11-04-2021, 08:04 PM
Could the TMT become a federally funded project, one half of a US Extremely Large Telescope? If it does, I would think the dynamics of protests blocking construction of the TMT could change in a major way. Should state and county law enforcement fail in opening the road, the feds could come in, make arrests and fly those charged to federal facilities then arraign them in federal courts. And if found guilty, lock them up in federal prisons. Time will tell:
American astronomers on Thursday called for the nation to invest in a new generation of “extremely large” multibillion-dollar telescopes that would be bigger than any now on Earth or orbiting in space.
The investment would entail bailing out and combining the efforts of two rival projects, the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope.
But astronomers have struggled for years to raise enough money to complete their dreams. In the new proposal, the National Science Foundation would provide $1.6 billion to finish both projects and then help run them as part of a new program called the United States Extremely Large Telescope.
Both telescopes are the dream products of sprawling international collaborations and two decades of raising funds and recruiting partners. Either telescope would be roughly three times as large as anything now on Earth and be 100 times more capable of discerning faint distant stars in the cosmos; working in concert, they could tackle deep questions about the cosmos. But neither project has raised enough money — more than $2 billion is necessary — to achieve its goals.
Failure to build these telescopes would cede leadership in ground-based astronomy to Europe, which is building a 39-meter telescope — the European Extremely Large Telescope — in Chile’s Atacama Desert — that is expected to start operating in 2027.
If the National Science Foundation were to invest in completing the two telescopes, it would gain significant observing time on them, which would be doled out to American astronomers.
“The two telescopes, being in opposite hemispheres and with radically different designs, would be perfectly suited for complementary interrogations of the cosmos,” Dr. Harrison said. “To imagine the U.S. would not have access to that is unthinkable.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/scien...scope.html
American astronomers on Thursday called for the nation to invest in a new generation of “extremely large” multibillion-dollar telescopes that would be bigger than any now on Earth or orbiting in space.
The investment would entail bailing out and combining the efforts of two rival projects, the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope.
But astronomers have struggled for years to raise enough money to complete their dreams. In the new proposal, the National Science Foundation would provide $1.6 billion to finish both projects and then help run them as part of a new program called the United States Extremely Large Telescope.
Both telescopes are the dream products of sprawling international collaborations and two decades of raising funds and recruiting partners. Either telescope would be roughly three times as large as anything now on Earth and be 100 times more capable of discerning faint distant stars in the cosmos; working in concert, they could tackle deep questions about the cosmos. But neither project has raised enough money — more than $2 billion is necessary — to achieve its goals.
Failure to build these telescopes would cede leadership in ground-based astronomy to Europe, which is building a 39-meter telescope — the European Extremely Large Telescope — in Chile’s Atacama Desert — that is expected to start operating in 2027.
If the National Science Foundation were to invest in completing the two telescopes, it would gain significant observing time on them, which would be doled out to American astronomers.
“The two telescopes, being in opposite hemispheres and with radically different designs, would be perfectly suited for complementary interrogations of the cosmos,” Dr. Harrison said. “To imagine the U.S. would not have access to that is unthinkable.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/scien...scope.html