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Sad day. I worked in radio astronomy and stayed on site for a week a few years back. Amazing telescope, the scale of it has to be seen to be believed. They have
by xianhn 6y ago
Sad day. I worked in radio astronomy and stayed on site for a week a few years back. Amazing telescope, the scale of it has to be seen to be believed. They have had serious funding issues for some time now, so now that it needs repair, I figured they might retire it. Unfortunate for all the staff that work there, it employed quite a few people. RIP Arecibo.
- VerDeTerre 6y agoI would not have guessed the scale. The article says the instrument platform weighs 900 tons, which is amazing to imagine. At first, I wondered if they could use a helicopter to bring it down safely, but it's like two or three 747s on a tight rope.
- esoterae 6y agoHow about giant airbag and mating structures underneath the gondola, shaped-charge the cables, and then just let the air out to bring it down to the ground. Just inflating something like that would take some weight off the cables and allow a more controlled and safer process.
- Aeolun 6y agoThe platform itself looks bigger than the instruments, so maybe it’s mostly platform?
- dylan604 6y agoRIP El Radar
- unreal37 6y agoThe Arecibo Observatory is not closing. They're only dismantling that structure. They can continue to conduct science there.
- fennecfoxen 6y agoThe structure holds the instruments through which they conduct science.
- dougmany 6y ago>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. It sounds like the big fancy telescope will stop conducting science but these huge projects tend to attract ancillary projects.
- Apofis 6y agoThis sucks. So instead of attempting to fix it, they're staying on the safe side and just demolishing it instead? Full cable replacement is out of the question due to safety? That doesn't make any sense either. This is clearly a budget issue that seems to have been made by bureaucrats.