The Nissan Navara “Dark Sky” concept vehicle was unveiled this week at the 2018 Hannover Motor Show. The car will act as a mobile observatory, developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with Nissan Design Europe in London.
The vehicle features an observatory-class PlaneWave telescope, which is pictured below. The telescope sits on an off-road trailer with “Intelligent Mobility” technologies that facilitate safe passage of the telescope to “dark-sky” locations.
In order for the telescope to achieve thermal stability, the trailer contains a refrigerated astrosphere. Other commercial-oriented smart features include WiFi, electric-vehicle battery technology, a laptop station, and UHF transmission “to relay data instantaneously, anywhere in the world,” according to the ESA.
Since the Dark Sky concept vehicle and trailer (Figure 2) can drive to difficult, off-road locations, it can aid astronomers in a variety of projects, such as the Gaia satellite’s mapping of the stars.
“The Dark Sky Concept allows observations to take place in very remote places, so-called ‘dark sky’ locations, where the best atmospheric conditions for stargazing are found, and avoid light pollution while also transporting telescopes safely and easily,” says Fred Jansen, ESA’s senior mission manager for Gaia.
“Telescopes like the one in this trailer are needed in studies of planets and stars in our galaxy, facilitating Earth-based follow-up campaigns enabled by the Gaia data. It’s been an exciting journey so far and has truly demonstrated what can happen when innovation and astronomy meet,” adds Jansen.
