those trailers should be NASA's backup plan for mission control.....after space invader first hit....

.....any "insert coin" sign?

zxdxz

So that's where Nasa's time traveling trailer went...

Alchemistmerlin

Well, the first one is a trans-gateway thingamajig, and I know the last one is a subspace transmission beam detector, but that's all I've got...

The Amazing Ant

Could be a trap....

steven5737

No batteries, look under the front and you'll see where it's tied into the power by the grey disconnect box. The question is, who's paying for that hookup anyway?

The photog had some brass ones if he's the one who turned it on. Chances are it controls some long dormant cold-war era satellite with a payload of rogue nukes aboard. Now we're screwed...

pdok

My university had one of the Apollo ground station trailers - NASA had donated it after it was no longer needed. My university didn't do much with it -- I got an EE degree there and never knew about it until I installed a ground station for my company in their co-lo.

morcheeba

Woah! I am surprised it hasn't been gutted to hell!

Zgradis

thats seriously the coolest thing ive ever seen. id move in.

PaaatrickBabyBoy

Can a desert really be derelict?

een

How do they know it's abandoned? Perhaps it was placed in the middle of the desert for a reason.....

KryptonZero

that is kinda cool

Dice

That is actually quite cool.

I would love to have a look at it in person.

baconfrenzy

Nothing would ever brighten my day as much as finding something like this by the road.

Oh boredom.

doobiebros2two

Holy shit is there POWER going to those Nixie tubes??? WTF kind of space age batteries is NASA rocking???

thechansen

Honestly, this made my day. I could live in this, were it not, you know, nowhere.

Also, do they acknowledge this exists? I want to say Trailer 51, but I fear for my already shaky reputation.

Gilbert

@Gilbert: It's always about your reputation, isn't it? Know if we can find our own rocket ship to launch, this trailer might work out.

SinAmos

The "Computer In Control" button is how the Matrix started.

scoobydoo

well lets see,
Photo 1) That is an HP doomsday clock (top right), a MOKO Phase lock MK 3 used to draw zero point energy from the surrounding area (middle right), a NASA MP3 player (middle right), a pre-amp for the MP3 player (lower right). They must have some really big speakers attached.
Photo 2) First Omega watch (top left)
Photo 3) The NASA budget for the last 20 years. (top right)
Photo 4) music synthesizer (your really only need 8 keys). (lower left)
Photo 5) That IBM's next super computer coming out in 2009 called "deep beige" (lower right)

jkr I take the internet seriously

*cough* movie set *cough*

bytepusher

@steven5737: I cannot think of a better nerd trap except maybe if you put busty ladies in there

arkbuilder

Isn't this mission control for the NASSA?

+ Watch video

clockradio

I've always wanted to stumble across something like this.

-but then I read the Dark Tower series.

strider_mt2k

I have to agree with Alchemistmerlin. This has definitely been sucked through a time/space vortex.

I blame the Large Hadron Collider.

There will be more anomalies once the LHC goes full power.

ljj

The numbers keep cycling.

4 8 15 16 23 42

sammy baby

@banned4life: Yes sentence was unclear. Army had jurisdiction back then. Thanks.

John Mahoney

@jkr I take the internet seriously: Shhh! NASA doesn't want the public to know they're secretly harnessing the power of zero point energy!

Now you gone done blew the secret. Shame on you.

meirelle

This is a really badass trailer, I would love to have me one. Nasa so could make money selling their old equipment like this to nerds.

Technogen

Don't you guys see that this came from the future?
9428, 27 of April.

Instead of a cool futuristic looking machine, budget cuts still exist...

out2getu

I cant believe he turned it on I wonder if he hit the launch button

marcel.trujillo

"Since it came about in the 1930s as NASA's rocket research lab..."

NASA was formed on Jul 29th 1958.

banned4life

It's oscillating between 4 and 9, is that a good thing?

