​Last month the AtLAST2 Telescope kick-off meeting took place in the province of Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy, held at the historic Lazzaretto di Cagliari, near the city centre. Hosted by INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, this was the first in-person gathering of the Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST) consortium since the start of the current consolidation study, bringing together international scientists and engineers to launch the next phase of the project. 

The UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) plays a pivotal role in the AtLAST2 project, which aims to develop a next-generation 50-meter class single-dish telescope designed to operate at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths. The European Union has pledged funding for the next 3.5 years of the consolidation phase, ensuring continued UK ATC engagement in shaping the future of this landmark observatory. 

The programme included two days of scientific discussions and planning sessions, followed by a visit to The Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) located near San Basilio. The SRT is a steerable 64-meter diameter parabolic radio telescope, is the largest of three Italian radio telescopes operated by INAF. Its combination of large aperture, active surface and flexible instrumentation makes it an ideal pathfinder telescope for AtLAST. The SRT  will be used by the project for testing out both the control systems currently being designed and developed, and an innovative regenerative braking system that could recover up to 60% of the braking energy.

Pamela Klaassen, Senior Project Scientist at UK ATC, is one of the coordinators for the AtLAST Horizon 2020 design study and Horizon Europe consolidation study, both dedicated to the telescope's design and development. Mark Booth, another UK ATC Project Scientist and Ilgin Okan, a UK ATC Software Engineer, are developing the AtLAST Sensitivity Calculator​. This key tool  will allow the astronomy community to understand the capabilities of the new telescope and its instruments and to refine their plans for how they might use this facility. Mark Nicol, a UK ATC Senior Software Engineer, is part of the team looking at the overall software architecture design, combining the strongest proven elements from other modern observatory systems with features to support the unique technological and environmental nature of the proposed AtLAST observatory. ​

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe and Horizon2020 research and innovation programmes under grant agreements No. 101188037 (AtLAST2) and No. 951815 (AtLAST).