[ad_1]
02-Nov-2018
The majority decision of the State Supreme Court rejects the appeal, which opens the way for a resumption of activities.
The construction work of the giant thirty-meter telescope on Mauna Kea could be revived, after the judges of the Hawaii Supreme Court dismissed an appeal against an authorization issued for the project.
The text published by the court stated: "The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Land and Natural Resources Council authorizing the issuance of a Conservation District Use Permit (CDUP) for a telescope of thirty meters located near the top of Mauna Kea. applied the law to determine whether the license was to be issued for the telescope. "
Chosen in 2009 near the summit of the mountain – and close to several existing observatories, including the Keck and Subaru telescopes – the site offers a high stable atmosphere with very little turbulence, which is essential for the use of a adaptive optics to correct atmospheric distortions.
Legal conflict
The construction of the TMT, which is based on a 492-segment primary mirror and an adaptive optics system, was first halted in 2015 when the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the permitting process that issued the CDUP was defective.
Following local protests against TMT for reasons of religious and cultural heritage, the decision also called for a hearing on a disputed case, which began in 2016.
This process ended with a recommendation from Hearing Officer Riki May Amano in July 2017 that the CDUP should be reissued. However, opponents appealed this judgment to the Supreme Court of Hawaii, in part for reasons involving Amano 's impartiality.
After more than three years of legal disputes, the decision of the Supreme Court of Hawaii of October 30, by majority, affirmed the question of a CDUP – rejecting any accusation of bias as unfounded.
Meanwhile, TMT officials had continued to develop the key equipment needed for the project, developing an emergency plan that would have allowed the site to be transferred to La Palma, in the Canary Islands, if the appeal decision had been taken against them.
TMT Response
Henry Yang, chairman of the TMT board of directors, said in a statement issued by the observatory in response to the latest decision:
"On behalf of the TMT International Observatory, we are grateful for the decision of the Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii, which will build TMT on Mauna Kea. We thank all members of the community who provided their thoughtful insights throughout this process.
"We remain committed to being good stewards on the mountain and integrating with the Hawaiian community. We honor the culture of the islands and its people and do our part to contribute to its future through our ongoing support of education and youth in the Hawaiian Islands.
"We are excited to be moving forward in Hawaii and will continue to respect and abide by state and county regulations as we determine our next steps. We are deeply grateful to our many friends and supporters for their tremendous support over the years. "
TMT officials also said the next steps would be to fulfill many of the conditions and requirements of the CDUP before the start of any construction. According to a local press article, opponents are considering going to the United States Supreme Court. A final judgment is also expected, the opinion of the single judge who does not agree with the judgment has not yet been published.
Telescope protests
The TMT is far from the only telescope project to have been touched by the Hawaii protests, where mountains are considered sacred by many people.
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is another. Housed in a 25-meter enclosure with a 4-meter diameter main mirror, it is being completed at the summit of Mount Haleakala in Maui and is expected to be operational next year.
In August 2017, demonstrators tried unsuccessfully to block the transport of the primary mirror on the mountain. DKIST officials stated that they had made concerted efforts to "identify and mitigate the cultural and environmental impacts" associated with construction – and have consulted with local authorities and Hawaiian natives throughout the planning stages. and of initial construction.
The TMT observatory should be built at a hundred meters under the summit of Mauna Kea. When rejecting the last appeal, the Supreme Court judges declared that there was no evidence that the TMT website or its pathway were on specific sites. Hawaiian Aboriginal Cultural Practices.
The stone artifacts closest to the nearby Hawaiian Islands were 225 meters from the construction site, they added, noting that some of the cultural activities at the top of the mountain were astronomical in nature.
Local STEM Program
The judges also noted that under the TMT construction agreement, the organization had already provided $ 2.5 million in grants and scholarships for STEM education intended to Hawaiian students – as well as an additional pledge to provide $ 1 million a year for the same. goal.
"The TMT project will result in a manpower reserve program that will lead to a pool of local workers trained in the scientific, technical and technical positions available for high-paying jobs," the decision said.
International not-for-profit action is supported by the California Institute of Technology, with partners in India, Canada, Japan and China, and received significant funding from the Gordon & Betty Foundation Moore.
Despite ongoing court proceedings, recent developments have culminated in a review of TMT's 3.2-meter convex convex secondary convex mirror design, while a final examination of the design of the huge segmented primary mirror system is completed.
The current project website schedule includes the completion of the basic structure of the telescope enclosure in June 2020, the first tests on the sky in 2025 and the first light in mid-2027.
Once operational, the observatory should produce images 12 times more accurate than the Hubble Space Telescope, allow new discoveries on the formation of the first galaxies and stars, and look for signs of life on the exoplanets.
Source link
