SOAR Mirror Delivered to Cerro Pachon
The AOS began its 10,000 km odyssey on 10th December when it was trucked from the Danbury, CT, plant of contractor Goodrich Corporation to the port of New York. There it was loaded onto the freighter, SS Sea Tiger, which carried it via the Panama Canal to the Port of San Antonio, Chile arriving on the evening of 5th January. There the shipment was quickly disembarked, cleared through customs, and carried by truck on the final 560km leg of its journey to Cerro Pachón.
January, 09, 2004
To the great happiness of all concerned, the SOAR Active Optical System (AOS), including the 4.1m clear aperture primary mirror, was safely delivered to the SOAR site on 9th Jan 2004.
The AOS began its 10,000 km odyssey on 10th December when it was trucked from the Danbury, CT, plant of contractor Goodrich Corporation to the port of New York. There it was loaded onto the freighter, SS Sea Tiger, which carried it via the Panama Canal to the Port of San Antonio, Chile arriving on the evening of 5th January. There the shipment was quickly disembarked, cleared through customs, and carried by truck on the final 560km leg of its journey to Cerro Pachón.
The SOAR Primary mirror is a single piece of glass 4.3m (14 feet) in diameter, but only 10cm (4 inches) thin, and weighs 3,200kg (7000 lbs). The mirror blank is made of ULE a special, low expansion, glass produced by Corning Inc. at their Canton NY. Plant. It took Corning over a year to take previously produced raw material and fabricate the SOAR mirror to the first level of fabrication. The mirror was then polished to a perfect aspheric shape to within 17 nanometers RMS. (0.00000067 inches RMS), by the Electro Optical Systems Division of the Goodrich Corporation in Danbury Connecticut. This painstaking task task took almost three and a half years to complete.
In addition to the Primary Mirror the AOS includes the 120-actuator active support system, needed to maintain its very precise shape as the telescope points around the sky; the Secondary Mirror with its active support and alignment system; and the Tertiary Mirror with its high performance Tip-Tilt steering system which can wobble the mirror in two axes at up to 50Hz in order to partially compensate for atmospheric turbulence. All these sub-systems where manufactured by Goodrich, integrated with their control hardware and software to form a complete turn-key Active Optical System, and thoroughly tested prior to shipment.
With its 5-year development period, and US$13.5 Million price tag, the primary mirror and the entire optical system was an important shipment for SOAR. Correspondingly, great care was needed during its transportation to ensure the safe arrival of these delicate items. In all the shipment consisted of two oversize crates, each roughly 4.8m by 5.4m (16 feet by 18 feet ), one containing the Primary Mirror itself, the other its support structure, plus two standard 12m (40 foot) containers holding the smaller optics and ancillary electronics.
The journey of the SOAR AOS from Danbury, Connecticut to Cerro Pachón, Chile required the expert services of many companies and organizations, including: DHL-Danzas responsible for overall logistics; Meyer rigging and Javier Cortez the trucking companies in the US and Chile respectively; the shipping line, Hamburg Sud; the insurance company, Marsh Chile; SA; the Howland Hook Marine Terminal, and the San Antonio Port authority; various police departments in the states of Connecticut and New York State and Carabineros de Chile who escorted the oversized loads; and NOAO administrative services in Tucson and AOSS in Chile, who expertly handled the contracts, and import/export procedures, and provided general logistical support for the operation.
The SOAR AOS Travels
From Danbury, CT to Cerro Pachón, Chile
From Danbury, CT |  |
From New York |  |
From San Antonio |  |
