Daily Image
10-02-2014
Storm-damaged HBA tile in transit
| Submitter: | Marchel Gerbers, Nico Ebbendorf |
| Description: | Building a cutting-edge radio telescope is one thing, but operating it offers many unexpected challenges. One of the spare LOFAR HBA antenna tiles was severely damaged by the storms of December. It was not even possible anymore to transport it in the normal way. But a local farmer came to the rescue. At his suggestion, we put two layers of pallets (5m wide) on a trailer, and manually pulled the wrecked tile on top by means of a telehandler. This wide and unwieldy load was then slowly driven over local agricultural roads to a large barn with 6m wide doors. We will now repair the tile on the trailer in the barn where we are protected against rain, sleet, snow and wind. After that, we can unload the tile in the normal way, and put it back onto the pile of spares. |
| Copyright: | ASTRON |
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