Systems engineering for the Giant Magellan Telescope

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is going to be a complex and versatile exploration machine, which makes systems engineering GMT challenging. This paper addresses three particularly critical aspects of systems engineering: a general and flexible definition of the observatory, image quality specifications, and compliance assessment for statistical performance requirements. The observatory definition and its high-level flow down is captured in a set of Foundation Documents, from level-1 (stakeholders’ intentions and the objective specifications of science data) through level-2 (engineering specification) to level-3 (architectural design and operational concepts). Image quality requirements for atmospheric resolution modes are balancing observing efficiency considerations and system capabilities enabling exceptional image quality under the best conditions. To address statistical specifications, requirements validation and early design verification is carried out in an integrated modeling framework that takes advantage of sequential Monte- Carlo analysis over the Standard Year, representing our understanding of correlated summit conditions and GMT operational constraints.