ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) – In a giant leap for humanity, Ingersoll Machine Tools is joining forces with the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization (GMT) to unlock the secrets of the universe.
Ingersoll is in the early stages of a $2.6 billion project to manufacture and assemble a mount for the largest telescope in the United States
The mount will rotate horizontally to track the movement of the sky, allowing researchers to observe space more closely than ever before. Dr. Walter Massey, chairman of GMT’s board of directors, says the telescope will locate distant planets in the hope of finding life beyond our own planet.
“We’ll be able to look at the beginning of the universe. The bigger the telescope, the lighter you can be, the further back you can look,” says Dr. Massey. “To see how the original stars formed and how galaxies originally formed.”
Jeff Kimberly, Ingersoll’s Chief Operating Officer, says the manufacturing company was selected by GMT in 2019 because of its unique manufacturing capabilities.
“We can do things that no one else in the world can do,” says Kimberly. “We can do things that no machine in North America can do. So all of this happens in Rockford and it’s a great place to live and work.”
Ingersoll and GMT expect to spend the next six years building the mount in pieces before dismantling it and shipping the pieces to Chile for final reassembly. In Chile, researchers will explore the final frontier.
“The most exciting thing that always happens when you have new instruments is that you discover things you never thought you would see,” says Dr. Massey.
Building the telescope is a global undertaking that involves dozens of jobs. The 27-foot mirrors that make up the actual telescope are being built in Arizona. The steel that makes up the mount was shipped from across the country, including Iowa.
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