The highest observatory in the world just opened in Chile

theverge.com

53 points·Brajeshwar··6 comments

"even the researchers working inside will need to take precautions to stay healthy in the face of altitude sickness. The team plans to eventually operate the telescope remotely from a lower base facility to avoid such issues."

I assumed having the humans at lower altitude was pretty much standard for these things. I assume trying to build a structure that could be pressurized for better human comfort just to be closer to the scope would be an unnecessary expense and maintenance issue easily avoided by a lower altitude control offices.

One could bring oxygen up there, with a small respiratory assistance I think it could do the job. But doing it remotely is obviously cheaper anyway, for many reasons.

There's really no point in a human being there as all of the photons gathered are directed to an electronic sensor. A human does not need to guide the scope any longer either. Really, if the scope is operated by the ESA, the remote location could be in the EU, or if NASA in the US, or for this one it could be in Japan.

You'd only need a small crew of techs that could be available to perform maintenance, but all of the operations could be much closer to home.

There is also the problem of thinking and problem solving at altitude -- we are much worse at it at high elevation compared to at normal elevations!

Sure, but as you said, there is probably a need of a small crew up there.

It's below the Armstrong limit, you don't need pressurization. At this altitude occasional oxygen is probably fine. Pressurization is mostly a comfort thing until you get pretty high up.

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