GD to build new radio telescope

General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies has won a $9.2 million contract with the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, to build and install a submillimeter-wavelength radio telescope antenna for the new Large Latin American Millimeter Array (LLAMA).

The telescope will weigh 100 tons and will be 40 feet tall. It is scheduled for operation beginning 2017, and will be equipped with sensitive receivers and control and data processing systems.

The LLAMA project is a joint venture between Argentina and Brazil to provide scientists from around the world with a high-powered ‘lens’ to study black holes, the molecular evolution of interstellar clouds and the structure of the universe, General Dynamics said in a release.