On 16 March, the Meudon site was the scene of a spectacular operation : the crane-assisted delivery of MICADO’s adaptive optics bench, a future instrument for the giant ELT telescope in Chile.
Arriving via a special convoy, the 3-tonne crate required meticulous planning. A 60-tonne crane was used to lift the crate, pass it over the Communs buildings, and then set it down in the building’s inner courtyard, before the bench itself and its handling trolley were transported to its integration hall.
Designed by LIRA and manufactured in Germany, this carbon-fibre bench, with its imposing dimensions (over 2.5 m in diameter), is a key component of the instrument. It will remain in Meudon until 2028 for the integration and testing phases carried out by teams from the Paris-PSL Observatory, before being transferred to Germany for the final assembly of MICADO.
