Sardinia Radio Telescope

Project

Sardinia Radio Telescope - SRT

The project objective is to make a CAD 3D model to the highest detail of this particularly complex instrument.

The Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT), biggest telescope in Europe and second in the World, is an high-tech advanced instrument, with electronics and mechanical systems enabling movements with a precision to a 1/10,000 of degree.

The alidad is a steel structure 50 meters high, supporting the mirror and its movement mechanisms. Sixteen wheels, running over a rail with 40 meters in diameter, enable the rotation. The total weight load on the rail is 3,000 metric tonnes.

The primary mirror is made by 1,008 aluminium panels, forming a surface of 64 meter in diameter. The radio telescope is oriented towards the point of interest by 12 motors, 4 acting in elevation and 8 in azimuth.

The SRT is able to receive signals between 0.3 and 100 GHz in frequency. The electronics instruments are synchronised by atomic clocks situated in the time and frequency lab of Cagliari Astronomic Observatory.

To build the 3D model it has been necessary to examine 5,000 CAD tables provided by different contractors, and extrapolate the information needed to reconstruct the single components and to place them in the complete model.

Project steps:

- Technical documentation analysis and processing.
- Technical advice.
- Single parts of 3D models creation.
- Assembling the entire structure from the individual 3D models.
- 3D CAD model generation of the entire structure.
- Realization of 3D triangular mesh model.
- Realization of the 3D model, optimized for high detail.