From Emu Heights to Mission Control: Racks for CSIRO's Mobile Operations Centre

When people picture a space mission control, they imagine a large, fixed room full of screens. CSIRO's Mobile Mission Op­er­a­tions Centre (MOC) is something different: a fully equipped op­er­a­tions centre that travels by road and can be up and running wherever it's needed.

At the heart of it are server racks made at our Emu Heights facility by our Argent brand. Here's how they got there. You can also read our original news story and Argent's article.

The brief

The MOC was built by Varley in Brisbane for CSIRO under the iLAuNCH Trail­blaz­er program and unveiled at the In­ter­na­tion­al As­tro­nau­ti­cal Congress in 2025. It's designed to host up to 30 operators. CSIRO's Mark Dunn said the centre can be set up in around 20 minutes.

For the computing and com­mu­ni­ca­tions equipment inside, that brief creates an unusual set of demands. The racks have to protect sensitive equipment on the road, survive repeated vibration and shock, fit into tight interior spaces and still give tech­ni­cians access to the front and rear of every device.

Why standard racks weren't enough

A standard data-centre rack assumes a still building with plenty of space around it. Tech­ni­cians walk behind the rack to reach cabling and power. In a vehicle, there is no behind. Floor space is scarce, and every bump on the road is trans­mit­ted through the chassis. Off-the-shelf racks would have either com­pro­mised access or exposed the equipment to damage.

The en­gi­neer­ing response

Argent Senior Design Engineer Humberto Mesa led the adap­ta­tion of the racks for the MOC.

Shock-absorbing mounts

The racks were fitted with shock-absorbing mounting systems that isolate equipment from vibration and impact in transit. That protects hardware and con­nec­tions from the cu­mu­la­tive effect of thousands of kilo­me­tres of road travel.

Pull-out and rotate access

To solve the access problem, the racks were given a mechanism that lets them pull out and rotate. Tech­ni­cians can reach the rear of the equipment for cabling and main­te­nance without needing a walkway behind the rack, so the fit-out stays compact.

Why it worked: en­gi­neer­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing together

Projects like this succeed when design engineers sit close to the machines that will build their designs. At Emu Heights, Argent's engineers work alongside OPIE's laser cutting, CNC folding, welding and powder coating teams. Design changes can be pro­to­typed and tested quickly, and the final racks are built on the same pro­duc­tion equipment as Argent's standard 10, 25, 40 and 50 Series ranges.

Argent racks are 100% designed, fab­ri­cat­ed, painted, assembled and despatched in Sydney. That puts the whole process in one place, which matters when a program has tight deadlines and unusual re­quire­ments. Argent has cus­tomised racks for demanding clients before, including an SCEC Class B rack with 18 cable entry ports for a defence con­trac­tor, re­designed within 24 hours. Read the SCEC Class B case study.

What this means for other mobile and harsh en­vi­ron­ments

The same approach suits other places where equipment has to travel or work in tough con­di­tions:

• Defence and emergency services de­ploy­able command and com­mu­ni­ca­tions vehicles
• Broadcast outside-broadcast trucks and temporary event fa­cil­i­ties
• Mining and resources mobile control rooms and site offices
• Rail and transport trackside and on-board equipment en­clo­sures

Fre­quent­ly asked questions

Can Argent customise racks for vehicles and de­ploy­able shelters? Yes. The CSIRO project shows how standard rack designs can be adapted with shock mounting and access mech­a­nisms. Each project is en­gi­neered to its own re­quire­ments, so talk to us early.

Are custom racks made dif­fer­ent­ly to standard ones? No. They're made on the same equipment, by the same team and under the same ISO 9001 quality system as Argent's standard ranges. Only the design changes.

Can you work with our in­te­gra­tor or vehicle builder? Yes. On the MOC, Argent supplied racks into a vehicle built by Varley. We're used to working inside a wider project team.

How quickly can a custom design be turned around? It depends on com­plex­i­ty. Argent has re­designed a security rack within 24 hours for a defence con­trac­tor, but every project is different.

If your project needs racks that do more than stand still in a data centre, start with Argent's product range or talk to our engineers. Custom work is built in the same Western Sydney factory as every­thing else we make.