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Robotic Telescope Installed on Antarctica Plateau
Reservoir Hill writes "Antarctica claims some of the best astronomical sky conditions in the world — devoid of clouds with steady air that makes for clear viewing. The very best conditions unfortunately lie deep in the interior on a high-altitude plateau called Dome A. With an elevation of up to 4,093m, it's known as the most unapproachable point in the earth's southernmost region. Now astronomers in a Chinese scientific expedition have set up an experimental observatory at Dome A after lugging their equipment across Antarctica with the help of Australia and the US. The observatory will hunt for alien planets, while also measuring the observing conditions at the site to see if it is worth trying to build bigger observatories there. The observatory is automated, pointing its telescopes on its own while astronomers monitor its progress from other locations around the world via satellite link. PLATO is powered by a gas generator, and has a 4000-litre tank of jet fuel to keep it running through the winter. The observatory will search for planets around other stars using an array of four 14.5-centimetre telescopes called the Chinese Small Telescope Array (CSTAR). Astronomers hope to return in 2009 with new instruments, including the Antarctica Schmidt Telescopes (AST-3), a trio of telescopes with 0.5-metre mirrors, which will be more sensitive to planets than CSTAR."
Wow. 1000 gallons of jet fuel to run on. Hopefully they're using it efficiently, and not just running the generator non-stop.
I'm a big proponent of not buying goods made in China due to their human rights abuses, but this most certainly falls under the cool category (literally). Dragging all that equipment and fuel across what is probably the most barren landscape on the planet, with weather conditions subject to change at a moments notice, is a feat. Unfortunately, the generator will now be polluting this area but I don't think solar panels would do the trick.
Something else though. With the recent flyby of an asteroid last month, wouldn't this location also be a good place to look for asteroids or other objects coming at us from that direction?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Amazing and all, but is it able to fill my gass-tank?
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
I've started a car at -44 degrees (not wind chill--that's a mythical concept) and let me tell you, it's not pretty. I think at the really cold temperatures in the antarctic, you really do want to run the generator non-stop. Also, it was litres, so less than 300 gallons.
If they're going all the way to Antarctica, can't they bring some bigger telescopes?
I find it interesting that they decided (probably pretty intelligently) that the eaeiest way to do this project was robotrically, instead of trying to man a mission to antarctica through the winter.
i wonder if the same theory was applied to space travel would a mars mission be logically manned or not?
My guess is just to prove we can, rather than actual practicality, which I'm all for because it pushes out the boundaries of what we know, and sets a goal.
That said, i couldnt help thinking of the similarities of hostile environments. (without the distance issues)
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Chinese, eh? Well, no need to ask about their attitudes to pollution, huh?
The last thing that one of the greatest expaneses of reasonably unpolluted places on earth, (reasonably? They can detect significant levels of lead at both poles thanks to the worldwide use of leaded fuel), is more pollution.
How about a large tank of hydrogen instead, guys?
It's just a lot of turtles, as far you can see ...
.. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
What? A "robot" tag without the compulsory "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag?
More music, fewer hits
simply awesome. I wonder if at some point they'll put them online for access and have membership accounts for controlling and data collection. Services like that are a great way to generate funds for operation. A solid membership base can help to continuously scan the skies by having people that can schedule log-ins from locations around the world.
Yes...that's sort of the idea. Hunt for planets not our own.
It's especially good because you can look right up through that hole in the ozone layer.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Are there any other kind?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
"Antarctica claims some of the best astronomical sky conditions in the world -- devoid of clouds with steady air that makes for clear viewing.
I've never heard Antarctica claim anything.
Now astronomers in a Chinese scientific expedition have set up an experimental observatory at Dome A after lugging their equipment across Antarctica with the help of Australia and the US.
In other words the Chinese couldn't do this without Australian or United States help.
The observatory will hunt for alien planets, while also measuring the observing conditions at the site to see if it is worth trying to build bigger observatories there.
