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> Cancelling SSC was such a stupid waste of labor and money No, it wasn't. The construction site was chosen for political reasons and the entire bidding proce
by dnautics 7y ago
> Cancelling SSC was such a stupid waste of labor and money
No, it wasn't. The construction site was chosen for political reasons and the entire bidding process was beset with problems that would have made it cost even more money, run into a ton of problems (for example fire ants causing multitudes of delays and groundwater seepage making the installation of sensitive electronics probably impossible), and probably not have been finished. The administrators kind of knew it was going to cost more than they pitched even under best of circumstances and were counting on funding momentum to keep it going (well we put this much money into it so we can't just stop now).
What the US did with the SSC money was to put it into LIGO instead.
source: growing up my neighbor was this guy: https://www.npr.org/2019/05/19/723326933/billion-dollar-gamble-how-a-singular-hero-helped-start-a-new-field-in-physics https://www.npr.org/2019/05/19/723326933/billion-dollar-gamb... and he told me about these things.