Port Coquitlam firm to design enclosure for world's 'most advanced' telescope

A Port Coquitlam design firm has won a contract that will put them at the helm of the world's most powerful telescope.

Dynamic Structures Ltd. has been awarded a $10-million contract to design the enclosure for the Thirty Meter Telescope — a proposed astronomical observatory that would be 100 times more powerful than any space or ground-based telescope.

The telescope is expected to be built on Mauna Kea mountain in Hawaii.

"Astronomers are incredibly excited about getting this eye in the sky so that they can see further and back into time than they've ever been able to see," said Guy Nelson, CEO of Dynamic Structures.

The enclosure, which is meant to preserve the integrity and image quality of the telescope, is composed of over 500,000 individual parts. Nelson says the project is one of the largest Dynamic Structures has ever been a part of.

"It's big. It's 2,000 tons of steel," he said.

An astronomical feat

The enclosure will rotate on several axes and the design is expected to take another two years to complete. Once the telescope is in operation, it will be the most powerful telescope on the planet, Nelson says.

According to the TMT International Observatory website, once built the telescope will become "the most advanced and powerful optical telescope on earth."

"When completed, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) will enable astronomers to study objects in our own solar system and stars throughout our Milky Way and its neighboring galaxies, and forming galaxies at the very edge of the observable Universe, near the beginning of time," the U.S. website says.

"The base structure itself rotates 360 degrees," said Nelson. "It's like an eyeball looking onto the sky."

"It's an astronomical feat," he added.

Sacred burial grounds

The project, however, has been the subject of controversy.

In October 2014, the groundbreaking of the Thirty Meter Telescope was interrupted by protesters citing the project's disregard for land on Mauna Kea considered to be sacred according to native Hawaiian religion and culture.

"There is a local indigenous group that are concerned about a local burial ground," said Nelson, adding that the project's board is open to the possibility of moving the project to a different site.

Construction for the Thirty Meter Telescope is scheduled to begin in April, 2018.

With files from CBC's On the Coast

To hear the full story listen to the audio labelled: Port Coquitlam Firm to Design Enclosure for the World's Most Powerful Telescope