Why aren't they looking for native planets?
The observatory is automated, pointing its telescopes on its own while astronomers monitor its progress from other locations around the world via satellite link.
You keep using that word automated, and on its own. I don't think it means what you think it means.
Astronomers hope to return in 2009 with new instruments, including the Antarctica Schmidt Telescopes (AST-3), a trio of telescopes with 0.5-metre mirrors, which will be more sensitive to planets than CSTAR."
Why do our telescopes need to be sensitive to other planets?
-10 to IQ points after reading this.
I doubt it would be that hard. All you need is a good sled team of Emperor Penguins.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Wouldn't any planet not our own be an alien planet?
Not if we're the lost 13th colony.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
I, for one, welcome our new star-headed overlords.
Depends on what you mean by "alien" - could just mean extra solar.
However, an extraterrestrial planet is any non-earth planet.
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
Nice to see that you took care to make efficient use of the fuel, but did you guys find the remains of any Elder Things?. What about shoggoths? They're pretty nasty if you thaw 'em out.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
Well, yes. But after BioDome 2: The Search For Beer, lawmakers have been wary about funding multi-million dollar observatories to find our own planet.
Yahoo! Pipes are awesome. How awesome? http://pipes.yahoo.com/jesdynf/slashdot
"Wouldn't any planet not our own be an alien planet?"
Exactly. I don't get the confusion. Why was this marked +3 insightful?
"What kind of music do pirates listen to?" -Paul Maud'dib
"Yeeeaaarrrrr n' Bee!!" -Stilgar, Leader of Sietch Tabr
As one of the University of New South Wales people involved, I thought slashdot might like some information on the computer systems that PLATO uses.
PLATO uses two redundant PC/104 form factor computers running Debian Etch. The computers boot from a 4GB flash disk (we tested 5 different models in the lab, and found one that worked reliably to -60C, despite only being spec'ed to -25C; all the other models worked to -40C, but had problems below that).
We use a readonly filesystem, with /home, /etc, and /var being created on boot in a ramdisk. This works really well, and it is nice to be able to turn off the power at any time without being concerned about filesystem corruption. Needless to say, with no possibility of any human being on-site for the rest of the year, we have thought very carefully about reliability.
Bulk data storage is provided by terabytes of conventional disks, with the most precious data being backed up on ~64GB of USB flash disks. Conventional disks don't handle the altitude very well, so we don't like to rely on them.
Communication is via two Iridium satellite modems, running at 2400 baud. We can push software updates by sending a set of "Short Burst Data" messages of up to 2000 bytes at a time. We can also login to PLATO using ssh, and I'm logged in as I'm typing this and running experiments.
There is a CAN (Controller Area Network) bus running throughout PLATO and linking the two modules: the Instrument Module, and the Engine Module, 45m apart. Each of 11 nodes on the bus has a small Atmel board that can turn power on/off to experiments, digital and analog I/O, etc.
More info, photos, and links to the health and status data are at http://mcba11.phys.unsw.edu.au/~mcba/plato
I wasn't perving the girls' dorm on purpose! My roboscope got a virus.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Better watch out for shoggoths!
2400 baud - ouch. At that data rate, how much data can be returned in a given day? Or is the plan to just physically pickup the bulk of the data at the end of the year for processing, and use the real time info just for guidance and target selection?
The decision to use "jet fuel", specifically Antarctic grade kerosene, was made by the Australian team after much consideration of all reasonable alternatives. Environmental issues were foremost in our minds. PLATO produces a microscopic addition to the kerosene usage in Antarctica. We are using efficient diesel generators, and have over 200mm of additional insulation lining both modules of PLATO. Every 15 watts of heat we put in raises the internal temperature by 1 degree C.
We have 1kW of solar panels, which provide most of the power during summer. However, when the sun is down, and with the very low windspeeds at Dome A, the choices become limited.
We will eagerly embrace hydrogen fuel cells when they become practical. However, they are not there yet.
