SALT NIR Telescope Project

Posted 9-29-2011 | Company Highlight

Recently Marten Machining had the opportunity to work with the UW‐Madison Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) on a project relating to the South African Large Telescope (SALT). Marten Machining manufactured an assembly of parts used to house a camera device for SALT, the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. SALT is housed at a facility of the South African Astronomical Observatory. SALT has helped astronomers investigate black holes, the expansion of the universe and a new class of stars — “polar” or paired stars.

Marten Machining completed the SALT project within a compressed time frame and labeled each part with unique part numbers in order to aid in assembly. SSEC reports that the components have been assembled and are working as expected.

The SSEC is part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Graduate School and focuses primarily on geophysical research and technology related to Earth, other planets and the cosmos.