Building Medium Size Telescope Structures for the Cherenkov Telescope Array

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development and testing of a medium size telescope structure prototype for the Cherenkov Telescope Array, aiming to improve gamma-ray detection capabilities with optimized design and production processes.

Contribution

It presents the design, construction, and evaluation of a prototype MST structure, advancing towards pre-production models for CTA deployment.

Findings

Prototype performance is under evaluation.

Design optimizations are being implemented.

Progress towards pre-production telescopes is reported.

Abstract

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the future instrument in ground-based gamma-ray astronomy in the energy range from 20 GeV to 300 TeV. Its sensitivity will surpass that of current generation experiments by a factor $\sim$10, facilitated by telescopes of three sizes. The performance in the core energy regime will be dominated by Medium Size Telescopes (MST) with a reflector of 12 m diameter. A full-size mechanical prototype of the telescope structure has been constructed in Berlin. The performance of the prototype is being evaluated and optimisations, among others, facilitating the assembly procedure and mass production possibilities are being implemented. We present the current status of the developments from prototyping towards pre-production telescopes, which will be deployed at the final site.