Final decision: Arecibo will not be rebuilt
The National Science Foundation has made it official: It will not rebuild the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, though it will fund the facility as an education center instead.
Now, the National Science Foundation (NSF), which owns the site, has determined that despite scientists’ pleas, Arecibo Observatory won’t be getting any new telescope to replace the loss. The new education project also doesn’t include any long-term funding for the instruments that remain operational at the observatory, including a 40-foot (12 m) radio dish and a lidar system.
…Instead, the NSF intends to build on the observatory’s legacy as a key educational institution in Puerto Rico by transforming the site into a hub for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, due to open in 2023, according to a statement. The observatory is also home to the Ángel Ramos Foundation Science and Visitor Center, which opened in 1997.
It seems unclear how this education center will function. Will it be a school that students attend? Or simply a type of museum with a visitors center? This new plan appears to call for about $2 million per year in funding, which does not appear enough to do much of anything, other than to keep the lights on and hang some pretty astronomy pictures on the walls.
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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.
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The National Science Foundation has made it official: It will not rebuild the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, though it will fund the facility as an education center instead.
Now, the National Science Foundation (NSF), which owns the site, has determined that despite scientists’ pleas, Arecibo Observatory won’t be getting any new telescope to replace the loss. The new education project also doesn’t include any long-term funding for the instruments that remain operational at the observatory, including a 40-foot (12 m) radio dish and a lidar system.
…Instead, the NSF intends to build on the observatory’s legacy as a key educational institution in Puerto Rico by transforming the site into a hub for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, due to open in 2023, according to a statement. The observatory is also home to the Ángel Ramos Foundation Science and Visitor Center, which opened in 1997.
It seems unclear how this education center will function. Will it be a school that students attend? Or simply a type of museum with a visitors center? This new plan appears to call for about $2 million per year in funding, which does not appear enough to do much of anything, other than to keep the lights on and hang some pretty astronomy pictures on the walls.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
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.
Nit: Arecibo misspelled in title.
Ray Van Dune: Thank you. Fixed.
So they are going to build a museum.
“On this site we once did SCIENCE!
That is why it is important kids!”
That will really encourage them.
Lets not be bothered by trying, you know, to do anything actually scientific.
Did you ever visit the observatory before it fell down due to neglect? My wife and I visited it in 2005. It’s out in the middle of nowhere! Building some kind of STEM education center is the kind of deep stupidity that only our government would do. They just decided to pay off almost a half trillion in student loan debt, but there was no money to rebuild our world-class one-of-kind observatory. I’ll bet that the price to rebuild it would be less that the price of a single SLS launch.
Where is Bezos when you could really use him?
Cargo Cult science is big these days.
I know several Puerto Ricans. All have told me that they visited Arecibo in grade school.
It was a mandatory trip as part of their science class.
So what changes then? The schools kids will make the same trip they did as kids, but instead of an actual functioning science out post making real contributions, they will see relics, pictures and models.
While China has FAST.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GVMwzbAVQR4&feature=emb_logo
This largest steerable radio telescope was called “pork” and a “boondoggle”
Glad to have it now?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bank_Telescope
It too is about to be bested
https://english.cas.cn/newsroom/news/202209/t20220928_320870.shtml
https://www.universetoday.com/157909/construction-begins-on-the-worlds-largest-steerable-radio-telescope/
We build sports arenas like they build telescopes
They Also Build other Good Things (Thanks Martha!)
Hydro Pumped Storage
____________
List of Ten Largest batteries in the World.
The largest is just down the road, (built 1985) from my town. Note the next ranking units are from the Far East…guess Who?
https://www.enr.com/articles/44302-the-10-largest-pumped-storage-hydropower-plants-in-the-world
AND to seize the New World Record …..
Mao Would Love it!
Since his thousands of backyard ironworks FAILED. Cultural Revolution (1960$).
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/01/04/state-grid-of-china-switches-on-worlds-largest-pumped-hydro-station/#:~:text=Located%20in%20China's%20Hebei%20province,storage%20of%206.612%20billion%20kWh.&text=The%20Fengning%20Pumped%20Storage%20Power%20Station.
Israel now gets it’s Advanced Power Technology, not from America, or even in a joint developement program (Iron Dome, Iron Beam) . . .
https://english.news.cn/20221008/8be3cef9856a4ddf929f7e50554b94fc/c.html
After a trip down the Info Rabbit ?️ Hole…
As They Also are going for the Sports Rock Piles…
https://youtu.be/zWiPoZ6me3w
Alton-
“The Ludington (Michigan) Pumped Storage Facility”
https://youtu.be/45RoZs8wXJ8
3:45
Forget Arecibo! Not wasting money on rebuilding it is the way to go. The future of astronomy – all types – is in space.