Design of a 50 m pulsar radio telescope

A radio telescope is to be built at National Astronomical Observatory of China, which is designed to receive signal from pulsars for timing and relevant usage. The telescope will have an aperture of 50 m in diameter working at multi-wave bands of which the shortest wavelength is down to 13 cm. A fully steerable exposed scheme of. the telescope within issued specification is studied. The design is essentially wheel and track style with 6 rollers grouped in three couples running on a track of 35 m in diameter. The main paraboloidal reflector is a mesh spanned with cramped stainless steel wire installed on a special "bowl-like" backup truss structure supported by 6 points on the bottom. The elevation motion is served by a couple of big spoke and brace welded gearwheels with "buoyant" unloading system for eliminating deflections due to deadweight and thermal effect. Besides the design of the main reflector back-up structure, this paper presents the special alidade layout, driving system, structural and wind hazard analyses, and includes servo control system before drawing a general conclusion.