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UER Mobile > US: Four Corners > Abandoned Satellite Dish, New Mexico (Viewed 1623 times)

post by BureauOfExploration

Abandoned Satellite Dish, New Mexico
< on 7/1/2021 2:23 AM >

Hey all, I've recently been coming across some abandoned technological facilities in New Mexico. First one was this observatory/optical tracking station: https://www.uer.ca...3227&currpage=1&pp

Here's another one! I saw it off the highway and decided to take a closer look. After some unpaved dirt roads...

It's not too far from civilization, but it's definitely still off the beaten track. The land is one of those places where you don't go past a "no trespassing" sign, but it still feels like there might be someone around that doesn't want you there. It's close enough to national labs, native american pueblo/reservation land, and some pretty insular communities that it could be on any of their land.

I can't for the life of me figure out what it was. The structure of the machine is stable, but cables are torn, some of the mirror segments have fallen out, the fence is toppled, and people have trashed some of the surroundings, so even though it still looks in alright shape I think it must be abandoned. What I found especially strange were the separate plates, each with wires leading to them and mirrors on the top. I've heard of astronomy telescopes which use many separate lenses like this as adaptive optics to help deal with atmospheric interference, so I thought it might be for astronomy, but then I realized it looks like it can't move or turn which doesn't make sense for an observatory. Then I thought it might be some kind of satellite radio/TV/internet receiver, but it seems very high-tech with all those separate mirror segments just to get cable! My last thought was that it could be a solar concentrator, reflecting the light off the mirrors to the end of the arm to make energy (If you haven't heard of it already, look up the Ivanhoe Solar Concentrator facility in CA! I don't think it's abandoned but still really cool), but I ran that by a friend studying engineering and he said usually solar concentrators are built bigger and that this wouldn't generate much energy. Maybe a test facility?

Whatever it was, it was awesome to come across in the desert! The place has a very Twilight Zone kind of feel. Any idea what it was?

[last edit 7/1/2021 2:28 AM by BureauOfExploration - edited 3 times]

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post by NMPatriot

Re: Abandoned Satellite Dish, New Mexico
<Reply # 1 on 7/13/2021 4:42 AM >

I'm guessing the property belongs (or belonged previously) to Sandia Labs.. I recognized what this was on sight (which is a rarity! apparently I'm a bigger tech geek than I realized..) It's a solar stirling engine, or at least the concentrator which belongs to one (most of the actual engine is missing from the one you visited). Some quick google-fu reveals:

https://www.sandia...29-04_stories.html

An issue of Sandia Labs News from 2004 detailing their partnership with Stirling Energy Systems to build a mini power station of six similar dishes. I suspect this one is the test / prototype unit that was built prior. This one looks like it would have ~64 mirror panels if fully populated, the design they ended up going with was supposed to be an 82 mirror dish.

The 82 mirror units were rated for ~25kW/each or a total of 150kW of generation for the 'plant' of all six.

The dish isn't fixed (well.. I'm sure it is now because it's rusted in-place), there are az/el drive units at the pivot point at the center of the dish visible in your photos. Elevation would track the sun's height during the day and the azimuthal drive would track it east-west progression.

They're pretty cool machines.. well.. actually pretty hot.. but you know what I mean. Being an actual reciprocating engine they require quite a bit of maintenance and have a high failure / breakdown rate.

Ric

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post by OnlyFootprints

Re: Abandoned Satellite Dish, New Mexico
<Reply # 2 on 7/14/2021 10:44 PM >

Such a fun bit of history!

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post by BoredFun27

Re: Abandoned Satellite Dish, New Mexico
<Reply # 3 on 7/14/2021 10:50 PM >

Very cool! Glad you "caught the bug" after the radar dish.

