Research Research Themes Instrumentation toc About RSAA has a long history of research and development in astronomical instrumentation, and has constructed a number of precision instruments for our own telescopes, and others around the world. The Advanced Instrumentation Technology Centre (AITC) provides advanced facilities for the instrumentation scientists and engineers of the school, who work on projects in the areas of optics and detector science, integral-field spectroscopy, adaptive-optics technologies, instrumentation for the next generation of ground-based telescopes, and survey astronomy. The AITC is also a unique facilitiy for training instrument science, engineering, and astronomy students. Astronomical instrumentation The RSAA has considerable expertise and experience in design and development of advanced instrumentation for astronomy. The school has completed two instruments for the twin 8m telescopes of the Gemini Observatory: the Near-infrared Integral-Field Spectrometer (NIFS) and Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager (GSAOI), in addition to instrumentation for the facilties of MSO: such as the Dual-Beam Spectrograph (DBS), and Wide-Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) instruments for ANU 2.3m Telescope (also built largely in house), and the wide-field, 238 megapixel SkyMapper camera. The technical program has particular expertise in optical and infrared spectroscopy, integral-field spectroscopy, adaptive optics, and wide-field imaging. Adaptive optics The school has built a core of expertise in the field of adaptive optics (AO), a technology that will be essential to the success of high-resolution observations with the next generation of large ground-based telescopes. AO systems correct for the effects of turbulence in the air of the atmosphere, which causes distortion to the images produced by telescopes on the Earth. RSAA AO scientists are working with industy partners to develop the technologies and techniques required to extend AO capabilities to greater efficacy and for use with extremely-large telescopes (ELTs) such as the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). The Giant Magellan Telescope ANU is leading Australia's involvement as a member of the international consortium that will design, build, and use the Giant Magellan Telescope. This facility will have an effective mirror aperture of 24.5m and is scheduled for completion in around 2020. RSAA is building one of the first instruments that will be used with the telescope, the GMT Integral-Field Spectrograph (GMTIFS) and developing adaptive-optics solutions for the project. Our participation ensures that Australian astronomers and students will continue to have access to cutting-edge resources and provides important opportunities for work on advanced instrumentation applications and astronomical research. Space and satellite applications The AITC has been designed to be a world-class facility for developing and testing small satellites and space payloads, in addition to astronomical instrumentation. In this capacity it is fast becoming a national hub for Australia's space community, linking industy to researchers and aerospace projects around the world. The space research facilities at RSAA will include a large thermal vacuum test chamber to simulate the space environment, a vibration test facility capable of exerting acceleration forces of several tons on instruments under test, and a small satellite groundstation that was installed as part of the Antarctic Broadband project. Collaboration with industry Our scientists and engineers have a history of industry partnership that dates back to Second World War, when they worked in a successful collaboration with the US to produce specialised optics for the war effort. The school continues to foster close links with government, business and research institutions around the world. Currently, our technical team is working with industy and research partners on projects to develop a satellite system for monitoring greenhouse gases, satellite laser ranging technologies, and a new plasma thruster engine for space travel. Projects Adaptive Optics for Satellite Imaging This high-performance AO system is designed to overcome atmospheric turbulence which otherwise distorts images captured by a ground-based telescope. Read more People Associate Professor Francis Bennet Read more Adaptive Optics for Space Debris Tracking and Pushing The Gemini High Resolution Optical SpecTrograph (GHOST) will be a new instrument from 2019 for the 8m Gemini South telescope in Chile. Read more People Dr Doris Grosse Dr Noelia Martinez Rey Professor Céline d'Orgeville Read more Adaptive vibration cancellation in adaptive optics A student undertaking this project will review the existing methods, and assess their suitability in MAVIS, including implementation and testing of a method to actively cancel telescope vibrations with the adaptive optics control loop. Read more Student intake Open for Bachelor, Honours students People Dr Jesse Cranney Mr Julien Bernard Read more AITC Adaptive Optics Test Bench The AITC requires a generalised adaptive optics (AO) test bench in order to test experimental and research AO designs and technologies, as well as to verify AO instrumentation. The test bench will be built using in house optical components and be driven by software written in Python. Read more Student intake Open for Bachelor, Honours students People Dr Israel Vaughn Dr Jesse Cranney Dr Noelia Martinez Rey Read more Antarctic Broadband program The project is supported by the federal government's Australian Space Research Program (ASRP) and will use small-satellite technology provide a new communications infrastructure. Read more Read more Australian Plasma Thruster The Australian Plasma Thruster (APT) will help deep-space probes travel for longer and further into space and be used to de-orbit satellites at the end of their lifetimes. The engine of the thruster will be based on ANU Professor Christine Charles's Helicon Double Layer Thruster (HDLT), which is the first of its kind in the world. Read more Read more Load more Articles ANU-NAOJ ULTIMATE-Subaru project collaboration selected as example of Partners in Excellence by Go8 The ULTIMATE-Subaru project has been selected by the Group of 8 Australia to feature as the first example of successful Australia-Japan research collaborations. Read the article GMTIFS: Designing an instrument at RSAA A first-light instrument for the GMT is being developed at the Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre (AITC). Read the article GMT’S first giant mirror segment starts journey south The seven mirror segments will form the heart of the Giant Magellan Telescope, designed to have a resolving power 10 times greater than that of the Hubble Space Telescope. Read the article Load More toc