In principle, the future of the automobile is electric. And yet, there is a small corner of the United States that can only be accessed exclusively by a diesel car. It is located in the center of the Quiet Zone (the Silent Zone), a 34,000 km2 region of Virginia Occidentalan area where Wi-Fi, cell phones and microwave ovens are prohibited.
And despite being located in the rural heart of the Appalachian Mountains, one of the areas considered by Americans to be the most redneck of the country, has nothing to do with some radical pro-Trump or anti-technology movement that burns Toyota Prius and Tesla Model 3 at the stake every night. Everything has a very logical explanation.
Radio silence (almost) absolute
In 1958, the United States government banned the use of any radio frequencies in the area to protect the scientific and defense research that would be conducted there. It was not to protect himself from possible Russian spies, but because the largest rotating radio telescope in the world. It is a mass with a 100 meter diameter saucer capable of listening to any frequency coming from space, millions of light years away from us. Its purpose is none other than to observe and understand our universe.
Thus, the objective of this zone is to protect the main government facilities located in the heart of the National Radio Quiet Zone from radio interference, including the Green Bank Observatory and its giant radio telescope. The most severe restrictions apply within a 20-mile (about 32 km) radius around the observatory and include limitations on Wi-Fi and mobile phone services, as well as a prohibition on approaching the observatory in non-diesel vehicles.
Why only diesel cars? For a very simple reason. The fuel and air mixture in the diesel engine catches fire due to the high pressure at which it is compressed in the engine piston, unlike a gasoline engine in which the mixture catches fire due to the spark of a spark plug.
Green Bank Radio Telescope, in the Quiet Zone. Photo: Green Bank Observatory.
A spark near such a sensitive instrument could cause interference in the radio telescope’s reading. Lest it be that the discovery of extraterrestrial life is actually Billy Bob passing by in his Ford Raptor.
And it is not only that access near the telescope and other instruments can only be done with a diesel, but it is also done with very old models, the most recent being from the 70s (you can see them here), whose injection is not electronic but mechanical.
The Green Bank observatory also does not renew its fleet of diesel cars for maintenance for the same reason. A more recent model with the seat belt not fastened acoustic warning or with a parking sensor would generate too much interference with the sensitive instruments.
In the rest of the Quiet Zone, however, there are not so many restrictions. For example, electric cars can be used. And the observatory offices even have charging points. What’s more, his own Profesor Jay Lockmanformer director of the center and currently a researcher at the center, drives a Chevrolet Bolt.
What will happen when there are no more spare parts for the diesels at the research center? They will simply turn off all the sensors, approach with an electric pickup, do what they have to do, and turn the telescope back on once the cars and vans have left the most sensitive area, explica Jill Maluskyresponsible for news and information at the observatory.
Source: www.motorpasion.com