Fantastic photos and interesting stuff.
I'm a kiwi and I've worked with the Scott Base deployments out of Christchurch, but never made it there myself. Take care mate, and hope you make the news again soon!
Cheers.
Russ
Checked out the pics - those generators are so CUTE! What is the spec on them, and what are you doing for low temp starts?
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
So why not use short wave transmissions for data even as a backup?
I'd give you mod points for your answers but there seems to be no category for comments that are simultaneously informative, interesting and insightful. Therefore, I'll just extend thanks on behalf of all of us who will benefit from this extension of knowledge and wish you great success and excellent karma.
The engines are Hatz 1B30, we use two different generators: four are made by eCycle, and two by Mavilor. Each puts out about 1kW at 120VDC.
To start the engines we have two banks of Ultracapacitors. These are amazing devices, 3000 Farads each, charged to 2V, with 12 in each bank arranged to give 12VDC. They can turn over the engines very quickly. We haven't had to crank an engine for more than 2 seconds yet, although we haven't dropped the engine temperatures below 0C.
We tested the system in a pressure tank at UNSW to simulate the roughly 0.5atm pressure. The engines still work well at this altitude.
Great! What was the password again?
Now finally tux has a computer to play with!
For your interest, here is some information on how PLATO got to Dome A.
The PLATO modules were built at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Instruments were provided by our collaborators at a number of universities in China, the US, and the UK.
In late November 2007 PLATO was trucked 3912 km to Perth, where it joined a Chinese icebreaker for a two week trip to Zhongshan station on the edge of Antarctica. A helicopter then lifted the modules off the ship and about 100km inland where they joined a traverse for the ~1200 km journey to Dome A.
The traverse was an amazing feat. 17 people, 5 tractors. PLATO itself weighted about 10 tonnes. The traverse moves at speeds of 5-10 km per hour each day for 10 hours, and then rested for 14 hours. After three weeks of this, they arrive at Dome A. I am told that the undulating motion of the tractors over the ice can give you "sled sickness", an unpleasant variety of seasickness.
The team spent 10 days at Dome A, and did a fantastic job of installing the experiments and getting everything working. The temperatures were around -30C, which isn't much of an issue at low wind speeds. The altitude (4090m) is more of a problem, as it makes physical work exhausting, and there are difficulties with sleeping, mental acuity, etc.
Much more information, and a diary of the trip by the Chinese team members, is at http://mcba11.phys.unsw.edu.au/~mcba/plato.
Please, please somebody tag this story "plateauofleng". It is just so asking for it...
Wouldn't any planet not our own be an alien planet?
Only if it has aliens on it.
How can a gas generator run on jet fuel?
Got a car? Take any form of motorized transportation? Chances are that you have personally used over 4000 liters of fuel in just the past couple of years. Maybe you ought to invest in a tank of hydrogen.
I know this is off topic, but the site for the Chinese expedition resizes the browser. Slashdot warns you if the link is to a PDF, so why not have a warning for links that resize your browser? Seriously, you would think that nobody would do this anymore -- except spam and porn sites.
Why is PitaBred getting modded informative when he is wrong, and AC modded down when he is right?
Kerosene (jet A) does become more viscous when cold than octane (traditional gas). I'm sure they use Kerosene because the viscosity increase is manageable, it contains more power per liter than gas, diesel engines are more efficient, it is safer to transport, and jet A is probably easier to get in the Antarctic.
I wish I had some of my ethereal mod points right now.
Has your team considered puting the hard drives in a pressure vessel of some sort? It seems silly to put data on drives that you're afraid to rely on because of altitude problems.
Has your team considered puting the hard drives in a pressure vessel of some sort?
Yes, we have thought about this a lot, and have never had the time to complete the design! It is the best solution, and we should be doing it. It is much easier nowadays that IDE interfaces are going away and serial connections mean that fewer cables need to leave the pressure vessel.
