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Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dismantled

sciencemag.org

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Re: Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dismantled

#61

Post by ivalm »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #31
dfsegoat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would seem unlikely in PR given the state of infrastructure there. The hurricane destroyed a lot of the already failing power and port infrastructure, for instance. https://www.rollcall.com/2019/11/12/report-puerto-ricos-infr...

Back in the 1950s the US Government built a lot of space infrastructure in the South (Stennis, Redstone &c) to develop the backwards corners of the nation. There's no political will for that any longer, it seems.

Admitting Puerto Rico as a state, thus enabling Puerto Rico to have representation in congress who could argue for more infra being built there, would likely be critical.

Re: Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dismantled

#62

Post by HarryHirsch »

pinewurst wrote: post #36
HarryHirsch wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in the 1950s the US Government built a lot of space infrastructure in the South (Stennis, Redstone &c) to develop the backwards corners of the nation. There's no political will for that any longer, it seems.

That was far more an artifact of the seniority of certain Southern senators on appropriations committees than any commitment to regional improvement. That seniority was a byproduct of (a) horribly racist voting practices keeping those seats long term in the same hands and (b) no competition.

Yes, tell me all about Richard Shelby (AL). But whatever the reason was, the money did end up in the South and it became less agricultural as a result.

Re: Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dismantled

#63

Post by mhh__ »

IronRanger wrote: post #7

Is this a symbol of the degradation of human intellectual capability in the 21st century?

No.

You'd have to be very blinkered about progress elsewhere to think that, notice how there are multiple apparently good covid vaccines already?

Re: Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dismantled

#64

Post by floatrock »

The thing was iconic... even if not everyone watching/playing Goldeneye knew it was a real radio telescope, it was nevertheless one of those science megaprojects that featured prominently in the popular zeitgeist and got more than one young kid excited about what's out there in the stars.

But infrastructure ages, and 60 years isn't a bad run. What comes next? Clearly there's going to be a capabilities gap for a while, but now that it's 60 years after its original design, what kind of design is going to replace it? Do we even need giant monolith dishes anymore?

Hoping a radio astronomer can chime in here. For example, I know out in New Mexico they have a distributed array of dishes (literally called the "Very Large Array", oh scientific creativity [0]) where, my understanding is, a bunch of computers stitch together all the individual signals and effectively get a resolution better than any single dish can. Is a design like that now state of the art, or does a monolithic design like Arecibo still give capabilities unique to single large dishes?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Array

Re: Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dismantled

#65

Post by topspin »

LUmBULtERA wrote: post #5
Communitivity wrote: post #2

This is horrible. Arecibo is still crucial in radio astronomy experiments ongoing as of 2019. It should be repaired, until a replacement is built.

I loved seeing Arecibo when I last visited PR. It is sad to see it dismantled -- I wonder what plans, if any, there are to replace its capabilities.

FAST is now online, newer and larger.

Re: Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dismantled

#66

Post by ozborn »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #31
dfsegoat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would seem unlikely in PR given the state of infrastructure there. The hurricane destroyed a lot of the already failing power and port infrastructure, for instance. https://www.rollcall.com/2019/11/12/report-puerto-ricos-infr...

Back in the 1950s the US Government built a lot of space infrastructure in the South (Stennis, Redstone &c) to develop the backwards corners of the nation. There's no political will for that any longer, it seems.

The Huntsville area (including Redstone) is booming - there is a lot going on there in terms of space infrastructure. I think Huntsville is on track to surpass Birmingham (the city) as Alabama's largest. Political will is much less important now.

I can't speak to the Stennis Space Center other than to say it needs a new name...

Re: Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dismantled

#68

Post by simonh »

Darmody wrote: post #29
PopePompus wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

all of that money, plus a thousand times more.

Yes, of course it costs more, just as that telescope costs way more than the one I have at home.

Not in your yard more and on the moon more are both more, so therefore the same. Got it.

Re: Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dismantled

#69

Post by beambot »

floatrock wrote: post #64

The thing was iconic... even if not everyone watching/playing Goldeneye knew it was a real radio telescope, it was nevertheless one of those science megaprojects that featured prominently in the popular zeitgeist and got more than one young kid excited about what's out there in the stars. But infrastructure ages, and 60 years isn't a bad run. What comes next? Clearly there's going to be a capabilities gap for a while…

What comes next: Hopefully lunar-based optical & radio telescopes!

Re: Arecibo telescope, on the brink of collapse, will be dismantled

#70

Post by ardy42 »

floatrock wrote: post #64

The thing was iconic... even if not everyone watching/playing Goldeneye knew it was a real radio telescope, it was nevertheless one of those science megaprojects that featured prominently in the popular zeitgeist and got more than one young kid excited about what's out there in the stars. But infrastructure ages, and 60 years isn't a bad run. What comes next? Clearly there's going to be a capabilities gap for a while…

> But infrastructure ages, and 60 years isn't a bad run. What comes next? Clearly there's going to be a capabilities gap for a while, but now that it's 60 years after its original design, what kind of design is going to replace it? Do we even need giant monolith dishes anymore?

China already built one: https://phys.org/news/2016-07-china-world-largest-radio-tele....

Given that it's nonmilitary US government infrastructure, I doubt it will be replaced. After all, why spend money on a telescope when the government can cut the budget to lower taxes a little bit more?

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