July 7: An ALMA transporter moves a VertexRSI antenna for the first time, transporting it from inside the assembly building to an outside pad.
July 7: An ALMA transporter moves a VertexRSI antenna for the first time, transporting it from inside the assembly building to an outside pad.
The ALMA Operations Support Facility Technical Building (OSF TB) has recently achieved Provisional Acceptance, and members of the ALMA teams working at the site will soon move into their new quarters. Nine ALMA antennas are now on-site in Chile: four antennas from Mitsubishi Electric Co. (Melco) and five antennas from VertexRSI. These antennas are undergoing acceptance testing, after which they will leave the contractor’s camp for further tests at the OSF TB, including radiometric tests using the first ALMA receiver suite. These receivers are contained within the ALMA Front End, the first of which was successfully tested at the OSF in June. Recent successful tests at the OSF featured a system that included ALMA elements from the Front End to the correlator and the software interconnecting these devices. The massive antennas are moved by one of the two ALMA transporters; the first of these achieved Provisional Acceptance and has moved the second assembled Vertex RSI antenna from the capacious (but with four antennas under construction, full) Site Erection Facility to an outside pad for holographic surface measurements. Later, a Melco antenna will be moved to the 16,400-foot elevation Array Operations Site (AOS) for high-altitude tests. Work is being completed on pad number 93, close to the AOS technical building, so that these tests may be efficiently accommodated.