Trinity Atomic Site "Ground Zero" caravan October 3 from ABQ SC ??

This place is on my bucket list.

The US Army opens the Trinity Site for visitors for only two days a year. The next day is October 3, at 8am - 2pm.

The parking lot is a 1/8 mile walk to the actual ground zero.

I wanted to throw out a possible meetup and Tesla caravan to the New Mexico site of the worlds first nuclear explosion.

The site is 120 miles from the ABQ supercharger, meaning we would need to watch the speed on the way there, or stop at Socorro RV Park for a little top off. We might swing a deal with the park for the group. However Socorro hotels get completely booked on these days, so the RV park could fill also.

The Trinity Site area is unimproved, with no electricity or gasoline there.

For more info:
http://www.wsmr.army.mil/PAO/Trinity/Pages/default.aspx

Other considerations: Radioactivity levels are now only 10x the usual background rates. Picking up and taking home the fused rock trinitite is not recommended, and is in fact illegal. Being there for a few hours should not result in appreciable exposure to adults, but children and infants may want to stay away.

Anyone interested in a 7am or 7:30am caravan from ABQ supercharger on October 3?

kf93 said:

I went a number of years ago and it was worth the trip. If you are interested in astronomy or science in general a stop at the VLA would be worth it.
Visit the VLA - NRAO: Revealing the Hidden Universe

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Excellent suggestion! It looks like the place is open the first Saturday also.

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kk7p said:

We are tentatively planning a road trip that would have us in ABQ at the right time for this if the ABQ SpC is open. So mark my wife and I as interested.

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Gotcha down. We'll need to see if ABQ is open.

And I am assuming from your username that 73 de KC5JIF will make sense to you.

kk7p said:

If we leave the Albuquerque SpC around 7:00 A.M., and travel at speeds that will enable the round trip to be made in an 85 without a charging stop, any idea when we might get back to Albuquerque? I hope to make this trip but then need to head east on I-40 and trying to plan a reasonable overnight destination.

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Here are my calculations.

Using EVTRIPPLANNER.com from the ABQ supercharger to San Antonio, NM exit to Hwy 380 estimates 98 rated miles there and 104 back. (It is uphill on the trip back.) It is another 34 miles to the actual site. So a 270 RM round trip.

That assumes a 74 mph average speed on I25. If we back off to 60 mph, we would predict 84 RM outbound and 89 RM return, for a total of 118 + 123. Expect 5 RM vampire loss from an 8 hour round trip, and that gets us to 246 RM for the round trip. I have a 261 RM capacity with a range charge.

Drive time is 90 minutes from ABQ to San Antonio. I expect that the 17 mile segment from I25 to the Stallion guard station will be at 60mph also, for 17 minutes. From Stallion to Ground Zero is another 17 miles, and my guess is that will be 40mph or about 26 minutes, so a total of 2 hours 14 minutes, each way.

This also assumes no wind, ambient temp of 80. If things go against us, such as a cold snap, high winds, etc, a charge somewhere en route will be needed. There are several RV parks with 50 amp service on the way back, in Socorro, Lemitar, Bernardo, Belen, and Isleta if necessary. I was thinking of stopping at the Very Large Array, and probably needing a brief 30 - 45 minute top off somewhere. If you want, you could drop your MS at the Socorro RV park to top up, and join us to tour the VLA while its charging.

We had a great time, highly recommend this for anyone touring New Mexico first weekend in October. And particularly great to meet KK7P and BlueFuego , and compare Tesla notes.



Very Large Array - Panoramic View


Trinity Site with obelisk marking 'Ground Zero' . The area of rebar to the right marks where the remnant of the steel tower can be seen clipped off at below ground level.