Comments on: Astronomers downsize their proposal for rebuilding Arecibo

By: Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright — Sun, 11 Jun 2023 04:22:45 +0000

Like Goldstone, but unlike FAST, it had a radar.

I say put one in Meteor Crater.

By: GeoegeC

GeoegeC — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 18:54:15 +0000

A 3d space filling fractal job could fill that hole and balloons on tether above it provide directional info

Flat phased arrays are 1980s tech.

By: Col Beausabre

Col Beausabre — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 17:35:09 +0000

“the observatory’s head of radio astronomy,” in other words, somebody without a job, desperately trying to remain on the government gravy train.

” The staff consists of about 120 persons who work in different areas such as cooks, administrators, scientists, engineers, maintenance workers, technicians and telescope operators, ” So the taxpayer gets to pay about $3.5M per job – what a bargain! To quote Apollo 13 “Tell me this isn’t a government operation”. It also epitomizes government waste, when there is no constraints because you can pick John Q Public’s pocket, why should anyone care about the cost?

There was a time when observatories were privately funded. Palomar was built and operated that way. – and was a world class operation. Then academia got used to sucking on the government teat and became fat, lazy and careless.

By: David Ross

David Ross — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 17:29:22 +0000

At least the locals seem amenable unlike the Hawaiians.

By: Col Beausabre

Col Beausabre — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 17:04:15 +0000

Spend $454M to put it in space, where it belongs