New Ålesund is a research village in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, the northernmost civilian settlement on the planet; there are about thirty permanent residents, in the summer their number rises to 120. It was founded in 1917 as a miner, but in 1960 coal mining was stopped, and New Ålesund was converted from mining to scientific. At the moment, there are sixteen research stations run by scientists from ten countries. The new Earth Observatory, founded by Kartverket, the Norwegian Cartographic Authority, with support from NASA, is 17th on this list.
The observatory is the last element of the global network of geodetic stations and navigation satellite systems. This Arctic station will provide highly accurate time measurements, help track changes in ice cover, improve the efficiency of shipping, calculate the exact distance to orbiting satellites, and much more. A key tool that accomplishes all of the above is the latest satellite laser ranging (SLR) system provided by NASA. The observatory also has two "paired" radio telescopes with antennas 13.2 m in diameter. The Svalbard office of LPO arkitekten was commissioned to design the form for such high-tech content.
The Earth Observatory consists of five main objects: the station control building, two receiving antennas for radio telescopes, a telescope with a laser for locating satellites, and a gravimeter. The station, antennas and the SLR telescope are connected by covered passages and form a cross in plan, oriented to the northeast. The cruciform shape does not carry any symbolism, as well as the orientation of the building: they are not due to aesthetic considerations, but the desire to avoid snow drifts. “We performed a computer analysis of the dynamics of snow flows and adjusted the shape of the building and the height of the piles so that the entrance was not covered with snow,” says Oystein Kaul Kartvedt, who was in charge of this part of the work. All structures stand on piles a meter high anchored in the rock in order to preserve the natural environment and avoid thawing of the permafrost. The entrance is oriented to the southwest and is designed in such a way as not to interfere with wild animals. In addition, the orientation is due to the fact that the wind mainly blows from the southeast, which can lead to snow drifts from this side, while in the north is the coast of the fjord. All buildings are asymmetric and have different angles of inclination of the facades, which improves their aerodynamic characteristics.
The station control building is the "heart" of the observatory, it contains all the necessary infrastructure to control its work. On the ground floor there is a garage, workshop, warehouse, fresh water tank and liquid waste collection tank, all rooms have a separate entrance from the outside. In the center of the second floor there is a measurement department and a control room. From here, operators can see perfectly both the antennas and the computer room behind a glass partition. Also on the second floor there is a recreation room with a small kitchen. The Science Station is not designed for 24/7 work, but it is provided with a sleeping area and a bathroom, which may be needed in case of an emergency or under special circumstances.
The body with the telescope and the SLR laser is connected to the control room of the covered walkway. It consists of a working room and a room where the latest NASA laser itself is located, installed on a foundation isolated from the main structure of the building. A dome was built above the laser, which, when opening for the operation of the telescope, can break the ice that can build up in winter.
The gravimeter is located to the north of the main observatory complex. Its instruments are accessed through a closed porch, from where it is possible to observe its work through a specially installed glass partition. As with the SLR telescope, the gravimeter instruments have three separate foundations independent of the building structure.
The covered walkway is built on stilts to protect the natural environment and fauna from human activity. It connects the station control building, the SLR telescope and radio telescope antennas, and is also used as a conduit for routing cables from the antennas to the control room. The windows on the facades of the transition from the control cabinet to the SLR telescope fold into a meander - perhaps the only purely decorative, not functional element in the project.
The observatory was built in accordance with strict Norwegian energy efficiency standards. All buildings are made of plywood, hermetically sealed from the external environment and sheathed with untreated spruce planks. Over time, they will turn gray and the observatory will merge with the surrounding landscape.
Despite the fact that the main construction work was completed by the end of 2015, the observatory opened in June 2018, and all systems should be fully operational by 2022.
