Damaged Arecibo observatory could be sidelined for months

Puerto Rico’s iconic Arecibo Observatory was damaged last week when a large cable fell on the radio telescope’s main dish. We are now learn more about this unfortunate incident, including how long it might take before the besieged observatory is back online.

In the early morning hours of Monday August 10, a thick auxiliary cable used to support a metal platform fell on the main reflector dish, producing a notch 100 feet long. The Gregorian golf ball dome was also damaged, as was a platform used to access the dome, which houses a multibeam receiver. No one was injured in the incident, but scientific work at Puerto Rico’s famous Arecibo Observatory is now on hold, pending repairs.

In a virtual press conference held on August 14, Francisco Córdova, director of the Arecibo Observatory, described it as an “unprecedented event”, claiming that the cables, installed around 20 years ago , were to last another 15 to 20 years. years. Most importantly, the cable did not break. Rather, the 3A one-inch thick cable slipped from a socket on one of the observatory’s three support towers, he said.

TThe exact cause of the failure is still unknown. Ray Lugo, director of the Florida Space Institute, is now overseeing the investigation, which is still in its early stages, as he explained at the press conference. Lugo declined to “speculate on a timeline” for the repairs, saying the investigation was the current focus, as was the need to protect those working at the facility. It is only until a reason for the failure is determined that a time frame for repairs can be established, he said..

Lindley Johnson, director of NASA’s planetary defense coordination office, was more direct on August 17 NASA Planetary Science Advisory Committee meeting, saying Arecibo will likely be out of service for “several months,” as SpaceNews reports.

The Arecibo Observatory is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), but NASA also contributes to the observatory, which it uses to track and study near-Terrestrial asteroids.

“The damage to Arecibo is still being assessed by the management of the University of Central Florida Observatory, after which the NSF will consult with stakeholders, including NASA, to determine how to proceed,” explained a NASA spokesperson in an email.

Over 655 feet of cable (200 meters) fell on the dish, and since the cable weighs 66 pounds (30 kg) per meter, that’s “several tons of material crashing into the flat,” Johnson said. The radar equipment used by NASA was not damaged, he added.

Córdova said 250 primary reflector panels were damaged by the cable fall, as was several support cables under the main dish. “The priority is not replacement,” he said, given that the antenna is equipped with 40,000 panels. It’s “not a big deal,Because the ‘main reflector is in good condition,’ he said. The most complicated thing at the moment is whether the platform has retained the structural integrity required to continue operations and ‘s’ it’s safe for the team to be up there, “Córdova said. Fortunately, he didn’t expect to find any damage inside the Gregorian dome, including at its receivers and transmitters.

Investigators do not yet know if HHurricane Maria, which ravaged the island three years ago, has nothing to do with the failure. A variety of astronomical work is now pending, as is a gravitational wave investigation and NASA planetary defensesth project to track near-Earth asteroids, Córdova explained.

The iconic observatory, in addition to coping with ongoing budget uncertainty, suffered damage when HHurricane Maria tore apart in 2017. For the Arecibo team, this latest setback is just “another bump in the road,” Córdova said, to which he added: “We are quite a group. resilient, and we proved it after Maria.