If we use a USB interface, I'm a bit nervous about the reliability of Linux USB storage, or perhaps it is the controllers that interface the drive with USB. I've had many examples of filesystem corruption with external USB drives. And USB flash disks seem to have problems too. Quite often during boot a drive will give all sorts of error messages and will require power cycling to fix it. Googling for these problems show that they are common, but with no solutions that I have found.
Our particular PC/104 computer has both USB 1 and 2 interfaces, but we can only boot reliably off USB 1, and we see intermittent failures if we use both USB 1 and 2. The flakiness of USB for storage is a major frustration.
SATA wasn't an option on our computer. These are low-power embedded systems, so they tend to lag a bit with some of the newer interfaces.
please post here your "at the moi=untains of madness" after this thread.
Thank you!
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
I hope the new observatory floats, if things go according to plan, its going to be spending most of its time at sea level throughout the summer months.
"The engines are Hatz 1B30"
I thought you had to change the oil frequently in diesel engines. How do you manage that with visits only once per year?
Do you expect the seeing to be significantly better at Dome A than Dome C ? Do you know if the turbulent layer is lower than the 30m of Dome C ? Is there winter weather information available since the chinese first set foot there in 2005 (I'd expect they left an AWS) ?
I hope you have improved the reliability of your equipment and that it didn't get too banged up during transportation. Anyway, good luck with this experiment. Has the traverse team turned tail already ?
Non-Linux Penguins ?
.. welcome our new gas generating telescopic overlords
/hides
Hi Guillaume, good to hear from you! (Slashdotters - do yourself a favour and visit Guillaume's website and have a look at some of his amazing photos). We aren't currently running anything at Dome C. Dome A is likely to have similar seeing to Dome C above the boundary layer, but the layer is expected to be lower, possibly touching the ice. That is one of PLATO's prime goals - to measure the height of the boundary layer with a sonic radar.
The Chinese took an Australian Antarctic Division AWS to Dome A in 2005.
Yes, the reliability of our equipment continues to improve. It is now even better than the stuff we took to Dome C!
We mounted everything on shock absorbers to survive the 1200 km sled trip. There was no damage.
The traverse team should arrive back in Zhongshan station today.
Well said. But don't worry about excellent karma for Prof Ashley, I've never seen a Slashdot User profile page with more +5 posts in a single thread in my life! (Darth Vader voice) "Impressive, most impressive".
The equipment is quite modest by many standards, what impresses me is what they were able to make it portable, then freakin' sled it to one of the most remote spots on the planet. What other telescope is in a spot so completely away from artificial lights?
I wonder what sort of image noise will be created in the images by the Aurora Australis. Or might the effect be negligible?
I mean, the only other astronomical endeavor I can think of that was done close to either the Arctic or Antarctic Circle was in Alaska, a couple of kilometers down a mineshaft, during another species of beast altogether - the neutrino hunt. Who knows, maybe that mine is still being used for that purpose.
Then, when the telescope is up and running, for every single observation there's calibrating, aligning, doing the time exposures... oh dear. These things are difficult enough with a crew right by the telescope. I have a friend who hasn't been able to get a single night's worth of useful data in the last four or five trips to the big telescope in my neck of the woods - the UNAM Observatory in San Pedro Martir, Baja California. Seems like every time she goes up there, something goes wrong.
Buckle up, people, it's gonna be a wild ride Down Under! Needless to say, I'm thrilled and fascinated by the whole thing.
Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty
Do adapters work?
It's already tagged "mountainsofmadness". What more do you want?
I write sci-fi for metalheads
Given the timing of the article, it seems surprising that nobody mentioned whether or not the observatory will be taking pictures of this month's solar eclipse, for which the best viewing area is in Antarctica.
I'd love to - where's the technology? Even the Toyota Prius is a fraud - it has comparable or less fuel economy than a good, small diesel. Anyways, rather than carry around a ton of useless metal when I travel, I use a small 4-stoke scooter. It consumes and pollutes much less than a car. Not as safe, though...