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Lone robotic observatory takes up station in Antarctica |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Tuesday, 19 February 2008
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 At 80 degrees latitude south, deep inside Antarctica, where temperatures regularly drop below -80 C is a place called "Dome Argus," a massive ice dome some four kilometers thick. 1200 kilometers from the sea is a new Chinese observatory, manned by one. A robot. It's no positronic android, but the new PLATeau Observatory (PLATO) will scan the skies all by itself for a year in the cold, clear, thin air at the top of the bottom of the world.
PLATO contains seven telescopes from China, the United States, and England. The 7-ton observatory was built in Australia and shipped to Antarctica on an ice breaker. Carried on six snow tractors, the observatory and over a thousand gallons of fuel were moved another 800 miles to the summit of Dome A. The three week journey was only the second time in history that humans have reached that point.
The observatory was built with as few moving parts as possible, ensuring that it will work reliably without human maintenance. During the summer months the telescopes will draw power from solar panels, and in the frigid Antarctic winters where the sun dissapears for months at a time the 1000 gallons of jet fuel will be run through a super-efficient onboard generator. To transport one barrel of fuel to the Dome A site takes nearly nine more barrels.
China's telescopes will be able to scan more than 8000 stars through a variety of wavelengths. Astronomers hope that the images will be able to detect variations in the brilliance of the stars, meaning that there are possibly planets orbiting those stars. Because Antarctica is far from the atmospheric and light pollution that plagues observatories built closer to human habitats, minute changes like those required to detect planets will be much more easily detectable, just as with a space-based observatory. Unfortunately, just like the space-based observatories, servicing PLATO if the need arises will prove incredibly difficult and costly.
Dome A is the site of future construction from China, where they hope to spend $25 million over the next few years to build a permanent manned facility. Plans include the addition of several new wide-field view telescopes in two years.
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