
How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe - lelf
http://www.fogonazos.es/2008/05/how-to-move-200-ton-spectrometer-across.html
======
ISL
For those wondering why you'd need such a thing, here's the KATRIN project's
website:

[http://www.katrin.kit.edu/](http://www.katrin.kit.edu/)

and the wikipedia article:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KATRIN](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KATRIN)

In short, it's an experiment to directly measure the mass of the electron-type
neutrino. Very occasionally, when tritium beta-decays, the electron carries
away all the energy. If the neutrino has mass (and we are rather certain [1]
that it does), then there's a little less energy to carry away. The giant
MAC-E spectrometer (actually a chain of them, of which the big one is the
last) is the only known way of resolving the 13,000 electron-volt electron to
less than an electron-volt.

It's a very hard experiment, but it's important, and nobody knows an easier
terrestrial path to the same knowledge (cosmology limits are equal to or
better than KATRIN, but there's a big difference between the cosmos and
something you can do on Earth).

(Edit: and for you vacuum jocks out there, that entire volume operates at UHV.
It's electropolished internally, and for their vacuum test, it pumped to below
10^-7 Torr on a single 6-8" turbo before bakeout.)

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino#Mass](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino#Mass)

~~~
InclinedPlane
To followup: neutrinos have been established to have mass from neutrino
oscillation experiments but those experiments have left a fairly large range
of possible masses for neutrinos. Experiments like KATRIN will further pin
down the properties of neutrinos as well as their rest mass.

------
aylons
Zeppelins could solve transport scenarios just like this one, where you must
transport a huge cargo from/to specific locations far from the shore:

[http://rt.com/news/aeroscraft-revolutionary-airship-
cargo-18...](http://rt.com/news/aeroscraft-revolutionary-airship-cargo-187/)

However, after hearing about this comeback for at least a decade, I'm a bit
skeptic it will ever come true.

~~~
fh973
One of these efforts graced the Berlin, Germany area with a huge hangar:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CargoLifter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CargoLifter)

Luckily, they found a new use for the structure:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Islands_Resort](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Islands_Resort)

~~~
theklub
This seems like a project for Elon Musk

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ForHackernews
Similar problem in the United States, moving a massive electromagnet from
Brookhaven to Fermilab:
[http://muon-g-2.fnal.gov/bigmove/gallery.shtml](http://muon-g-2.fnal.gov/bigmove/gallery.shtml)

------
bmm6o
It's a whole different thing, but they moved a 340 ton rock across Los Angeles
County a few years ago. I have some pictures from when they parked it a few
blocks away.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levitated_Mass](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levitated_Mass)

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DCoder
See also: "Transporting the [Lockheed] A-12s to Area 51" at
[http://www.roadrunnersinternationale.com/transporting_the_a-...](http://www.roadrunnersinternationale.com/transporting_the_a-12.html)

------
contingencies
I wonder what the budgetary breakdown was between building and transporting.
It sounds like a project management screwup to me. Poor initial specs, Delayed
scope creep.

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cordite
The opposite solution is to be arbitrarily constrained by the transportation's
environment. This is what NASA has done, their modules and engine parts are
made to fit within the dimensions of the tunnels between the point of
manufacture and the launch site where they assemble it all together.

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nilsimsa
Shouldn't this have been better planned out before they built it? Or was there
no other choice?

~~~
astrodust
I'm sure they had one of those "Oh..." moments when they realized there was
something that didn't quite work out.

~~~
aragot
There are a few moments in recent history where I wish I had been. This is one
of them, along with the day after the 2007 iPhone keynote in the Android 1
offices, and when the French company realized they'd built their trains 1cm
too wide for a thousand platforms [1].

[1] [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-
rail-o...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-rail-
operator-orders-hundreds-of-new-trains-too-big-for-platforms-9412274.html)

------
Aardwolf
Is it possible to have multiple helicopters work together to lift one object?
If so, 10 of these could have done it :)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-26](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-26)

~~~
andyjohnson0
Hard to see how ten helicopters could maintain enough horizontal separation to
work safely while carrying the load.

An airship might be a better alternative.

~~~
smackfu
Or combine both, and you get a Piasecki PA97 Helistat.

It worked poorly:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7jENWKgMPY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7jENWKgMPY)

~~~
contingencies
Great share! That frame looked weak to the naked eye. Screw engineering
calculations: anyone who's played a bridge-building game should have seen it
coming!

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gojomo
Reminds a bit of moving the Space Shuttle Endeavor across Los Angeles:

[http://framework.latimes.com/2012/10/15/time-lapse-video-
spa...](http://framework.latimes.com/2012/10/15/time-lapse-video-space-
shuttle-endeavours-trek-across-l-a/)

------
BrandonMarc
I'm scratching my head as to why they couldn't ship the various pieces, and
construct it in place instead ... but I'm not the expert.

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iamjdg
I really have a hard time believing there was no lower cost solution for a 400
km trip by land as opposed to a 9000 km trip by land, sea, and land.

What about an off road heavy transport trailer for the sections of road they
can' t fit through. Or a quick build bridge structure similar to what is used
by the military? Or some sort of land version of a lock (water transport)?

~~~
pjc50
This is the middle of Germany. "Off road" means "across someone else's
property, destroying a large strip of it". It looks like they had enough
trouble getting it the last 7km.

I presume the height of it means it won't fit under bridges on either road or
canal.

~~~
astrodust
Germany is also home to enormously gigantic machines like the Bagger 288
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagger_288](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagger_288))
that are so enormous you can see them from space.

The scale of this thing is staggering. In one incident it accidentally scooped
up a bulldozer:
[http://imgur.com/gallery/rU3XU](http://imgur.com/gallery/rU3XU)

Also shown there is what it looks like when it's on the move along a carefully
planned and prepared route:
[http://i.imgur.com/51x5NIR.jpg?1](http://i.imgur.com/51x5NIR.jpg?1)

I'm sure the budget for moving a scientific device isn't as huge as something
involved in mineral extraction where time equals money.

~~~
callesgg
You can't see that thing from space.

With optics you definitely would, but with optics you can see a single human
from space.

~~~
astrodust
It wouldn't take more than binoculars. The bare patch of ground this thing has
made is gigantic.

It's not just the digger, there's this conveyor system that's an integral part
of the system that looks miles long.

[https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8674604,6.6073151,43657m/dat...](https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8674604,6.6073151,43657m/data=!3m1!1e3)

