A new look at the origin of the universe

The MOONS Consortium's multi-object and near-infrared spectrograph has a field of view the size of the moon and can simultaneously observe over 1,000 objects in the visible and near-infrared wavelength range. It will be used at the European Southern Observatory, one of the world's most advanced telescope arrays in the mountains of the Atacama Desert in Chile. The spectrograph is the result of a long development process with many design challenges. One of these was to safely guide the sensitive optical fibres that transport the light from a rotating front end to the spectrograph. Even the smallest load can lead to a distortion of the measurement results. In addition, the cable routing must function reliably at an altitude of 2,670 metres under high ozone levels in order to prevent expensive system failures.

To safely guide the optical fibres from the rotating front end to the spectrograph, the researchers at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, Faculty of Science at the University of Lisbon rely on energy chains made of high-performance plastic from the triflex® series from igus®. The e-chain® ensures that the fibres are not exposed to any load during movement that could endanger scientific observations. According to the engineers, the energy chains reliably fulfil this important task even at an altitude of 2,670 metres and with high ozone levels and extremely low humidity.