[weinzierl]

I just saw a documentary (in German) from 2003 about its construction. There is an interview with a guy from the American (Colorado) company which built the tank who boasted that only two companies in the world could build it and the other one declined because they deemed it impossible. Other interesting facts were:

- 15 segments of acrylic glass

- 12 segments for the outer cylinder, 3 for the inner

- all segments worth 4 million EUR

- 200 wall thickness

- shipped in a steel construction

They did not say it, but from the video it looks like the segments were assembled in at the destination but not in their final location.

EDIT: I misunderstood, looks like the outer cylinder was assembled in-place, the inner one on-site and then lifted inside.

For completeness, here is the video, but it is in German:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E3KjGJ8AZzI

[petre]

Great engineering feat but it was a dumb idea to begin with. Just like sending people to Mars. Luckily nobody died, excluding the fish of course.

[steelbrain]

This is tangent from the topic at hand but I'm curious to pick your brain. Why is it a dumb idea to send people to Mars?

[petre]

For the same reason it was a dumb idea to put a dog in orbit without the means to return it back to Earth alive.