Desert operations

This picture offers an aerial view of the Operations Support Facility (OSF) at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), where ALMA personnel work and live. This is the location of the control room and laboratories, and is also where the antennas are taken for maintenance. The OSF is located at an altitude of 2900 metres, over 2000 metres below the Chajnantor Plateau where the array studies the Universe. The antennas are moved between these two sites by the custom-built ALMA transporters, two powerful vehicles weighing 130 tonnes, which can position the giant dishes with millimetric precision.