Starsmore

......and it's been pillaged by nerds at this point.

Vander

Maybe we could sell it to the Mexican space program? I hear they've had good success putting whales in orbit.

djchaser

I too want to know how this is getting power "in the middle of nowhere" and why it's turned on.

ReekRend

Relax guys, the NASA crew was just out for lunch at the time. o.O

tex1ntux

Well, Edwards AFB is right out there. That's where they have covertly built and tested space shuttles, the Stealth, and other things. I know because my uncle worked on the Stealth out there. I visited and there is a funny-looking section of telephone poles that are much taller than all the rest. When I asked about it, they told me that it was so they could get the vehicle through there with the space shuttle on the back. There's a lot of *funny stuff* out in that desert.

We also had an MP tell us to leave a certain area where we were rock climbing; when we asked why, he told us that there was radioactive waste on the other side of the small mountain we were on. Now I have a third arm.

True story :)

Everything but the arm thing.

ldsdj

Hey, put that shit back! That trailer's not abandoned, NASA still uses that for all their fancy "space" missions!

CapitalC

This reminds me of the cover for the secret military base that was used in Spies Like Us. As I recall, the agents went to a seemingly abandoned drive-in movie theater, and were transported into the heart of the base when they got a Diet Coke.

Do I have my movie references right? If not, please let me know.

SimonHova

No wonder SkyLab burnt up...

petard

Nixie tubes... awesome!

Mr. B

According to our friend wiki.
Nasa used that red logo from 1975 to 1992.

Im surprised if it been sitting out there that long no one has raided it

SlimDan22

On the right side of the picture "nasa_shots_b_6" is a piece of tape labeled '31 Aug 01'. So it must be a time machine.

yeti

There's absolutely no way this is legit. There's too many weird things. For one, in the picture of the "Zenith Angle" and "Azimuth" dials, you can clearly see fluorescent lighting above the photographer in the reflection. Those bulbs don't last 40 years. If it truly exists, someone goes there regularly.

Brenny

Questions:

Where is the power coming from and whos paying for it;

Where is it that despite apparently being the 1 feature on a featureless desert landscape, nobody has trashed or looted it - even though the original article states it's on the edge of a village between LA and Vegas;

What is its original value during the period NASA forgot about it (your tax dollars.. disappearing in the desert);

What communication hardware is present and what did/does it communicate with;

Has anyone notified NASA of its existence and have they received a response;

And finally, who lives in Nevada or in California with a Vegas trip coming up who fancies tracking this thing down and marking the location on Google maps?

Cultivar

the panel with the pushbuttons is an antenna control panel. the antenna, part of a portable ground station, was probably towed separately.

mflembeck

@SlimDan22: 16+ years and it still has juice left, damn!

t3rminal

@sammy baby: yes yes yes

danmandle

I'm with Brenny on this one... something smells fishy.

Aside from the everything looking perfectly clean and dust free, despite being in the middle of a desert, the tires all still have air. In desert temperature fluctuations, I highly doubt that after 5 years, the tires would still be inflated.

That applies to the what looks like a spare tire underneath as well...

sdonham

this has been floating around on the tubes for a couple of months now. i think i saw it on one of the urban exploration sites or something like that.

i wouldn't be surprised if some of the more unsavory characters to come across it had already stripped the thing down and left an empty husk in their wake.

TonyRockyHorror

@sdonham: before the rear tires, there are jacks holding up the trailer. Therefore, there's no pressure on the tires to deflate.

@Brenny: The other bigger photo in the post it has a newer nasa logo that says calibrated too.

danmandle

Lights are on... it has power... Are you guys sure this was "abandoned"?

