Arecibo Observatory Collapsed

Post by notthemessiah » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 6:41 AM UTC

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #288

progman32 wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FAST cannot do radar astronomy, as it has no transmitting capability. Among other things, this means FAST is less useful for tracking near-earth asteroids.

I assume that due to the rotation of the earth that when Arecibo emits a radar beam that other radio-telescopes on earth collect? Otherwise only objects within Arecibo’s relatively narrow FoV (that are also very close to earth) would be detected - so wouldn’t a purpose-built (and steerable!) radar emitter be more useful?

Post by shadowofneptune » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 7:05 AM UTC

casefields wrote: post #275

shadowofneptune wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no money for this. The National Science Foundation, the primary source of funding for Arecibo, has been trying to shut it down or offset its cost for years. NSF is a part of the US government, so it has been a victim of the cuts to public science that have affected universities and institutions across the US since the end of the Cold War and the Great Recession. You are right that it would be simple, but the…

>NSF victim of cuts to public science Why is this completely erroneous fact believed by so many people? Other than a 1 time injection due to the 2008 crisis, NSF funding increases nearly every year and is currently at its second highest budget ever: https://dellweb.bfa.nsf.gov/NSFRqstAppropHist/NSFRequestsand...

Post by cbkeller » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 7:25 AM UTC

casefields wrote: post #275

shadowofneptune wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no money for this. The National Science Foundation, the primary source of funding for Arecibo, has been trying to shut it down or offset its cost for years. NSF is a part of the US government, so it has been a victim of the cuts to public science that have affected universities and institutions across the US since the end of the Cold War and the Great Recession. You are right that it would be simple, but the…

>NSF victim of cuts to public science Why is this completely erroneous fact believed by so many people? Other than a 1 time injection due to the 2008 crisis, NSF funding increases nearly every year and is currently at its second highest budget ever: https://dellweb.bfa.nsf.gov/NSFRqstAppropHist/NSFRequestsand...

Post by koheripbal » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 7:55 AM UTC

pasttense01 wrote: post #289

PopePompus wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most radio astronomers would rather see the money spent on the SKA instead ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_Kilometre_Array ). Looking at the epoch of reionization is where the excitement is in low frequency radio astronomy these days. I know the SKA can't replace Arecibo's radar capabilities, but the SKA will do more interesting astronomy.

The U.S. is NOT one of the governments supporting the SKA.

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 02, 2020, 8:09 AM UTC

paledot wrote: post #239

dheera wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no way of replacing How did they build the cables in the first place? Couldn't they just snip the cables with a helicopter or unmanned drone with a flying chopsaw and string new ones as if it was a brand new construction? Basically I'm not understanding how it is impossible to replace something but it is evidently possible to build that something.

The dish is nothing but aluminum sheeting with holes in it. The vast majority of the cost and complexity are in the instrument cluster and the towers. There's not much of value left to repair at this point. As for replacing cables, anyone who has rebuilt a RAID array will tell you that hardware is most likely to fail when it's under stress, like when you have workers in the towers setting the footings for the new ult…