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Pilot Projects

Over the past decade three major pilot initiatives in the Mediterranean have been exploring the technologies, building and deploying prototype telescopes designed to operate at depths ranging from 2500 to 4500 m.

ANTARES is the largest neutrino telescope at the Northern Hemisphere. Located 40 km off the coast of Toulon, France at a depth of 2500 m, it is operational and taking data since 2008.

NESTOR off the coast of Pylos, Greece at a depth of 4000 m and NEMO off the coast of Sicily, Italy, are R&D projects, which added valuable input for the Design Study of KM3NeT.

The images show the different structures and deployment techniques of the three pilot projects:

ANTARES Nautile submarine to connect subsea cables for ANTARES 

 Deployment of the NESTOR pyramid structure  NESTOR

NEMO NEMO tower structure