Enter Otto and Lore!

Enter Otto and Lore! These huge orange beasts — one of which is seen here — were specifically designed and built in Germany to carry the 100-tonne antennas from the OSF to Chajnantor (a distance of some 28 kilometers). When they arrive, the leviathan transporters position each antenna with millimeter precision. This incredibly exact positioning is crucial to the array’s scientific operations, and enables ALMA to produce some of the world’s sharpest images of the Universe. You can see Otto and Lore in action in ESOcast 56: Gentle Giants in the Desert. © B. Tafreshi (ESO)