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Cryogenic Truck Services Remote Telescopes
coondoggie writes "Moving a 115-ton telescope down a mountain and 40 miles on the back of a humongous truck to a servicing facility is no task for the timid. It's a job the caretakers of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, no longer have to worry about thanks to a new custom designed truck that can transport and service ALMA's temperature-sensitive astronomical equipment without removing a telescope from the working array at 16,500 feet in the Chilean mountains."
For anyone who wants to know more about the ALMA project as a whole, here's the project's main page:
http://www.almaobservatory.org/
(Disclaimer: I work for the project as a staff astronomer).
Despite what the summary says, we will still have to take antennas down the mountain to service them. We just won't have to take them down specifically to service the receiver.
For those of you wondering: Alma has 2 major work sites. The Array Operations Site (AOS) at 5000 meters elevation. This is a great spot for scientific observations, but also harsh work environment. So there is also an Operations Support Facility (OSF) at 3000m where the antennas are assembled and tested. The antenna transporters, of which are far more impressive than the Front End Service Vehicle, easily move the antennas to the high site. They will also move them around at the high site, much like the different configurations of the VLA (well, now the EVLA).
Actually, moving those antennas gets boring fast - and we want to keep it that way (yes, I am currently working there). The transporter goes at a few KPH - around a fast walk. Or 1st gear, if you insist on car analogies. Moving them around is only a big deal because of the cost in time, manpower, and down time of the antenna. It is about a 1/2 day trip to take an antenna 1-way, so the time adds up fast.
You can find more on the project at our webpage here: http://www.almaobservatory.org/
-WolvesOfTheNight