GIZisGOD

Which part of that controls the cameras at the Area 51 soundstage?

homerjay

honestly i think this would make any geeks life (as opposed to their day)

an abandoned retro nasa trailer found outside las vegas...

honestly has anyone ever seen anything so cool?!

jrghoull

Oh you lucky bastards. What I wouldn't do to have my own abandoned JPL trailer...

shenanigans61

@djchaser: Lmao

sprice82

the fact that it still has power makes me think its a backup of sorts.

roflwaffles

@tex1ntux: More like out to Launch :)

Ohestu

Did they watch the film? is this really NASA or is it the Dharma initiative?

Set to evil

I know NASA pretty well (live in Merritt Island, Kennedy Space Center, for those not familiar). NASA abandons nothing. They may let something sit for decades on end, but it's never abandoned. This guy is going to get into serious, SERIOUS trouble for tresspassing onto NASA property. The fact that it is still hooked up to a power grid furthur supports my theory that it is still what NASA calls "in use." It is NASA property until stated otherwise, and that usually means donated to a museum, another establishment or destoryed so nobody gets their hands on their (usually outdated) technology. NASA doesn't turn the other way for any infractions, especially people that have tresspassed onto restricted areas (all NASA property not designated as a tour area or Visitor's Center). This is going to get ugly.

alexmg2420

Well aparently it is still an active system as JPL is doing some work with the Very Long Baseline Interferometer. Goto: [www.nasawatch.com]

For a better explaination, read one of the comments below.

gdd2010

Google search for NASA JPL "August 31" 2001 brings up quite a few projects that that one piece of equipment could be tied to.

Starshine: [www.azinet.com]

Ulysses: [www.jpl.nasa.gov]

WirelessGeek

I also call fake. Along with the powered equipment and functional fluorescent lighting, note that there are at least 4 rows of fluorescent tubes in the reflection. Counting at least one that should be overhead you would have 5. With he ceiling vents and possible second row of lights to the right of the last fluorescent tube in the reflection, I'd say this trailer is a TARDIS, or that picture was taken somewhere else. I'd put my money on an empty abandoned trailer and some museum shots for the interior.

Off to search photo archives and NASA records for August 31, 2001.

WirelessGeek

Your hard earned tax dollars at work people!!!

Justapspfan

Hello? In the 3rd picture you can clearly see from the reflection that the photo was taken in a big room.

FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE FAKE

18000rpm

@gdd2010: @WirelessGeek: Damn the slow Gawker hamsters. Caught out again.

Drew Draws nothing of merit

That's pretty rad, whether it is real or not. The panel with the numbers on it looks like it has a hewlett packard logo on the top left. I hope someone from NASA lets giz know what the deal is with it. Surly someone from NASA reads giz.

Foam24

Even if it's been there for a long time, there's clearly a piece of tape on the console in photo b6 that has 31 Aug 2001 written on it (in the upper right-hand corner). So that means that this has been "abandoned" for less than a decade, and possibly still in some kind of active-ish use.

N'est-ce pas?

Drew Draws nothing of merit

@18000rpm: Yeah, It's almost as big a room as the one inside of that trailer!

Although since the lights are on this thing has to be getting power still. I don't see it attached to any external power connector so I wonder how those lights are on inside this thing>

SgtToastie

It looks still in use and is probably a seismic monitor.

heroineworshipper

HOPSFIELD
(to Chris)
I've been thinking about your laser solution.
(a beat)
I figure you've increased the output to six megawatts.

CHRIS
Yeah.

HOPSFIELD
What would you use that for?

MITCH
The applications are unlimited. Industrial for one.

HOPSFIELD
With the gas tanks you've designed the beam would only last for forty seconds. What good is that?

CHRIS
I don't care, Laslo. I graduated.

MITCH
Let the engineers figure out a use for it. That's not our concern.

HOPSFIELD
Maybe somebody already has a use for it, one for which it's perfectly designed.

JORDAN
You mean Atherton had something in mind all along?

HOPSFIELD
Looks at the facts: very high power, portable, limited firing time, unlimited range. All you'd need is a big spinning mirror and you could vaporize a human target from space.

