Logistics meets science: What project logistics has to do with astronomy research

As Robert Witzl lowers the camera, his pride is evident: “Loading successful,” reports the Munich-based Business Development Manager in the field of project logistics. The cargo he is referring to, measuring 399 x 325 x 258 centimetres, is not excessively large compared to what Kuehne+Nagel’s project logistics usually handles, but it is very special: inside the container is ESO’s ELT “M5” mirror cell, which will be part of a gigantic observatory in western South America.

It is considered “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”: the European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope, or ESO’s ELT, in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The details it can discern in the sky are 16 times smaller than those the Hubble Space Telescope can depict. Nearly 800 individual hexagonal mirrors will be installed to create the 39-metre diameter main mirror. The M5 cell will be used in this construction as a support mechanism for the world’s largest tip-tilt mirror: it ensures that the images collected by the ELT are stabilised and thus made analysable.

ESO, with headquarters in Garching near Munich, designs, builds and will in future operate the telescope. They have commissioned Kuehne+Nagel to transport the special cargo. The heavy transport, accompanied by escort vehicles, travels from the production plant in Spain through France to Germany. At the centre of the convoy: the trailer with the six-tonne mirror cell.

Project logistics is responsible for this challenge. It finds logistics solutions for everything that does not fit into the literal box. Boats, wind turbines - or even mirrors for telescopes.

“Projects like this require a high level of coordination in advance: all parties involved must coordinate and remain flexible. On the one hand, regulatory requirements must be met, and on the other, solutions must be found for the customer’s wishes,” says Robert Witzl. There are also plenty of details: “We check the access routes or measure the building structures for handling in the hall. For the unloading process, load diagrams and lifting heights must be considered.“

This cannot be done alone. “Project logistics is teamwork,” he says. Together with his colleague Tobias Bielang, Project Logistics Customer Excellence Team Leader, he planned the transport step by step - right down to the literal Plan B in case bad weather posed a particular challenge to the logistics.

Such a delivery is also not an everyday occurrence for ESO. The cargo is highly sensitive and, once installed in Chile, is associated with great hopes for science: “With the ELT, it will be possible, for example, to directly discover and observe Earth-like planets of other stars,” explains the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which is also involved in funding the telescope. In this way, it may be possible to find indications of water, an atmosphere, and even life-friendly conditions there.

“Projects like this always remind us of what a varied job we have. Of course, I am proud that Kuehne+Nagel is involved in making research on this scale possible.” The excitement, Robert Witzl continues, is even higher when the unloading begins and the box is finally opened on site at the customer’s premises.

“The M5 mirror cell is a crucial part of the ELT. Many years of research and development went into its construction. This makes it precious freight and its transport a critical undertaking. There was big excitement when the mirror cell reached us safe and sound. It was a great relief to know such a unique piece of precision engineering in experienced hands for the transport,” says Roberto Tamai, ESO’s ELT Programme Manager.