Arecibo's days numbered?
Discussion
Arecibo is no more.
Not financial reasons, but structural. A support cable broke in August and another broke a couple of weeks back. Seems that the second cable should have been Ok, but it failed, so even more load on the remaining cables.
https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301...
Not financial reasons, but structural. A support cable broke in August and another broke a couple of weeks back. Seems that the second cable should have been Ok, but it failed, so even more load on the remaining cables.
https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=301...
Edited by Russ35 on Thursday 19th November 17:16
Ground stations can last indefinitely - depending on whether the owners of the site are willing or interested or able to get the funds together to keep it going. There are plenty of radio telescopes around the world that are older than Araceibo and still in gainful; use today. Jodrell Bank has already been mentioned.
However, Araceibo was rather unique in its size and capability but also restricted in the fact that it was non steerable. It's very likely that the more Vert Large Arrays which are located in various parts of the world can probably do the same job more easily today.
Also, Araceibo is in Puerto Rico and I wouldn't be surprised if Puerto Rico is not high on the list of priorities for federal funds - so it is most likely down to lack of or unwillingness to fund it.
However, Araceibo was rather unique in its size and capability but also restricted in the fact that it was non steerable. It's very likely that the more Vert Large Arrays which are located in various parts of the world can probably do the same job more easily today.
Also, Araceibo is in Puerto Rico and I wouldn't be surprised if Puerto Rico is not high on the list of priorities for federal funds - so it is most likely down to lack of or unwillingness to fund it.
havoc said:
I'm no civil engineer, but I'm struggling to understand why they could put the thing up in the first place OK, and now claim it's 'unsafe' to repair it?
Is this a case of H&S changes over 50+ years, or was there an assembly order which means re-cabling is now a really big deal?
Presumably when you're putting something up you know how strong everything is that you've constructed already as you complete the structureIs this a case of H&S changes over 50+ years, or was there an assembly order which means re-cabling is now a really big deal?
In this case it sounds like the structure has deteriorated to the point where they're frightened to alter any of the loads on it because it might be a house of cards waiting to implode.
You could build effectively a completely separate structure around it to support it while you repair it but it would be impractical/uneconomical and even then it sounds like it might be flaky enough that just disturbing the earth around it might cause it to collapse.
Beati Dogu said:
It took 3 years to build and was opened in 1963 apparently. They upgraded it in 1973 by replacing the original wire mesh dish surface with the aluminium panels you see now.
Seems a shame for it to go, but it looks pretty beaten up these days.
Absolute a shame and your right had a quick look at Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_ObservatorySeems a shame for it to go, but it looks pretty beaten up these days.
Toaster said:
Eric Mc said:
Ground stations can last indefinitely .
Probably not Eric everything has a beginning and an end and somethings are like triggers broom so whilst they may look like what they were have been refurbished or re purposed. I think Araceibo is different in that it is large, old and fragile and it does indeed look that fixing it would be far too costly and dangerous.
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