Up Close: Blue Room

The science behind absorbing radio waves in a Radio Anechoic Chamber dates back to World War II when it first helped planes absorb or scatter radar signals. Now the technology is used by the European Space Agency among others.

  • Words + Photography: Alastair Philip Wiper

This is the Radio Anechoic Chamber at Denmark’s Technical University. The blue spikes are filled with carbon powder that stop radio waves bouncing around the room, so that satellite antennas can be tested in an environment similar to space.

There are lots of these chambers around the world, and apparently they all used to be black. Then someone decided it was a bit depressing to work in a black room all day, so now all the rooms are blue. The professor in charge of the chamber has worked there for 12 years, and couldn’t really understand why I thought it was so cool. I am glad he decided to wear a blue shirt.

Alastair Philip Wiper is an industrial and architectural photographer based in Copenhagen

Article taken from
Articles

Further Reading

Alexandra David-Néel

Remembering the fierce five-foot Parisian who became the first Western woman to meet the Dalai Lama and whose writing inspired the likes of Kerouac and Ginsberg.

The Poem Pavilion

British designer’s Stephen Hawking-influenced structure will use artificial intelligence to generate poetry.

Up Close: Salt Pans #20

Edward Burtynsky’s shot captures the ancient method of providing one of the most basic elements of our diet, salt.

Return to K2

Avaunt meets one of the greatest living mountaineers, Jake Meyer, to discuss what motivated his return to K2, the infamous mountain that defeated him seven years ago.

Sawanobori

A short film following UK climber James Pearson as he journeys to Japan to take on waterfall climbing – or ‘Sawanobori’ – for the first time.

Archive Letter: One Small Step

In this 1968 letter – a daring directive from Apollo programme leader George Mueller to Thomas Paine – a historic decision was made. Exactly one month after the launch of the Apollo 7 test flight, “NASA should undertake a lunar orbit mission as its next step.”
Browse by Category