So it's going to be a while before we can tell you how long the development or. ![]() "It's believed that that preparation of that technical execution plan will take a number of weeks. "Any information I'm giving you right now is pure speculation until that technical plan is developed accepted by our engineering teams," Ralph Gaume, director of NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences, said. But they don't yet have a timeline for the process. NSF officials are hoping they can develop their decommissioning plan in time to avoid an uncontrolled collapse of the telescope, preserving the visitors' center and other nearby buildings. the engineering assessments, we have found no path forward that would allow us to do so safely, and we know that a delay in decision-making leaves the entire facility at risk of an uncontrolled collapse, unnecessarily jeopardizing people and. Jones said the NSF's goal had initially been to preserve the telescope without putting people's safety at risk. ![]() The rest of the observatory will remain open. Sean Jones, Director for the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate at the NSF, said the telescope will be dismantled. Inspections of other cables revealed breaks and slippages as well. If another of Tower 4's cables ruptures, the platform might not hold and could collapse into the telescope's dish. 6, a main cable - also attached to Tower 4 – snapped. In early August, an auxiliary cable slipped from its socket on Tower 4, carving a 100-foot-long gash into the dish.Īnd on Nov. ![]() The world-renowned radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in northern Puerto Rico, now on the brink of collapse, is set to be withdrawn from service, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced today.Įach of the observatory's three towers has four primary cables that hold up a 900-ton equipment platform suspended above the telescope's massive reflector dish. Giant, aging cables that support the radio telescope are in danger of failing, and the National Science Foundation has announced the telescope will be dismantled. In August a broken cable that supported a metal equipment platform created a 100-foot (30-meter) gash to the Arecibo radio telescope's reflector dish.
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