The conceptual design of the 50-meter Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST)
Creators: name: Mroczkowski, Tony
name: Gallardo, Patricio A.
name: Timpe, Martin
name: Kiselev, Aleksej
name: Groh, Manuel
name: Kaercher, Hans
name: Reichert, Matthias
name: Cicone, Claudia
name: Puddu, Roberto
name: Dubois-dit-Bonclaude, Pierre
name: Bok, Daniel
name: Dahl, Erik
name: Macintosh, Mike
name: Dicker, Simon
name: Viole, Isabelle
name: Sartori, Sabrina
name: Venegas, Guillermo Andrés Valenzuela
name: Zeyringer, Marianne
name: Niemack, Michael
name: Poppi, Sergio
name: Olguin, Rodrigo
name: Hatziminaoglou, Evanthia
name: De Breuck, Carlos
name: Klaassen, Pamela
name: Montenegro-Montes, Francisco Miguel
name: Zimmerer, Thomas
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The (sub)millimeter sky contains a vast wealth of information that is both complementary and inaccessible to other wavelengths. Over half the light we receive is observable at (sub)millimeter wavelengths, yet we have mapped only a small portion of the sky at sufficient spatial resolution and sensitivity to detect and resolve distant galaxies or star forming cores within their large-scale environments. For decades the astronomical community has highlighted the need for a large, high-throughput (sub-)mm ($λ\sim 0.35-10$ mm) single dish. The Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST), with its 50-m aperture and $2^\circ$ maximal field of view, aims to be such a facility. We present here the preliminary design concept for AtLAST, developed through an EU Horizon 2020-funded design study. Our design approach begins with a long lineage of (sub)millimeter telescopes, relies on calculations and simulations to realize the optics, and uses finite element analysis to optimize the designs for the mechanical structure and subsystems. The demanding technical requirements for AtLAST, set by transformative science goals, have motivated the design effort to combine novel concepts with lessons learned from the past experience of previous efforts. The result is an innovative rocking chair design with six instrument bays, two of which are mounted on Nasmyth platforms, inside a large receiver cabin. Ultimately, AtLAST aims to achieve a surface accuracy of $\leq 20~μ$m root mean square half wavefront error, corresponding a Ruze efficiency $&gt;50\%$ at 950~GHz. We conclude that closed-loop metrology of the active primary surface will likely be required to achieve our surface accuracy goal. In the next phase of the project, we will prototype and test such metrology on existing platforms, with a goal of delivering a mature, construction-ready design by the end of this decade.
description: Accepted 2025-Jan-14. 28 pages, 22 figures, 6 tables. Supplementary materials that were previously in Appendix B &amp; C can be found on Zenodo at https://zenodo.org/records/14673697