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"Astronauts" in Chile: how we did the entire IT infrastructure for four telescopes in the Andes



The Andes, the height of 1564 meters, the purest mountain air, sharply smelling of diesel fuel. A bare rocky ground, four domes and three containers — domes for telescopes, and smaller containers — living quarters for the watchman or engineers, a bathroom, a workshop the size of a bathroom, plus a dome for the Tsiski rack and UPS battery line. Around - a fence of metal mesh.

Carlos, a local resident, walks around the site and colorfully curses in Spanish with a Native American accent. Carlos is now in power saving mode, he has no work. Therefore, on autopilot, he collects all the stones in a radius of 30 meters and lays a gap in them. For example, under the fence so that small animals would not get through.
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Judging by the fact that all the wells of our future cable route from the power unit to the domes are tightly and very carefully laid with the same stones, the work was interesting. As we already knew from the introductory, they have forgotten to put the broach into the corrugation, and they have to dig everything out.

Simple job, they said. Need a sysadmin, they said. Carlos saw us, said hello and immediately warned in his broken Spanish:
- See the clouds - run. If it starts to rain, it's all over!

But we didn’t understand the accent, so we didn’t understand it.

Where did the telescopes come from and why did you need to go to them from Russia


One of our Russian customers decided to build a miracle device to help the astronomical community, where he himself is. In the booklet that they gave us, it was written about the following: “Cool point for the community, high-quality observations, good technology, Astronomy on demand” to everyone in the chat! ”

The best location for such structures is where the stars are best seen, that is, in the mountains and with a clear sky, so as to minimize cloudy days. In the Andes there are areas where the clouds are only 3-4 days a year, the air is clean, the sky is good. Therefore, so far. Place on the southern border of the Atacama Desert. Fully clear nights (suitable for practicing astronomy and observing very faint objects) from 280 to 310.





The soil is rocky, small fractions are much larger than sand, therefore there is no dust. The domes at the top of this photo are our position:



The project was made before us.

To put it simply, it works like this:

A local contractor installed the domes, installed solar panels (stationary - we calculated the slope for the local winter) and laid cable channels. And immediately I fell asleep safely, so that the rodents would not climb and we could not push the cable through. Earlier, a grader made a road suitable for an SUV to the place.

Here are the domes:







Since the customer had to jump at once through two language barriers, they decided to entrust the final assembly and commissioning to those who at least can explain which Shaitan the crook is missing. The four of us were asked if we would like to spend 3 weeks with interest in Chile in February for a simple job, just poke it in with a cable. We suspected that everything was not so simple, but it was impossible to miss Chile.

So the four of us were in the mountains, two and a half hours drive from the proud town of Avayo.

That's what we found when we arrived:





Workshop where the table had to be made from shipping container:



The photo is already a happy moment when we unfolded the laptops and connected to the power supply. First you had to get to the place.

Trip


Started as usual, in the already become native Sheremetyevo. 30 kilograms of fragile equipment and tools with each, the wildest advantage, extra baggage allowance (all large ones flew pallets by the transport company in a week).

A transplant in Paris, walked around the airport for an hour and a half, added to the knowledge base about free sockets — everything would come in handy. The next 14 hours is a transatlantic flight in the back seats at the toilets, trying to kill us around the clock incessant food. Hi, Santiago.


They have round fields so that it is more convenient to irrigate with automatics.

Our language was only Alexey, at the level of the school curriculum (“My name is Alexey”, “What is your name”, “Come on, work!”). And another Google Translate (but the Internet was not). It was assumed that at the facility we would need only Russian and Russian mate with gestures to control the team of laborers. But the object still had to get.

In the plane met with a Russian-speaking woman Tatiana, who lives 20 years in Argentina. She helped with renting a car and worked a little translators. We should have been met by a specially trained person, but it turned out to be the driver of a contractor who, alas, knew only Spanish.