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post by BureauOfExploration

Re: Abandoned Satellite Dish, New Mexico
<Reply # 4 on 7/20/2021 4:02 AM >

Posted by NMPatriot
I'm guessing the property belongs (or belonged previously) to Sandia Labs.. I recognized what this was on sight (which is a rarity! apparently I'm a bigger tech geek than I realized..) It's a solar stirling engine, or at least the concentrator which belongs to one (most of the actual engine is missing from the one you visited). Some quick google-fu reveals:

https://www.sandia...29-04_stories.html

An issue of Sandia Labs News from 2004 detailing their partnership with Stirling Energy Systems to build a mini power station of six similar dishes. I suspect this one is the test / prototype unit that was built prior. This one looks like it would have ~64 mirror panels if fully populated, the design they ended up going with was supposed to be an 82 mirror dish.

The 82 mirror units were rated for ~25kW/each or a total of 150kW of generation for the 'plant' of all six.

The dish isn't fixed (well.. I'm sure it is now because it's rusted in-place), there are az/el drive units at the pivot point at the center of the dish visible in your photos. Elevation would track the sun's height during the day and the azimuthal drive would track it east-west progression.

They're pretty cool machines.. well.. actually pretty hot.. but you know what I mean. Being an actual reciprocating engine they require quite a bit of maintenance and have a high failure / breakdown rate.

Ric

Thank you so much for your post, this is some INCREDIBLE information! Absolutely fascinating. That makes a ton of sense, I had been hoping it was some crazy prototype machine from the labs too

A terrible shame that the research has ended, but an unbelievable ruin. Thank you so much again!

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post by BureauOfExploration

Re: Abandoned Satellite Dish, New Mexico
<Reply # 5 on 7/20/2021 4:03 AM >

Posted by OnlyFootprints

Such a fun bit of history!

I know right?! Astounding machine and a bit of a place out of time!

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post by BureauOfExploration

Re: Abandoned Satellite Dish, New Mexico
<Reply # 6 on 7/20/2021 4:04 AM >

Posted by BoredFun27
Very cool! Glad you "caught the bug" after the radar dish.

Thank you! Me too, I love abandonments of all kinds but this sort of "high technology urbex" is something I thought only existed in ex-soviet countries and other far-off places, neat to find it in the backyard

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post by /-/ooligan

Re: Abandoned Satellite Dish, New Mexico
<Reply # 7 on 8/12/2021 3:07 AM >

This is one (apparently a similar experiment/waste of $$) in Las Vegas, off of Flamingo Avenue near Paradise Rd. It's basically under the take-off/landing path for a runway at McCarran Airport, so maybe it's abandoned in the 'limp' position so as not to blind people on the aircraft (in which case it was pretty dumb to locate it where they did).

/-/ooligan

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post by Emperor Wang

Re: Abandoned Satellite Dish, New Mexico
<Reply # 8 on 9/15/2021 6:20 PM >

I sure would like to know what's with the wires strung all over this thing. My best guess is that the parabolic support structure was rigged with strain gauges to study how the shape might have distorted over time. From the way the wires are dangling all over the place it looks like they may have been installed after the dish was put together.

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post by BureauOfExploration

Re: Abandoned Satellite Dish, New Mexico
<Reply # 9 on 9/28/2021 6:51 PM >

Posted by /-/ooligan
This is one (apparently a similar experiment/waste of $$) in Las Vegas, off of Flamingo Avenue near Paradise Rd. It's basically under the take-off/landing path for a runway at McCarran Airport, so maybe it's abandoned in the 'limp' position so as not to blind people on the aircraft (in which case it was pretty dumb to locate it where they did).

447633.jpg (40 kb, 320x265)

447634.jpg (37 kb, 320x240)

/-/ooligan

Absolutely nuts, thank you for sharing this! An airport definitely is a... strange... choice of location to put basically a giant mirror-magnifying glass XD

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post by BureauOfExploration

Re: Abandoned Satellite Dish, New Mexico
<Reply # 10 on 9/28/2021 6:54 PM >

Posted by Emperor Wang
I sure would like to know what's with the wires strung all over this thing. My best guess is that the parabolic support structure was rigged with strain gauges to study how the shape might have distorted over time. From the way the wires are dangling all over the place it looks like they may have been installed after the dish was put together.

Same here! I think that's a very good guess, certainly a weird attribute of the machine. All those wires remind me of the machines from "the Matrix" or illustrations in "Tales from the Loop" of apocalyptic cyberpunk abandoned machines.

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