[next scene - an "abandoned" NASA trailer gets toasted by a laser beam from a passing plane]

zarchitect

In the second picture there, the graph, it says HR2142. This is a binary star.

KHarvey16

@SgtToastie:

SgtToastie - are you retarded? There's a row of 4 fluorescent lights, a row of air vents, and another row of fluorescent lights on the right. On the left there is a door, and a wall with vents near the ceilings.

Does that resemble the exterior pics at all to you??

18000rpm

'nasa_shots_b_5" is a direction orientation gauge for vehicles in space. Because there is no correct up or down or any working compasses, space vehicles use their relative position from earth.

dannydutton

I would like to imagine that this is real because I like the thought that maybe someday whilst hiking I'll find something like this.

This article has attracted some nasa forums and most seem to agree that this at the least is not abandoned, with some asking members to help identify the trailer. something tells, me that it wont be long till this one is solved.

lazerpenguin

Reminds me of the time we got into the basement of our school's Physics building. Apparently we did a lot of work for the Apollo missions, and there are all sorts of interesting things left from that era down there.

smartperson

@zarchitect: I'll get the popcorn!
(his name was "Hollyfeld" BTW) [en.wikipedia.org]

Set to evil

Its a marker for a secret government underground base

dggraphics

Ah, "Where is it" question answered via link: it's at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory near Bishop, CA, and about 250 miles north of Los Angeles. (37°14'02" latitude, 118°16'56" longitude) That's like 200 miles out of the way on a drive from LA to Vegas...

nuclearlove

@Cultivar - I'm driving down to Vegas in a little more than a week if anybody wants to figure out where this thing is. I'll have all my photog/video equipment with me.

nuclearlove

the big picture is looks like a frequency modulator (something to supply power to whatever signal you are trying to broadcast) the big numbers look like the frequency it's tuned into.

it fits with the other suggestions like antenna adjuster thingy.

so it's a radio trailer. (i think)

B1663R

will it run pong:)

...hmm...would be cool to retrofit those racks with some new components.

citizen024

Obviously, this was used by NASA to film the "Moon Landing" that so many people have fallen for.

TideGuy

@Brenny:

You're right, Brenny, I noticed the same thing.

[thisisharrington.com]

This picture shows a reflection of a large room with accoustic tiles, and permanently mounted flourescent tubes, much bigger than a trailer interior.

Did he grab the equipment and take them home and take the photos?

Jones Foyer

...anyway, how would you be dumb enough not to show pictures of the interior of the trailer? Exactly, he's not dumb, he just didn't actually go inside.

Jones Foyer

Owens Valley Radio Observatory:

[maps.google.com]

This is not an abandoned trailer, and I hope this guy gets in trouble.

Shane112358

im not gonna say its fake IMMEDIATELY, but why are the lights still working? i think the interior was taken somewhere else

mikail511

I think that "HP logo" that you guys think is on that piece is actually a phillips head screw with a weird reflection on it.

maven2k

@Shane112358: i think what you are referencing might be close to what is here, but it doesnt look like its the same facility.

[www.ovro.caltech.edu]

the facility you are referencing has a bunch of large satellites like the VRA in new mexico.

interesting

emergeoriginal

The guy wanders into a POWERED (not abandoned) trailer owned by the federal government where he sees towering 40 meter satellite dishes less than a couple hundred meters away, and doesn't think that he is somewhere he is not supposed to be? He proceeds to take pictures of the inside of the trailer that can prove at a cursory glance that the trailer was inhabited at least 5 years ago, if not more recent than that. And he still considers it "abandoned"? In law, that is called willful negligence. He had to have had some idea that he was trespassing on restricted property.

