Arecibo Observatory Telescope Receives $ 8 Million to Start Reconstruction in Puerto Rico

Following the crash that caused the sad (but dramatic) collapse of the Arecibo Observatory telescope earlier this month in Puerto Rico, a plan appears to be emerging to rebuild one of the world’s most recognizable instruments for research in deep space.

Porto Rico The new day The news reports that Puerto Rican Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced has signed an executive order that provides $ 8 million for the reconstruction of the massive single-antenna radio telescope. The order also provides for the removal of debris from the Dec. 1 collapse and designates the telescope site as a “historic area,” according to the report.

Captured in dramatic drone footage, the observatory’s 900-ton platform, suspended 150 meters above the giant 305-meter antenna, gave way on December 1 when several support cables broke, causing the platform to fall onto the surface of the antenna below. The observatory had been closed since August due to a first cable break. This earlier incident triggered an investigation and, subsequently, plans for a controlled demolition; an operator never had the chance to perform.

Owned by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States, the Arecibo Observatory entered service in 1963 and for nearly 60 years collected radio data used to make a variety of observations including the first evidence at world of the existence of exoplanets. The telescope has also become an integral part of NASA’s search for near-Earth objects.

In his order, Vázquez Garced said the $ 8 million would be used to fund the removal of debris for the remains of the collapsed telescope, as well as the design of a new radio telescope to replace it. That leaves the funding to build an actual replacement – a proposal much more expensive than $ 8 million – a matter of future budget priorities for the NSF, which receives its research allocations from Congress.

For the coming year, Congressional funding for the NSF currently hinges on the fate of the $ 1.4 trillion spending bill that President Donald Trump recently signed – with a number of new provisions – before return to Congress for a new submission. Science reports that the share of NSF funds included in the bill comes with a request that the agency outline its plans for the site. “In particular, lawmakers want to know how NSF will decide to build a new observatory and the estimated cost of such a facility,” the report notes.