRESSO, installed at ESO's VLT. Targeting a radial velocity precision of 10 cm/s, ESPRESSO has the declared goal of detecting an Earth-mass planet inside the habitable zone of a main-sequence dwarf star. I will discuss the first results, ongoing campaigns, and reveal a bit of what the future holds for us.

La gestión de documentos es una tarea compleja que implica múltiples cuestiones, especialmente en proyectos como la definición y creación de un telescopio.  Una correcta gestión documental requiere entre otras cuestiones:

• Ser fuente única de verdad: Los documentos deben gestionarse desde un punto central que actúe como fuente única de verdad permitiendo la localización y actualización de los mismos.
• Permitir búsquedas ágiles, simples y eficaces: Aunque el volumen de documentos sea elevado las búsquedas deben mantenerse ágiles y sencillas permitiendo localizar los documento en base a sus características o a la información que contienen.
• Facilitar la coherencia de formato: Los documentos creados en un proyecto deben mantener un formato y esquema coherente mediante la utilización de plantillas.
• Agilizar la creación de documentos: La solución debe permitir la creación de nuevos documentos de forma sencilla realizando de forma automatizada tantas tareas como sea posible (codificación, pre-formateo del documento,...).
• Gestión bibliográfica: los documentos requieren de un mecanismo de codificación que permita la identificación de los mismos.
• Permitir versionado de documentos: Los documentos evolucionan a lo largo de su ciclo de vida dando lugar a versiones que deben ser almacenadas e identificadas.

Las plataformas de gestión documental existentes "out of the box" no cubren el 100%  de estos requisitos. Sin embargo, ofrecen mecanismos de extensión que permiten ampliar sus capacidades. Desde la oficina de proyecto del EST hemos desarrollado una herramienta para la gestión de los documentos del proyecto,  a partir de soluciones libres como Alfresco o Carbone.io, que cubre todas estas necesidades.

Durante este seminario se hará un recorrido sobre la instrumentación dentro del proyecto QUIJOTE, desde de los instrumentos ya existentes y su problemática hasta el estado actual de los instrumentos de nueva generación y los posibles desarrollos a futuro.

Al objeto de incrementar la cobertura de cielo proporcionada por el sistema de óptica adaptativa de GTC, durante los últimos 4 años se ha estado trabajando en la incorporación de un sistema de estrella guía láser de Sodio. A través de esta charla se repasará el estado actual del proyecto enfatizando aquellos aspectos relacionados con el sistema óptico de lanzamiento de la estrella guía. 

HORUS (High ResolUtion Spectrograph) es un espectrógrafo de alta resolución, instrumento visitante en GTC y disponible para la comunicad científica desde prinicipios de 2019. Instalado en la plataforma Nasmyth B, detrás de OSIRIS, comparte foco con él. En esta charla se describe su software de control, resaltando la implementación realizada para ser un instrumento visitante de GTC y cómo se ha resuelto el problema del apuntado de un objeto.

An original method for measuring the atmospheric turbulence is described, capable of even measuring the tip-tilt, which normally requires a dedicated natural star and nowadays defines the practical limit of the adaptive optics technique. The method is based in the illumination of a wide area of the Sodium Layer, and to use their inhomogeneities as a reference. Sevaral analysis and simulation results will be presented.

Zoom link:
https://rediris.zoom.us/j/87053930312

Enlace youtube: https://youtu.be/c1TCdt_-S_o

In this talk I will present the current status of the Calar
Alto observatory. I will review the most important highlights published
in 2019, as well as the legacy programs and instrumental developments
ongoing at the observatory at present. Finally, I will summarize the
recent call for public surveys and new instrumentation, still open, that
will be presented in the RIA workshop to be held at IAA headquarters in
March 2020.

Breakthrough Starshot is an initiative by the Breakthrough Foundation to prove ultra-fast ultra-light nanospacecraft can be launched by laser radiation pressure to nearby stars, and will lay the foundations for a first launch to Alpha Centauri within the next generation. Designs for a 0.2c Alpha Centauri mission minimize beam director capital cost by accelerating a ~4 m, several gram diameter sailcraft for ~10 min. A number of hard engineering challenges remain to be solved before these missions can become a reality: Large coherent laser arrays are required. No consensus has been reached on the most suitable sail geometry for stable flight, “beam-riding”. The sail itself requires major advances in materials science and photonic design to produce materials with the required absorptance, emittance, reflectance, areal density and operating temperature. Along the way, the project will enable increasingly fast outer solar system and interstellar precursor missions. Breakthrough Starshot will pave the way for multi-lightyear pipelines of sailcraft that fly past each target star every few weeks. Beams such as Starshot will produce an extremely observable transient feature of Earth and therefore could be an observable of extraterrestrial advanced civilizations.

El coste de los mayores telescopios actualmente en construcción es tal que la extrapolación de estos diseños a tamaños superiores a ~50 metros de diámetro parece inviable. Futuros telescopios gigantes deberán de construirse siguiendo modelos nuevos, algunos ya propuestos, otros aún en fase de desarrollo.

A major goal for NASA's human spaceflight program is to send astronauts to the Moon and beyond in the coming decades. The first missions would focus on exploration of the Moon with the intent of developing the technologies and capabilities to then proceed on to Mars.  

However, there are many objects that show promise as future destinations beyond the Moon, which do not require the extensive mission capabilities or durations required for Mars exploration. These objects are known as Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) and would undoubtedly provide a great deal of technical and engineering data on spacecraft operations for future human space exploration and serve as stepping stones for NASA’s efforts to reach Mars.  A subset of these objects has been identified within the ongoing investigation of the NASA Near-Earth Object Human Space Flight Accessible Targets Study (NHATS).

Information obtained from a human investigation of a NEO, together with ground-based observations and prior spacecraft investigations of asteroids and comets (e.g., Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx), will provide a real measure of ground truth to data obtained from terrestrial meteorite collections.  In addition, robotic precursor and human exploration missions to NEOs would allow NASA and its international partners to gain operational experience in performing complex tasks (e.g., sample collection, deployment of payloads, retrieval of payloads, etc.) with crew, robots, and spacecraft under microgravity conditions at or near the surface of a small body.  This would provide an important synergy between the worldwide Science and Exploration communities, which will be crucial for development of future international deep space exploration architectures and has potential benefits for future exploration of destinations beyond the Earth-Moon system (e.g., Mars).