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.
How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe
31–40 of 55 posts
Re: How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe
#32Shouldn't this have been better planned out before they built it? Or was there no other choice?
Having been involved with a couple of large collaboration physics experiments (but not this one) I can relate my experience that everything is planned in advance in frustratingly great detail. I'd assume that someone promised to be able to transport it via the short route, and was simply unable to deliver, or that the design specs had to be changed after the contracts had been let or something to that effect.
edit: Note here that they started planning at or before 2001 http://www.katrin.kit.edu/130.php#Anker10
Re: How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe
#33I 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)?
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.
This is from the tributary of the Danube to that of the Rhine, so there will be mountains in between. There may be tunnels, but I bet they aren't large enough for this.
Any company building this kind of stuff will be familiar with the problem of shipping stuff to the customer.
So, I guesstimate that this problem and the solution were foreseen before they started construction.
Re: How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe
#34Zeppelins 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... However, after hearing about this comeback for at least a decade, I'm a bit skeptic it will ever come true.
Would high helium prices prevent this nowadays?
Re: How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe
#35The 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.
Re: How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Or combine both, and you get a Piasecki PA97 Helistat. It worked poorly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7jENWKgMPY
video blocked in the UK due to legal complaint :(
Re: How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe
#37Is 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
only 5 of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-12 or just one of this, though you'd need to arrange for transport to/from the airports http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225_Mriya
I never understood why, if the AN-225 is so insanely useful, only one has ever been build. Surely there would be economic benefit in building another few?
Re: How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Or combine both, and you get a Piasecki PA97 Helistat. It worked poorly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7jENWKgMPY
[deleted]
Re: How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
only 5 of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-12 or just one of this, though you'd need to arrange for transport to/from the airports http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225_Mriya
I never understood why, if the AN-225 is so insanely useful, only one has ever been build. Surely there would be economic benefit in building another few?
If even that single one isn't fully booked, how would multiple planes with 10% utilization each justify their building costs?
Re: How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe
#40Zeppelins 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... However, after hearing about this comeback for at least a decade, I'm a bit skeptic it will ever come true.
my first thought as well. The CL160, a Starrluftschiff (rigid airship?) alias Zeppelin, was planned to lift 160t.
I wished there would one fly over me from time to time.