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Arecibo’s management changes also herald a future for the observatory. In 2011, SRI International became a well-known non-profit research organization, developed the first computer mouse, inkjet printing and voice assistant Siri, became the manager of the observatory, and cooperated with two other organizations (including San Juan Metropolitan University). ) Shared these responsibilities. Prior to this arrangement, the Puerto Rican organization had never formally participated in the oversight of the observatory.
Although SRI did its best to keep Arecibo relevant, NSF actively undermined it in the name of due diligence. It issued a 300-page report that listed the cost of dismantling the observatory and restoring the site to its previous state, a requirement that the facility must be decommissioned. For supporters of the observatory, the cost of decommissioning was deliberately severely underestimated, which made the decision even more palatable.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) also announced that the next management organization will have to accept a budget, which will be further reduced to only $2 million per year by 2022. In the fall of 2015, Robert Kerr, the director of the observatory, was a long-time supporter of the facility and withdrew after conflicts with NSF and SRI. Perhaps not surprisingly, SRI did not apply for renewal when the contract expired.
Therefore, in the summer of 2017, when I was already a veteran of many committees, I went to Washington again and sat at a table 1,500 miles away from the Cubans, unswervingly discussing the bleak future love of my place. I am optimistic when I get home this time. The University of Central Florida, an unexpected candidate for the management of the observatory, made a bid that might change the rules of the game. The university will effectively turn Arecibo into a facility owned by the state of Florida, making the state responsible for paying for the operation and maintenance of the observatory.
This is risky because the university has no experience in managing an observatory like Arecibo, nor a true tradition of radio astronomy research. More importantly, the Florida legislature must agree to the plan, but if the plan works, the observatory will eventually have a solid financial foundation that can be used to plan its long-term future.
Disadvantages? They are like we don’t have gambling: the observatory has almost no or even no astronomy funding, and therefore almost no astronomical research. To make matters worse, the observatory was closed. In the end, to my surprise, the NSF chose the Florida proposal.
Then in September 2017, Hurricane Maria (a Category 5 hurricane peaked at a speed of 175 mph) hit Puerto Rico, causing US$90 billion in damage to the island. At least on the surface, the observatory is lucky.A 100-meter antenna Tear off the platformThe panels of hundreds of plates were destroyed during the fall. For a while, only kayaks were able to reach some of the equipment in the Dish Bottom Valley. Nonetheless, nine days after Maria passed, the telescope was still collecting data, after which no one could call San Juan, although some Arecibo staff also acted as the first responders. Dispense 14,000 gallons of drinking water every day.
Six months later, despite the chaos on the island, the University of Central Florida took over Arecibo. In June of that year, a group of scientists appointed by the NSF chose a proposal to build a new type of cryogenically cooled receiver of the same type for the telescope. The receiver can map the hydrogen beams around nearby galaxies and detect new ones. The number of milliseconds. Pulsars, neutron stars rotate thousands of times per second. The new instrument, scheduled to be installed on the observatory in 2022, proves that, at least for some astronomers, radio telescopes will play an important role in the future of the field. In August 2019, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released US$12.3 million for repairs and improvements after Maria. NASA granted UCF a four-year grant of US$19 million. To find more near-Earth objects. Optimism has surfaced again.
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