The KATRIN project is fascinating as it will determine the mass of the electron neutrino. This is useful as it will give us an idea of what interstellar "dark matter" really is (or isn't). It will also help to clarify the Standard Model which is beginning to show a little wear and tear around the edges...
The main page of the KATRIN project is here: KATRIN Homepage
What is fascinating about this is not only the science but the logistics of building the thing. It was built in Deggendorf, Germany and the project is in Karlsruhe -- a distance of 400 kilometers. The only problem is that this puppy is sooo big, they could not fit it under the bridges or on the roads. It had to go the long way around -- 9,000 kilometers from Deggendorf, via the Danube River to the Black Sea, out through the Bosphorus into the Mediterranean Sea, around Europe to the Netherlands, on the Rhine River and on to Karlsruhe.
The KATRIN website has a lot of pictures but a very nice summary can be found at Fogonazos:
How to move a 200-ton spectrometer across Europe
In November 2006, people living at Leopoldshafen, in Germany, witnessed a 200-ton container moving across the streets. It looked like an alien spaceship, but it was actually the main spectrometer of the KATRIN experiment, a project that will try to to measure the mass of the electron neutrino in 2009.
The main spectrometer is manufactured from stainless steel sheets, and it's 24-meter long, a size that have never been built before. The detector was manufactured by MAN DWE in Deggendorf, but then had to be brought to Karlsruhe, which is about 400 km away from Deggendorf. However, since the tank was too big for European roads, they had to take an interesting detour.
Here is one picture:
Here is a map of the route taken:
WOW! The master list of all of the photos (large filesizes) can be found here: Arrival of the KATRIN Main Spectrometer at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe
