OSF technical building

The Operational Support Facility (OSF) which is and will continue to be, in many aspects, the centre of activities of the ALMA project. The focus of activities will change as ALMA achieves several and quite different objectives of the entire project. Presently it is the area where all ALMA Site contractors and their staff are accommodated. Special camps have been erected and by now can accommodate the maximum required capacity of 500 workers.

Ultimately, the OSF and its Technical Facilities will become the centre of all scientific activities related to the daily operation of the Joint ALMA Observatory. The OSF will be the central location for running the observatory and taking care of all maintenance and operations aspects. During the operations phase of the observatory it will be the workplace of the astronomers and of the teams responsible for maintaining proper functioning of all the telescopes. The quality of all ALMA data will be assessed at the OSF.