Canadian consulting engineer WSP will act as construction manager for the development of the $1bn Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) in Chile’s Atacama desert.
WSP will work on behalf of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization Corporation to oversee the construction, including the budget, schedule, cost estimation, change control and site acceptance.
The GMT will be constructed at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, an astronomical observatory owned by the Carnegie Institution for Science.
The GMT will be equipped with seven 8.4m monolithic glass mirrors, and will have a resolving power 10 times greater than that of the Hubble Space Telescope in the infrared region of the spectrum.
The light-gathering power and angular resolution of the GMT will help to address many of the leading questions in 21st century astronomy. WSP describes it as "the next generation of giant ground-based telescopes that promise to revolutionize our understanding of the universe".
Work on the project is due to begin in 2023.
Image: Site of the GMT (WSP)
