Light in the Darkness by Heino Falcke

Author:Heino Falcke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperOne
Published: 2021-03-08T00:00:00+00:00

ON EXPEDITION TO ARIZONA

Alongside the intense and hard-nosed negotiations, we had long been busy preparing for our first expeditions. The ALMA Telescope was finally ready for initial VLBI measurements,18 which were to take place in January 2015. Now we had to show that we could handle a major experiment, both technologically and organizationally. All the telescopes were to be fitted out with the same VLBI equipment, all of it latest generation.

On September 1, 2014, the first wave of funds comes in from the European Research Council. That very same day Remo Tilanus sends out the necessary orders for VLBI equipment so that the particularly important long lead items make it to the telescopes on time. So-called Mark 6 data recorders are ordered from a company in Boston. Technicians in Groningen build electronic filters at short notice with help from Bonn and blueprints from Haystack.

Hundreds of the latest hard drives are to be sent via Haystack Observatory to the different telescope stations. The order is delayed, and after a blizzard in winter 2015 all of New England is covered in a thick blanket of snow and ice—everything comes to a standstill. A colleague slips on the ice and suffers a compound fracture. We can’t purchase hard drives in the large quantities we need in the US, and the dollars aren’t flowing yet. Remo Tilanus has to improvise. In just five days he manages to place a large order for drives through the ordering system at Radboud University in Nijmegen, and then have them flown from the Netherlands to Boston. From there they can be distributed all over the world.

How he pulled this off, nobody knows to this day. These aren’t just the wonders of globalization; they’re also the uniquely heroic deeds of a project manager, deeds that hardly anyone notices. In the end all the necessary components make it to the telescope stations just in time and are installed and tested by the local technicians on site.

Everything is ready, and in late March 2015 we all fan out to our various destinations around the world for our first large joint expedition. We intend to link up as many telescopes around the globe as possible. I travel to the US, to the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) atop Mount Graham in Arizona. I drive from Tucson through the adventurous landscape of the American Southwest, past bare rocks, cacti, small towns built of transportable wooden huts, the impossible-to-miss “The Thing” souvenir shop, and a desert prison whose prominent billboards warn of escaping prisoners. Taking a detour to stop in the small town of Safford, not far from the road up the mountain, I stock up on supplies for the coming week. If you’re starting your journey through the Galaxy in Arizona, you have to bring everything yourself—aside from a towel.

At base camp at the foot of the mountain I get a security pass and a walkie-talkie. Then the adventure really begins with the drive up the mountain on Arizona State Route 366. I had to

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