Real-time Closed-loop Active Surface Technology of a Large Radio Telescope

Abstract The surface accuracy of a large radio telescope’s primary reflector is easily affected by gravity and temperature change during observations. An active surface system is crucial to ensure the regular operation and high-quality data output of the radio telescope. We propose a real-time closed-loop active surface system including two components. The first component, a new type of photoelectric edge sensor, detects the angle change of the adjacent panels. The second component, the displacement actuator, adjusts the panels’ position and posture to compensate for the angle changes. So, over the entire observation, the closed-loop surface control system with these two components could actively maintain the primary reflector’s accuracy in real time. Using this approach, we constructed an experimental active surface system for the Xinjiang Qitai 110 m Radio Telescope (QTT) to test the maintenance of the surface accuracy. The angle measurement accuracy is better than 0.″2, and the positioning accuracy of the displacement actuator could achieve ±15 μ m over the whole 50 mm stroke. The preliminary test results show that the accuracy requirements of the QTT’s primary reflector surface can be met using the active surface system we propose.