Shane112358

@Mr. B: First thing I said to myself too. I could use those...

tayaya

@twilight-arc: Ignore my comment, looks like I was wrong. Those weren't copyright assignations.

twilight-arc

Given the copyright notice on the photos, it would almost appear that the guy works for NASA.

twilight-arc

@Shane112358: Personally, I find it hard to believe some guy toting photography equipment just waltzed into a radio observatory and started sauntering through the facilities which were, by the way, unlocked. Where were the staff, security, fences, anything. And why you'd "hope this guy gets in trouble" I don't want to know, because it makes you sound like an authoritarian asshole and I don't like those.

Cultivar

Isn't it quite spooky that machines like that used to control space missions?

People landed on the moon with nothing but beige and raw metal boxes to fall back on...

Collins1

Hello, here are some educated guesses from my Dad who is familiar with this sort of thing:

[S]ome equipment looks powered up, so I doubt it is actually abandoned. Also, things don't look as dusty and dirty as expected if the trailer had been sitting there open for days.

My guess is whoever is supposed to be there took a drive some distance from the trailer, maybe to set up other associated equipment nearby. My guess it is that the site is so remote that they didn't expect anybody to happen by. Not a legitimate excuse for leaving it, but the only other reason might be a medical emergency. I can't imagine there was only one person there. If there were only two and one got hurt, maybe they had to leave in a hurry to get help. In the end, that seems the most unlikely possibility.

As far as purpose my best guess w/o confirming w/ a colleague is a some kind of Radio Receiving Station, but its antenna is not present or shown. The two pictures on the left are of equipment that controls something that points, probably the antenna. The plot appears to be from a Spectrum Analyzer, note the frequency scale at the bottom. They were sweeping a wide frequency range looking for signals which would appear as spikes sticking up. There appears to be one near the left side, but it could be an artifact depending on the width scale and or position. If you are interested, research a Spectrum Analyzer and I'll fill you in on any questions. The instrument w/ the nixies a appears to be a frequency counter, which would fit with my guess on purpose.

eltoozero

@howardholton: or rather So that's WHEN the NASA time-traveling trailer went. (Friggen absent minded........)

howardholton

@Alchemistmerlin: PROPER: So that's WHERE the NASA time-traveling trailer went.

howardholton

Total BS. The interior pics are completely unrelated to the trailer. Thanks for playing...

wayno007

Not only is the third photo taken in a much bigger room, it looks awful similar to the Apollo control room exhibit at JSC. I'm talking about the reconstructed historical Apollo "Houston" room across the hall from the actual ISS control room. "Zenith" and "azimuth" are the vertical and horizontal indicators respectively for the target of a tracking antenna or radar, and not the kind of thing you find in a portable trailer...because that huge honkin antenna tends to be collocated with the sensors, and I think the photographer would have noticed the antenna.

The first photo has a cesium beam atomic clock of the kind you find in DOD and NASA radio rooms everywhere, and the photo itself looks to be a bit dated since 274 is Julian date for October 1st on a non-leap year. I'm guessing it's from at least last year if not earlier. Today is JD 224 so the clock would have shown 224 today or a lower number earlier.

Anyway, bad fake.

tom.cuddihy

Here's to everyone who says it's a fake. Apparently the only thing fake about the story is that he "wandered" onto this "abandoned" trailer.

From NASA Watch,

"Hopefully this will clear up some of the confusion. I work at OVRO (24.5 years!) and occasionally people show up asking if they can take pictures. Caltech policy is that if the images are going to be used for commercial purposes, then approval needs to be obtained from Caltech. If the images are for personal use, then we let people take all the images they want. Several years ago, Richard Harrington stopped by and asked if he could take pictures for non-commercial use. I granted him permission and spoke briefly with him about the observatory and what we do here (radio astronomy). Richard put the images on his website and someone later copied them and created a story about 'abandoned NASA trailer', etc. All the equipment images are from the inside of the 40 meter telescope, for which permission was also granted. I am sure the person who created the story is getting quite a chuckle about this.

