Arecibo Observatory to be shut down permanently
The arriving dark age: Due to the extent of its recent cable failures and the risks they pose to works, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has decided to shuttered and dismantle it permanently.
Ralph Gaume, director of NSF’s astronomy division, said at the briefing the agency wants to preserve other instruments at the site, as well as the visitor and outreach center. But they are under threat if the telescope structure collapses. That would bring the 900-ton instrument platform, suspended 137 meters above the 305-meter wide dish, crashing down. Flailing cables could damage other buildings on the site, as could the three support towers if they fell, too. “There is a serious risk of an unexpected and uncontrolled collapse,” Gaume said. “A controlled decommissioning gives us the opportunity to preserve valuable assets that the observatory has.”
Over the next few weeks, engineering firms will develop a plan for a controlled dismantling. It may involve releasing the platform from its cables explosively and letting it fall.
The radio telescope was built in the early 1960s, and for many years was the world’s largest single dish radio telescope. It has struggled however in recent years with both financial and infrastructure problems, the latter initially caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
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The arriving dark age: Due to the extent of its recent cable failures and the risks they pose to works, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has decided to shuttered and dismantle it permanently.
Ralph Gaume, director of NSF’s astronomy division, said at the briefing the agency wants to preserve other instruments at the site, as well as the visitor and outreach center. But they are under threat if the telescope structure collapses. That would bring the 900-ton instrument platform, suspended 137 meters above the 305-meter wide dish, crashing down. Flailing cables could damage other buildings on the site, as could the three support towers if they fell, too. “There is a serious risk of an unexpected and uncontrolled collapse,” Gaume said. “A controlled decommissioning gives us the opportunity to preserve valuable assets that the observatory has.”
Over the next few weeks, engineering firms will develop a plan for a controlled dismantling. It may involve releasing the platform from its cables explosively and letting it fall.
The radio telescope was built in the early 1960s, and for many years was the world’s largest single dish radio telescope. It has struggled however in recent years with both financial and infrastructure problems, the latter initially caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Due to the damage, they should decommission it and bring it down. Once the wreckage is cleared, they should start construction on Arecibo II, a modern version of the same telescope. If we don’t do this, then we will cede yet another science component to China.
1. “An auxiliary cable came loose from a socket on one of the towers in August, creating a 100-foot gash in the dish. Engineers were assessing and working on a plan to repair the damage when another main cable on the tower broke on November 6.
When it broke, the cable crashed into the reflector dish below, causing additional damage.
After the break on November 6, engineers inspected the rest of the cables and discovered new breaks as well as slippage from some of the sockets on the towers. Multiple engineering companies reviewed the damage. They determined that the telescope could collapse because it is “in danger of catastrophic failure” and the cables are weaker than expected.
Even if engineers could safely fix all the damage and add cables to support the telescope, it would likely have stability issues in the future.
The latest review revealed that damage to the telescope could not be stabilized without risking staff and the construction team. This led to the NSF making the decision to decommission the telescope after 57 years.”
2. Picture of damage https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-end-is-near-for-famed-arecibo-observatory-s-damaged-telescope/ar-BB1bb1lv?ocid=msedgdhp&fullscreen=true#image=2
3. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-end-is-near-for-famed-arecibo-observatory-s-damaged-telescope/ar-BB1bb1lv?ocid=msedgdhp
34 No, don’t rebuild it. Replace it with a new one, either in orbit or (better I think) on the far side of the moon (great reason for a moon colony). Use a data link to stream data to an Earth Station
I know when the Chinese radio telescope was finished a year or so ago, they had no native personnel capable of managing the installation, were attempting to hire sufficiently experienced people offshore, and were having trouble doing so. But I never heard any follow up on the matter, so I have to assume they got it operational with at least sufficiently competent, if not excellent, staffing. I wonder if now, with Arecibo offline, they’ll get more interest.
Put a replacement in Meteor Crater
Q:
Who actually owns the land?
@Jeff Wright
That could maybe work! Meteor crater has a diameter-to-depth ratio of 7, Arecibo has 6, so it should have a useful field of view (isn’t it fantastic that space itself digs out telescope dishes for us!) And with 4 times the diameter (aperture) compared with Arecibo as bonus.
But I think it might need some caterpillaring to get the right shape before the concrete is poured. So crater geologists might not like that. It doesn’t hurt to ask them, not more than an immediate face slap hurts anyway.
“- Was that an approving high five that I missed?”
The problem with using Meteor Crater as a radio telescope is its location. It is too close to a major city. I do not think you have sufficient radio quiet to make useful observations. Arecibo was located in the back country of Puerto Rico, and thus was in a quiet zone that since its construction has been maintained.