Three Indian companies to develop components for Thirty Meter Telescope

Pondicherry-based General Optics Asia Ltd (GOAL) that makes strategic components for space and defence, has teamed up with Bangalore-based Avasarala and Godrej and Boyce to make components for the $1.2-billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) under development by a group of manufacturers.

Since TMT contracts were only open to countries in a consortium, S Murali, who heads GOAL, decided to rope in Avasarala and Godrej and Boyce for the contract, say reports.

The company got the final clearance after the government of India signed up as a partner with a 10 per cent stake in the project, worth at least Rs1,000 crore, The Economic Times cited government officials as saying.

GOAL along with Bangalore-based Avasarala, and Godrej and Boyce would now develop and manufacture Rs700 crore worth of components for the telescope.

The Rs210-crore Avasarala had earlier taken up development of support the large magnets of the Large Hadron Collider. Both Avasarala and Godrej and Boyce have earlier executed contracts for sensitive defence and space projects.

The companies would now develop some critical components for the Hawaii-based telescope. The project involving development of technologies that do not exist yet is one of the most ambitious projects undertaken of its kind.

With their participation in the project, Indian companies would get an early start in a highly sophisticated and strategic field. According to Murali, it would help the company develop mirror technologies that would be available to only a select few in the world.

The US, Japan, China and Canada are other partners in the project.

Meanwhile, tmt.org announced on Friday the signing of the TMT Master Agreement document, amongst international parties.

The Master Agreement document establishes a formal agreement amongst the international parties defining the project goals, establishing a governance structure and defining member party rights, obligations and benefits.

TMT is a unique and vibrant collaboration among universities in the United States with institutions in the nations of Canada, China, India and Japan, and with major funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Uniting these various parties under a Master Agreement stands as a significant accomplishment for TMT as a scientific endeavor with global reach.

"The signing of this Master Agreement marks a major milestone in the official commitment to and formalization of this global collaboration, ensuring that the TMT project is on schedule and progressing smoothly," said Henry Yang, chairman of the TMT Collaborative board. "We have been working towards this moment for a long time and this is a special day for astronomy's next-generation observatory."

The Master Agreement brings together the TMT partners for the purpose of developing, designing, financing, constructing, commissioning, operating and decommissioning a next-generation, thirty meter-class astronomical observatory.

"We are pleased with this vote of confidence from the scientific authorities," said Edward Stone, vice chairman of the TMT board. "Their signing of this Master Agreement is a key endorsement of TMT's scientific merits as well as the project's overall implementation plan."

Looking ahead, the next step will be for the financial authorities of the partners to similarly sign the document and finalize the funding plan.

"With the scientific authorities now all on board, we welcome and look forward to the critical support of the remaining financial authorities in advancing the TMT project," said Yang.

"TMT-India is extremely happy to participate in the joint signing of the TMT Master Agreement. It is an important milestone in our global endeavor to raise astronomical observations to a new level with the promise of exciting science. With a large number of young students and researchers in our growing academic program, the Indian astronomical community sees the complete realization of the TMT project as an important stimulus to astrophysics research programs in India. We look forward to jointly addressing the next milestone in this program," said Dr. P. Sreekumar, Director, Indian Institute of Astrophysics.