The outgoing governor of Puerto Rico says she backs rebuilding the Arecibo radio observatory, but a final decision on whether, and how, to reconstruct the giant telescope could take years.
Former Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced signed an executive order Dec. 28 stating it was the formal policy of the commonwealth to rebuild the 305-meter radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory. The telescope’s 900-ton observing platform fell to the dish below when several cables snapped early Dec. 1, weeks after the National Science Foundation (NSF) said it was unsafe to repair cables at the telescope that previously broke. She signed the order in the final days of her term, which ended Jan. 1.
“The Government of Puerto Rico states, as a matter of public policy, its conviction to the reconstruction of the Arecibo Radio Telescope and the prompt resumption of world class science and education at the Arecibo Observatory,” the order states.
The order adds that the Puerto Rican government foresees rebuilding a “newly designed” telescope that would have a larger effective aperture and wider field of view. It also calls for a more powerful radar transmitter, which is used for solar system observations such as characterizing near Earth asteroids.
The order states the government is “assigning and allocating” $8 million to start the reconstruction work. Vázquez Garced, in a separate statement, said the funding is from budget surpluses from previous years, but didn’t elaborate further on the source of the funding. The funding, she said, would be used for removing debris from the telescope’s collapse and other environmental remediation work.
The $8 million, though, is only a small down payment on the cost of rebuilding the telescope, with informal estimates in the astronomy community projecting it to cost several hundred million dollars. Vázquez Garced, in her executive order, gave no estimate herself but said it would be funded by “state, federal and private sources (including public-private partnerships and state-federal partnerships).” Keep Reading>>
