A Set-Back for Astronomers and Scientists

Dang, that 3" cable did more damage than Hurricane Maria!

No doubt all the suspension cables will need to be replaced....hurricane winds age cables quickly.... What would be your preference for cable type and material grade in this application?

https://www.hanessupply.com/media/pdfs/tmc-by-section/01-Wire-Rope.pdf

https://www.planetary.org/articles/0409-arecibo-observatory-earthquake-repairs

..."Hanging in the high-humidity environment of Puerto Rico for over 50 years is one thing, and getting damaged by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake is another, but this cable in particular was already in a bad way: when the observatory was constructed in the 1960s, this cable arrived too short. The end was encased in zinc and spliced to another cable section, making this portion of the structure relatively rigid. When the earthquake hit, the cable began to unravel."...

So it looks like this cable was bad from the get go....

https://www.planetary.org/articles/0409-arecibo-observatory-earthquake-repairs

I think the PM program suffered greatly due to fiscal troubles.

I'm confused by the image provided? are those tree stumps and blocks underneath the telescope? Are those wires attached to provide tension?

If I look for similar examples of construction I find much more robust infrastructure beneath the dish.

If there was a lot of tension holding the shape in place rather than cross bracing, I can see why it appears to have exploded rather than left a gash in the dish.

If it's put back together the same way it could happen again.

Good money after bad?

Just four years ago the retirement of the Arecibo Radio Telescope was being considered. This damage, regardless of the root cause, may be the last straw on this camel's back, particularly with today's anti-science attitudes.

Well at least the Soviets value Science. In response to the US building the Arecibo dish they made a larger aperture telescope a few years after first light was received in Puerto Rico. Probably to lay claim to better Science. China has now topped both with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope. The Chinese clearly put a lot of value into Science.

..."The Arecibo Observatory is a radio telescope in the municipality of Arecibo, Puerto Rico. As of 2018, the observatory is operated by University of Central Florida, Yang Enterprises and UMET, under cooperative agreement with the US National Science Foundation (NSF).^[3][4] The observatory is the sole facility of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), which is the formal name of the observatory.^[5] From its construction in the 1960s until 2011, the observatory was managed by Cornell University.

For more than 50 years, from its completion in 1963 until July 2016 when the Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China was completed, the Arecibo Observatory's 1,000-foot (305-meter) radio telescope was the world's largest single-aperture telescope. It is used in three major areas of research: radio astronomy, atmospheric science, and radar astronomy. Scientists who want to use the observatory submit proposals that are evaluated by an independent scientific board."...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_Observatory

It sounds like it was becoming... (or already was) a high maintenance facility. When University of Central Florida took it over for the National Science Foundation. It received some pretty decent grants,... or appear so,... but going against the cost of maintenance, nothing would be left for science.

Well at least the Soviets value Science. In response to the US building the Arecibo dish they made a larger aperture ...

better science, or capitalistic competition... I’d look back on their science of how used the Super Sonic Transport, or space shuttle as an example, or even the space program, (sure their space program is advanced now, but they left a lot of more bodies in its wake) that for the most part, didn’t quite turn out to be better and had to be abandon.

also, the one that leads, cuts the brush and makes it easier for others to address the problems they’ll encounter.

I'm just trying to encourage in a backhanded way some encouragement and respect for this engineering feat and the Science it has already produced. My effort has clearly failed.

Nonetheless, my opening comment that this might be the death knell for this magnificent instrument is still true. I hope it is not. (I tried to encourage support.) There is an important aspect these three large aperture telescopes provided. With them spaced around the globe, one of them could view, face an event critical part of the equatorial sky at nearly any time. Now we are blinded on one side.

What ever your attempt was, I can’t say. I do know, with applying new technologies, there will be set-backs, But the saying taking a step back to get two step ahead takes play.

Unfortunately, this telescope may not be fiscally feasible to keep functioning and to bring back online. But there appears to be a need for one, with the recent discoveries of near earth objects and NASA’s large grants for this.

if it is closed down, where would these grants go. And what are the cost for a new, better replacement facility.

I spent 6 weeks in Puerto Rico in 1965, and did go to see the Arecibo installation. It was definitely impressive! While there, I worked in a machine shop, and the corrosion rate was incredible. We needed to wipe al exposed surfaces with oil every day to try to prevent corrosion.

If they never replaced that cable, the failure was predictable. This is especially true in light of SE's note that the cable was spliced to begin with.

After the investigation, hopefully they’ll post its PM log.

Looks like Golden Eye part 2 will have a delay in filming.