Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
A proposal to replace the giant radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico with a new facility suggests it could be used for tracking space objects as well as for scientific research.
Plans for a potential replacement of the 305-meter radio telescope at Arecibo, whose observing platform collapsed Dec. 1, are still in their early phases. One proposal, developed by observatory staff and submitted to the National Science Foundation (NSF) in a recent white paper, calls for replacing the giant dish with an array of up to 1,000 small dishes, each nine meters across, on a platform spanning the current dish.
“As we move into the future, we feel that phased arrays are probably the right way to go, rather than continue to focus on large single-dish elements,” said Francisco Cordova, director of Arecibo Observatory, during a presentation at a Jan. 21 meeting of a committee supporting the ongoing planetary science decadal survey by the National Academies.
The concept in the white paper would double the sensitivity of the single-dish radio telescope and increase sky coverage by 250% compared to the fixed dish, as well as incorporate a new radar system. “From our perspective as the operator, we feel that the 305-meter was really an invaluable tool,” he said. “But, any future visions of the site really need to be centered around the development of a next-generation instrument.”
That new concept, Cordova said, could serve applications beyond astronomy and planetary science. One of the potential applications he listed on a slide in his presentation was space situational awareness (SSA).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2021, @01:59PM (2 children)
Arecibo dish is dead. Maybe a new device take residence in its place. Besides the hole in the ground, were there any other advantages to the Arecibo site?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 25 2021, @02:25PM
In the last discussion about Arecibo, other advantages were mentioned. It seems that most, if not all, Puerto Rican children get to visit the site on school field trips. Little kids, and maybe bigger kids, get to see up close and personal what science can be, and what it can do. If that inspires 1 kid, or 100 kids, each year to pursue a STEM education, that's a genuine Good Thing™. A little sense of pride in being Puerto Rican and/or American would also be Good Things™. The economic impact of the site in an out-of-the-way back-woods community would also be a Good Thing™.
I'll leave the scientific benefits of the site for others to argue. I don't really know if this particular site is the best for any particular reason, but if you need such facilities, I'm all for placing them where they can do some good for the people.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2021, @05:11PM
> Besides the hole in the ground, were there any other advantages to the Arecibo site?
The location is a natural bowl, pretty rare to find 300m/1000ft diameter bowl formations anywhere. I believe that was a major reason it was sited there originally, saved a huge amount on construction costs.
Of course with a phased array, the individual elements don't have to be arrayed across the surface of a big parabolic dish-shape anymore, they can be on flat ground (and signals delayed accordingly).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2021, @02:32PM (3 children)
Promise lots of diverse missions and break the primary reason which was far space.
I wonder if moving from a single feedpoint is a move in that direction.
Would it not spread the received energy over multiple receivers.
If your receive electronics are already cooled and the best noise figure available,
then would this not lower the sensitivity of the array over a single feed point?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2021, @03:29PM (2 children)
One main reason for the Shuttle seems to have been (when the program was created) to have a craft capable of launching or bringing back to earth military or spy satellites. Why do you think the Shuttle bay was so damned big? Because the spy satellites were. Like most things about the Shuttle, it didn't live up to the dream. It remains the case that the most logical way to put something in space (at least for now) is on top of a big rocket.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday January 25 2021, @03:55PM
Yes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_design_process#Air_Force_involvement [wikipedia.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday January 26 2021, @04:13PM
And / or the concept of wanting the ability was good, but the practicality was bad. So much so that it made more sense to launch a new one or blow a competitor's out of the sky. Also, there was no World War III during it's life span. All the wars we fought in during it's existence were with technologically inferior opponents. Not that the USA has really had technologically superior opponents since World War II.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday January 25 2021, @05:57PM (6 children)
The reason the previous dish collapsed is because the government couldn't be bothered to spend the little bit of money needed to maintain it. So now they want to spend a huge amount of money to build a replacement? Why, when they're going to repeat their pattern, and not bother to maintain it again?
I vote no. If we're too stupid and short-sighted to properly maintain the equipment we have, then we shouldn't build anything new. I'm sure China doesn't have this problem with their FAST dish. Let a country that understands the value of doing proper maintenance do scientific research and reap the rewards.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2021, @06:32PM (3 children)
Let me guess, you still maintain and use your 60 year old car for transportation. No point in buying anything new when the old one still works, eh?
It was already past due to update our space radar capability, as mentioned in the linked article.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 26 2021, @12:32PM (2 children)
I use a 12 year old car. That's pretty old in Arecibo years.
Funny how they never got around to caring about that until they needed a reason to justify the new Arecibo, isn't it? My bet is that we'll still need to update our space radar capability even if the new Arecibo project completes. White elephants are notorious for not meeting expectations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 26 2021, @11:24PM (1 child)
"Funny how they never got around to caring about that until they needed a reason to justify the new Arecibo, isn't it?"
No? That is typical of government spending unless they have a large surplus or an actual need. If something is working it is usually much harder to justify spending to rebuild or upgrade. Do you even basic logic bruh?
(Score: 2) by khallow on Wednesday January 27 2021, @12:14AM
A "need" to spend money. They could have splurged anytime in the past few decades to boost the existing space radar capability (and indeed have [wikipedia.org] to some degree). They're going to burn money on a new science thing for Puerto Rico, and this is one of the rationalizations.
So why are they upgrading space radar capability when they have working space radar? Something wrong with the narrative, bro.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2021, @06:36PM
Arecibo obviously wasn't producing a lot of in demand data or else it would've been funded better.
I think the simple answer to why Arecibo collapsed is that it was no longer that needed and it was way past its designed lifetime. It had reached end of life.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Monday January 25 2021, @10:20PM
Much as it pains me to agree with this, this is true. The thing collapsed because of 20+ years of deferred maintenance. Sad thing is, when a congresscritter votes to build a thing they have a chance to stick their name on it. If they vote to maintain a thing then, yeah, you did the right thing but nobody cares.
See also, bridges that have collapsed in the USA. If memory serves a couple cables snapped on the San Francisco Bay bridge some 10 years ago, halting rush hour traffic. And a year or three earlier a bridge collapsed in the midwest during rush hour, dumping cars into cold water.
See also your local schools. The ceiling and some walls need to be replaced because a $1,000 roof leak detected 10 years ago wasn't fixed. Now that everything is about to collapse it takes a few million $$$ to fix.
IMHO, the #1 item in any budget for any local, State, and Federal budget should be Infrastructure maintenance. Honestly, to you homeowners. Do you let a roof leak go for enough years until you need to rip out walls?
Of course I'm against DEI. Donald, Eric, and Ivanka.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday January 26 2021, @12:25AM
Dear Santa! Could you please have the elves cobble together a new radio telescope for us. We have been really good this year, even tho we forgot to pay for maintenance for the last telescope for a few decades. Promise it won't happen again.