Progress and Challenges in Electromechanical Coupling of Radio Telescopes

Abstract

Radio astronomy is a discipline of dynamics and wonders. The vast universe has many secrets to unravel. As one of the important facilities in this discipline, radio telescopes play a key role in collecting astronomical data and unraveling mysteries. With the demand of radio astronomy for a higher frequency, wider bandwidth, higher gain, and higher pointing accuracy, the aperture of the radio telescope is gradually increasing, and its electrical performance and structure have become tightly coupled. Therefore, how to ensure the stable and efficient operation of the telescope for the long-term operation has become the urgent demand for large aperture high-performance radio telescopes. Therefore, this paper firstly makes a comparison of the overall condition of large radio telescopes in nearly a decade that are both constructed and operated, including the progress of radio telescopes that are being constructed and the planning for construction. Then, systematically summarized the latest research progress of electromechanical coupling technology from 3 aspects of connotation and application of electromechanical coupling, and performance guarantee under slowly varying load and performance guarantee under rapidly varying load from the perspectives of design, manufacturing, and observation operating. Lastly, the future research direction of electromechanical coupling technology is pointed out according to the development trend of radio astronomy.