UK Industry and the E-ELT:
A key strategic thrust of the UK E-ELT programme is to build opportunities for UK industry to participate in the construction phase of the telescope and associated sub-systems. The groundwork over the last few years has resulted in several UK companies venturing into what was a closed market-place for them during construction of the VLT. Industrial involvement is exemplified by ARUP (enclosure study), by Observatory Sciences Ltd (common software systems) and by a consortium based at the OpTIC Technium in north Wales (prototyping of primary mirror segments). The current UK E-ELT programme also supports five development projects (selected through open competition with ESO input) aimed at developing technologies such as deformable mirrors and detectors that are essential to the E-ELT objectives. For example: Large Adaptive CFRP Mirrors for ELTs.
Further information is available from: Colin Cunningham [Tel: 0131-668-8223]
