October 2015
Gustavo Arriagada
Base Facility Operations:
The Dawn of Fully Remote
Operations is Here!
Figure 1.
Tom Cumming and
Dolores Coulson during
testing of BFO systems in
the Hilo control room.
Gemini’s Base Facility Operations are moving Gemini toward
an exciting new era of fully remote operations.
Editor’s note, this article was published prior to the successful implementation of remote
operations at Gemini North in late 2015 / early 2016. Instances of future-tense statements have
been addressed where appropriate (see the update on page 37 for additional information).
Base Facility Operations (BFO) is Gemini Observatory’s large project
aimed at eliminating the need