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1st Front End Service Vehicle (FESV) arrived AOS

Image Credit: ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Carlos Padilla (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

After its month-long journey from Taiwan, the first of the two Front-End Service Vehicles is being tested at the ALMA Operations Support Facility in Chile. In this photo, the FESV cabin raises to service the interior of a North American ALMA telescope. The first FESV is named Mei-hua after the Taiwanese plum blossom, a revered, winter-blooming flower.

Under collaboration with Aeronautical Research Laboratory, Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology, ASIAA has established the East Asia Front-End Integration Center (EA FEIC). So far the Center has delivered fifteen “front end systems” to Chile. Taiwan team was also in charge of making two Front-End Service Vehicles (FESV) for the complex. The FESV is a custom-designed truck which transports and services ALMA’s temperature-sensitive astronomical equipment.