Software control of the 3 active surfaces of the Thirty-Meter Telescope

Abstract

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a collaborative project between the California Institute of Technology (CIT), the University of California (UC), the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA). Current activity is focused on the design and development phase (DDP) of all systems. For the TMT to achieve seeing and diffraction limited performance, the telescope-related software systems will have to work in concert to precisely control all 738 primary mirror (M1) segments along with the active secondary mirror (M2) and an articulated tertiary mirror (M3). In this paper we discuss the conceptual design of the software control systems for these surfaces and their integration into a cohesive whole.