Arecibo Observatory on Possible Brink of Collapse

1. It's been destroyed.

2. Who's going to pay for it?

 

I think there is a valid argument for rebuilding at the existing site. The support infrastructure (offices, housing) remain. Increasing occurrences of hurricanes is a concern.

Newer technology and construction techniques could lower the costs of rebuilding and serviceability.

Not a great time right now for finding funds.

 

Given sufficient funds - they can...

I'm betting they don't have enough to do that right now. (Plus, the cleanup before attempting new construction etc...)

 

Meteor Crater, like a boneyard, is in a desert at least. You can see how old the paint is here due to the powder we see as a de facto "tracer"

 

Meteor Crater was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1967. That's going to make it challenging to do anything with it.

 

Radio and radar astronomy telescopes don't have to be parabolic dishes.

 

Raytheon was looking at AESA Radar airships a while ago...dish shaped.

With soft robotics and print on circuits...deflate before storms

 

Inflatable robots what next?

 

This is some good news
https://www.space.com/china-fast-radio-telescope-open-international-scientists

 

I had seen that. That radiotelescope is of a similar design as the one from Arecibo but newer (2016). It's good they've opened the door to international scientists.

 

If I were king of the world.

I’d have a mile wide version in a crater, surrounded by a ring of Goldstones, with VLA arms stretching into the distance, tiny Allen dishes gridded out in the gaps...

 

As far as I'm aware, FAST isn't capable of performing radar astronomy, for which purpose Arecibo was a particularly valuable instrument.

 

More good news
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-t...ernment-commits-8-million-to-rebuild-arecibo/

 

Good to see that an effort is being done.

 

$8 million is a piddling small amount, I'd guess in excess of $100 million. It has to be almost completely reconstructed not to mention clearing up the environmental damage. Build a large phased array on a flat plain next time.

 

I would suspect that a phased array system would be much more expensive since it needs far more processing/control power behind it.

 

It needs to be costed certainly but economy of scale would probably kick in. Most military radars are phased arrays and some of them are large. The Sea-Based X-Band Radar (SBX), the largest phased array X-band radar in the world, measures 384 m^2 (4,130 sq ft) and cost US $900 million. However, it's military grade and mounted on an oil platform under a radome. Phased arrays have the advantage of being able to change the antenna pattern to beam or scan different regions of the sky without requiring any moving parts.

 

New article with some good graphics below
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/how-famed-arecibo-telescope-fell-and-how-it-might-rise-again
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=43914.380

"Angel Vazquez, Head of Telescope Operations at the site, talked about its rich history..."
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2021-01-18-show/

 

Yeah, build it again for $400 million and watch it collapse again when funding for maintenance dries up.

 

A large inflatable parabolic dish at a la grange point or even sun synch could dwarf Arecibo, and now we're almost at the point where heavy lift can make that kind of thing possible more easily. I understand the emotional commitment to Arecibo and how important it was to PR, but it's probably not worth saving. you can do so much more with that money.