It could be some kind of test, like an IQ test. See how long it takes to disassemble it, mix up the pieces and re-assemble it. And little images could be placed into each piece, turning it into a 3D jigsaw puzzle.
Another possibility is that there are constraints on the manufacturing process. If it’s made of some material that cannot be machined, and only molded, you might come up with something like this. But even then, they should have been able to use much fewer pieces than this.
I have to disagree. Bolted interfaces have poor tolerance; you can’t get good precision by bolting hundreds of precision pieces together. You get much better precision by machining it from as few pieces as possible.
It could be some kind of IQ test. Leave it where it will come to the attention of a community of self-proclaimed smarty types, and see how long it takes them to think up a possible purpose for it.
Communications are out into the university to see if I can get a better answer.
Even insanely expensive pieces of equipment can become obsolete - especially hardware that was custom built for a specific purpose. Research laboratories tend to be full of equipment that originally cost a fortune to construct, but they no longer have any use for, and not even worth the storage space it takes up. Fixtures made for a specific test for projects long since ended, prototypes that didn’t work out, even hardware that nobody knows what it’s for because the people who originally designed and built it have long since left.
Which is why the current generation of telescopes use mirrors composed of dozens or hundreds of primary mirror segments?
Assuming you’re right, are these telescope reflectors 4 feet across and made from hundreds of parts?
The issue is scale. It’s worth making a 10 metre dome out of lots of pieces - but so far, a really compelling reason for making this comparatively small sphere out of so many parts has not emerged.
Could it be an integrating sphere? What did the inside look like? Seems a funny way to make an integrating sphere unless the material was critical. I would think an integrating sphere for microwaves would not be made of metal as it you would set up standing waves and it would act as a cavity.
Could it be a maser cavity?
These mirrors are currently made of a lot of segments so that the mirror can be adjusted in real time to account for atmospheric distortion.
Telescope designers only use the multi-mirror design when absolutely necessary - generally only when there is no facility in the world that can make a single mirror of the desired size. The Steward Observatory Mirror Lab at the Univ. of Arizona produces the largest telescope mirrors in the world, but that only goes up to 8.4 meters or so. As far as I know, segmented design is only used for telescopes larger than this, or by organizations/countries that don’t have access to this facility.
Segmented telescopes are technically very challenging. The only way to make multiple mirrors act as a single high-quality telescope mirror is to put actuators on each segment and use those for alignment. Most (maybe all) segmented telescopes us active electronic control to keep the mirrors aligned at all times. You definitely can’t just bolt together a few mirrors and leave it at that.
The segmented pipe in one of the pix on this site looks a lot like the pipe attached to the ball. Unfortuantely I could not link it to any other info other than it is cast iron.
Reminded me of this: http://io9.com/pressure-chamber/
Also Epcot Center. . .
But I’m thinking maybe a pressure chamber from a huge air conditioning system? If the pressure nozzle entered there in a large commercial system, then they’d want the forming liquid to go in several different directions. And those things have to be periodically resurfaced, as contaminants build up on the walls.
Or, if the interior is mirror-smooth, it could have been some sort of experiment to do with bouncing lasers around inside specific gases. That would explain the need for smaller, flat surfaces throughout.
I find the top section most interesting. Are those multiple triangles bolted together, or is the cap just one piece? If one piece, what would be the purpose of conitnuing the seams? That would imply a need for high pressure resistance.
Bathysphere-type collection vessel for deep-sea exploration?
Was there anyone inside it?
Might the segments be required for large temperature changes? Like expansion joints?
Actually, pressure vessels have as few seams as possible. That’s one reason I’m convinced that whatever this is, it wasn’t designed to hold or resist any significant pressure.
Well, maybe yes maybe no. “Too elaborate,” “no need”…for whom? Or what? 
:eek:
If they tell you, they may have to kill you.
NitroPress, is that picture full resolution, or do you have a higher resolution copy? (Because I’m sure we’re just a few pixels shy of being able to figure out what it is. :))
Expansion joints are only necessary for objects that are fixed to something else that doesn’t expand at the same rate - e.g. a concrete road surface attached to the ground. It doesn’t make sense for an apparently free-standing object like this.
Can you get some more photos, and use a zoom to get better detail?
It can’t be an inside mould - the bolts holding it all together are on the outside - so you’d never be able to dismantle it inside the cavity.
I guess it could be designed to be permanently entombed in concrete, but it’s absurdly complex for that (or indeed anything)
Consider the section with the hole that is facing us (on the ‘equator’ of the thing) - the plate with the hole is exactly the same size as four of the adjacent sections - that means there was no apparent reason to make those sections that small.
Now compare the sections near the top of the thing to those at the equator - they are again about one quarter of the size - what possible reason could there be to make this thing out of so many tiny bits?