Video update on the FAIR construction at GSI
At GSI - Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, AVA Fellows David Haider and Jeffrey Klimes conducting their research. The research centre has been involved with the AVA Network since the beginning of the project and has also been a host for many Fellows during their secondments.
GSI, based in Darmstadt, is the German national centre for heavy ion research and hosts a large accelerator facility where high beam intensities for heavy ions are accelerated up to several GeV/u. Next to the GSI-complex, a worldwide unique accelerator facility is currently being constructed for heavy ions and antiprotons, the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR). The facility is designed for first class research in the field of atomic, nuclear and plasma physics, material sciences and biophysics and will be used to create and study matter in the laboratory that otherwise only occurs in the universe.
The construction work started in 2017 and on a site of approximately 20 hectares, 25 buildings are being constructed. Some of the unique building structures reach from 17 meters below ground level to 20 meters above the earth's surface. The key component of FAIR is a ring accelerator (SIS100) with a circumference of 1,100 meters. Connected to this is a complex system of storage rings and experimental stations. The existing GSI accelerators will serve as the first acceleration stage.
GSI has now published a new 3-minute video of the construction site at FAIR in November 2020. Here you can find a number of videos such as a time lapse of the site and an overview of the entire construction cycle. Regular photo updates are also published, going back to the excavation of the SIS100 tunnel in April 2018. There is a separate page with interactive picture sliders that provide new insights and makes the progress on the large particle accelerator facility clearly visible. Viewers can compare several important stages in the construction process in 2018 and 2020.
Further information and updates about the FAIR mega-construction project can be found here.