I would like to invite anyone who would like to see any of this old equipment and the NASA trailer to come for one of my monthly tours. The tours are on the first Monday of the month at 1 p.m. May through October the tours are at the CARMA site and November through April are at OVRO. I normally don't include the NASA trailer on my tour, but I certainly can; it's not much to look at though, and it is locked. OVRO website: www.ovro.caltech.edu CARMA website: www.mmarray.org. If you pull up a map of OVRO, the trailer is listed as 'building #11'. The trailer had to be given a building number for the fire department."

Go4EVA

I love how they actually powered the stuff up...and it worked. Way cool.

Lev_Astov

"It's a little puzzling as to how something like this could find its way to a derelict desert in the middle of nowhere"

BECAUSE IT'S A TRAP!

iCanhasLs2plz

antique NASA Computer with Nixie Tube display = total awesomeness

Diskoboy

maybe the NASA crew is stored inside the equipment and needs help materializing.
DO NOT LET THE POWER RUN DOWN!

brutek

Me again..

One of the computers is a VLBI formatter - NASA has a webpage about VLBI Data.

[cddis.nasa.gov]

I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about electronics. But that reads like Japanese stereo instructions, to me... But the data sounds fairly valuable to NASA. So that could be a potential gold mine.

Diskoboy

.....And functional, at that.

Diskoboy

@zarchitect: Hollyfeld. Laszlo Hollyfeld.

qbrad

Wonder if there is any decent 6DJ8's in any of that stuff...
*ahem

Duc

That is pretty awesome. I wonder if anyone would go after you if you drove away with it.

if(x)

SInce my last response to this a few hours ago, I and a JPL associate determined this WAS at OVRO, As poster GoforEVA posted, pasting it in from NASAWatch. OVRO is hardly between L.A. and Las Vegas. Try at Bishop.

BP

spaceflightengr

I would guess that is or was a remote facility for either making short baseline, radio interferometric astronomical observations or calibrating the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) observatory.   Some observations about the provided information:   1.  Bishop, California is near the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) where spaced radio dishes are used to make radio astronomy observations. (OVRO is also a marking on the phase lock receiver.)   2. The Hewlett Packard Synthesizer is marked "NASA Astronomy Branch."   3. The phase locked receiver is marked OVRO and MK3.  MK3 was a designation for an early implementation of ground station equipment to support radio interferometric measurements.   4. The azimuth and elevation dials were standard display technology for displaying radio dish orientation.   5. The posted spectrum is marked difference spectrum which is standard terminology for radio interferometry.   I would also speculate that the OVRO operational budget is paying for the power. Often this type of equipment was left on to ensure long term frequency stability.    I would encourage the folks that found the trailer to contact OVRO operations to make sure the equipment remains secure.  Contact information can be found at: http://www.ovro.caltech.edu/.

SusannaLark

This *is* on the grounds of Owens Valley Radio Observatory. It is not abandoned, but is still in use. The security is what it is due to lack of funding and the non-secure nature of the research. Much of the security is provided by the remoteness of the location. "Retro" gear like this is in common use, and yes, some of it is made by HP.

PercivalBadger

@maven2k: It's pretty clearly an HP logo. I'm pretty sure its an HP 5245 "digital" counter, built in the mid 60's and it was state of the art at the time. Though I'm not positive on the model number, it's an HP frequency counter.

@emergeoriginal: I assumed the OVRO stamped on the rack equipment gave it away. Doesn't mean it's in that location, but was part of OVRO at one time I suppose.

notavalidusername

The trailer is part of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory located out side of Bishop, California. The equipment is used as part of a Very Long Baseline Interferometry array, for radio astronomy.

shragei

I am currently employed at JPL as a contract employee, and I doubt this and/or equipment is actually abandoned. Clearly it could not have been sitting there open for days because it is not at all dusty. Also, the equipment is powered up. If it were abandoned, I the trailer's generator would not have been left running. There is also no way to be certain from the equipment pictured were actually photographed within the pictured trailer, or any other. Finally, the originator of the post does not state how long the hung around, but they were probably being watched...

