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| The end of the line for the Arecibo radio telescope |
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| CJay:
--- Quote from: RoGeorge on December 05, 2020, 09:36:56 am ---I think a rebuild is out of the question. If there wasn't enough interest (or enough money) to maintain the former telescope, why (or how to) build a new one? --- End quote --- I think that's about the reality of it, if there wasn't money to maintain it then there won't be any money for a rebuild unless it proves to be of military significance. |
| CatalinaWOW:
That is why a champion is required. Someone who can beat the halls of power looking for money. Who can define why it is important for each of the money sources. Someone with the imagination to sell naming rights. Someone who can articulate the economic benefits to Puerto Rico. The scientific bragging right benefits to various patriotic organizations. The educational benefits of tying this in to STEM education. The ecological benefits of a protected zone under and around the antenna. Someone who doesn't recoil at military money if there is some benefit in that direction. Someone who doesn't want to mail an anonymous grant request and hope that money flows back. If there aren't sufficient reasons to rebuild it shouldn't be. It would be a shame if the reasons are there, but it isn't rebuilt because no one can be found who can articulate and champion the cause. Replacement is a bigger job than maintenance, but I suspect the maintenance failed because there was no such champion. Champions for maintenance are hard to come by, few find it stimulating. But even someone willing to highlight what in retrospect is known would have probably done the trick. I suspect stories about how you could hear strands snapping long before the failures occurred would have been vivid enough to spring maintenance dollars free, particularly if they had been combined with drone pictures and audio recordings. |
| CJay:
--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on December 05, 2020, 07:09:37 pm ---That is why a champion is required. Someone who can beat the halls of power looking for money. Who can define why it is important for each of the money sources. Someone with the imagination to sell naming rights. Someone who can articulate the economic benefits to Puerto Rico. The scientific bragging right benefits to various patriotic organizations. The educational benefits of tying this in to STEM education. The ecological benefits of a protected zone under and around the antenna. Someone who doesn't recoil at military money if there is some benefit in that direction. Someone who doesn't want to mail an anonymous grant request and hope that money flows back. If there aren't sufficient reasons to rebuild it shouldn't be. It would be a shame if the reasons are there, but it isn't rebuilt because no one can be found who can articulate and champion the cause. Replacement is a bigger job than maintenance, but I suspect the maintenance failed because there was no such champion. Champions for maintenance are hard to come by, few find it stimulating. But even someone willing to highlight what in retrospect is known would have probably done the trick. I suspect stories about how you could hear strands snapping long before the failures occurred would have been vivid enough to spring maintenance dollars free, particularly if they had been combined with drone pictures and audio recordings. --- End quote --- I wonder now the Chinese and Japanese have both launched and run highly complex and successful space missions if there might be an impetus for the US to 'compete' and thus a case to be made from that? |
| coppercone2:
its probobly related to stealth technology developments, hardware like this and world class researchers going there will bolster RF stealth and detection stuff most likely. Maybe its been milked to completion by the military and all they can hope to do is play catch up when the cutting edge game is being played on another field. They keep pounding that USA#1 stealth all the time. You probobly need better hardware now to get any benefits for the MIC with the research that has been accumulated, and you can't exactly fly planes in front of it or test it on satellites if its being used by civilians because then someone would know exactly what you are doing. All you can do is prevent mingling between top minds, but the internet makes access control kind of a moot point since this thing was made in the 60's with different communications methods. I think the #1 utility is it being used for asteroids, say a not so friendly country not mentioning some asteroid that is likely to hit some hemisphere that they don't really like as promptly as possible. Or just being able to verify information to make sure someones projections are correct. It had a interesting fact checking capability. To test planes? with it you would need to turn the place into another area 51. The last thing you need is good relations to let scientists in to study a meteor heading towards earth.. each country should have its own. And its a utterly horrible place to test stealth things because its right next to the water, making it easy for a submarine or ship to spy on the sky there. And the 'black security forces' look like the villians in any james bond movie with ships if they were to be at sea. |
| CatalinaWOW:
Clearly since the funding sources mentioned here run from the military on through the military this thread isn't the source of the imagination to get it rebuilt. Though maybe it shouldn't be. In a few years we can hire the Starship to loft a 3 km mylar balloon, aluminized on one side that would be the reflector for a fully steerable dish. |
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