The driver immediately handed us the local sims so that we would not get lost. But he warned that they will start working only in the evening - a long activation after the first installation in the phone. In the car rental company, we were immediately delighted that there was no pick-up ordered, from what our baggage would fit into, there is only a Toyota. Considering the car service jamb, there is a small discount on the car, but it still costs almost twice as much. Here it is:



They took the car, bought food and went to the local khozmag on the outskirts of the city like our "Leroy" - to buy about 50 kilograms more of all sorts of stuff that is very necessary at the facility, which you can get. We didn’t find where to cash the money (the ATM didn’t see our cards), so it was calculated by a card (it turned out in the hozmage). Later, this played a bad joke with us: highways are paid, cost us 50–100 rubles in our opinion, but toll points are every 50 kilometers. Strictly cash. Therefore, for the first time, Lech made eyes like a cat from “Shrek” and said something like: “American dollars, then favor!”. A policeman with disgust on his face accepted a portrait of the president of a foreign country and, instead of surrender, showed “Go!”

Immediately they took an awning for the car, a lot of water, sun cream (in Chile in the mountains it is dangerous - you need fifty at once, otherwise you will become red like cancer in the evening). After the first PVP, realizing their mistake with the currency, they began to knock on the small houses of a village. We did not open. As a result, the money was changed only at the gas station. By the way, the local saw the cans from behind, immediately jumped into the body and began to pour into them. Also at the level of reflexes. Baka would not be enough, there is no refueling in the mountains.

By the way, the Russians took the rights when renting, and the more we did not show them to anyone. Led by turns. On large roads, they simply attached themselves to someone traveling in the right direction, and repeated all the maneuvers. We were warned that it was impossible to knock up, the gays were hiding in the bushes.

For several hours we drove along the road past the ocean and admired everyone. We were 600 kilometers north of Santiago, near the city of Ovalia. They drove into the valley of the river Hurtado, began mountain serpentine and active driving. The road is asphalt in places, in places - not. Where there is no asphalt, the surface is wetted there, then the grader levels the bucket, it turns out the roller is not worse than asphalt. Judging by the fact that about the hotel warned for 75 kilometers, some people have already lost:



The town of Avayo itself has become the point where we bought more trifles from the hozmag. Of the unusual - there are quite a lot of police: 4 people on every corner, and their cars are framed by nets from good fellow citizens.



The hotel has pleased us with the fact that it offers a high-end ecological vacation. Translated into human it meant:




From the hotel to the position on the first day we drove for an hour and a half, then we learned and traveled in an hour.


When you climb somewhere - the main thing is not to grab the cactus. Cacti are very durable - you can throw a stone of 10 kilograms with the whole sweep, and it will rebound.

Every morning we got up an hour before breakfast, walked through the mountains, because then we drove to the object and came back through the dark. We saw goats sleeping. Just lay in the sun loungers and looked at the sky in the evenings.



The hotel regularly wrapped us with food, but it was not enough, mostly - tasteless sandwiches and strange candy bars. Sandwiches lured eagles. More precisely, at first rodents would come out on the smell, and then eagles would fly on the rodents. Bars, we gave the children a whole package later.


An array of solar panels, everything was done correctly and on a solid top five - the technology is very familiar to the region. LG manufacturer.

At the place we were met by Carlos, a local handyman. He brought water, did good welding, dragged various things. In low-power mode, Carlos built piles of stones.

It was necessary to do the DSU: she worked for more than 500 hours, change the oil and filters so that she could continue working. I had to scoop up a bunch of butter from where it shouldn't be. As a result, the first week in the mountains we breathed diesel.


On the second day, the hair dryers and heaters were hardly taken out of the hotel, they loaded a maximum of 13 kW, a lot of things flew out of it. 500 hours is almost idle work - harmful.

There is no tree in place, so we made tables and chairs from transport boxes.