LutherLazred

alexmg2420 is spot on, this is not abandoned property, and someone is going to get in trouble....

Follow more on the story here [www.nasawatch.com]

motorbikematt

I do not think this was abandoned, and I'm pretty certain this is part of an active radio astronomy study that some poor grad student is collecting data for. I worked at a Radio Observatory in Florida that was frequently vandalized because it was in the middle of nowhere. My guess, whomever works there, works in the trailer throughout the night and sleeps during the day.

Very good chance that this photographer is a trespasser and really shouldn't have gone in there....

motorbikematt

Quote from http://space.about.com/cs/history/a/nasahistorya_2.htm The Congress and the President of the United States created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on October 1, 1958. The fledgling National Aeronautics and Space Administration agency absorbed the earlier National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics intact: its 8,000 employees, an annual budget of $100 million, three major research laboratories-Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, and Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory-and two smaller test facilities. Soon afterwards, NASA incorporated other organizations, including the space science group of the Naval Research Laboratory in Maryland, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory managed by the California Institute of Technology for the Army, and the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, Alabama, the laboratory where Wernher von Braun's team of engineers were engaged in the development of large rockets. As it grew, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) created other Centers and today it has ten located around the country.

SundariMonet

Above the 9428 274 there's a Hewlett-Packard insignia.

At least we know whose plotted the end of the world now for the past 60 years or so.

Gunsmoke

This is a Interferometry Station, it is use in weather prediction. It calculate spectral radiation variation from a star, in this case it's HR2142-60s.
This is not abandoned, there are a lot of them in the USA and Canada, and i doubt that it was in the middle of nowhere, it must be behind a building or behind a gate. I think the photographer tries to gain fame.

Maniako

Looks to me that this is antenna control equipment:
nasa_shots_b_5: antenna coordinate read-outs in azimuth and zenith angle (ange with respect to vertical)
nasa_shots_b_6: indicator lights and control buttons. Brakes on/off in the two axes, putting the antenna in computer or manual control. Looks like there's a button to stow (park) the antenna. There are focus-related controls too which probably indicates it's a cassegrain-type antenna with a subreflector that can be moved to improve focus.
nasa_shots_b_7: Interesting! "7mm/K-band" means the antenna could receive at 7mm (~43 GHz) and K-band (~1.3 cm = 22 GHz) so we're talking a pretty decent antenna with a solid panel surface and good tracking. These are both radio astronomy bands, not spacecraft comms bands. "VLBI formatter". VLBI stands for Very Long Baseline Interferometry, a radio astronomy technique where antennas at different locations observe the same object together, record to tape, and play back later at a correlator. Gives the effect of a radio telescope with very high angular resolution (typically 1 milli-arcsec). This is the formatter which puts the data into a standard format for recording with time tags etc. You need a pretty good time standard for this so there should be a rubidium clock in the trailer. Were there any tape recorders (big reel-to-reels or VCRs)?
nasa_shots_b_1: this is a spectrum, probably showing the bandpass response of the system. Looks like it has/had a 20 kHz bandwidth which is tiny. Not sure what to make of that, perhaps the response of a narrow-band filter. What's really interesting is the title "40m difference spectra", suggests the main reflector of the antenna is 40m across! So where is it?
The photo in the article: Hard to read most of the text but "OVRO" = Owens Valley Radio Observatory. OVRO is run by Caltech who run JPL. OVRO have a 40m antenna! [www.ovro.caltech.edu]
How far away from OVRO were these photos taken??

zenith_angle

So...he trespassed into government property? I doubt somebody would "stumble across" something like this unless it was deep out of the public eye.

Its still awesome nonetheless!

Super Sonic

OVRO could be the Ovens Valley Radio Observatory, run by Caltech... hr2142 is a star in the constellation Monoceros (the unicorn).

drewbert

This trailer was used to control radio telescopes at Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO).

