Forgot your password?

Close
typodupeerror
Government Space The Almighty Buck United States Science

Astronomy Portfolio Review Recommends Defunding US's Biggest Telescope 192

Posted by Soulskill
from the would-rather-by-half-a-jet-plane dept.
derekmead writes "Data from the enormous Green Bank Telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory has been used to test some of Einstein's theories, discover new molecules in space, and find evidence of the building blocks of life and of the origins of galaxies. With 6,600 hours of observation time a year, the GBT produces massive amounts of data on the makeup of space, and any researchers with reason to use the data are welcome to do so. The eleven-year-old GBT stands as one of the crowning achievements of American big science. But with the National Science Foundation strapped for cash like most other science-minded government agencies, the NRAO's funding is threatened. In August of this year, the Astronomy Portfolio Review, a committee appointed by the NSF, recommended that the GBT be defunded over the next five years. Researchers, along with locals and West Virginia congressmen, are fighting the decision, which puts the nearly $100 million telescope at risk. Unless they succeed, America's giant dish will go silent."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Astronomy Portfolio Review Recommends Defunding US's Biggest Telescope More

Astronomy Portfolio Review Recommends Defunding US's Biggest Telescope

Comments Filter:

  • Not just the GBT (Score:5, Informative)

    by mendelrat (2490762) on Friday September 28, 2012 @11:50AM (#41489117)
    Not just the GBT is at risk in all of this, and honestly NRAO is being selfish and shortsighted in their responses to the portfolio review. There are 5 optical telescopes at the national observatory at Kitt Peak, AZ that are set to be divested from the NSF as well, and their loss is much, much more devastating to the amount of open-access telescope time that is set to be lost if the facilities are closed or go into closed private partnerships. The closing of the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) means the loss of literally a one-of-a-kind setup as well. It's bad across all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, but the decision to stop spending money on these telescopes preserves the NSF astronomy grants program which funds a ton of astronomers, engineers, and students of all levels (myself included). The portfolio review didn't come up with any answers that we liked, but at least it's an honest estimate of what we have vs. what we expect funding wise; things are getting even worse with the upcoming budget sequestration. The big worry among astronomers is that we're returning to a time when only large institutions have access to telescope time, the exact reasoning behind the creation of the US national observatory system in the first place. Public-private partnerships will likely come around somehow to keep these facilities operating, but it's early still to know what those will entail in terms of open-access telescope time.

  • Re:So how else do you do this? (Score:4, Informative)

    by UnknownSoldier (67820) on Friday September 28, 2012 @12:28PM (#41489641)

    Here's a crazy idea or two ...

    1. You know, maybe they could stop wasting money on an inanimate object called "terror". And/or stop trying to kill people who think different.
    http://freemarketmojo.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/dat2010mint.jpg [wordpress.com]

    2. Or maybe stop wasting money on undeployed and under-developed tech ...
    http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/how-to-blow-6-billion-on-a-tech-project/ [arstechnica.com]

    "cost growth and execution problems were based on the fact that no GMR radios were ever even tested by potential users until 2010. After 13 years in the pipeline, what those users saw was a radio that weighed as much as a drill sergeant, took too long to set up, failed frequently, and didn't have enough range."

    Nah, that's just crazy talk ...

  • Re:Not just the GBT (Score:4, Informative)

    by tizan (925212) on Friday September 28, 2012 @12:33PM (#41489733)

    Just a clarification: NRAO manages only the GBT and VLBA ..the optical telescopes are managed by a sister institute NOAO (note the O for optical).
    So NRAO at best can fight/defend the cases for GBT and VLBA only.

    Yes sucks big time for everybody though as even small funds for hardware/instrument development for astronomy at universities is recommended to be defunded.

  • A bit of history (Score:4, Informative)

    by Urban Garlic (447282) on Friday September 28, 2012 @01:21PM (#41490309)

    So this unit has a bit of history [nrao.edu] -- there used to be a 300-foot diameter transit telescope on the site, which collapsed in 1988. The Byrd telescope was an upgrade, being fully steerable and covering more of the spectrum. The location is fairly special too, it's in a radio-quiet zone with some other NRAO telescopes, and close to the Navy's radio observatory site.

    The thing only started working in August of 2000, it seems a shame to shut it down after such a small fraction of its expected operating lifetime.

Advancement in position.

Close