There were many tasks. In addition to the above cable pulling and servicing of the diesel engine, it was necessary to install video surveillance, switch different sensors, set up automation and repair the dome. Local dome mounted a large dome so that the disclosure was provided insufficient. Less than the project.


The height is 3 meters, it is difficult to reach, there are no details, so they were boiled from what was found around and some kind of mother. At 70 kilometers around there are no bolts, shops and tools.

Dig up mortgages. Local people helped us with this, they manually dig very well. But once they think, they begin to collect stones and put them in piles. They speak Spanish, but with a terrible rustling accent. Four days could not start laying. Cable brought your:







The kilometer of the power cable was exhausted; at the end there were literally a couple of meters. As a result, they bought extenders in the valley, gutted them.

Before each dome there were two lines of witkuha: they measured, laid out in zigzags, so that they would not roll, they would pull in through the wells. Well, Carlos remembered exactly where they were.

While laid - solarium went a whole tank.

Batteries were physically difficult to mount. One tier - 300 kilograms, and it is impossible to put vertically in any case. Four lines, total: a ton of two hundred batteries in a 2x2 meter room, where the four of you will not turn around. Somehow laid:



On February 23, we went for the fuel, plus the list, what is missing, in the hozmag. That we had a day off, only one in three weeks. We bought meat, we decided to make shashlyk. We made it right in the parking lot. But in the end they did not fry - as it turns out, you can make fire on the beach only after 19:00. Ate already at the hotel. They didn’t find a USB extension cable - the locals just don’t know what it is and it wasn’t on sale. There were no routers with an external antenna.

While bypassing the beach on the water, they were scratched with stones to the blood - the surf brings a small sharp fraction, it really hurts.



We found out later that people here sometimes live right in campsites: satellite dishes, gas stoves. People on the beach just sit for weeks.



Mounted cooling and chambers:



Made a prop:



The local contractor installed the antenna:


They exhibited "by eye", they say, there is a base station behind the mountain there, but everything rose right away.

Mounted perimeter:



As a result, they made the monitoring of the territory: entry and security, hooked up the camera in the server room to look at the rack, reduced the temperature sensors (outdoor and indoor), two pieces for the box. We set up an alarm system like Watchdog: depending on the availability of the Internet, the system reloaded routers, selected a channel, sent an SMS about various accidents, looked at the availability of all the hardware with regular pings. The same equipment on the movement on the cameras sent an alarm to penetrate. And there also brought accidents and events on food. From the diesel and from the power rack. Set up the build and storage of logs on the server. Yes, a control system uses a fanless industrial system unit.


Rack

By the way, the sensors were mounted very simply, thanks to colleagues from the design. They forced the contractor to install the plugs in their place or to sculpt stickers at the place of installation, so they did not confuse anything.

Dosobirali all electrics. The most difficult was lightning protection. The place is very dry and perfect for a strike, plus there are frequent lightning. It was necessary to do protection from two sides, depending on where the lightning struck - so that in the event of which only half were burned.

Communication - now from the entire site on the local network to the local server. Already the server is connected to a large network. In the future, optics will not be far from here, then radio relay from optics, but now LTE.

The telescope itself will be brought there just about, just the other day, if it has not yet been brought.


Our team: Alexey Padalko, Loco conductor and energy supply brains, I - Maxim Shirenin - was in charge of electricity, Igor Drozd, managing domes, Kirill Nikolaev, managing domes and communications (ciscar).

the end


On the last day, just a few hours before our departure, another piece of hardware arrived, which had to be mounted and checked. Finished already minute by minute. When it was necessary to leave, it suddenly began to rain. We already knew that it threatened mudflows, and it would be very dangerous to get out. But, fortunately, it was over in a couple of minutes, and we left normally.

References:

In the plane, still on the runway, tried to sleep. When they left the gate, the pilots began to check, and the left engine did not start. We were informed about this in two languages. Alexey received information and half-heartedly:
- I will not repair the engine, I have no tolerance.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/300974/

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