RyanDeiphobus

Hmm, that NASA logo looks a bit modern, no?

nuggetz

You are being intentionally deceived. These pictures were taken at Caltech's Owens Valley Radio Observatory which is located in the Eastern Sierra near Big Pine, CA. Notice on one of the chassis the initials 'OVRO'? You can check out our website at www.ovro.caltech.edu and follow the link to 5.5 meter telescope. You can also navigate from our home page > Information > Directions. Scroll down the page and locate 'building 11' - this is the old NASA trailer. This trailer came from JPL and houses the 1960's era antenna drive controller. The 5.5 meter telescope is in very bad shape due in most part to an army of pack rats (literally!) which have made the telescope base their home. The telescope is not being used at this time and is only about 50 feet from the trailer - located directly behind the trailer in the image. The reason I said you were being deceived is that all the equipment images were taken /inside/ our 130 foot (40m) radio telescope, not the NASA trailer which we keep locked. This guy knew where he was - I'm the one who gave him permission to take the pictures. I can identify every piece of equipment in the images, some of which I made. The ragged-looking b/w plot is from our summer program for middle school students from 2003. We had a 2 week program sponsored through GEMS (Great Explorations in Math and Science) where the students learned to operate the 40m telescope and search for extraterrestrial signals. The plots are still on the wall where I put them up. I give tours of the observatory and routinely take people inside the 40m telescope where all this old equipment can be seen. Ok, I'll be honest: When we had to clean up the control room to make it into a classroom, I had to get rid of a lot of old equipment. I couldn't bear to see some of it thrown out, so I filled the 5 racks with it. You will notice the old VLBI formatter. (VLBI stands for Very Long Baseline Interferometry). We no longer do VLBI here at OVRO, but after having used this unit for years, I couldn't just throw it out. The same goes for some of the other 'junk'. Tours are always on the first Monday of the month at 1 p.m. In May through October, the tours are at the millimeter array site - CARMA (www.mmarray.org) and November through April are here at OVRO.

18000rpm must have some serious issues. There's nothing in the photos to indicate the remote possibility of any of his "insights". He must've been duped by something like this before and wanted to preemptively be part of the "right" crowd. Here's a link with fewer retarded comments such as 18000rpm's:

[www.nasawatch.com]

This story is completely misleading. I have been in this trailer myself. It is on the grounds of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory, operated by the California Institute of Technology. It is used to control a small radio antenna nearby, and is NOT abandoned. The poster could not have obtained these photos without trespassing on the grounds of the Observatory, whose entrance is clearly posted with a sign saying "Authorized Personnel Only". I will be forwarding this weblink to the appropriate officials at Caltech for them to pursue and action they deem appropriate. Dr, Karl Stapelfeldt Astrophysics Section NASA / JPL / Caltech

DOE has a few trailers like this they roll out to white sands and Tonopah when they do high-end testing. My guess is you're seeing a data acquisition trailer used to monitor telemetry during missile/rocket flights. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to fix mount several million in data acquisition hardware when it will be needed at a variety of test sites... Take for example Sandia Nat'l Labs MIDAS trailer: [www.sandia.gov]

Yet nobody has yet listed the equipement

Low Voltage Power Supply 200V to 2.3 Amps (on the gauge only)

Synthesizer Driver lookes like something to generate a test signal

The Phase Lock appears to modulate the phase between (output?) signals (in step, out of step, variable step)

The Electronic Counter could be used to measure frequency, number of peak pulses during a given unit of time.

The Zenith Angle and Azimuth gauges would be for antenna guidance

The "Brakes, Control Status and Control Mode" looks like something to control the antenna. Azimuth and Zenith as well as controlling the driven elements of an antenna.

7mm /K-band Cal select tells us that the system is using the k-band radio frequency (satellite communications)

You can fill in the rest yourselves.